MoMA
Posts tagged ‘Sculpture’
Resurrection: The Conservation Treatment of Bruce Conner’s CHILD
From left: 1960 photograph of CHILD by Geoffrey Clements; 2015 photograph of CHILD prior to conservation treatment; CHILD after treatment in January 2016.

From left: 1960 photograph of CHILD by Geoffrey Clements; 2015 photograph of CHILD prior to conservation treatment; CHILD after treatment in January 2016

In the summer of 2014 the Department of Painting and Sculpture approached sculpture conservation to inquire if Bruce Conner’s work CHILD could be restored. CHILD was created in 1959 as a response to the sentencing of death-row inmate Caryl Chessman who had been incarcerated for the kidnapping and sexual molestation of a woman in Los Angeles. Conner responded to this high-profile capital punishment case and his visceral repulsion to it by creating a frightening sculpture of a deformed corpse-like child. Made from casting wax, the figure appears strapped to a wooden highchair with belt and twine, the head tilted backwards with a gaping or screaming mouth, and body veiled in torn and stretched nylon stockings.

May 4, 2016  |  Events & Programs
Make Art Not War: MoMA Teens Collaborate with Artist Mary Mattingly
The CLICK@MoMA trailer, as created by the MoMA teen artists and Mary Mattingly. (Photo by Kaitlyn Stubbs)

The [email protected] trailer, created by MoMA teen artists and Mary Mattingly. Photo: Kaitlyn Stubbs

We first worked with Mary Mattingly in the summer of 2013, when she collaborated with us as one of the teaching artists for the Museum’s first ever 3-D printing course for teens, a program that was set up through our involvement with <a href="http://eyebeam.org/" target=_blank>Eyebeam</a>. When she approached us last fall with an idea for a new teen course, I was immediately intrigued

January 21, 2016  |  Artists, MoMA PS1
Artists of Greater New York: Raúl de Nieves
Artist Raúl de Nieves with his Day(Ves) of Wonder. 2007–14. Mixed media. © 2016 Raúl de Nieves. Installation view, Greater New York, MoMA PS1, October 11, 2015–March 7, 2016. Photo: Caleb Bryant Miller

Artist Raúl de Nieves with his Day(Ves) of Wonder. 2007–14. Mixed media. © 2016 Raúl de Nieves. Installation view, Greater New York, MoMA PS1, October 11, 2015–March 7, 2016. Photo: Caleb Bryant Miller

I know sculptures can’t dance, but Raúl de Nieves’s Day(Ves) of Wonder looks like it might bust a move any minute. The three-foot piece—which depicts a humanoid figure in mid-groove, decked out in rainbow-colored platform boots, with swaying arms, cocked hips, and a sprawling, Medusa-like head—pulses with energy.

Making Picasso’s Glass of Absinthe in Wax

Pablo Picasso’s Glass of Absinthe is a series of six sculptures created in the first half of 1914. The sculpture depicts a drinking glass with the front cut away to reveal the liquid inside, and perched on the rim is a sugar cube atop an absinthe spoon. Each is painted differently on an identical bronze form. For the current exhibition Picasso Sculpture (through February 7), they are shown together for the first time since they were cast and painted, offering a unique opportunity for study and comparison.

Honeybees in the Sculpture Garden: Installing Pierre Huyghe’s Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt)
The crated sculpture is unloaded from the truck on West 54 Street. Photo: Margaret Ewing

The crated sculpture is unloaded from the truck on West 54 Street. Photo: Margaret Ewing

This summer MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden is home to tens of thousands of Italian honeybees, as part of a recently acquired sculpture by French artist Pierre Huyghe (b. 1962). Huyghe’s Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt) [Reclining female nude] (2012) incorporates a living bee colony that stands in for the head of a figure cast from a bronze sculpture by the Swiss artist Max Weber (1897–1982).

June 11, 2015  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Amsterdam to NYC: The Tuileries Reinstalled

The histories behind the works in the Museum’s collection are often as engaging as the art itself. We don’t always get to share these stories, but through our collection-based exhibitions we have the opportunity to highlight the previous lives of works on view. One that I was able to see installed for the first time since it formally entered the collection is Gilbert & George’s The Tuileries (1974), which is currently on view in the exhibition Gilbert & George: The Early Years.

July 24, 2014  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
“But Is It Art?” Constantin Brancusi vs. the United States

Constantin Brancusi. Bird in Space. 1928. Bronze, 54 x 8 1/2 x 6 1/2" (137.2 x 21.6 x 16.5 cm). Given anonymously

Constantin Brancusi. Bird in Space. 1928. Bronze, 54 x 8 1/2 x 6 1/2″ (137.2 x 21.6 x 16.5 cm). Given anonymously

Have you ever puzzled over a work of art that bears little or no resemblance to its title? In 1926, the disparate relationship between an artwork and its textural description led to one of the most significant clashes of art and law in history: the case of Brancusi v. United States.

Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) was born in Romania, but from 1904 he lived and worked as a sculptor in Paris.

June 30, 2014  |  Artists, Intern Chronicles
Art in the Landscape: Exploring Marfa, TX

This May, I had the opportunity to travel to Marfa, Texas, using a generous travel stipend that is one of the fantastic perks of my internship. I’d always wanted to go to Marfa, a small town in West Texas that’s home to site-specific installations by Donald Judd, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Ilya Kabakov, Dan Flavin, and Roni Horn, among others.

April 3, 2014  |  MoMA Teen Takeover
MoMA Teens Take Over Inside/Out: Edible Masterpieces

Growing up in New York City has taught me to always pay attention to my surroundings, as well as to be an open-minded individual. It is a cultural melting pot and an artistic wonderland with an abundance of galleries, museums, graffiti, posters, and people.

May 24, 2013  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
Dramaturgy and Gut: Inside Claes Oldenburg’s Mouse Museum
Installation view of Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (April 14–August 5, 2013). Photo by Jason Mandella. © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art

Installation view of Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (April 14–August 5, 2013). Photo by Jason Mandella. © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art

There are people sighing in the Mouse Museum. They are moaning, clucking, and cooing, too.(1) There’s no telling which objects elicit which murmured reaction, since part of Mouse Museum’s potency derives from affinities between things