| Maker(s): | Bauermeister, Mary
| | Culture: | American (born Germany 1934 - 2023)
| | Title: | Joie et Nuit
| | Date Made: | 1971-1972
| | Type: | Sculpture
| | Materials: | white painted wood, glass, canvas, epoxy (?), black ink and pencil
| | Place Made: | United States
| | Measurements: | overall: 16 5/8 x 16 1/2 x 8 3/8 in.; 42.2275 x 41.91 x 21.2725 cm
| | Narrative Inscription: | titled, signed and dated at lower right: "joie et nuit" m. bauermeister / 1971-72
titled on small box: joie et nuit, inscribed in brown ink, verso: 210-N / "joie + nuit" 1971-72 Mary Beuermeister
| | Accession Number: | SC 1980.7.2
| | Credit Line: | Gift of the Bardon-Cole Foundation, Incorporated in honor of Debra F. Cole, class of 1982
| | Museum Collection: | Smith College Museum of Art
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Description:
wall hung box of white backing with central flass fronted box containing attached white painted wood and clear glass elements over black ink and pencil abstract markings; abstract
Label Text:
Mary Bauermeister’s lens boxes, filled with natural and found objects, drawings, and words, were the result of the artist’s chance find of optical lenses at an antique store in a Dutch village in 1961. She experimented with them before moving from Germany to New York in 1962, but they developed into her signature work during her decade of work in this country.
The lens boxes were first created in a horizontal format, to be viewed from above, with lenses on top of the glass as well as within so that viewers could manipulate them. When Bauermeister first showed her boxes, visitors began to pocket the movable lenses as souvenirs. In response, she glued the lenses, which allowed the boxes to be shown upright on the wall, as three-dimensional, multi-layered pictures.
Tags:
nonrepresentational art Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1980.7.2 |
