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Label Text Jaume Plensa uses letters as the basic components of much of his art, which explores communication issues whether between individuals or cultures. This work depicts a crouching, anonymous figure, with a "skin" composed of letters from the Latin alphabet. The sculpture exemplifies Plensa's ongoing interest in ideas presented in written text, as well as the human body and how it perceives the world around it. He has described individual letters or symbols as components that have little or no meaning on their own, but blossom into words, thoughts, and language when combined with others. Plensa's screens of letters offer a metaphor for human culture, in which a person alone has limited potential, but when formed into groups or societies, becomes stronger. Nomade engages the viewer on many levels, from our recognition of the letters that form the shape, to our own physical interaction with the work as we view it from afar or from inside the work's interior space.
Exhibition HistoryMusée Picasso
Published ReferencesSchmitt, Tim, "Metro Moxie: Des Moines Gets Things Done", Drake Blue, Spring 2014, Drake University, color ill. pg.21

"John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park", Lea Rosson DeLong, ed., Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, 1923, pp. 102-109, details pp. 138-139
DimensionsOverall: 27 × 17 × 18 ft., 12000 lb. (823.2 × 518.3 × 548.8 cm, 5443.2 kg.)
Accession Number 2015.3
Classificationssculpture
CopyrightARS
EditionThis is a unique work. A second version of this work was commissioned by the Ville d'Antibes in 2009
Provenance(Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago); John and Mary Pappajohn, Des Moines [purchased from previous, 2007]; Des Moines Art Center [gift of previous, 2015]
Photo Credit: Richard Sanders, Des Moines
Jaume Plensa
2010
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Robert Smithson
1966
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Michelangelo Pistoletto
1965
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ellsworth Kelly
1994
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tony Smith
1961, fabricated 1989
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ugo Rondinone
2005
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ugo Rondinone
2006
Photo Credit: © Cameron Campbell 2009
Tony Smith
1962, fabricated 2005
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Mark di Suvero
1987
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Michelangelo Pistoletto
1971