Label TextAnimal Pyramid is an absurdist 12-foot-tall pyramid composed of seventeen skinless cast bronze animal figures precariously balanced in a triangular composition. Eight deer perch on the backs of five large caribou, while four foxes, inverted, as if balanced in handstands, compose the apex of the pyramid. In 1988, Nauman began making sculptures using molds he found in a taxidermy shop in New Mexico. These polyurethane forms were originally used to preserve the shape of animal skins while they were stuffed. When cast in bronze, the strange, featureless forms of the molds create uncanny renditions of the animals they represent. Animal Pyramid was made specifically for its current location adjacent to the Art Center and has a contextual relationship with both Greenwood Park and the architecture of the Center’s Richard Meier wing. Nauman stated that “the formal parts of the building, the squareness and then the curves, must have something to do with how I thought about the pyramid.”20 The evolution of the pyramid’s shape can be seen compared to an earlier version of the piece constructed in Nauman’s studio and documented in the artist’s photocollage Model for Animal Pyramid (1989). Like much of Nauman’s work, Animal Pyramid contains both humor as well as serious commentary. It draws attention to the issue of animal slaughter and the macabre process of taxidermy. Additionally, it pokes fun at the often-grandiose tradition of bronze memorial sculptures through its nonsensical arrangement of animals that recalls a circus act.
Published ReferencesNeal Benzra, Kathy Halbreich, Paul Schimmel and Robert Storr, essayists; Joan Simon with Janet Jenkins and Toby Kamps, general editor, BRUCE NAUMAN, (Exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonne), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, distributed Art Publishers, 1st edition, 1994, cat. no.442, color ill. p.323
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. pp.35 & 209, b/w detail p.209, color ill. pp.208 & 209
Published ReferencesNeal Benzra, Kathy Halbreich, Paul Schimmel and Robert Storr, essayists; Joan Simon with Janet Jenkins and Toby Kamps, general editor, BRUCE NAUMAN, (Exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonne), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, distributed Art Publishers, 1st edition, 1994, cat. no.442, color ill. p.323
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. pp.35 & 209, b/w detail p.209, color ill. pp.208 & 209
DimensionsOverall: 12 × 7 × 4 ft. (3.7 × 2.1 × 1.2 m.)
Accession Number 1990.18
Classificationssculpture
Provenance(Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe [fabricated 1990]); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the artist, 1990]
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