Accession Number
1997/1.138

Title
Stiff Box 12

Artist(s)
Lucas Samaras

Object Creation Date
1971

Medium & Support
Cor-Ten steel

Dimensions
75 in x 56 in x 15 in (190.5 cm x 142.24 cm x 38.1 cm);75 in x 56 in x 15 in (190.5 cm x 142.24 cm x 38.1 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Lannan Foundation in Honor of the Pelham Family

Subject matter
The subjects of Lucas Samara's steel sculpture are in part formal: the encounter between the two different halves, the curved and the jagged; the different relationships between the material and these distinct forms. The box at the center of the divided forms and in the title, "Stiff Box 12," suggests other thematic content: a kind of Pandora's box idea of chaos and strife springing from the opened container; a contest over possession of an object.

Physical Description
Made of thick steel, this sculpture has two very distinct halves. One on side, the thick sheet of steel gracefully curves around and back on itself, making loops and rounded edges. On the reverse, the steel is angular, jagged, and sharp, jutting into the spaces in the sculpture's interior and the space around the whole. At the very center of the piece, along the implied dividing line between the two sides, is a relatively small box.

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
abstract sculpture

Additional Object Classification(s)
Sculpture

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
abstraction
angular (shape)
boxes (containers)
curved
direct metal sculpture
geometric abstraction
modern and contemporary art
steelwork (visual works)
whiplash curves