Post War and Contemporary Art

Provenance:

The Artist

Marlborough Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2004

Lot Note:

Born in Wichita, Kansas, 1952, Tom Otterness is one of the most renowned public artists, with at least three dozen pieces on public view around the US, and other works displayed world-wide.  

Otterness works primarily in bronze, employing the age-old lost-wax process to manifest his designs. Playful, simplified figures epitomize his style as he opts toward a toy-like aesthetic that necessarily draws in viewers of every age. This cheerful, almost naïve, aesthetic poses a contrast to the maturity of subject matters and statements with which Otterness’ art is so often imbued.  

1977 saw the founding of the artist collective Colab (Collaborative Projects Inc.). Otterness was an active member from the start. He identified strongly with the artist/activist role that the participants would come to represent, and believed in the political power of art. He arms his critiques of Capitalism, and political themes more generally, with a cheerful guise to access wide audiences. Although Otterness honed his creative style while exercising political muscles, he is rarely seen sacrificing his playful sculptural aesthetic for the sake of the statement. Somehow, time and again, he marries the two, utterly seamlessly: “I try to make work that speaks a common language that people understand, a visual language that doesn’t intimidate them.” Beyond behaving as a Capitalist exposé, Otterness’ oeuvre prioritizes its role as public art: that is, art for everyone.  

Bib:

berggruen.com/artists/tom-otterness 

web.archive.org/web/20200623042036/https://www.sculpture.org/otterness 

gallery98.org/news/collaborative-projects