Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Robert Therrien
No Title (Keyhole) in Brass by Robert Therrien, 2003

2003

$15,000
£11,385.30
€13,304.42
CA$20,906.30
A$23,568.46
CHF 12,492.01
MX$290,563.81
NOK 151,855.87
SEK 145,957.65
DKK 99,228.27
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

No Title (Keyhole) in Brass by Robert Therrien, 2003 Additional information: Medium: Brass Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 2 x 3/4 in Robert Therrien (1947-2019) Over the past four decades, Robert Therrien (1947–2019) cultivated an expansive vernacular of forms drawn from memory and the everyday. Seemingly simple subjects—including snowmen, bows, and oilcans—acquire multiple levels of reference and association, while outsized sculptures of stacks of plates, tables and chairs, and beards shift between the ordinary and the surreal. The repetitive perfecting of chosen motifs is central to his work, imbuing objects and images with intentionality and a latent sense of the unattainable. About artist: Born in Chicago, Therrien emerged on the burgeoning Los Angeles art scene in the late 1970s after completing graduate school at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and studying photography at the Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara, California. At a time when the dominance of Minimalism and Conceptualism was being challenged, Therrien adopted certain formal aspects of these movements, yet allowed his pared-down sculptures and monochrome wall reliefs to take on poetic reference and implied narratives. Therrien was represented by Leo Castelli in New York and Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf throughout the 1980s and 1990s, during which time his work received increasing international recognition. In 1984 the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, presented the first exhibition of his stand-alone rooms: six re-creations of his Pico Boulevard studio, complete with the artworks therein. The studio would continue to be a subject and conceptual catalyst throughout Therrien’s oeuvre, in which art and domestic life are deeply intertwined. In 1990 he moved to a two-story building that he designed and built according to the layout of the earlier Pico Boulevard studio. This space served as home, repository, workshop, and gallery, allowing Therrien to reference his past works as well as items from everyday life—taking them from two to three dimensions or from small- to large-scale and back again. In 1991 the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, presented a survey of Therrien’s work since 1969, revealing the evolution of many of his motifs as they vacillate between the familiar and the abstract. The exhibition included a sculpture comprised of three worn white cabinets, which simultaneously echo the seriality of Minimalist sculpture and the intimate tactility and history of found objects. In the early 2000s Therrien continued to reinvent his unique vocabulary, revealing influences including Surrealism, early Hollywood cartoons, childhood myths, and period-specific design. Survey exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2011), the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2013), and Parasol unit, London (2016), revealed Therrien’s investigations of what he calls “figure-ground play,” wherein an image can evoke many things at once or seem to advance and retreat simultaneously. These chromatic and perspectival effects were expanded in his later room works, in which objects and spaces are reduced not in form but through choice of materials, monochromatic palettes, and presentation of either crowded or eerily sparse interiors. Parallel to his sculpture practice, Therrien’s works on paper display the uncanny sense of humor behind many of his inventions. The drawings feature motifs such as heads with halos, fork-tailed red devils, gallows, walking feet, and black clouds, usually positioned at the center of the page and shown in silhouette. These depictions are made using various combinations of customized stencils, bleach, Japan Colors, and dye—serving as complex works in and of themselves, as well as foundations for sculptures.
  • Creator:
    Robert Therrien (1947, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2003
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 5.5 in (13.97 cm)Width: 2 in (5.08 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Orange, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2793216069482

More From This Seller

View All
Malum (Apple), by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Malum (Apple), by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 13.5 × 9.5 in (34.3 × 24.1 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacle of art to...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

Piscis (Fish), by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Piscis (Fish), by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 24 × 8.5 in (61 × 21.6 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacle of art to dis...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

Pirum (Pear), by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Pirum (Pear), by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 17 1/2 × 8 1/2 in (44.5 × 21.6 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacle of art...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

Amygdalum (Almond), 19 × 8 in by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Amygdalum (Almond), 19 × 8 in by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 19 × 8 in (48.3 × 20.3 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacl...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

Pirum (Pear) by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Pirum (Pear) by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 17.5 × 8.5 in (44.5 × 21.6 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacle of art to d...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

Amygdalum (Almond), 18 × 6 in by Joseph Rossano, 2022
Located in Orange, CA
Amygdalum (Almond), 18 × 6 in by Joseph Rossano, 2022 Additional information: Medium: Blown Glass and Silver Dimensions: 18 × 6 in (45.7 × 15.2 cm) Rossano’s work uses the spectacl...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Silver

You May Also Like

Agate Box With Gilt Pomponne Mounts, Antique, 19th Century
Located in Cotignac, FR
French 19th Century rectangular agate box with fine engine engraved gilt mounts in gilt brass or Pomponne which is an alloy developed by two goldsmiths, Turgot and Daumy, who set up...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style More Art

Materials

Brass

Agate Box Antique 19th Century With Gilt Pomponne Mounts
Located in Cotignac, FR
French 19th Century oval agate box with fine engine engraved gilt mounts in Pomponne which is an alloy developed by two goldsmiths, Turgot and Daumy, who set up shop at the Hôtel de ...
Category

19th Century More Art

Materials

Brass

Agate Box Antique 19th Century Oval With Gilt Pomponne Mounts.
Located in Cotignac, FR
French 19th Century oval agate box with fine engine engraved gilt mounts in Pomponne which is an alloy developed by two goldsmiths, Turgot and Daumy, who set up shop at the Hôtel de ...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style More Art

Materials

Brass

Two Vintage Brass IN and OUT Signs
Located in Edgartown, MA
These charming vintage "IN" and "OUT" signs, hailing from England in the 20th century, offer a distinctive and functional touch to any collection or interior. Crafted in brass, they ...
Category

20th Century More Art

Materials

Brass

James Bearden Brutalist Owl Sculpture with Stash Box in Base "Animals Series"
By James Bearden
Located in Dallas, TX
Amazing brutalist owl sculpture with felt lined stash box hidden in the base by renowned Iowa abstract artist James Anthony Bearden from his Animal Series.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Brass

Brutalist Mid-Century Sunburst Wall Sculpture in Mixed Metals by Stuart Mathews
Located in Dallas, TX
Stuart Mathews was a prolific sculptor who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Cranbrook in the 1950s. His work is characterized by his ability to combine a variety of differ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Brass, Bronze, Steel