Tom Burr

Black leather lovers

Maker

Tom Burr (American, b. 1963)

Title

Black leather lovers

Year

2013

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Dimensions

67 x 108 x 80 cm (26 3/8 x 42 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

2021.41

Type

Exhibition History

Any distance between us
Jul 17, 2021 – Mar 13, 2022

Label copy

“Coming out of feminism and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, there was always a need to picture something, to picture the body, and I was interested in doing something very different than that. I was interested in implicating the viewer.... I was interested in the projection into the work by the bodies that might be viewing it.”

-Tom Burr, 2016

Burr’s sculpture presents two low barstools as human surrogates. The play on words in the title alludes both to the chairs’ black leather-like upholstery material and to gay male fetish and BDSM subcultures.

Image use

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Tombstone

Tom Burr (American, b. 1963)
Black leather lovers, 2013
Stools, plywood, and acrylic
67 x 108 x 80 cm (26 3/8 x 42 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches)
Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2021.41

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