GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Los Angeles-based artist Charles Ray is perhaps best known for his sculptures of altered and refashioned familiar objects, such as mannequins in the form of outsized or unusual depictions of various surrogate people that reflect back to us the human race in odd, often bizarre form. Born in 1953 in Chicago, IL, he received his BFA from the University of Iowa and his MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Influenced by the work of both Anthony Caro and David Smith, Ray’s work reflects an interest in materials and scale.
Adapted from
- DMA unpublished material, 2001.
NOTES
- This note was reviewed by the curatorial intern for contemporary art in the fall of 2018, but not reviewed by the curator.
- * UMO for review, Image Asset
- DMA unpublished material = acquisition justification
- Thus Richard Long creates a giant circle that nearly demands the viewer to walk around it to experience its structure and mass; Charles Ray provides a decidedly unsettling encounter with abstract form by placing industrial objects in precarious positions that could at any moment come undone, leading to potential harm (something both explicit and latent in Richard Serra's sculpture as well). Both Long and Ray arrange their forms in relation to one another in a contingent balance, and both employ multiple parts to create a whole, rather as if a Smith sculpture has been taken apart and rearranged on the ground at a viewer's feet. Charles Wylie, "From Object to Image: Sculpture, Installation, Media," in Fast forward: contemporary collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, eds. María de Corral and John R. Lane (Dallas Museum of Art ; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 223-227.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS (list applicable note links)
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
Photograph of the artist Charles Ray with his artwork Fall 91, in 1992.
Source: Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, Fair Use, Wikimedia Commons, accessed July 18, 2016.
.jpg){kind=link}
UMO: 265931620* Review
WEB RESOURCES
- Art Institute of Chicago~Watch a short video of the artist discussing his work, in conjunction with his 2015 retrospective.
- Menil Collection~Watch a long-form lecture by Charles Ray, "Thoughts on Sculpture I" from 2015.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES (digitized/non-digitized)
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
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General Description
Los Angeles-based artist Charles Ray is perhaps best known for his sculptures of altered and refashioned familiar objects, such as mannequins in the form of outsized or unusual depictions of various surrogate people that reflect back to us the human race in odd, often bizarre form. Born in 1953 in Chicago, IL, he received his BFA from the University of Iowa and his MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Influenced by the work of both Anthony Caro and David Smith, Ray’s work reflects an interest in materials and scale.
Adapted from
- DMA unpublished material, 2001.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
(digitized/non-digitized)
Web Resources
- Art Institute of Chicago~Watch a short video of the artist discussing his work, in conjunction with his 2015 retrospective.
- Menil Collection~Watch a long-form lecture by Charles Ray, "Thoughts on Sculpture I" from 2015.
Notes
- This note was reviewed by the curatorial intern for contemporary art in the fall of 2018, but not reviewed by the curator.
- * UMO for review, Image Asset
- DMA unpublished material = acquisition justification
- Thus Richard Long creates a giant circle that nearly demands the viewer to walk around it to experience its structure and mass; Charles Ray provides a decidedly unsettling encounter with abstract form by placing industrial objects in precarious positions that could at any moment come undone, leading to potential harm (something both explicit and latent in Richard Serra's sculpture as well). Both Long and Ray arrange their forms in relation to one another in a contingent balance, and both employ multiple parts to create a whole, rather as if a Smith sculpture has been taken apart and rearranged on the ground at a viewer's feet. Charles Wylie, "From Object to Image: Sculpture, Installation, Media," in Fast forward: contemporary collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, eds. María de Corral and John R. Lane (Dallas Museum of Art ; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 223-227.
rules
Apply To
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artists_and_designers-0057.xml.nores