Tom Otterness - Evening Editions New York Wednesday, October 26, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Catalogue Essay

    This figure of Death or Grim Reaper has appeared in many of the artist's public sculpture exhibitions. Including adorning the top of lamp posts in the Battery Park work The Real World, installed since 1992, and at the 1987 Otterness exhibition Tables at the Museum of Modern Art, where this was one of many of the artist's characters displayed on bronze picnic tables in the MoMA sculpture garden.

  • Artist Biography

    Tom Otterness

    American • 1952

    American artist Tom Otterness generated considerable controversy in 1977 for his conceptual work Shot Dog Film, notorious for its unblinking violence and unashamed cruelty. The piece established Otterness as a risk-taking artist, not afraid to push the boundaries of what is socially acceptable.

     

    Yet the controversial work would eventually haunt him for years, particularly as shows of violence became scarce in an increasingly modern society. Veering off in a diametrically opposite direction, Otterness started working with lost wax and bronze to create public art installations. Often inhabiting parks, center squares and transportation infrastructures, Otterness' sculptures tend towards the comedic. They are cartoonish and cheeky, nodding at art history, pop culture, capitalism, greed and satire. To date, Otterness is one of the most successful public artists world-wide.

     

    View More Works

28

Death Figure

1990
Bronze sculpture,
17 3/8 x 20 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (44.1 x 52.1 x 31.8 cm)
incised with signature, dated `90’, annotated `XI’ and numbered 3/3 on the underside, published by Marlborough Gallery, New York, very minor surface soiling, otherwise in very good condition.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $20,000

Evening Editions

26 October 2011
New York