$6,518
Found Metal Kinetic Sculpture of a Child Seated in a High Chair, probably California, 20th century, composed of found metal machinery, industrial metal, and radio parts; when plugged in the figure purportedly simulates a child having a tantrum with arms banging the tray, the feet stomping, its lightbulb eyes flashing, and sporadic static wails issue from a 1930s era radio, ht. 46, wd. 24, dp. 24 in. Provenance: Estate of William S. Greenspon. Literature: This sculpture is illustrated in American Primitive: Discoveries in Folk Sculpture, by Roger Ricco and Frank Maresca, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1988, p. 248, fig. 355. The caption states "This kinectic sculpture, made to entertain, has elegant antecedents in the ornate automata of earlier eras which were animated by clockworks. It is, as well, something of a precurser of the satirical sculptures of Dadaiasts like Richard Stankiewitz and Jean Tinguely, who used old machine parts to create figurative sculptures that mocked or criticised industrialism by doing useless, repetitive work." Presently, lights only are working and not the feet stomping and arms banging.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2009-07-25
