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Ron Nagle

Waiting for Jumbot, 2009

Description

Maker

Ron Nagle, b. 1939, American

Title

Waiting for Jumbot

Year

2009

Medium

Earthenware with glaze

Materials/Techniques

Materials

clay products

Dimensions

12.1 x 16.5 x 9.5 cm (4 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches)

Place

Western

Type

Sculpture

Credit

Purchased with funds donated by Yvette Boisclair and Mark Mandell in honor of Judith Tannenbaum

Object Number

2009.94

Exhibition History

Building Blocks

May 5, 2011 - March 24, 2012

Ron Nagle’s small-scale ceramic sculptures use complex, layered glazing techniques to create a range of surfaces—from smooth, liquid-like glosses to highly textured matte finishes. The process often involves firing each piece up to twenty times. Untitled, 1981, takes characteristic features of a cup (handle, lip, and foot, for
example) and alters them to the point of negating functionality. Waiting for Jumbot is from Nagle’s “weeorama” series, which evokes miniature tableaux or stage-sets. Its title refers to Samuel Beckett’s seminal play Waiting for Godot, imbuing the lone tiny red cube with a suggestive existential dimension. The title and matte gray glaze also evoke Jumbo, the famous 19th-century circus elephant, adding a note of humor.

Stranger Than Paradise

July 13, 2017 - February 24, 2018

Waiting for Jumbot is part of Nagle’s ongoing Thin Fins series of ceramic scenes, developed between 1998 and 2002 and from 2007 to the present. Here a red cube-like form is placed a pinkish-gray stage-like setting that also resembles the ledge of a mountain. The work’s title and the cube’s isolation and the rough gray texture surrounding it suggest Samuel Beckett’s existentialist drama Waiting for Godot, as well as the famous 19th-century circus elephant, Jumbo.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Waiting for Jumbot with the accession number of 2009.94. To request a higher resolution file, please submit an online request.

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