Beschreibung:

Studio Job - Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel ‘Robber Baron’ floor lamp 2007 Polished and patinated bronze. 63 in (160 cm) high Produced by Studio Job, the Netherlands for Moss, USA. Number 1 from the edition of 5. Base impressed with ‘JOB 07 01 / 05’.
Provenance Commissioned directly from the artists Exhibited ‘Robber Baron, the complete Suite: tales of power, corruption, art and industry, cast in bronze’, Moss, New York, May 19 – July 14, 2007 Literature Studio Job: The Book of Job, New York, 2010, p. 181 for a drawing, pp. 187, 190 Sue-an van der Zijpp and Mark Wilson Studio Job & the Groninger Museum, Wommelgem, 2011, pp. 38, 45, 75 Catalogue Essay Commissioned by Moss, ‘Robber Baron:Tales of Power, Corruption, Art, and Industry, Cast in Bronze,’ by Studio Job, is an important suite of five cast-bronze furnishings, consisting of a cabinet, mantel clock, table, floor lamp, and jewel safe. Magnificent in scale, exceptionally finely modeled, detailed, and cast, with precision mechanical movements where required, incorporating deeply carved iconographic reliefs, with areas highly polished, gilded, or patinated, these works are guild-like in their master craftsmanship. Their mirror finish reflecting the outrageous excesses of America’s 19th century tycoons and Russia’s new oligarchs, these surreal, highly expressive furnishings, each a complex composition of multiple visual elements depicting a narrative – much like a cathedral’s stained glass windows or its majestic bronze front doors – represent an interior belonging to a powerful industrial leader or his heirs. With clouds of pollution belching from towering smoke stacks, and missiles, falcons, gas masks, warplanes, and wrenches adorning golden surfaces, ‘Robber Baron’ celebrates and shames both art and industry. ‘Robber Baron’ floor lamp is a monumental bronze illuminated sculpture, in which three important icons of architecture – the Parthenon, the Empire State Building, and Saint Peter’s Basilica – merge into one. The Zeppelin docked at the pinnacle symbolizes technological failure, and references the Empire State Building, whose top spire was originally intended as a mooring for Zeppelin airships. When illuminated, the hundreds of windows transform the sculpture into a glowing tower.The ’Robber Baron’ floor lamp is in the permanent collection of the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands. Read More