Dirt, the Wellcome Collection’s riveting new show, opens with a shocker: a window so filthy not an inch of glass is visible beneath the grime, a thick brown substance that twinkles repulsively in the gallery lights. It is gutter dirt, pavement dirt, the dirt of cities blown with dust and litter. It causes immediate recoil.
No matter how much art history it condenses – figurative yet abstract, with its resemblance to American minimalist sculpture; realist yet conceptual with its wink at Duchamp’s Large Glass – it’s the primitive impact that counts.
—Laura Cumming
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James Croak (American, b. 1951)
Untitled (Window Series) 1993
Cast resin and dirt
162 x 70 x 16 cm
Price on request
No matter how much art history it condenses – figurative yet abstract, with its resemblance to American minimalist sculpture; realist yet conceptual with its wink at Duchamp’s Large Glass – it’s the primitive impact that counts.
—Laura Cumming
__
James Croak (American, b. 1951)
Untitled (Window Series) 1993
Cast resin and dirt
162 x 70 x 16 cm
Price on request