Untitled
Joel Shapiro American
Not on view
Since the mid-1970s, Joel Shapiro has made sculptures of the human form using only rectangular wooden blocks, which he then casts in bronze. By emphasizing the dynamic movement of the body, instead of traits such as gender or race, Shapiro’s simple, playful figures suggest the universality of human experience. At the same time, by reducing the human body to six rectangular volumes rotating in space, Shapiro invites us to see the human body as a kind of abstract composition. Speaking about his figures in general, the artist has stated, "I am interested in those moments when it appears that it is a figure and other moments when it looks like a bunch of wood stuck together—moments when it simultaneously configures and disfigures."
