Martin Boyce Dead Star (red), 2014
Painted steel, cast and painted bronze
61 x 37 x 43 cm
The sculpture is made from the open work lacquered metal introduced to 1950s design objects by Mathieu Matégot.
Martin Boyce has developed his own pictorial language based on a reading of the formal and conceptual histories of design, architecture and urban planning. Since 2005 elements drawing on Jan and Joel Martel 1925 concrete trees constructed for the Robert Mallet-Stevens’s Pavilion of Transport at the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris have been an important part of the artist’s formal vocabulary, which also includes references to iconic design objects and to those items considered generic and common, such as fences, trash bins, lanterns or telephone boxes found in urban centers.
