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Untitled

A sculptural work hanging off the wall suggesting a fragmented and bloody body, a torso with heard, and a pair of legs and arms hanging separately.

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  • A sculptural work hanging off the wall suggesting a fragmented and bloody body, a torso with heard, and a pair of legs and arms hanging separately.

Date:

1988

Artist:

Kiki Smith
American, born Germany, 1954

About this artwork

Kiki Smith has been instrumental in shifting the abstract rhetoric of the human form in art into a grounded conversation about the body, particularly as it is defined in social and political terms. Her figurative sculpture examines the physical and spiritual nature of the body by presenting it in an abject, fragmented, and damaged state. Untitled, which is one of only a few sculptures by Smith that investigates the male form, is executed in tissue-thin gampi paper—a fragile and ephemeral material—to convey the porous and permeable quality of skin. Here, as in much of Smith’s work, the artist engaged viewers in issues of individual and collective health and disease, heroization and victimization, and life and death.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Kiki Smith

Title

Untitled

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1988

Medium

Ink on gampi paper

Dimensions

121.9 × 96.5 × 17.8 cm (48 × 38 × 7 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Lannan Foundation

Reference Number

1997.121a-e

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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