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Image of Untitled

Harry Kramer

German
(1925–1997)

Untitled
circa 1960

Iron wire with pulleys, gears, and motor
35 x 45 x 25 in.
Gift of the Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation
2010.44

A man of many talents with a rich and varied history, Harry Kramer was successively a hairdresser, actor, soldier, prisoner of war, butler, dancer, puppeteer, and artist. Untitled (c. 1960) is one in his Automobile Sculptures series, which he began to create in 1953. In 1964 these kinetic sculptures attracted considerable attention at Documenta 3 in Kassel, Germany.

Interest aroused, galleries on both coasts of the United States mounted Kramer shows, and the city of Las Vegas contracted for a public installation. This piece sports a welded wire web vaguely resembling an automobile in shape. Inside the form, pulleys and belts are suspended and motorized to perform an apparently meaningless task, endlessly revolving but never moving the shell. This mechanical and repetitive ballet with its droning sound was, according to Kramer, “intended to disturb and irritate” in its “constant and endless restlessness.” Plastic art is here morphing into performing art: the show business of the senseless and unreal.

George Wanlass

Keywords
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This object has the following keywords:
abstract*, biomorphic, gears*, Kinetic Art*, motor, pulleys*, sculpture, wire
  • abstract - Genre of visual arts in which figurative subjects or other forms are simplified or changed in their representation so that they do not portray a recognizable person, object, thing, etc.; may reference an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. For the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances, prefer "abstraction." For 20th-century art styles that were a reaction against the traditional European conception of art as the imitation of nature, use "Abstract (fine arts style)."
  • biomorphic
  • gears - Toothed wheels, cones, or cylinders, or other machined elements that are designed to mesh with other similarly toothed elements for purposes which include the transmission of power and the change of speed or direction.
  • Kinetic Art - Refers broadly to artworks in a variety of styles that incorporate some aspect of motion, including machines, mobiles, and actual objects in motion. Orginating between 1913 and 1920 with the works of Marcel Duchamp, Naum Gabo, and Vladamir Tatlin, the style reached its peak in the 1960s.
  • motor
  • pulleys - Wheels having grooved rims for carrying a rope or other line and turning in a frame.
  • sculpture
  • wire

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Collecting on the Edge
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Sculptures

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