Nathalie Boutte at Yossi Milo Gallery

French artist Nathalie Boutte captures the allure of the unknown past in her collage recreations of 19th century daguerreotypes and historical photos. Here, Boutte remakes Seydou Keita’s well-known 1958 portrait of a hip young Malian man using strips of paper covered with varying amounts of text. The effect (seen here in detail) is to blur Keita’s sharply clear image, suggesting that the passage of time diminishes the potential to see the subject clearly. (At Yossi Milo Gallery in Chelsea through Oct 21st).

Nathalie Boutte, (detail of) Jeune homme a la fleur rouge, collage of Japanese paper, ink, 29 3/8 x 18 inches, unique, 2016.