Group 1960
Assemblage 1957-1962
In 1957, after many years of training as a painter, David Jacobs joined the faculty at Ohio State University, where he was asked to supervise the craft workshop and teach classes in jewelry and metalwork. This new role expanded his skills and prompted a shift towards sculpture. Jacobs was soon visiting scrap yards in Columbus, Ohio and began welding found metal objects into intricate figurative sculptures. These human and animal forms are highly expressive and often humorous, yet the components always retain their identities as pipes, pitchforks, pans, and other ordinary objects. Anticipating his later sound sculptures, some of these early assemblages contain elements that either imply or create sound.
At the urging of David Smith, who had visited Columbus in 1959, Jacobs brought photographs of this work to New York in search of a gallery. His efforts led to a series of shows at the Barone Gallery (later renamed the Kornblee Gallery), the first of which opened in April 1961. The twenty-one assemblages in Jacobs’ New York debut were embraced by critics and curators. One sculpture entered the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, while another, Ursula (1959), was selected by William Seitz for “The Art of Assemblage”, a landmark exhibition that opened at the Museum of Modern Art in October 1961.
Portrait Of The Hero As A Rusty Old Rake In The Rain – 1959
If You Wish To Dance You Must Pay The Fiddler I’m Just Here To Blow My Horn – 1959
Ponytail – 1959
Ursula – 1959
Shrine – 1959
Figure – 1959
Bugged – 1959
Monument To The Long Forgotten Pioneers Of Silver City – 1959
On Block – 1959
Pan With Pans – 1959
Ohio Gothic – 1960
Quixote Victorious – 1960
Winner Of The Race – 1960
Fallen Warrior – 1960
Insect – 1960
Countenance – 1961
Fowl – 1961
Icarus – 1961
Come Fly With Me, Ma Jolie – 1961
Mambrino’s Helmet – 1961
MM – 1961
Warrior’s Farewell – 1961
Machine For Waging War – 1961
Odalisque – 1961
Specter – 1961
Beast – 1961
No Name – 1961
Untitled – 1961
Courtesan Pondering Her Life As Mother And Daughter Bird Fly Together Directly Overhead – 1961
Machine For Making Babies – 1962
Nubi – 1962
Boulevardier – 1962
Odalisque II – 1962
Odalisque IV – 1962
