Robert Gober (born September 12, 1954) is an Americansculptor. His work is often related to domestic and familiar objects such as sinks, doors, and legs.[1]
Gober was born in Wallingford, Connecticut.[1] Gober settled in New York in 1976 and initially earned his living as a carpenter, crafting stretchers for artists and renovating lofts.[2] He also worked as an assistant to the painter Elizabeth Murray[2] for five years.[3]
Work
In 1982-83, Gober created Slides of a Changing Painting, consisting of 89 images of paintings made on a small piece of plywood in his storefront studio in the East Village; he made a slide of each motif, then scraped off the paint and began again.[4] One of his most well known series of more than 50 increasingly eccentric sinks – made of plaster, wood, wire lath, and coated in layers of semi-gloss enamel[5] – he produced in the mid-1980s.[4][6]
By 1989, Gober was casting beeswax into sculptures of men's legs, completed not only with shoes and trouser legs but also human hair that was inserted into the beeswax.[6]
During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Robert Gober, along with other artists, used art to support the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).[8] ACT UP was a large group of people that were infuriated by the lack of action from the government and scientists to stop the spread of AIDS and find a cure.[9] A few artists, including Gober, organized an art auction to help raise funds to donate to ACT UP. Gober's Untitled (Leg) (1989-1990) alone was sold at a very high price, which helped prove to the public that art can be used to make the voices of the people be heard, to fight for a cause that is important to the communities, and that art is not just a commodity, nor is art just for pleasure.[8][9]
In 2007 there was a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Schaulager in Basel.[12]
Gober participated in the group show Lifelike that originated at the Walker Art Center in 2012.[13]
From October 2014 to January 2015, The Museum of Modern Art, New York presented "Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor", a 40-year retrospective of his work including approximately 130 sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints and photographs. This exhibition was the first large-scale display in the United States.[14] It was also accompanied by a catalogue of the same name including essays by Hilton Als, Ann Temkin and Christian Scheidemann, plus a chronology by Claudia Carson and Paulina Pobocha with Robert Gober.[15]
In autumn 2016, two new sculptures by Gober were included in the Artangel exhibition at Reading Prison in England.[16]
Recognition
In 2013, the Hammer Museum honored Gober along with playwright Tony Kushner at its 11th Annual Gala in the Garden, with Gober being introduced by fellow artist Charles Ray.[17]
Aesthetics
Traditionally the poetics associated with Rober Gober’s artworks are focused on two fields: The surreal and the spiritual:
"The almost devotional artisanship imbues common objects with an uncommon gravity, along with the sense of energy, growth and vulnerability that defines real bodies." Roberta Smith.[18] “He plays with the tension between the neutered forms and the strong emotional and physical connotations we attach to them.”[19]
His artworks represent "The daily human war on dirt " Peter Schjeldahl.,[20] it works both literally and symbolically. "To be cleansed is to become pure, physically and also spiritually."[21] In some cases the lavatories represent both the cyclical approach to be cleaner but the impossibility to be fully pure: "The sink still has no water, and the past will never wash off."[22]
