Richard Jackson
Buck’s Chandelier
Buck’s Chandelier
$150,000
Richard Jackson
Buck’s Chandelier
2018
Stainless steel, glass, plastic, neon, electronic devices
Unique
121.9 x 114.3 x 94 cm / 48 x 45 x 37 in
Richard Jackson has been a distinguished figure of the American contemporary art scene since the 1970s. Influenced by both Abstract Expressionism and action painting, Jackson’s practice explores a performative art-making process which seeks to transcend the potential of painting by upending its technical conventions. Additionally, Jackson’s precise craftsmanship and creative engineering extend beyond painting to his renowned site-specific installations and singular neon works.
‘Buck’s Chandelier’ (2018) consists of multiple colorful antlers cast in glass and shaped into a sculptural light fixture. The antlers that form the chandelier were inspired by those of a red deer sent to Jackson from the Wirths home in Scotland. A derivative of a similar sculpture Jackson created for the Fife Arms Hotel, ‘Buck’s Chandelier’ is a delicate and incandescent pendant: baby pink and emerald neon gas flows through the antlers which meander and intertwine along a stainless-steel base — a playful, modern twist on a legendary and historical Scottish hunting trophy.
‘I think the activity for me is the most important thing. More so than the result. When you do these things, you plan them out and then you take whatever comes along. I try not to make value judgments about which part’s nice and which part’s not.’—Richard Jackson [1]
Jackson’s practice thrives on repositioning art as an everyday experience. Throughout his work, he draws on the potent visual lexicon of domestic environments and basic human activities to reference a variety of societal motifs from lowbrow Americana to sports and — in the case of ‘Buck’s Chandelier’— hunting.
About the artist
A pre-eminent figure in American contemporary art since the 1970s, Richard Jackson is influenced by both Abstract Expressionism and action painting, exploring a performative painting process which seeks to extend the potential of painting by upending its technical conventions. Born in Sacramento, California in 1939, Jackson first came to international attention with a major presentation of his installation works at the Menil Collection, Houston, in 1988, followed by the 1992 exhibition, ‘Helter Skelter,’ at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.