Study cases
Best Innovation for Sculpture Standards
CASE 1 – SALVADOR DALÍ, RETROSPECTIVE BUST OF A WOMAN, 1933
Synopsis: The goal is to label Retrospective Bust of a Woman, created by Salvador Dalí in 1933, and the subsequent variants of the same, after being submitted to changes of an ephemeral nature by the artist himself. These variants, which take advantage of the first creation and materials, were presented in exhibitions during the 1930s.
Description
Author
Salvador Dalí
Title
Retrospective Bust of a Woman
Date
1933
Location
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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CASE 2 – SALVADOR DALÍ, VENUS DE MILO AUX TIROIRS, 1936/1964
Synopsis: The goal is to provide the proper labelling to the bronze cast of Venus de Milo aux tiroirs that is conserved at the Dali Theatre-Museum of Figueres. This work was created by Salvador Dalí in 1936 in the form of a plaster and was edited by him in 1964 in the form of a limited edition of bronzes. All the known casts of this edition incorporate six pom-poms, one on each drawer.
Description
Author
Salvador Dalí
Title
Venus de Milo aux tiroirs
Date
1936/1964
Location
Dali Theatre-Museum, Figueres
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CASE 3 – GERMAINE RICHIER, LE GRIFFU, 1952
Synopsis: The goal is to label Le Griffu (edition number 4/6), created by Germaine Richier in 1952, following the extensive interventions required to rescue the artwork after its dismantling and theft in 1974, as well as at least one additional restoration treatment in or around 1989. Comprehensive documentation of all these treatments is not available.
Description
Author
Germaine Richier
Title
Le Griffu
Date
1952
Location
mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
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CASE 4 – DENNIS OPPENHEIM, AGING, 1974
Synopsis: This is a complex work on account of the variety of elements necessary for the staging of the work and the sensations that the heat and intensity of the light produce in the spectators. During the exhibition, the characters melt and are destroyed by the effect of heat – to represent the passage of time and aging – so they must be replaced periodically.
Description
Author
Dennis Oppenheim
Title
Aging
Date
1974
Location
Repositories of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Madrid, Spain
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CASE 5 – SENGA NENGUDI, WATER COMPOSITIONS, 1969-70
Synopsis: Senga Nengudi (b. Chicago 1943) has been a trailblazer in sculpture for some fifty-five years. Several of her earliest sculptures were temporary, and others have been made with materials that have since failed or become impossible to maintain or replace. An exhibition of Nengudi’s work at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (UK) in 2018 saw the reconstruction of many works not exhibited and not in existence since the late 1960s/early 1970s.
Description
Author
Senga Nengudi
Title
Water Compositions
Date
1969-70/2018
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CASE 6 – MEDARDO ROSSO, BOOKMAKER, 1894
Synopsis: Bookmaker is a subject that the Italian/French sculptor Medardo Rosso modeled in clay during his first decade in Paris, where he emigrated from Milan in 1889. Due to scant documentation about Rosso’s life in the 1890s, the original clay subject’s exact date of creation remains uncertain.
Description
Author
Medardo Rosso
Title
Bookmaker
Date
1894
Location
Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna