Environments and Installations
Edward Kienholz.
Some environments can have a shattering impact on the
viewer. This is certainly true of The State Hospital (fig.
1164) by the West Coast artists
Edward Kienholz (1927-1994)
and Nancy Kienholz (born 1944),
which shows a cell in a ward for senile patients
with a naked old man strapped to the lower bunk. He is the victim of
physical cruelty, which has reduced what little mental life he had in
him almost to the vanishing point. His body is little more than a
skeleton covered with leathery, discolored skin, and his head is a glass
bowl with live goldfish, of whom we catch an occasional glimpse. The
horrifying realism of the scene even has an olfactory dimension. When
the work was displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it
exuded a sickly hospital smell. But what of the figure in the upper
bunk? It almost duplicates the one below, with one important difference:
it is a mental image, since it is enclosed in the outline of a
comic-strip balloon rising from the goldfish bowl. It represents, then,
the patient's awareness of himself. The abstract devices of the balloon
and the metaphoric goldfish bowl are both alien to the realism of the
scene as a whole; yet they play an essential part in it, for they help
to break the grip of horror and pity. They make us think as well as
feel. The Kienholzes' means may be Pop, but their aim is that of Greek
tragedy. As witnesses to the unseen miseries beneath the surface of
modern life, they have no equal.
1164.
Edward Kienholz
and Nancy Kienholz.
The State Hospital.
1966. Mixed mediums,
2.4
x 3.7 x
3.1 m.
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
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Edward Kienholz
Edward Kienholz, (born Oct. 23, 1927, Fairfield, Wash.,
U.S.—died June 10, 1994, Hope, Idaho), American sculptor.
Kienholz pursued painting until he moved to Los Angeles and
began producing large wooden reliefs for walls (1954). His
controversial environmental sculptures, begun in the late
1950s, were elaborately detailed three-dimensional
assemblages that harshly indicted American society. His most
famous walk-in scenes include Roxy’s, a replica of a 1943
Los Angeles bordello, and The Beanery, a reproduction of a
decrepit bar with 17 figures, piped-in smells, jukebox
music, and background conversation. Critics labeled some of
his images repulsive or even pornographic. From 1972 he
frequently collaborated with his wife, Nancy Reddin.
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John Doe
1959
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Back Seat Dodge '38
1964
Untitled
The Hoerengracht
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The Birthday
1964
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The Portable War Memorial
1968
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The Portable War
Memorial (detail)
1968
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The Portable
War Memorial (detail)
1968
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'Sollie 17', mixed media construction by Edward and Nancy Reddin
Kienholz
1979-80
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Sollie 17 (detail)
1979-80
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To Mourn a Dead Horse
1989
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The Wait
1964-65
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The Beanery
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Ladder
1976
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The Friendly Grey Computer - Star Gauge Model 54
1965
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Volksempfangers
1975-1977
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Volksempfangers
1975-1977
The Widow 1962
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Volksempfangers
1975-1977
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
Bout Round Eleven
1982
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
Berlin
Volksempfanger
1989
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
Installation View
2005
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
The Pool Hall
1993
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
Installation View
2005
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Ed and Nancy Kienholz
Same Old Shoe
1984
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The Ozymandius Parade
1985
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The Beanery
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Blue Boy and Pinkie
1979
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History as a Planter
1961
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The Illegal Operation
1962
The Bronze Pinvball Machine with Woman Affixed Also.
1980
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The State Hospital
(exterior)
1966 |
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