Warren Wheelock (American, 1880–1960). Abstraction #2, 1920s. Applewood with darker wood base, Overall (with base): 25 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 5 11/16 in. (65.4 x 19.1 x 14.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 46.125 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 46.125_view1_PS2.jpg)
Warren Wheelock (American, 1880–1960). Abstraction #2, 1920s. Applewood with darker wood base, Overall (with base): 25 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 5 11/16 in. (65.4 x 19.1 x 14.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 46.125 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 46.125_view2_PS2.jpg)
Abstraction #2
Warren Wheelock
American Art
On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
A self-taught artist, Warren Wheelock embraced a broad sculptural vocabulary, creating traditional portraits of historical figures, as well as more abstracted shapes with angular lines and curved recesses such as the one seen here. Wheelock’s sculptural practice emerged partly out of an interest in whittling, or the carving of a handheld piece of wood with precise, measured cuts of a knife. Abstraction #2 achieves on a larger scale the delicate lines and incisions central to the craft of whittling.
MEDIUM
Applewood with darker wood base
DATES
1920s
DIMENSIONS
Overall (with base): 25 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 5 11/16 in. (65.4 x 19.1 x 14.4 cm)
Base (height): 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm) (show scale)
MARKINGS
Paper label affixed to underside of base, inscribed: "Abstraction / #2 / Applewoo[d]"
SIGNATURE
Incised on right side: "Wheelock"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
46.125
CREDIT LINE
Dick S. Ramsay Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Abstract, polished wood sculpture; vertically oriented, cubistic form with facets that vary from curving to hard-edged shapes; on simple rectangular base.
Condition: good
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
CAPTION
Warren Wheelock (American, 1880–1960). Abstraction #2, 1920s. Applewood with darker wood base, Overall (with base): 25 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 5 11/16 in. (65.4 x 19.1 x 14.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 46.125 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 46.125_view1_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 46.125_view1_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Orphaned work
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