Item: Erik Gronborg Aluminum Box
Designer/Maker: Erik Gronborg – The Danish artist came to the states in 1959 and to UC Berkeley in 1960. There, he was instrumental in developing the artist-foundry movement begun at Peter Voulkos and Donald Haskin’s ‘Garbanzo Works,’ described by Joe Pugliese in 1963 as “ the most cooperative, most confused, most productive, and most slap stick do it yourself foundry operation ever on record.”
Gronborg’s style was utterly unique, he worked in both wood and cast metals and received the prestigious City of Paris Award at the 1963 Paris Bienale. As part of the landmark Onze Sculpteurs Americains exhibit, comprised of artists involved with the Berkeley art department, who received a special group prize, Gronborg was singled out for the Paris Bienale’s highest honor and had a solo show at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris.
This early stage in Gronborg’s career is well documented in Artforum Magazine and the Creative Casting exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in NYC (Gronborg and Harold Paris are shown working in the Berkeley foundry in the catalog), but it was only the beginning. He went on to national recognition as a ceramist often associated with the funk movement, and was included in major exhibitions like Objects:USA in 1969. After settling in San Diego in the mid 1970s, he began to make studio furniture that also won national acclaim and was featured in Dona Meilach’s important survey, Woodworking: the New Wave as well as in Craftsman Lifestyle: The Gentle Revolution. Always an innovative and singular artist, Gronborg was central to some of the most significant American art and craft developments of the mid 20th century.
Description: Cast aluminum box, c. early 1970s. Made while the artist was living in Las Vegas and teaching at UNLV, this box is hinged and lidded with a black flocked interior. It incorporates some of the same relief images found on his ceramic works: newspaper advertising slogans like “SALE” spelled out in stars and stripes, photos of presidents or robber-barons, and the ever-present muscle cars. The pop art walls are topped by a smoothly organic but ruptured shape that gives the box a vaguely anatomical feel.
Dimensions: 4.5″ x 6.75″ x 6.25″ high
Condition: Very good with one corner area of the flocking inside the box missing.
Price: $1200
Email for more information regarding this item: info@ObjectsUSA.com