Untitled
Artist
Therman Statom
(American, b. 1953)
CultureAmerican
Date2009
MediumSandblasted plate glass, paint, pencil, broken glass, and solid glass spheres
Dimensions20.3 x 19 x 11.3
SignedTherman Statom 2009 © (on the chair, name in cursive) and STATOM 09 (on the base)
Credit LineGift of Charlotte and Gilmer Minor
Object number2021.13.3
Not on view
DescriptionThe artwork consists of two separate parts, a chair and a rectangular base. The chair sits on top of the base and is placed towards its left side. The artist has scratched his signature in cursive script through the paint surface on both the bottom side of the chair’s seat and on the back side of the base: Therman Statom 2009 © (on the chair, name in cursive) and STATOM 09 (on the base). The chair is made of cut sections of plate glass (i.e. commercial float glass) that have been glued together. The glass has been sandblasted and painted yellow, except for the sheets forming the top of the seat and the front of the seat back. These two surfaces have been left transparent so that you can look into their depths and see the objects that are glued to the surfaces within, as well as variations in the painted colors (areas of splotchy green, white, turquoise, and orange paint), pencil lines, and an image of a man wearing a hat in white paint and pencil (located at the left side of the seat back). There is a solid sphere of colorless glass glued on the right side of the seat top, and several broken chunks of glass are glued in other places on the outside surface of the chair (front of the leg, front of the seat back, top of the seat back). The base is a low, rectangular box also made of cut sections of plate glass that have been glued together. The top, front, and right sides have been left transparent; the bottom, back, and left side have been sandblasted, painted, and drawn on with pencil. There are various broken chunks of glass glued on the inside bottom of the base, and also on the top surface of the base. There are three solid spheres of colorless glass glued on the base (two are stacked like a snowman and one is left single).
ProvenanceThis sculpture was acquired by the Minors in 2009, purchased at the auction held for the Art of Glass II at the Chrysler Museum of Art. The artwork was donated directly to the auction by the artist and facilitated by Maurine Littleton Gallery. Charlotte Minor indicated her interest in donating the artwork to the Chrysler Museum during her conversations and visits with Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Kimberli Gant and Museum Director Erik Neil. The artwork was first viewed by Curator of Glass Carolyn Needell after its arrival at the Museum in winter 2021.
