Found metal and wood elements, dowels, paint and sewn fabric, 1961. 1689x584 mm; 66 1/2x23 inches. Embroidered initials, lower right recto, and signed and dated "8/61" in ink, verso.
Provenance: Gift from the artist to the current owners, private collection, New York.
While working as a commercial illustrator in the late 1940s and 1950s, Antonakos (1926-2013) frequented New York's art museums and having seen Robert Rauschenberg's (1925-2008) combines, became inspired to create his own art incorporating found objects and painting. By 1956, Antonakos had abandoned painting, and instead through the 1960s, focused on three dimensional works, including constructions, Sewlages, and the Pillows series. For his constructions, Antonakos used salvaged objects from the trash and curbs of his neighborhood, including buttons, fabrics, dowels, and furniture. Antonakos first exhibited his constructions at the landmark shows "New Forms- New Media I-II" at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York in 1960, alongside assemblage works by Jean Arp (1886-1966), Lee Bontecou (1931-2022), Jim Dine (born 1935) and Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022).
