Acquisitions
ARTIST ROOMS: The d'Offay Donation
ARTIST ROOMS: The d'Offay Donation
Robert Therrien (born 1947)
Two rooms comprising five works: a single-room installation, Red Room, 2000–7; the unique No Title (Table and Four Chairs), 2003; an editioned object, No Title (oil can), 2004; a unique photograph, No Title (scrubbrush panel), 1997; and a found brick paper drawing dated 2003.
Robert Therrien presents a world of the unexpected filled with objects which are both familiar and strange. It can seem a fairytale place of deceptively childish charm and logic where ideas can literally be translated into reality. Inanimate things can become strikingly animated, soft and light become hard and heavy and size seems out of control. During the 1980s the artist began to make objects with simple recognisable shapes such as jugs, coffins and doors, transforming them through a variety of media including copper, wood and bronze. This developed his engagement with the notion of the found object, addressed most explicitly in his found brick paper drawings. His work with changing scale began in the early 1990s. Some objects he uses are found, some are made by and for the artist. His use of domestic images might suggest an interest in the spatial world of still-life but his interest in the human body’s interaction with space is more connected to architecture. Therrien’s images and the objects he selects expose the hidden drama of the unnoticed, invisible, physical and mental relationships which exist in the world of human beings, between human beings and between the objects they create to help them live their lives. The d’Offay Donation comprises a group of exemplary works which express both the ambition and surrealism of Therrien’s practice, including a room-sized version of table and chairs from 2003 and a recent, striking installation, Red Room (2007).
No Title (Table and Four Chairs) 2003
Mixed media
Table: 2700 x 4720 x 3660 mm
Chairs, each: 3000 x 1580 x 1880 mm
Photo courtesy Anthony d'Offay Ltd
© Robert Therrien/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008
RED ROOM 2007
Mixed media installation
Interior: 2438 x 2032 x 2845 mm
Photo courtesy Anthony d'Offay Ltd
© Robert Therrien/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2008
Artists
- Diane Arbus
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- Georg Baselitz
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- Joseph Beuys
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- Vija Celmins
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- Ellen Gallagher
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- Gilbert & George
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- Johan Grimonprez
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- Richard Hamilton
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- Ian Hamilton Finlay
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- Damien Hirst
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- Jenny Holzer
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- Alex Katz
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- Anselm Kiefer
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- Jeff Koons
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- Jannis Kounellis
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- Sol LeWitt
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- Richard Long
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- Robert Mapplethorpe
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- Agnes Martin
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- Mario Merz
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- Ron Mueck
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- Bruce Nauman
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- Charles Ray
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- Gerhard Richter
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- Ed Ruscha
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- Robert Ryman
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- Robert Therrien
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- Cy Twombly
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- Bill Viola
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- Andy Warhol
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- Lawrence Weiner
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- Francesca Woodman
