Robert Gober in Time
Plaster, wood, wire lath, aluminum, watercolor, semi-gloss enamel paint, 28 x 33 x 22 1/2″ (71.1 x 83.8 x 57.2 cm). Seen from behind while mid-stride with a dog tagging along, he holds two casts of a leg, parts for his sculptures. Robert Gober: I always imagined them hung in corporate boardrooms. 1989
Gober makes his first leg sculpture, Untitled Leg. It’s all wax but it looks different. The butter is finished with a diaper and some solvent to make it look this buttery. The number of officially reported AIDS cases in the United States reaches 100,000. An essay by curator Ann Temkin introduces his work, and an afterword by art conservator Christian Scheidemann explores his unique use of materials. December 10: Gober participates in a “Stop the Church” demonstration organized by ACT UP at St. “I was taken with [Frank] Stella’s black paintings. “The family of my friend Dan insisted that we never use the word. Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor is on view through January 18, 2015. The book’s chronology, written by assistant curator Paulina Pobocha, Gober’s archivist and registrar Claudia Carson, and Gober himself, paints a vivid picture of the artist’s life and career, including archival images, personal photos, and interviews with individuals close to Gober’s work. Robert Gober. © 2014 Robert Gober
1984
Summer: working alone, Gober continues to make sink sculptures in the studio on 7th Street. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery. Untitled. He begins each sink by drawing a cartoon on the wall before starting construction. It sounds like portraiture. First, and most apparent, is its nontraditional size, resembling a thick novel more than the standard coffee table art book. He’s interested in imitation or re-creation or portraits. Upon seeing this work, Leah Gober asks, “Bobby, why would you want to make something like this?”
Christian Scheidemann: I’m always interested in how he treats different surfaces. For instance, his legs are finished with tools but also with cloth and mineral spirits; the chests are highly polished with hairbrushes, because it’s a different part of your body. Included below are selected excerpts from the chronology and images of Gober’s work. Cover of Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor, published by The Museum of Modern ArtRobert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor, published to accompany the artist’s retrospective at MoMA, is unconventional in a few ways. The sinks are made of plywood and steel, covered in wire lath, plastered, then painted with Benjamin Moore Dulamel semigloss enamel paint straight from the can. The New York Public Library will host a separate discussion between the two on Tuesday, December 16, 2014, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Schwarzman Building, South Court Auditorium. Gober has a wonderful sense of materiality, how he observes materials.
