Lot 25
25
Edward Kienholz (1927-1994)
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
Edward Kienholz (1927-1994)

The Future as an Afterthought

Details
Edward Kienholz (1927-1994)
The Future as an Afterthought
dolls, wood and sheet metal
52 x 20 7/8 x 19 in. (132.1 x 53 x 48.2 cm.)
Executed in 1962.
Provenance
Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1971
Literature
J. W. Whitehead, Grasping for the Wind: The search for meaning in the 20th century, Grand Rapids, 2001, pl. 25 (illustrated in color).
Exhibited
Washington D.C., Gallery of Modern Art, Works from the 1960's by Edward Kienholz, November 1967-January 1968, p. 21, no. 6 (illustrated).
Cologne, Onnasch Galerie, Edward Kienholz: 10 Objekte von 1960 bis 1964, April 1971 (illustrated, n.p.).
Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Aspekte der 60er Jahre, February-April 1978, p. 39 (illustrated).
Bremen, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Roxy and Other Works, January-February 1982, pp. 66-67 (illustrated).
Washington D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Dreams and Nightmares, Utopian Visions in Modern Art, December 1983-February 1984, p. 161, fig. 17 (illustrated in color).
Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Der unverbrauchte Blick: Kunst unserer Zeit in Berliner Sicht, January-April 1987 (illustrated in color, n.p.).
Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum,[Sonsbeek 93], The Uncanny, June-September 1993.
Houston, Menil Collection, Edward Kienholz, 1954-1962, October 1995-January 1996, p. 46, no. 39 (illustrated in color).
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Berlinische Galerie, Kienholz: A Retrospective, June 1996-April 1997, p. 103, no. 36 (illustrated in color).
Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Epoche der Moderne--Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert, May-July 1997, no. 251.
Bremen, Gerhard Marcks Haus, Die Pop Art und die zeitgenössische Bildhauer Kunst, April-July 2002, p. 54 (illustrated in color).
Sale room notice
This work has been requested for the exhibition The Not-so Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture from November 1, 2003 to August 1, 2004, organized by the San Jose Museum of Art.

Lot Essay

Edward Kienholz is considered to be a premier Pop artist from the West Coast, whose version of Pop art is characterized by biting social criticism vividly brought to life in assemblages and tableaux. In extreme contrast to other Pop artists who glorified American Pop culture and consumerism, Kienholz revealed the abject and horrorific in contemporary life and society. In his use of real objects and plaster casts to convey startling narratives and hyperreal environments, Kienholz tackles difficult and controversial subjects such as illegal abortion, mental institutionalization, and prostitution. In The Future as an Afterthought, Kienholz creates a sculpture that references the horrors of nuclear war.
"This prospect effectively confronts us in Kienholz's early sculpture The Future as an Afterthought. A bundle of baby doll heads, black, white, and brown, are shaped into the familiar mushroom form of the atomic bomb cloud. One head lies on the base of the piece; it is sticky, as though in meltdown mode. The work carries an obvious reference to the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, killing thousands of innocent men, women and children. It was also made during the Kennedy era, after the Cuban missile crisis brought America and Russia to the brink of nuclear war" (R. Brooks, Kienholz: A Retrospective, exh. cat., New York, 1996, p. 103).
Andy Warhol, Atomic Bomb, 1965 c 2003 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, New York

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