Sky (lamb stew recipe)
Artist
Shusaku Arakawa
(Japanese, 1936 - 2010)
Date1968
MediumPencil, felt pen, and oil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 38 7/8 × 32 7/8 × 2 inches (98.74 × 83.5 × 5.08 cm)
Credit LineGift of Virginia Dwan
Object numberF95-29
SignedArakawa
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionOn primed canvas, a recipe for lamb stew is handwritten in felt pen over a pencil traced grid in the upper three-fourths of the painting. A diagram of ingredients (i.e. carrot, onion, lamb, water, fat, tomato, bean, potato, pea) in stenciled paint appears in the lower fourth. At the lower right the artist's signature, title "Sky" and the date--68 appear in a box traced in pencil.Exhibition HistoryArakawa: Decisive
Evidence, Dwan Gallery, New York, November 1-27, 1969, no cat.
Randolph-Macon Women’s College, February-June 1970.
1969: A Year Revisited, Grey Art
Gallery, New York University, June 9-July 22, 1994, no cat.
Dream House, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January-August, 1997, no cat.
Sky (lamb stew recipe) appears to be just that—a recipe. But why do you think Arakawa reproduced an ordinary recipe on such a monumental scale? Notice how the key ingredients are stenciled in pencil with sharp arrows pointed from them in various directions. Arakawa, a conceptual artist, has created a diagram of the mind. He reminds us that our minds guide everything we do— heart beating, breathing, seeing, reading, understanding, identifying ingredients, holding, chopping, measuring, skimming, serving, eating. Suddenly, the ordinary becomes extraordinary!
With
Dwan Gallery, New York, 1968-1971;
Virginia Dwan (b. 1931), New York, 1971-1995;
Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1995.
Deborah
Emont Scott, “Important Contemporary Painting Acquired,” Bulletin (Then Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), (Winter, 1997): 2,
(repro.).
Copyright© Shusaku Arakawa
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Stanton Macdonald-Wright
1966-1967
2016.14.1
