Guitrum , 2016
26 x 42 in (h x w)
Please note: Image dimensions have been modified for online presentation. Actual dimensions are 13 x 21 x 8 inches. Wood, Duracal, wood putty, synthetic strings, Hardware, Delrin Courtesy of the artist and Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York Photo © Eric W. Baumgartner
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María Elena González (Havana, Cuba, 1957) presents a sculpture that also appears to be a fantastical musical instrument. Two drums are wrapped is a continuous band of wood that makes a distinctive s-curve through the instrument. The unusual title of the piece seems to suggest a mashup of a “guitar” and “drum,” tantalizing the viewer to about the music that may emanate from this unusual instrument. González has long been interested in sound, and more recently in music, as it relates to the visual arts. Her earliest works dealing with sound came while on an arts residency, when she noted the visual parallels between the distinctive white bark of a birch tree and of a cylindrical player piano roll. The visual parallel intrigued her, and she began a series of works that merged ideas of the natural world and music. The artist is particularly noted for the elegant geometric forms in her sculptures, and says “My interests with the tactility of sculpture and the primacy of form, the allure of materials and craft, and recombining materials and ideas, are of a primary nature to me.”

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