Robert Therrien

The artwork of Robert Therrien makes reference to commonplace, even cliched motifs - a snowman, a cloud, a Dutch door, a bird in flight, a stack of plates. In the perfection of their proportions and the simplicity of their forms these works - sculptures, reliefs, and two-dimensional pieces - partake of a cool objectivity. Their narrative associations, however, give them the intimacy of personal history. They possess a wholesome familiarity, yet their often huge size gives them an uncanny; disquieting quality.
In this volume, which accompanies the exhibition Robert Therrien and examines the artist's work of the past decade, curator Lynn Zelevansky explores the transformation of forms that has been the hallmark of Therrien's artistic process and situates his work within contemporary art practice. Essayist Thomas Frick discusses the work vis-a-vis the formalist tradition in art and examines the paradoxical nature of its abstract and figurative aspects. In the volume's third and final essay, art historian Norman Bryson investigates the visceral effect of Therrien's sculpture on the viewer, relating its effects to the corporeal invasions and restitutions found in animated cartoons.