The Nature Theater of Oklahoma America, 20th century

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The Nature Theater of Oklahoma

c. 1988

and K.O.S.

(American)

America, 20th century

gold metallic and black paint

Support: Twenty four printed book pages from Franz Kafka's The Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Secondary Support: 81 x 81.5 cm (31 7/8 x 32 1/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1999.327

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Rollins was a veteran of the art collaboratives that formed in New York City in the 1970s when he started his own, known as K.O.S. (for Kids of Survival), in the early 1980s. Working with high school students from the south Bronx, Rollins made a number of ambitious paintings in a signature style and format-book pages mounted on canvas-on which he and his students painted images in response to the text. The stories he selected, (in this case a chapter from Kafka's novel Amerika) were chosen for their anti-authoritarian stance and implicit criticism of power structures. Their painted forms of warped, biomorphic musical instruments have ties to urban street art and graffiti.