Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Tractor
Charles Ray American
Not on view
Ray’s sculptures are often loosely patterned on preexisting ideas and things. Such is the case with Tractor, which takes as its point of departure a boyhood memory and, more directly, an abandoned vintage tractor found in the San Fernando Valley, California. In order to sculpt the entire vehicle inside and out, Ray had the original retrieved and disassembled. Studio assistants modeled each part in clay, creating representations that retain evidence of their makers’ hands. After molds were taken and waxes created, the elements were cast in aluminum and reassembled to make a complete, topological object that is both relic and reliquary. With its uniformity of color, patina, and material as well as its semireflective surface, Tractor asserts its abstract qualities.
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