SURREAL SHOES

Even the homeliest objects caught Arp's eye. Something of a fetishist about shoes (he designed his own), he could walk for hours simply to get a better look at the cut of a heel or the contour of a sole glimpsed ahead of him, which would then appear in bas-reliefs, such as one Peggy (Guggenheim) was to buy called Overturned Blue Shoe with Two Heels Under a Black Vault.
Jacqueline Bograd Weld
From: Peggy. The Wayward Guggenheim (Dutton Books, 1986)

CA. 1925 | Jean Arp
Overturned Blue Shoe with Two Heels Under a Black Vault
Soulier bleu renversé à deux talons, sous une voûte noire

Painted wood
© 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Source: Guggenheim


Many Artists worked through the transition from realism to modernist abstraction by studying and emulating successful artist of their time. The goal was not to copy the masterworks by to learn structure and technique in the process of developing a personal style. This painting was the cover piece for the 1947-1948 Texas General Exhibition.
Source: Live Auctioneers

1946 | DeForrest Judd (1916 - 1992)
Yellow Shoes (Oil On Masonite)
Source: Live Auctioneers

1968 | Marisa Merz
Untitled (Scarpetta/Little Shoe)
Source: TATE


If the Shoe Fits is a large floor-based sculpture made from corrugated and flat sheets of galvanized steel. The work's title has prompted commentators to read its ambiguous shape as a solitary piece of oversized footwear, bereft of its partner.
Source: TATE 

1981 | Richard Deacon
If The Shoe Fits
Source: Lisson Gallery


Having considered a variety of materials -- including concrete and fiberglass - Murray chose laminated wood and a boatlike construction plainly visible inside the shoe. Constructed over the course of 1996 in Murray's New York studio, Red Shoe has brought to life a formerly forgotten corner of campus. It is an alluring place for children to climb, its smooth exterior giving way to a roughly hull-like interior, hinting at the enclosure of a nest or fort.
Source: Stuart Collection | UC San Diego

1996 | Elisabeth Murray (1940 - 2007)
Red Shoe
Source: Stuart Collection | UC San Diego


1998 | Elisabeth Murray (1940 - 2007)
Shoe And Lace (Watercolor on Paper)
Source: ArtNet


SHOES & ART
1932 - 2009



 

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