Charles Ray: Figure Grounded at the Met

"Huck and Jim" (2014)(stainless steel)

It had been years since I'd been to the Met. What a maze that place is!  And, of course, what amazing art there is. Which brings me to an exhibit by an artist with whom I was not familiar --  "Charles Ray: Figure Grounded." The exhibit at the Met is just one of four museum shows featuring Ray's work on view right now. Two are in Paris and another is at Glenstone in Potomoc, Maryland. His work is also included in the Whitney Biennial. Ray is definitely of the moment. 

Ray works in a variety of mediums, but he is best known as a sculptor. Two of the works in the exhibit were inspired by Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As you may (or may not) recall, Huck was on the run from an abusive father while Jim was a runaway slave with an $800 bounty on his head. (At the end of the book, Huck advocates for letting Jim go, saying "I knowed he was white inside." Well in that case...) 

"Sarah Williams" (2021)

Neither Andrea nor I remembered Huck and Jim often being naked in their travels. Literary critics say it was representative of the freedom the men were seeking. But there are clearly homoerotic overtones as well, especially when you are confronted with an oversized depiction of the pair. (The sculpture stands nine feet tall.) I hope DeSantis isn't reading this blog or Huckleberry Finn will be banned from Florida schools. 

The sculpture has been the subject of some controversy. In 2015, the Whitney commissioned Ray to create a work to be permanently displayed outside the Museum's new location. When Ray presented the powers that be with a proposal for "Huck and Jim," the Museum passed, expressing concern that the sculpture would "offend non-museum visitors." If you go to the Whitney, let me know what was ultimately selected for the space. For a great analysis of "Huck and Finn" by Jerry Salz, click here.  

"Sarah Williams" is the second sculpture in the exhibit inspired by Huckleberry Finn. This image depicts Huck disguising himself as a woman to go into town, with Jim kneeling behind him as he hems the skirt of the dress. Again, the dynamic is unsettling. Ray's work has a way of getting under your skin. 

"Family romance" (1993)(painted fiberglass and hair)

Then there's the intriguing/disturbing "Family romance." It doesn't take a trained psychotherapist to figure out that this work is more than a little Freudian. 

Each figure stands approximately 4' 2" tall despite the age differential. Ray's intention is to level the family dynamics. As a stepfather himself, he believes kids have as much power in the family as the parents. Created in the early '90s, the sculpture is also Ray's response to the first President Bush's emphasis on family values. 

And here's an interesting tidbit about the physical creation of the work. Each family member except the little girl is anatomically correct. Ray noted in an interview that two year olds have disproportionately large heads for their bodies. But an accurate depiction of the girl made the sculpture look like "three people and an alien." The work was still in clay at that point, and Ray took 60 pounds of clay off the child's head before the fiberglass version was created. 

I'll leave you with "Archangel," Ray's towering response to the Charlie Hedbo murders in 2015. After the rampage, Ray went to Paris to honor those killed, and he has said he had a vision of "an angel descending to Paris, a perfect being alighting on shaky ground." He decided to create a work depicting a modern day version of the angel Gabriel. "I wasn't trying to make a homage or anything, but I was really shocked," he has said. "I don't know why, but Gabriel just struck me. He's honored in Jewish culture, Christian culture and Muslim culture." While the final image doesn't call an angel -- Gabriel or otherwise -- to mind, art critics have noted that the outstretched arms can be seen as depicting a crucifixion. 

The medium for the sculpture has changed over the years in which Ray has worked on it. He began by photographing a model standing on a pedestal. (While the photographer worked, Ray hit the pedestal with a stick so the model was actually jumping and returning to the ground.) Once the image was conceived, Ray created versions in clay, Forton (a plaster-like substance) and fiberglass. But none of these mediums captured what Ray wanted for the work. He turned to master carver Yobuku Mukoyoshi and his team to convert the fiberglass version into one carved from hinoki cypress. Wood planks were seasoned, glued together and chiseled without the use of sand paper or any other material. It's quite spectacular.   

If you find yourself in New York, "Charles Ray: Figure Grounded" is on at the Met through June 5. For a terrific article in the NYT Magazine about Ray and the exhibit (with lots of photos, including one of his studio), click here. And for more on Ray's other shows on now, click here.