File:Charles Ross SolarBurnYear 1994.jpg

Installation image of Charles Ross, Year of Solar Burns (March 20, 1992–March 20, 1993) (366 painted wooden planks, 10" x 20", with solar burns; permanent installation, Chateau d'Oiron, France, 1994). The image illustrates a key body of work in Charles Ross's career beginning in the 1970s, when he began producing "Solar Burns," works in which he acted as a catalyst by creating an instrument that enabled material representations directly created by the raw power of focused sunlight: meticulously daily recordings of burns on carefully positioned, fire-treated white planks of wood exposed reflecting variations in weather patterns, day length, and other factors through charred impressions with delicate, feathered edges. This image pictures one of his most famous solar burns, Year of Solar Burns (1994), a permanent installation commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture for the fifteenth-century Chateau d'Oiron in the Loire Valley. This body of work and work has been discussed in major art journals and daily press publications.

Artist Charles Ross. Copyright held by the artist.

Charles Ross (artist)

Installation image

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Charles Ross's career beginning in the 1970s: his "Solar Burns," which employed an opposite approach to his earlier prism works by focusing light rather than spreading it. Critics described his process in this work as acting as a catalyst— creating an instrument that removed his own presence as artist and enabled material representations of the raw power of sunlight "drawn by the sun itself." The complete works often comprised the meticulously recording of a year's worth of daily burns on carefully positioned, fire-treated white planks of wood exposed to sunlight passing through a large lens. They resulted in charred impressions with delicate, feathered edges reflecting variations in weather patterns, day length, and factors related to the orientation of the Earth's axis in time. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this key body of work, which brought Ross continuing recognition through highly visible commissions and locations and coverage by major critics and publications. Ross's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Charles Ross, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.