Photos By Gail
Lucas Samaras has never been one to serve a straightforward meal — and with Dinner #15 (1965), he transforms the act of dining into something deeply psychological, uncomfortably tactile, and undeniably unforgettable. This sculptural work from his Dinner Series isn’t just a visual feast — it’s a surreal course in tension and temptation.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Lucas Samaras, Dinner #15
All Photos By Gail
While Lucas Samaras’s Doorway is billed as a “Mirrored Room,” it isn’t actually a room that you can enter, as you can, say, a Mirrored Room installation by Yayoi Kusama. It is really more of, well, a Doorway: a Mirrored Cube inside of a Mirrored Shell that is open on the front and back ends, to allow view through. When I viewed this work at Pace Gallery on the final day of its exhibition, the open ends were roped off to prevent anyone from touching, walking on or accessing the work close up. Bummer. Continue reading Lucas Samaras, Doorway
Book 4, 1962: Book with Pins, Table Knife, Scissors, Razor Blade, Metal Foil, Piece of Glass and Plastic Rod (All Photos By Gail)
From MoMA:
In 1960 Samaras began a series of Surrealist-inspired boxes filled with personal materials that he encrusted in needles, mirrors, shards of glass, and brightly colored beads. The boxes were followed by room–sized installations and subversive Polaroid self–portraits. Like Samaras’s boxes, Book is a multifaceted object and a miniature world in itself. Although it includes eight fictional narratives written by the artist between 1959 and 1967, it is not a storybook.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Lucas Samaras, Book 4