Untitled (Shanty).
Title
Untitled (Shanty) .
Creator
Aycock, Alice (American sculptor, born 1946)
Date
1978
Cultural Context
American North American
Style/Period
Contemporary
Subject
Houses Huts Shelters Housing Wheels
Description
"Alice Aycock […] bases her forms on the logic of the imagination . […] Aycock revels in conjuring the past . The rich associative content of her sculpture is often nurtured by fanciful titles and accompanying texts that refer to history , literature , and personal fantasy . […] In the early 1970s Aycock concentrated on installations , notable for their ambitious scale and simple materials . Her viewers were obliged to confront potentially dangerous situations as they wandered through mazes , crawled through openings , or inched their way across precariously high ledges . Untitled (Shanty) uses the rough-hewn wood of the early pieces . The format of a house raised on a platform , with an open door on one side and an encompassing wheel on the other , returns the viewer to the role of a nonparticipating spectator , who may circle round the piece but not enter it . This highly evocative image was inspired in part by the preindustrial technology of the waterwheel and by the configuration of a medieval wheelhouse . Open to a figurative interpretation , as are the iconic dwellings of Louise Bourgeois , Miriam Schapiro , and Jennifer Bartlett , Untitled (Shanty) can be viewed as a fanciful descendant of Leonardo's Man as the Measure of All Things. " (Excerpt , pp.175 , 177)
Material
Wood (plant material)
Measurements
Shanty: 54 x 30 x 30 in.; base 45 x 36 x 42 in.; wheel diameter: 107 ½ in.
Technique
Sculpting Assembling (additive and joining process) Construction (assembling)
Work Type
Sculpture
Repository
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, New York)
Source
Rosen, Randy, and Catherine C. Brawer. Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move into the Mainstream, 1970-85. New York: Abbeville Press, 1989. (frontispiece)
Rights
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gift of Raymond J. Learsy. Photography credit: Geoffrey Clements. Compilation [of Rosen] copyright © 1989 Maidenform, Inc.
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC 279-59.jpg
Rating
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