Destroyer
2003
Artist
- Fred Tomaselli, American, 1956
- Born: Santa Monica, CA
- Work Locations: Brooklyn, NY
Country
United States
Object
painting, collage
Medium
photographic collage elements and paint embedded in layers of resin on a wood panel
Accession Number
2012.23
Credit Line
Gift of Polly and Mark Addison
© Fred Tomaselli 2019
Dimensions
sight height: 28 in, 71.1200 cm; sight width: 22 in, 55.8800 cm; depth: 1 1/2 in, 3.8100 cm; frame height: 32 in, 81.2800 cm; frame width: 26 in, 66.0400 cm; frame depth: 3 9/16 in, 9.0488 cm
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Collection
Modern and Contemporary Art
Bringing together elements of outsider art, Eastern religious art, and psychedelic experience, Fred Tomaselli’s Destroyer disregards conventional painting modes in favor of a constructive process that builds up a smooth, satiny surface with collaged objects, photo-collaged images, paint, and thick layers of resin. In this otherworldly image a mysterious cornucopia-like creature rises up against a glossy black background, emanating rays of colored shapes that could be mistaken for pharmaceutical pills. Within its scaly thorax, edged with pairs of mismatched, fully-flexed bodybuilder arms, sits a ball-like head composed of a cluster of cutout noses, eyes, ears, and mouths. Given Tomaselli’s earlier assemblages of actual mind-altering substances, (both pharmaceutical and street drugs) it seems likely that this work suggests a hallucinatory apparition.
Exhibition History
- "Showing Off: Recent Modern and Contemporary Acquisitions" - May 17, 2015 to January 3, 2016 (DAM)
