ON VIEW

Joel Shapiro is well known for his geometric, abstract sculptures that evoke the human figure with the simple, box-like forms transforming into torsos and limbs that crouch, leap, or teeter on the edge of toppling over. Untitled, 1983 is one of a considerable number of works that Shapiro has produced in the 1980s that have an especially ambiguous relationship with the human form. This piece in particular does not have the traditional “limbs” featured in many of Shapiro’s works from earlier and later periods. This lack of discernible “limbs” prevents any concrete interpretation of the work as a coherent “body.”  This ambiguity was seen as desirable to Shapiro. When discussing his figurative sculptures in 1982, Shapiro noted, “I am interested in those moments when it appears that a figure is a figure, and other moments when it looks like a bunch of wood stuck together—moments when it simultaneously configures and disfigures.” 

The artist begins by cutting the elements out of wood using a saw, after which he joins the forms together and casts the overall composition in bronze. Traces of wood grain can be seen in the elements upon close inspection. Adamant about casting these works in one piece, Shapiro is interested in the dynamic unity of elements and fragmentation through joining. The various elements are mostly connected to each other at non-perpendicular angles, or in such a way that their edges do not line up neatly. However, when cast as one piece, the sculptures become reminiscent of the wholeness of the human form, created out of seemingly disjointed and foreign elements.

When asked why he leaves many of his works untitled, Shapiro mused, “I can never come up with one [title]…whatever moniker I might give the work, it just always seems so low and ordinary…form is its own language.”