Artwork measures approximately 5.75 x 3.5 x 12 inches (14.6 x 8.9 x 30.5 cm) overall, and comprises two sculptures measuring 5.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches (dog) and 5.75 x 3.75 x 3.5 inches (iron), respectively.
An iron and a dog with a game bird in its mouth form an unusual pairing in this 2006 sculpture by Sherrie Levine. The work's title, "Cadeau," translates to "gift"-- a direct reference to Man Ray's 1921 sculpture "The Gift," which took the form of an iron with tacks protruding from it. Like Man Ray's work, Levine's "Cadeau" presents an unusual blend of domesticity and irony. The gleaming bronze surface declares the work's status as art object, even as the toy-like scale of the iron and the dog introduce an irreverent feel. In a final visual pun, the flat plane of the upended iron serves as a mirror into which the dog seems to be gazing. This work’s art historical importance is underscored by its selection as the cover image for Howard Singerman's "Art History, After Sherrie Levine.”
Sherrie Levine (American, b. 1947) is an American conceptual artist who investigates questions of authorship, authenticity, and originality in her work across a range of media, including collage, drawing, sculpture, and re-photography. Asserting that contemporary visual culture does not permit the unique or the new, Levine has appropriated and radically reinterpreted the work of modern artists such as Walker Evans, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, and others. Some of her best-known work includes the 1981 series “After Walker Evans,” in which she rephotographed images from Evans’s Depression Era work, and her 1996 sculpture “Fountain (Buddha),” a glossy bronze reinterpretation of Duchamp’s famous 1917 “Fountain.” Witty and cynical, Levine’s work often operates as postmodern, anti-materialist, or feminist critique. In 2012, Levine’s work was the subject of a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
Selected Public Collections:
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, CA
