Workshop

Sculpture

DePaul Art Museum

Name/Title

Workshop

Entry/Object ID

2019.22

Description

Small wooden table with painted wood squares nailed to front and back painted green and black. Two blue glazed heads rest on top.

Artwork Details

Medium

glazed ceramic, Wood, paint

Context

In this multimedia sculpture, O’Brien’s distinctive ceramic style melds with the painted wood table that displays the ceramic faces as if to queer and re-appropriate the traditional bust/pedestal form. The two almost mask-like ceramic heads reference both traditional art making practices as well as Giacometti’s haunting figures. O’Brien’s playful use of accessible materials challenges questions of value, taste, and aesthetics that are often used to exclude and create hierarchies within the visual arts. Ceramics, O’Brien says, have a more utilitarian history insofar as they are meant to be used and in some sense broken, yet the artist maintains that the material naturally lends itself to expressive gestures and spontaneous experimentation.

Acquisition

Accession

2019.17-25

Source or Donor

Julie Campbell, Shane Campbell

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Julie and Shane Campbell

Made/Created

Artist

William OBrien

Date made

2007

Ethnography

Notes

American

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Sculpture

Nomenclature Class

Art

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Getty AAT

Concept

ceramics (object genre), object genres (object classifications)

Hierarchy Name

Object Genres (hierarchy name)

Facet

Objects Facet

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Ceramics, Masks

Dimensions

Height

26-1/4 in

Width

16-3/4 in

Depth

13-1/2 in

Dimension Notes

66.04 cm. x 42.22 cm. x 34.60 cm.

Exhibition

Life Cycles