Artist Tom Sachs’ Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016 at the Brooklyn Museum showcased the artist’s innovative reinterpretations of the Boombox, a cultural icon of 1980s hip-hop and street culture. The exhibition featured eighteen sculptures crafted from everyday materials like plywood, foamcore, duct tape, hot glue, solder and wires, transforming the museum’s glass entryway, the Rubin Pavilion, into an immersive sound environment. Art! Continue reading Tom Sachs’ Clusterfuck Boombox Sculpture→
Construction for Noble Ladies (1919) by Kurt Schwitters is a key work in the history of modern art, particularly within the context of Dada and the rise of collage and assemblage techniques in the early 20th century. Schwitters, a German artist, is most famous for pioneering a wholly unique, visual idiom he called Merz — a term he used for the rest of his life to describe the collage and assembler works he made with scavenged and discarded materials — essentially elevating trash into aesthetic form. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Kurt Schwitters, Construction for Noble Ladies→
The Cuckoo Egg Cup Under Spilling Plastic Flowers (1985) is as culpture by American artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt. This intricate assemblage measures 39 x 12 x 12 inches and incorporates materials such as foil, wood, plastic wrap, cellophane, tape, staples, a vinyl record, printed matter, plastic bottles, plastic flowers, and a plastic spoon.
Roulette: Number Five (1964), an assemblage work, is one in a series titled Roulette by Japanese artist Mokuma Kikuhata (1935–2020). The title refers to a game of chance where players guess where a ball will land within a spinning numbered wheel. To make this artwork, Kikuhata combined and arranged what he called “everyday objects—used and unwanted,” including a metal pail, a baseball, and a can.
Candy-colored plastics and glass lure us to discover shells, nails, bones, and even weapons embedded in this complex assemblage. Prosthetic eyes stare back at us, and two small wooden figurines flank a central “empty chair.”
