To create this work Samaras adapted a Victorian jewelry box, covering it with yarn, pins, and brass springs: "I think I was interested in the idea that when something became useless I could rescue it and give it a dignity it never had." He embedded two photographs of himself inside the lid of the box and a third beneath the pestle resting on polished rocks. A mangled fork lies atop tiny ball bearings and a plastic "L" for Lucas sits on a bed of Duco Cement caps.
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[Green Gallery, New York]; Mr. and Mrs. Max Wasserman, Chestnut Hill, Mass. (by 1971–75; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, February 3, 1975, no. 49, as "Self Portrait Box"); [Pace Gallery, New York, in 1976]; the artist, New York (by 2003–14; his gift to MMA)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. "Lucas Samaras: Boxes," October 30–December 12, 1971, unnumbered cat. (as "Box #10 [Self-Portrait]," lent by Mr. and Mrs. Max Wasserman, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Lucas Samaras," November 18, 1972–January 7, 1973, no. 207 (as "Box #10 [Self-Portrait Box]," 1964, lent by Mr. and Mrs. Max Wasserman).
Washington, D.C. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. "The Golden Door: Artist-Immigrants of America, 1876–1976," May 20–October 20, 1976, no. 181 (as "Box #10, 1963 [Self-Portrait]," lent by the Pace Gallery, New York).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Unrepentant Ego: The Self-Portraits of Lucas Samaras," November 13, 2003–February 8, 2004, unnumbered cat. (p. 82; lent by the artist, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York).
New York. Pace Gallery. "Poses 1983–2010. Lucas Samaras," November 9–December 24, 2010, unnumbered cat. (p. 107).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Lucas Samaras: Offerings from a Restless Soul," February 24–September 7, 2014, no catalogue.
Joan C. Siegfried. Lucas Samaras Boxes. Exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Chicago, 1971, unpaginated, ill.
Kim Levin. Lucas Samaras. New York, 1975, pl. 113.
Lucas Samaras. Exh. cat., Makler Gallery. Philadelphia, 1975, unpaginated, ill.
Cynthia Jaffee McCabe. The Golden Door: Artist-Immigrants of America, 1876–1976. Exh. cat., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C., 1976, pp. 367–68, no. 181, ill. (color).
Pierre Alexandre de Looz and Arne Glimcher. Poses: 1983-2010. Lucas Samaras. Exh. cat., Pace Gallery. New York, 2010, pp. 107–8, ill.
Hannah Barton. Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné. Online resource [artifexpress.com/catalogues/lucas-samaras], 2017 (ongoing), no. 1963.09, ill. (color).
Lucas Samaras (American (born Greece), Kastoria 1936–2024 New York)
1974
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