Joel Shapiro

Untitled, 1996-99

Bronze
288 x 171 x 137 1/2 in. (731.5 x 434.3 x 349.3 cm.)

Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas

In creating large-scale sculptures such as this, Shapiro typically begins by making a small wooden model. He then envisions the final dimensions of the sculpture and constructs full-scale wood boxes that are cast into bronze and assembled. Here, the square elements connect at irregular angles, creating a dynamic composition of carefully balanced, cantilevered limbs. Two of the artist's most recurrent motifs, the figure and the tree, intermingle in this work. The composition playfully changes meaning as the viewer moves around it: elements that appear to be legs of a geometric figure from one point of view become arms of a different figure or limbs of a tree from another.