The conceptual starting point for Lutter’s residency at LACMA was her ambition to record, with a camera obscura, a photograph similar to the painted scenes of picture gallery interiors popularized during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Hubert Robert’s famous paintings of the Grande Galerie of the Musée du Louvre.

To make this photograph, Lutter positioned objects and artifacts from the Pacific Islands in a gallery arrangement she curated specifically for her camera, configuring the artworks based on the compositional needs of her photograph, rather than regional or chronological relationships among the objects. Reflecting on the making of this image, Lutter noted: “I was allowed to pick all my favorite pieces….

Lutter, who is best known for her photographs of cityscapes, transportation hubs, and industrial sites, had never attempted to make studio photographs of two-dimensional subjects prior to her residency at LACMA. In collaboration with the museum, Lutter had two room-size cameras and two custom easels constructed specifically to photograph paintings from LACMA’s permanent collection.

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Throughout his career, Diego Rivera created numerous easel paintings and watercolors representing the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Flower Day (Día de flores) is his earliest and most accomplished depiction of a seller of calla lilies. The unusual perspective of the flowers, which are seen from above, and the blocklike forms of the figures are stylistic devices derived from Rivera's earlier cubist paintings.

Ilona Katzew, 2008

Throughout his career, Diego Rivera created numerous easel paintings and watercolors representing the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Flower Day (Día de flores) is his earliest and most accomplished depiction of a seller of calla lilies. The unusual perspective of the flowers, which are seen from above, and the blocklike forms of the figures are stylistic devices derived from Rivera's earlier cubist paintings.

Ilona Katzew, 2008