The Swimmer

2012 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

7.75H x 13W x 4.75D inches

Jeffry Mitchell


Though the title might suggest an Adonis, Jeffry Mitchell’s The Swimmer (2012) is a squat, jolly man with a protuberant belly. The stocky figure lets his arm drop to his side, towel dripping on the ground. Mitchell’s umber-toned glaze makes everything look earthy and wet, primordial and warm.


The Seattle-based sculptor Jeffry Mitchell creates cartoonlike creatures from low-fire earthenware. Their sympathetic expressions and modest size, combined with Mitchell’s style of globular, additive assembly, makes them seem accessible and charming, as if they want to be held. They are reminiscent of characters from Peanuts or The Flintstones , but they also draw on art historical tropes as potent and ancient as sex and religion. Beneath their unassuming facades they harbor a generous heap of musing, tongue-in-cheek critique.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Abstract Versus Figurative Art, » Animals, » Biomorphic, » Ceramic  
» see more

Domes, #1
© » KADIST

Judy Chicago

1969

Domes #1 represents a significant moment in Chicago’s career when her art began to change from a New York-influenced Abstract Expressionist style to one that reflected the pop-inflected art being made in Los Angeles...

Absentia
© » KADIST

Tony Oursler

2012

Continuing Oursler’s broader exploration of the moving image, Absentia is one of three micro-scale installations that incorporate small objects and tiny video projections within a miniature active proscenium...

Blockbuster
© » KADIST

Conrad Ruiz

2011

Conrad Ruiz loves to paint subjects related to the “boy zone”: video games, weapons, games, science fiction, fantasy, and special effects...

Ongoing Time Stabbed with a Dagger
© » KADIST

Geoffrey Farmer

2009

Ongoing Time Stabbed with a Dagger was Farmer’s first kinetic sculpture that added a cinematic character to an “ever-reconfiguring play presented in real time.” The assembly of various objects and props on top of a large platform constitutes not only a work, but, to a certain extent, a show in itself...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

The Carpenter
© » KADIST

Jeffry Mitchell

2012

Poised with tool in hand, Jeffry Mitchell’s The Carpenter (2012) reaches forward, toward his workbench...

Domes, #1
© » KADIST

Judy Chicago

1969

Domes #1 represents a significant moment in Chicago’s career when her art began to change from a New York-influenced Abstract Expressionist style to one that reflected the pop-inflected art being made in Los Angeles...

Absentia
© » KADIST

Tony Oursler

2012

Continuing Oursler’s broader exploration of the moving image, Absentia is one of three micro-scale installations that incorporate small objects and tiny video projections within a miniature active proscenium...

Untitled (Men)
© » KADIST

Matt Lipps

2011

In the series Horizons (2010), Lipps uses appropriation to riff on Modernism’s fascination with abstract form...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

The Making of Monster
© » KADIST

Douglas Gordon

1996

In Monster (1996-97), the artist’s face becomes grotesque through the application of strips of transparent adhesive tape, typical of Gordon’s performance-based films that often depict his own body in action...

Runner
© » KADIST

Hossein Valamanesh

1999

In Runner there are two elements:a big painting and a rolled Persian rug...

Mark Rothko
© » SLASH PARIS

Mark Rothko — Louis Vuitton — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Mark Rothko — Louis Vuitton — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Mark Rothko Exhibition Painting Mark Rothko, Light Cloud, Dark Cloud, 1957 Collection of the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, Museum purchase, The Benjamin J...

Other works by: » Jeffry Mitchell  
» see more

The Carpenter
© » KADIST

Jeffry Mitchell

2012

Poised with tool in hand, Jeffry Mitchell’s The Carpenter (2012) reaches forward, toward his workbench...

Man and Pet
© » KADIST

Jeffry Mitchell

2012

In Man and Pet (2012), two benign ceramic figures smile sweetly upward...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Christie’s Sale of Items From Art Collector Adam Lindemann Makes $31.5 M. - via ARTnews
© » LARRY'S LIST

Part of the proceeds from the auctions are going to the Rockefeller Wing at the Met....