Sculpture International Rotterdam

The Sculpture

The object that Richard Artschwager made in 1988 for the exhibition Beelden in de stad (Sculptures in the City) can be seen as an exceptional work within this American artist’s intangible oeuvre. The work comprises two concrete objects, 15 cm thick, with peaked forms. They are placed on the sloping embankments on each side of the canal, perpendicular to the water. The white forms stand out against the grass and the organic forms contrast with the urban context.

The sculpture is abstract: it does represent any subject or scene. The work is also untitled. Nonetheless, Artschwager uses this work to play with the viewer’s expectations. In the catalogue for Beelden in de Stad, Artschwager associated the sculpture with an image for each of the seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter: flower, flame, fence and ice. Thus he seems to ridicule the notion that an art work can have a single interpretation or a fixed meaning.

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