Hans Haacke with Sculpture

2005

Hans Haacke with Sculpture, 2005. Rachel Harrison (American, b. 1966). Wood, chicken wire, polystyrene, cement, acrylic, dolly, and pigmented inkjet print (Hans Haacke's oil painting, Homage a Marcel Broodthaers, 1982); overall: 190.5 x 61 x 78.7 cm (75 x 24 x 31 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2015.74 Courtesy of the Artist and Greene Naftali, New York President Ronald Reagan stares out at eye level in this sculpture; the image of the president is a reproduction of an oil painting created by Hans Haacke, one of the founders of Conceptual art. One of Harrison’s signature painted cement forms seems to be wearing the photograph as a mask. Harrison has gained renown for combining seemingly unrelated objects into slyly humorous artworks. Like Andy Warhol’s Marilyn x 100, also in the collection, Harrison employs an image of the recognizable president to reveal the difference between Reagan the man himself and our deeply embedded ideas of what he represents. The image of President Ronald Reagan staring out at eye level in this sculpture is a photograph of an oil painting created by Hans Haacke.