The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 2, 2023

Hans Haacke with Sculpture

2005

Rachel Harrison

(American, b. 1966)

America, 21st century

Wood, chicken wire, polystyrene, cement, acrylic, dolly, and pigmented inkjet print (Hans Haacke's oil painting, Homage a Marcel Broodthaers, 1982)

Overall: 190.5 x 61 x 78.7 cm (75 x 24 x 31 in.)

Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2015.74

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The image of President Ronald Reagan staring out at eye level in this sculpture is a photograph of an oil painting created by Hans Haacke.

Description

President Ronald Reagan stares out at eye level in this sculpture; the image of the president is a reproduction of an oil painting created by Hans Haacke, one of the founders of Conceptual art. One of Harrison’s signature painted cement forms seems to be wearing the photograph as a mask. Harrison has gained renown for combining seemingly unrelated objects into slyly humorous artworks. Like Andy Warhol’s Marilyn x 100, also in the collection, Harrison employs an image of the recognizable president to reveal the difference between Reagan the man himself and our deeply embedded ideas of what he represents.

Provenance
Collection of the artist, New York; Greene Naftali, New York; Private Collection; acquired by the CMA from Greene Naftali, New York in 2015.
Citations
Cattelan, Maurizio, et al., eds. Of Mice and Men: The 4th Berlin Biennale. Exh. Cat. Berlin: Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, 2006. Reproduced p. 158-159
Rutland, Beau, et al. Rachel Harrison: G-L-O-R-I-A. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced pgs. 23, 39, 48-52, 65, 121
Turner, Anderson. “Innovative works by two contemporary artists at Cleveland Museum of Art.” Akron Beacon Journal (July 31, 2015)
Exhibition history

Sculpture New Spirit. Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France (September 10 – October 22, 2005).

Of Mice and Men 4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (March 25 - June 5, 2006).

Gloria: Robert Rauschenberg & Rachel Harrison. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 1-October 25, 2015).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.74