Meijer Sculpture Gardens

Meijer Sculpture Gardens

Lawrence Technological University

June 8, 2017

Tools in their Places

Dine, Jim

Aluzzo, Adrienne (photograph)

American

Visual Works

1984

Michigan (state)

Grand Rapids (inhabited place)

Modern (style or period)

human figures (visual works)

public sculpture

tools

Front view of sculpture of two heads, one on it's side with hand tools propped around both heads, by Jim Dine at the Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "Dine is inspired by the power of simple images to be both familiar and symbolic. His repetitions of tools, bathrobes, or hearts are easily understood by the viewer, while also suggesting deeper layers of meaning. He often works with subjects and images from his childhood, giving his work both a sense of innocence and shared nostalgia … As Conceptual art was emerging, Dine's use of iconic forms and repeated symbols attempted to understand how images create meaning. By singling out simple shapes and objects, and depicting them over and over, Dine suggests that they are important subjects for artistic study. Building on Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculptures, these ordinary objects take on a new, important, meaning solely because they were chosen by the artist and repeatedly studied. Isolating them and framing them in a gallery or museum space, Dine declares them worthy subjects to be celebrated in art, transforming them into something significant. Dine's work in this conceptual vein transforms Duchamp's skeptical gesture into part of a sincere investigation on how the artistic process elevates the ordinary"--The Art Story website.

bronze (metal)

jpeg

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