Splatter Table
Richard Artschwager
American, 1923–2013
1997-98
A corner-mounted work made from painted and Formica-covered wood with a metal plate in which the artist flattens and recombines furniture references into a playful hybrid of painting and sculpture.
You’re struck by its cartoonish cut-out shapes and bold wood-grain and blue surfaces that seem to leap out of the corner, with jaunty, limb-like extensions and a small reflective disk that animates the piece.
The piece illustrates Artschwager’s effort to collapse object and image—using industrial laminate and simplified, furniture-like forms to challenge the boundaries of painting and sculpture and to expand how everyday materials could function in late twentieth-century art.
Medium
Synthetic polymer paint and formica on wood with metal plate, five parts
Dimensions
6' 4" x 8' 2" (193 x 248.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Edward R. Broida
Accession
649.2005
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
