Assemblage of 30 oil cans in a wooden box, 1995. 1225x622x69 mm; 48 1/4x24 1/2x2 3/4 inches. Engraved signature and date on a metal plaque, lower right. Signed and dated in ink, frame back.
Provenance: gift from the artist, the Xavier Cázares Cortéz Family Collection.
Used oil cans are the essential component of this striking assemblage by Noah Purifoy. This modernist construction epitomizes the bold spirit of Purifoy's Junk Dada vision. Purifoy utilized found objects to convey messages to people in the world, both reflecting our material world and the art within it. At the time of his 2015 LACMA retrospective, Noah Purifoy - Junk DadaPurifoy described in an interview with C. Ian White the primacy of the found object in his practice, and the influence of Duchamp. According to Purifoy, Duchamp left us "with the idea that the found object was OK like it was. We didn't have to do much to it to make it a part of the creative process, so because of Duchamp, I maintained the intergrity of the piece, the object I work with, and enable the piece to maintain its originality. You can tell that this is a broom handle, this is a skillet, or this is a coffepot." Sirmans/Lipschutz p. 107.
