Absent (from the Abstract Head Series)
Artist
Dailey, Dan
(American, born 1947)
Date1992
OriginUnited States of America
MediumBlown glass, encased, sandblasted, and acid-polished
Dimensions22 1/2 × 9 × 9 in. (57.2 × 22.9 × 22.9 cm)
ClassificationsGlass
Credit LineGift of the Leah and Richard Waitzer Foundation
Object number2022.27
Label TextDan Dailey
(American, b. 1947)
Absent
Blown glass, encased, sandblasted, and acid-polished, 1992
Gift of The Leah and Richard Waitzer Foundation. 2022.27
In the 1980s, American artist Dan Dailey began a series of heads based on the vessel. His goal was to capture the idea of character, to convey the essence of invented personalities in abstracted form. The artist first developed carefully rendered drawings, which he then translated into glass with the assistance of a team of expert glassblowers in Seattle, WA.
These fictional portrait busts transcend their minimal, blown shapes with subtle colorations and abstracted features, which are applied with the sure confidence and gestural deliberation associated with calligraphy. The reduction and disjunction of the facial elements, recalling cubist art, emphasizes the portrait’s intended state of mind. Dailey describes this sculpture, Absent, as expressing the figure’s state of preoccupation and distraction, encompassing a general absence of responsibility.
Status
On view
Dailey, Dan
