Lot 59 | H.C. (Horace Clifford) Westermann | Artichoke Box

WESTERMANN, H.C. (HORACE CLIFFORD)
1922 Los Angeles - 1981 Danbury/USA

Title: Artichoke Box.
Date: 1965.
Technique: Artichokes box, rope knot (silvern-polychromed), wooden piece, post card.
Measurement: Box: 21 x 28 x 17cm, knot: ca. 25 x 7 x 8cm, wood: 10 x 9,5 x 1cm, post card: 9 x 13,5cm.
Notation: Monogrammed and dated (tooled) on the right side of the box: HCW SF 65.


Provenance:
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin (directly from the artist)

Exhibitions:
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne 2008/09
- Lieu d'Art et Action Contemporaine, Dunkerque 2013

Literature:
- H.C. Westermann Exhibition Catalogue and Catalogue Raisonné of the Objects, ed. by Michael Rooks and Lynne Warren, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago 2001, WVZ no. MCA 131, pp. 280f. Illus.
- Exhib. cat. Looking for Mushrooms: Beat Poets, Hippies, Funk, Minimal Art - San Francisco 1955-68, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Cologne 2008, p. 134 ill.

"Sculptor and graphic designer H.C. Westermann often produced wooden objects that showcased his carpentry and wood inlay skills. While his works reflect both folk art and the avant-garde Surrealism and Dada movements, their robust and precise craftsmanship anticipates Minimalism. Westermann was always an outsider. The term "artist's artist" is particularly appropriate in his case. Curator and art critic Robert Storr called him a "misfit" of postwar art, which he associated with the wartime experiences of his generation.
Kasper König aptly paraphrased "misfit as odd piece" in German: "Since Westermann understood that the values of 'good' America always went to the dogs, he put all his energy into the objects he created, making them increasingly more robust and sturdy. The objects are never unambiguous; they are enigmatic and ambivalent. Ultimately, they are homeless artworks, odd pieces that never come to rest, neither in art nor in politics nor in history, like phantom ships or will-o'-the-wisps."
König described the two works by Westermann from his donation in a catalogue entry: "Untitled (Mallet in Crate) is an absurd object with a profound meaning-typical for Westermann in the sense of an 'object lesson,' comparable to a sorcerer who wants to share something with his apprentice. If the mallet-which is kept in the box with a dirty lambswool lining and is reminiscent of a judge's gavel-were used in a conventional manner, the mirrored surfaces would shatter. Untitled (Large Hanging Rock) works in a similar way, a boulder on a chain, whose enormous weight makes it nearly impossible to install the work like a pendulum. Westermann suggested to me, with an enigmatic smile, that I should hang it from one of the heating pipes in my New York loft at the time.""

(exhib. cat. 1000... miles to the edge. Gift/Donation Kasper König. Museum Ludwig Cologne, 11th November 2023 - 17th March 2024).