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American
(1922–1981)
The Unaccountable
1959
Wood, metal, penny, and chain
27.5 x 11.5 x 11.5 in. (69.85 x 29.21 x 29.21 cm)
Gift of the Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation
2009.84
What appears to be a fairly simple assemblage that combines an old-fashioned toilet oat, faucets, and a metal rod is in fact an extraordinary repository for autobiography and sociopolitical commentary. Dating from Westermann’s early career in Chicago, this cartoonish male figure resounds with the artist’s trenchant views on life during the Eisenhower years. The title is a play on The Untouchables, a television series that premiered in 1959, the year the sculpture was created. The series showcased brave and incorruptible FBI agents in their battle against the Prohibition-era mob. Westermann, however, focused on the less-than-noble activities of the FBI of his day, particularly the agency’s role in the Communist witch hunts that blacklisted many writers and artists. A thin brass plate, cut and incised to depict the comic strip crime-fighter Dick Tracy, forms the figure’s head. This resemblance is not only an autobiographical reference—Westermann’s distinctive profile was similar to Tracy’s—but is also an example of another “unaccountable”: Tracy often took the law into his own hands. The steps cut into the wooden base, painted green to allude to grass, make it clear that the assemblage also functions as a maquette for a monument to power run amok, satirically honoring a figure so mighty he casually dangles a skyscraper behind him.
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