A shoving mtach at the Hirshhorn...
Part of Juan Muñoz's sculpture Last Conversation Piece at The Hirshhorn Museum.
Juan Muñoz
Spanish, born Madrid, 1953 - 2001
Last Conversation Piece, 1994-95
Juan Muñoz came to prominence in the mid-1980s with his gallery installations, in which a single figure or architectural element was isolated spatially through perspectival techniques. Often the figure was a clown or dwarf, and the effect was one of alienation. In 1989, Muñoz began his figurative “conversation pieces”-a Renaissance concept, revived by modern sculptors such as George Segal, in which one or more figures interact with their setting to generate a mood or narrative. Muñoz’s works invite interpretation, but their meaning is never fully explained, as the artist strove to create an enduring sense of mystery.
The figures in Last Conversation Piece stand directly on the ground, inviting viewers to become part of the action. Initially inspired by a ventriloquist’s dummy, these curious characters resemble stuffed toys, particularly the round-bottomed punching-bag clowns that bounce back up after being hit. They also refer to the dwarves painted by Diego Velázquez in the seventeenth century and to the overlapping images of dancers by Edgar Degas in the nineteenth. The three central figures are enmeshed in an emotional confrontation with an unspecified narrative. One protagonist aggressively pushes the central personage, whose body curves back in spontaneous recoil; another leans in closely as if to murmur. Each posture and gesture suggests urgency and concern, tension and empathy. Nearby, two ancillary figures lean forward, as if moving into the drama, but their inability to move quickly frustrates their desire to intervene.
Text adapted from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 150 Works of Art (1996), entry by Valerie J. Fletcher.
A shoving mtach at the Hirshhorn...
Part of Juan Muñoz's sculpture Last Conversation Piece at The Hirshhorn Museum.
Juan Muñoz
Spanish, born Madrid, 1953 - 2001
Last Conversation Piece, 1994-95
Juan Muñoz came to prominence in the mid-1980s with his gallery installations, in which a single figure or architectural element was isolated spatially through perspectival techniques. Often the figure was a clown or dwarf, and the effect was one of alienation. In 1989, Muñoz began his figurative “conversation pieces”-a Renaissance concept, revived by modern sculptors such as George Segal, in which one or more figures interact with their setting to generate a mood or narrative. Muñoz’s works invite interpretation, but their meaning is never fully explained, as the artist strove to create an enduring sense of mystery.
The figures in Last Conversation Piece stand directly on the ground, inviting viewers to become part of the action. Initially inspired by a ventriloquist’s dummy, these curious characters resemble stuffed toys, particularly the round-bottomed punching-bag clowns that bounce back up after being hit. They also refer to the dwarves painted by Diego Velázquez in the seventeenth century and to the overlapping images of dancers by Edgar Degas in the nineteenth. The three central figures are enmeshed in an emotional confrontation with an unspecified narrative. One protagonist aggressively pushes the central personage, whose body curves back in spontaneous recoil; another leans in closely as if to murmur. Each posture and gesture suggests urgency and concern, tension and empathy. Nearby, two ancillary figures lean forward, as if moving into the drama, but their inability to move quickly frustrates their desire to intervene.
Text adapted from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 150 Works of Art (1996), entry by Valerie J. Fletcher.