1984-1985

Door/Door

American, 1923 - 2013

Richard Artschwager’s sculptures mediate between the unknown and the familiar by transforming functional items, often furniture, into blatantly futile art objects. Here Artschwager proposes perceptible stand-ins for traditional materials: brown Formica substitutes for wood, which Formica frequently replaced in the 1980s, while hand-painted black-and-white acrylic swirls mimic marble. The doubling of the doors in different scales and the lack of architectural detail other than protruding steps and Gothic pointed arches render Door/Door nondescript, allowing form and function to give way to humor and irony.