Quick links: Guernica (232) / ★ His Favorites (45) / 1970s (57) / 1990s (192)
1974–2027
PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Archive butterfly mark Retrospective in Absentia · 53 Years of Solitude & Ballistics

A 53-Year Topography of Solitude, Warplanes, and Unfinished Works.

The Digital Personal Archive of Jeffrey F. S. Neumann. Built for his grandchildren, historians, and accidental wanderers.

Enter the catalogue
Crown Tower with Discs. Layered tower sculpture built from red panels, suspended white rectangular forms, and rows of compact discs arranged horizontally, on a black ground. Three crown outlines appear at the base in white line on red.
ART0250Crown Tower with Discs1990s (est.)
A Note From the Archive’s Maker Archive butterfly mark
“I am not trying to build an artist website. I am trying to build the best possible digital experience for encountering a lifetime of work.”
Archive butterfly mark JEFF NEUMANN, 71.
Biography →
Artist Statement: Who I Am STOPPED
The only recorded statement in the archive · recorded 2026-06-16
0:00 / 0:33
Transcript

“Hi, this is Jeff Neumann. I’m an artist, 71 years old. I started going to art school in 1974 at CIA. I went there five years, became a designer, and now here I am. That’s all for now. Thanks.”

Auto-transcribed, verified against the recording by Jeff on 2026-09-15.

Archive butterfly mark SPAN: 1990s–2020s

The Guernica Series

“Nice and big. Used it as a direction, a structure to work against.”

Jeffrey F. S. Neumann

232works

    • Dates are decade estimates. Tiles show each photograph’s proportions, not the size of the work.
    • A red frame marks a work that is a photographic composite — an assembled image, not documentation of a real exhibition.
    • Behind the columns: Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937. Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.
    Examine The 232 Plates
    Archive butterfly mark Master Vitrine 01

    Observation on the Myth of Continuous Creation

    Plate 1 of 1,087, first in catalogue order, shown with four others from the 1970s, 1990s, 2010s and 2020s (all decade estimates).

    Plate 1010: Untitled (Cassette Torso). Two joined cardboard panels shaped into a rough torso, layered with cassette tape parts, gold compact discs, ribbon stripes and a sequined heart.
    RECORD
    Artist: Jeffrey F. S. Neumann [American, b. 1955]
    Title: Untitled (Cassette Torso)
    Medium: Collage: cardboard, cassette, paper, ribbon, sequins, tape, paint
    Description:

    Two joined cardboard panels shaped into a rough torso silhouette, densely layered with cassette tape components, gold compact discs, soccer balls, ribbon stripes, paper ephemera, and a sequined heart motif. Red and orange vertical ribbon stripes punctuate the composition alongside scattered printed tickets, stickers, and circular disc elements.

    Open Full Record →
    PLATE 1010 • FRONTISPIECE // CR-2026-1010
    DIMENSIONS: NOT RECORDED GALLERY 01 / EAST WALL
    The Defining Years. Dense mixed-media collage across a white ground incorporating warplane silhouettes, concentric target rings, snowman figures, compact discs, a soccer ball, an American football, vinyl records, and chess pieces.

    ART0779The Defining Years2000s (est.)Open the record →

    warning Uncertainty Ledger § Absence Registry

    The Architecture of Loss

    A museum that respects an artist’s reality cannot pretend that everything survived. We catalog the unrecoverable with equal rigor. Preserving uncertainty without fiction.

    500–1,000 WORKS MISSING Archive butterfly mark
    “Saw it out front waiting for the garbage men to take them all away.” Read the Register of Loss →
    1,087 catalogued: one mark each, in its own colour, in catalogue order. 500–1,000 did not survive: one region, not a count. Where it ends is not known.
    1,087
    arrow_outward
    Catalogued

    Individually recorded and photographed.
    159
    arrow_outward
    Composites

    Imagined placements, disclosed as such.
    6
    arrow_outward
    Real Exhibitions

    In 53 years of largely solitary practice.
    500–1,000
    arrow_outward
    Works That Did Not Survive

    A range, not a count — nothing here was ever inventoried.
    crop_free
    The Register of Loss
    No inventory. No photographs. No titles.
    One record, not a thousand empty ones.
    [OPEN THE REGISTER ↗]
    Cross-Motif Statistic

    261 works place a warplane and a target in the same frame · 1990–2020

    A recurring pairing across three decades, counted directly from the catalogue’s own motif tags — not asserted, checkable. 44 of the 261 are composites.

    [Explore Warplane + Target Co-Occurrence in Motif Ledger →]
    Jeff made a full-scale interpretation of Picasso’s Guernica (approximately 11 × 25 feet) in his home studio basement. Never shown, never photographed, lost in the water damage.
    After thirty-plus years using Guernica as a working reference: “It was about time.”
    Archive butterfly mark REGISTER OF LOSS · 500–1,000
    Guernica interpretation · approx. 11 × 25 ft · drawn to scale
    The lost Guernica interpretation, outlined to scale beside a 6 foot figure A dashed rectangle approximately 25 feet wide and 11 feet tall stands for the work. A 6 foot figure beside it is about half its height. No image of the work exists. ≈ 25 ft ≈ 11 ft 6 ft
    Drawn against a 6 ft figure. The size is approximate. No photograph exists, so this is an outline, not an image. The Register of Loss →
    Pubiern Robodt 365. Gears, lenses, circuit boards and amber casing assembled into a robot-like figure on a white triptych panel, with disc shapes radiating across the side panels and red numerals 365.

    ART1008Pubiern Robodt 3651990s (est.)Open the record →

    Temporal Cadence // Decade Spectrogram

    53 Years: Acceleration and The Silent Decade

    Three works carry an exact date; the rest are dated by decade, so the chart counts by decade: six of them.

    HOVER OR TAP A DECADE
    1980s — 12 WORKS 1.1% of the archive. Fewest of any decade; no cause is documented.
    Browse the 1980s →
    1980s — 12 worksCatalogue order, not chronological: every date here is a decade estimate. Sweep across a bar, or the strip.
    Loading the plates…
    * The 1980s: fewest surviving works of any decade
    Only 12 works survive from the entire decade. No specific cause is documented for the gap; this is stated as an observation, not a diagnosed reason.
    Untitled (CD Formation) 2. Compact discs on white bases in a vertical formation over red ribbon stripes, blue accents and translucent brown layers, with concentric-ring targets.

    ART0483Untitled (CD Formation) 21990s (est.)Open the record →

    Archive butterfly mark Recursive Inquiries

    Obsessions & Thematic Spirals

    Three threads that run through 33 motifs across five decades.

    PORTAL // 01 232 WORKS

    The Guernica Series

    Thirty years using Picasso’s Guernica as a structure to work against — his own words for it.

    SPAN: 1990s–2020s
    Examine The 232 Plates arrow_forward
    PORTAL // 02 261 WORKS

    Targets & Warplanes

    Warplane silhouettes and target rings recur together across three decades — a real, counted pairing, not an assertion. 44 of the 261 are composites.

    SPAN: 1990–2020
    Explore the Motif Ledger arrow_forward
    PORTAL // 03 500–1,000

    The Register of Loss

    The open, unembellished record of works lost to water damage and time — no inventory, no photographs, no invented details.

    ABSENCE REGISTRY § 500–1,000
    Read The Register arrow_forward
    Archive butterfly mark Non-Linear Wanderer

    The Juxtaposition Engine

    Two works, decades apart, side by side.

    ART00011980s (est.)
    Untitled (Figure, Red Ground)

    Untitled (Figure, Red Ground)

    1980s

    Vertical mixed-media collage on red ground incorporating compact discs at each corner and drawn numerals along the margins.

    ART01512020s (est.)
    Untitled (Studio Installation View) 1

    Untitled (Studio Installation View) 1

    2020s

    Studio interior showing three large-scale works displayed on a carpeted floor beneath exposed wooden beams.

    Both carry “photographic face” · 1980s to 2020s · one of 268 works with “photographic face”. Dates are decade estimates.