Warhol Boxes
- Jason Middlebrook, American, 1966-
- Born: Jackson, MI
- Work Locations: Hudson, NY
Jason Middlebrook
Warhol Boxes, 2008
Mixed media on paper
Gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum, 2016.153
© Jason Middlebrook
Of his inclusion of Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes in his work, Jason Middlebrook stated, “I have always been interested in Warhol’s objects and how they revisited the ready-made. He wanted to transform the consumer object into Pop Art and today they are considered high art…My goal was to dismantle them again and turn the box form into something functional, such as furniture or a Brillo box planter. I wanted to give Warhol’s ready made a real function.” In "Warhol Boxes," Middlebrook has stacked nine Brillo boxes in pyramid form in the foreground, seemingly out of place in the sparse desert landscape. The green cacti sprouting from the boxes contrast with the muted brown and white tones throughout the majority of the work, drawing the viewer’s attention immediately. However foreign Brillo boxes in the desert may be, their functionality as planters encourages the viewer to accept this unique scene.
Jason Middlebrook was born in 1966 in Jackson, Michigan. He received his BFA from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1990 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California in 1994.
- “Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection” — Denver Art Museum, 1/13/2022
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