Untitled, Robert Gober | Matthew Marks Gallery

Untitled 1992
Beeswax, human hair
3 × 2⅝ × 7⅞ inches; 8 × 7 × 20 cm
Edition 10/15
Signed, numbered, and dated in ink (underside): R. Gober / 10/15 ’92

Exhibited

Bignan, France, Domaine de Kerguéhennec, De la main à la tête, l’object théorique, May 1 – September 19, 1993 (another example exhibited)

Frankfurt, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Change of Scene V, January 28 – May 15, 1994 (another example exhibited)

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Views from Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art 2, October 18, 1996 – January 5, 1997. Traveled to Frankfurt, Museum für Moderne Kunst, January 31 – May 4, 1997 (another example exhibited)

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the Werner & Elaine Dannheisser Collection, September 30, 1997 – January 20, 1998 (another example exhibited)

Hamburg, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Emotion: Young British and American Artists from the Goetz Collection, October 30, 1998 – January 17, 1999 (another example exhibited)

St. Gallen, Switzerland, Sammlung Hauser und Wirth, The Oldest Possible Memory, May 14 – October 15, 2000 (another example exhibited)

Bordeaux, France, CAPC Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Presumed Innocent: Contemporary Art and Childhood, June 8 – October 1, 2000 (another example exhibited)

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Open Ends: Innocence and Experience, September 28, 2000 – January 2, 2001 (another example exhibited)

Frankfurt, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Change of Scene XVIII, September 29, 2000 – March 4, 2001 (another example exhibited)

Santa Fe, NM, SITE Santa Fe, Fifth International Biennial, Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque, July 18, 2004 – January 9, 2005 (another example exhibited)

Santander, Spain, Marcelino Botin Fundación, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, April 28 – June 26, 2005 (another example exhibited)

Frankfurt, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Spinning the Web: The eBay Connection, September 24, 2005 – January 29, 2006 (another example exhibited)

Southampton, NY, The Parrish Art Museum, All the More Real, August 12 – October 24, 2007 (another example exhibited)

New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities, July 30 – November 10, 2008 (another example exhibited)

Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, The Art of Fashion: Installing Allusions, September 19, 2009 – January 10, 2010 (another example exhibited)

Hamburg, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Täuschend echt: Die Kunst des Trompe-l’oeil, February 13 – May 24, 2010 (another example exhibited)

Wolfsburg, Germany, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Art & Fashion: Between Skin and Clothing, March 5 – August 7, 2011 (another example exhibited)

Austin, The Contemporary Austin, A Secret Affair: Selections from the Fuhrman Family Collection, May 3 – August 24, 2014. Traveled to New York, FLAG Art Foundation, February 21 – May 16, 2015 (another example exhibited)

New York, The FLAG Art Foundation, Disturbing Innocence, October 25, 2014 – January 31, 2015 (another example exhibited)

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection, June 28 – September 5, 2016 (another example exhibited)

Literature

Jacqueline Rapmund and Karel Schampers, eds. Collection Modern Art Boymans-van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam. Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuingen, 1993, pp. 18, 57, ill.

Rudi Fuchs, Adam Weinberg, and Jean-Christophe Ammann. Views from Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art, Vol. 2. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995, pp. 133, 146–49, ill. in color

Marie-Laure Bernadac and Bernard Marcadé. Fémininmasculin: Le Sexe de l’Art. Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1995, pp. 330–37

Claudia Gian Ferrari. Nudo & Crudo. Milan: Charta, 1996, pp. 34–35

Robert Storr. On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the Werner and Elaine Dannheisser Collection. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1997, p. 48, ill.

Présumés Innocents: L’art contemporain et l’enfance. Bordeaux, France: CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, 2000, p. 33, ill.

Holland Cotter. “A Postwar Survey, Semi-Wild at Heart.” The New York Times, September 29, 2000, p. E27, ill.

Kirk Varnedoe. “Innocence and Experience.” MoMA: The Magazine of The Museum of Modern Art, October 2000, pp. 1–5, ill. in color

Eva Meyer-Hermann. The Oldest Possible Memory. Cologne: Oktagon, 2000, pp. 2–9, ill.

Jean Ammann and Horst Schwebel. Katharina Fritsch; Robert Gober. Frankfurt: Museum für Moderne Kunst, 2001, pp. 18 (installation view), 19, ill.

Mario Kramer. Für Jean-Christophe Ammann, Festschrift. Frankfurt: Museum für Moderne Kunst, 2001, pp. 216–19, ill.

Marina Schneede. Mit Haut und Haaren: Der Körper in der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Cologne: Dumont, 2002, p. 110, ill.

Andrea Bee. Zehn Jahre Museum für Moderne Kunst. Frankfurt: Museum für Moderne Kunst, 2003, pp. 190, 267, 421–23, ill.

Alexander Braun. Robert Gober: Werke von 1976 bis heute. Nuremberg: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2003, pl. 3, p. 42, ill.

Kirk Varnedoe, Paola Antonelli, and Joshua Siegel. Modern Contemporary: Art Since 1980 at MoMA. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004, pp. 316–17, ill. in color

Robert Storr. Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque. Santa Fe, NM: SITE Santa Fe, 2004, p. 60, ill.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Santander, Spain: Sala de Exposiciones Fundación Botin, 2005, pp. 31, 33, ill.

Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil. Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers. New York: Berg Publishers, 2006, p. 366, ill.

Theodora Vischer, ed. Robert Gober: Sculptures and Installations, 1979–2007. Basel: Schaulager; Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2007, cat. no. S 1992.33, pp. 336–37, ill. in color

Merrill Falkenberg and Eric Fischl, eds. All the More Real. Southampton, NY: Parrish Art Museum, 2007, pp. 15, 64–65

Jan Brand and José Teunissen, eds. The Art of Fashion: Installing Allusions. Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2009, p. 87, ill.

Bärbel Hedinger and Gottfried Boehm. Täuschend echt: Illusion und Wirklichkeit in der Kunst. Hamburg: Bucerius Kunst Forum, 2010, pp. 188–93, ill. in color

Markus Brüderlin and Annelie Lütgens. Art and Fashion: Between Skin and Clothing. Bielefeld, Germany: Kerber Verlag, 2011, pp. 42, 101, ill.

Louis Grachos and Heather Pensati. A Secret Affair: Selections from the Fuhrman Family Collection. Austin: The Contemporary Austin, 2014, p. 59

Carlos Basualdo and Anna Mecugni, eds. Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2016, pl. 36, pp. 96–97, ill. in color

Robert Gober and Deborah Solomon. “A Master’s Domestic Surrealism: Robert Gober’s Art of the Commonplace Is a Good Fit Now.” The New York Times, June 2, 2020, p. C4

“I saw this shoe in the middle of East 10th Street early one morning. It had a poignancy as if a little girl had lost it and was still walking around the city with one shoe. I’m sure the reality is that it was in the garbage and the garbage was ransacked or sloppily loaded into the garbage truck and that the shoe was abandoned because it was unwanted or outgrown.” —Robert Gober

A little girl’s shoe that appears to be sprouting hair from its insole, Untitled is an early example of Gober’s anthropomorphized everyday objects. Like his iconic sculptures of single legs clad in trousers and shoes, Untitled includes human hairs implanted in warmed beeswax with a tool designed by his studio specifically for this purpose.

Other copies of this sculpture are in the collections of the following institutions: Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

<p><em>Untitled</em> 1989 Beeswax, cotton, wood, leather, human hair<br />Collection of the artist</p> — *Untitled* 1989 Beeswax, cotton, wood, leather, human hair
Collection of the artist