Getty Museum

Untitled

Date

1982–1985

Medium

Copper

Culture

American

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

Viewed casually and from certain vantage points, this sculpture appears to be an elegant, freestanding assemblage of oblong beams. Walk around to the other side, however, and the sculpture's resemblance to a human form is revealed. The central double beam marks the torso. Once this detail has been established, the tiny head and splayed arms and legs emerge. What ultimately materializes is a contorted human figure. Joel Shapiro's bronze sculptures usually begin life as wooden models. To signify his process he often retains the saw marks and grain of the wood. Close inspection of this untitled bronze's textured surface reveals delicate wood grains as well as the cuts and incisions made while cutting the beams to size. Even the silhouette of a protruding nail that fastened one wooden beam to another remains. For many years, Shapiro has tried to capture what he describes as, "moments when it appears that a figure is a figure, and other moments when it looks like a bunch of wood stuck together--moments when it simultaneously configures and disfigures." This sculpture additionally plays with scale. *Untitled* is not miniature or monumental, nor is it precisely human size. Rather, it occupies an ambiguous, complex middle ground that invites close scrutiny and encourages a consideration of one's own scale.

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