2005.6 Knox | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Bruce Conner began producing visually complex assemblages of old used objects soon after arriving in San Francisco in 1957. With the deliberate grotesqueness of his works, he ridiculed society's attachment to possessions and things. The title of this assemblage is lifted from the 1944 advertising calendar hanging from the right side of the work; and that was produced by the Knox Porcelain Corporation during the Second World War. The yellowed, creased surfaces of the calendar add to an impression of decay seen in the torn edges of the other affixed materials, many of which are merely fragments whose original appearance is difficult to determine. Browned and decayed fabric scraps, string, bits of refuse, the calendar, and a photo of a nude dancer call into question the interrelatedness of consumerism, media, and desire.

Adapted from

"KNOX," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Bonnie Pitman (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 316.
Claire Rieflj, Suzanne Weaver, and Charles Wylie, DMA unpublished material, 2004.
Claire Rieflj and Suzanne Weaver, DMA unpublished material, 2005.

NOTES

DMA unpublished material = "Acquisition Proposal," December 6, 2004. In Collections Record Object object file (2005.6) and "Acquisition Proposal," March 16, 2005. In Collections Records object file (2005.6).

Catalogue essays specific to object

Bruce Conner, Knox

From Object to Image: Sculpture, Installation, Media

Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Artist/designers

Conner, Bruce (American, 1933-2008)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Assemblage

Historical periods

1950-1959, United States, "1950s America"

Individuals

Subject terms

West Coast Assemblage

Post-modernism/Postmodernism

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

2005: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the invoice dated January 12, 2005, in the Collections Records object file (2005.6).

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

apply to objects where number equals 2005.6

General Description

Bruce Conner began producing visually complex assemblages of old used objects soon after arriving in San Francisco in 1957. With the deliberate grotesqueness of his works, he ridiculed society's attachment to possessions and things. The title of this assemblage is lifted from the 1944 advertising calendar hanging from the right side of the work; and that was produced by the Knox Porcelain Corporation during the Second World War. The yellowed, creased surfaces of the calendar add to an impression of decay seen in the torn edges of the other affixed materials, many of which are merely fragments whose original appearance is difficult to determine. Browned and decayed fabric scraps, string, bits of refuse, the calendar, and a photo of a nude dancer call into question the interrelatedness of consumerism, media, and desire.