Tom Sachs, Hello Kitty Fountain, 2008, Cast silicon bronze, paint and water; edition of 5, 78 (h) x 57 (w) x 66 (d)", Bronze, 96" in diameter, 12" high, basin requires 210 gallons of distilled water. Above, Hello Kitty is lowered into place at Lever House on Park Avenue in Manhattan in spring, 2008. Photograph: Mario Sorrenti.
Tom Sachs, Reineke Fuchs: Lounging Foxes, 2008, Plywood, wood, goldleaf, synthetic polymer paint and hardware, 127 x 165 x 13 cm.
Tom Sachs, Crying Hello Kitty, 2008, bronze, automotive paint, water, sculpture 10 x 8 x 6', base 1.2 x 6.75 x 6.75'.
Tom Sachs, Wind-up Kitty Maquette, 2008, Bronze, Krylon white, clear and black eamel paint, 36 x 20 x 20 cm. |
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Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
7 Rue DeBelleyme
+ 331 4272 9900
Paris
Tom Sachs
Bronze Collection / Gold and Plywood
October 23-November 22, 2008
“I'm not interested in representing objects or mediocrity, only objects of excellence and beauty.”
Tom Sachs Bronze Collection /
Gold and Plywood is a double exhibition of new works by Tom Sachs, extending to all three floors of the gallery, with an ex-sito installation at the Trocadero, in collaboration with the town hall of the XVIth arrondissement.
Initially created for Gordon Bunshaft's Modernist tower, Lever House, in New York, Tom Sachs is showing his first monumental bronze sculptures. A group of these iconic figures represent familiar characters such as Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Miffy and will be prominently exhibited at the Trocadero, facing the Eiffel tower. Taking original toys as a model, Sachs builds enlarged versions of his subjects with foamcore and thermal glue, in the tradition of Bricolage. His figures are then cast in bronze, the surface painted white to resemble the artist's favorite material, foamcore. Rather than dissimulating the creative process and aiming at an immaculate rendition that shows no evidence of manual construction, the artist prefers to reveal imperfections like the scars of the glued joints and folds in the paper. Of the three sculptures shown at Trocadero, Hello Kitty and Miffy also function as outdoor fountains (until November 2, 2008).
Another group of sculptures, shown at the gallery, make more formal references to Bauhaus and Minimalist sculpture. Two bronze-cast Quarter Pipes modeled on a skateboard ramp purchased on e-Bay reflect Tom Sachs' fascination with the transformation of common objects into works of art. Together with a bronze dumpster and bronze renderings of car batteries, from well-known brands such as Duralast, Interstate and Diehard all stacked on top of one another to form towers, they pay tribute to the work of Constantin Brancusi, Isamu Noguchi and Donald Judd.
In addition to these sculptures, we will present, Gold and Plywood, a new series of pyrographed plywood panels, carved and covered with gold leaf, which adopt animalistic themes. Anthropomorphized animals, inspired by the richly detailed illustrations of an antique edition of Goethe's fable Reineke Fuchs, the characters in these works embody various aspects of human nature.
Tom Sachs (b. 1966) lives and works in New York. After studying at the Architectural Association in London in 1987, he received a BA from Bennington College, Vermont, in 1989. His work has been widely shown in Europe and in the United States, including recent solo exhibitions such as Logjam at the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2007), Tom Sachs at Fondazione Prada, Milan, Tom Sachs – Survey: America, Modernism, Fashion at the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst in Oslo (2006) and NUTSY?s at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2003). His work is included in major museum collections: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco.
Tom Sachs, Miffy Fountain, 2008, bronze, sculpture, 9 x 4 x 4', base 1.2 x 8 x 8'. |
