COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0002352
image_record_id
aahi0002352
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
The Hoerengracht
Image Title:
installation view
Work Dates (display):
1993-1994
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2008-09-15
Work Creator (display):
Nancy Reddin Kienholz (American, born 1943)
Work Creator gender:
female
work_creator_or_agent_gender
female
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator (display):
Edward Kienholz (American, 1927-1994)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
American sculptor. He attended Eastern Washington College of Education in Cheney, WA, and then Whitworth College in Spokane, WA, both for short periods, but received no formal art training. He then studied briefly at a number of other colleges in the West and in 1953 moved to Los Angeles, where two years later he had his first one-man show at the Cafe Galleria. In 1956 he opened the Now Gallery in Los Angeles, one of the city's first avant-garde galleries; on its closure in 1957 he opened the Ferus Gallery with the critic Walter Hopps. Having produced his first paintings and watercolours while still in high school, in 1954 Kienholz made his first wooden relief paintings. These consisted of odd pieces of wood nailed to a panel and then painted with a broom, for example Triptych (1956; Mr and Mrs R. Regehr priv. col., see 1966 exh. cat., p. 17). They were often painted in a murky brown to exaggerate their ugliness, through which Kienholz sought to investigate concepts of beauty. From the late 1950s he devoted himself to sculpture in the form of assemblage, often using the medium to voice social or political criticism. In History as Planter (1961; Los Angeles, CA, Co. Mus. A.), for example, he used a kiln, newspaper, mannequin parts and other objects to comment on the Holocaust and how, with time, such horrors merely become conversation pieces. In 1962 Kienholz exhibited his first 'tableau', or environmental assemblage, Roxy's (1961; R. Onnasch priv. col., see 1981 exh. cat., pp. 1046), at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Named after a brothel in Los Angeles, it recreates its subject through a series of furnished rooms filled with figures and other objects. Like many later tableaux it was set in a specific time, in this case 1943, and so had appropriate furnishings and details. The figures that populate it are deformed mannequins, like the brothel Madam whose head has been replaced by an animal skull; another figure, Cockeyed Jenny, was constructed from a pedal bin, bedpan, stool and mannequin legs. The incongruous juxtapositions in such tableaux invite comparisons with Surrealist objects produced in the 1930s. Though commenting on sexuality and the treatment of women, Roxy's is nevertheless not overtly moralistic, rather journalistic and descriptive. Throughout the 1960s Kienholz produced elaborate tableaux such as The Wait (19645; New York, Whitney), in which a clothed seated figure made of bones, surrounded by photographs and other memorabilia, presents a macabre image of an old, dying woman. In 1965, in order to overcome the cost of constructing tableaux without having first found a purchaser, Kienholz made his first 'concept tableau' in the form of a bronze plaque inscribed with its title and accompanied by a written description. For an additional fee this could later be realized as a drawing or full-scale tableau, or it could be resold in its conceptual form. The State Hospital (1966; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.), one of the few fully realized concept tableaux, was inspired by Kienholz's experience of working in a mental hospital in 1948. It consists of two figures cast from life, made of fibreglass and plaster with fish bowls for their heads, tied to bunk beds. From 1972 Kienholz worked in collaboration with his wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz (b Los Angeles, CA, 9 Dec 1943), whom he acknowledged in 1981 should be given equal credit for the works. In 1973 they began to divide their time between Hope, ID, and Berlin. Their contact with Germany led to a number of tableaux that commented on Nazism, such as The Ladder (1976; Berlin, Neue N.G.), and also to works based on Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring. These works of the 1970s were often more controlled, suggestive and less obvious than their predecessors. In the 1980s they returned to tableaux with a more immediate impact, such as Portrait of a Mother with Past Affixed Also (198081; Minneapolis, MN, Walker A. Cent.), again using distorted mannequin figures. http://www.groveart… accessed 2008-06-12>
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
brothels
subject
brothels
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
prostitution
subject
prostitution
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
subject
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
women (female humans)
subject
women (female humans)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
figures
subject
figures
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
sculpture (visual works)
work_type
sculpture (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
installations (visual works)
work_type
installations (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
sculptures and installations
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
sculptures and installations
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
mixed media
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
exhibition
Work Location (Geographic) name:
San Diego, California
Image Source Reproduction citation:
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Blurring the Boundaries: Installation Art 1969-1996. Anne Farrell, ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1997.
image_source_copy_from_print_name
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Blurring the Boundaries: Installation Art 1969-1996. Anne Farrell, ed. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1997.
Image Source Reproduction citation
false
Image Source Reproduction refid:
0-934418-44-6
Image Source Reproduction page number:
154-155
Image Source Reproduction plate-figure number:
left
Image Source Reproduction refid type:
ISBN
Image Rights (display):
© Philipp Scholz Rittermann
Image Rights fair use checklist:
1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.
Work Rights (display):
© Nancy Reddin Kienholz
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see