"Blackmass" "Plulptures" "Scaintings"
Paul Thek
American, 1933–1988
1981
An ink-on-paper working sketch in which Paul Thek diagrams a proposed sculptural ‘black mass,’ mixing quick drawings and handwritten notes to stage a fleshy, theatrical object that blurs sculpture and painting.
A dense, cross‑hatched blue-ink oval dominates the sheet, pierced by thin vertical poles and annotated with loose handwriting and tiny sketches (including butterflies) so the form reads as both bodily and installed.
The drawing documents Thek’s process of collapsing painting and sculpture into theatrical, corporeal installations—part of his influential project that brought ideas of flesh, decay, and spectacle into late 20th-century installation art.
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
14 × 17" (35.6 × 43.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Gilbert B. and Lila Silverman Instruction Drawing Collection, Detroit
Accession
1600.2018
Palette
Exhibitions
