Robert Gober’s untitled sculpture encapsulates the same mix of the familiar and the strange, the organic and the manmade that has been a hallmark of the artist's three-dimensional works since the mid-1980s. A large-scale replica of a stick of butter, sculpted from beeswax and resting on an unfurled wax wrapper, is installed on the floor.

Gober's use of wax as a malleable material, able to be burned and melted, points to the weakness of the human body. When considered as a phallic symbol, the candle stands in for male desire and virility.

This untitled sculpture is meticulously crafted to be highly realistic, yet it is also disturbingly altered. The lifeless wax leg (modeled on Gober's own) that protrudes from the wall is fitted with hundreds of individual and actual hairs, lending it a profound sense of intimacy.

Gober expertly applied individual human hairs to the sculptural rendering of the leg in this work. At once disturbing and intriguing, Untitled is an immaculately crafted wax leg that appears to be sticking out of the gallery wall.

Robert Gober is a contemporary American sculptor best known for his meticulously crafted works. Utilizing wax body parts, sinks, cribs, and other everyday objects as catalysts, Gober investigates larger discussions about politics and sexuality.

Artist: Robert Gober (American, born Wallingford, Connecticut, 1954) Date: 1992–93. Medium: Beeswax, human hair. Dimensions: 4 × 6 1/4 × 6 1/2 in. (10.2 × 15.9 × 16.5 cm) Classification: Sculpture.

Artist: Robert Gober (American, born Wallingford, Connecticut, 1954) Date: 1990. Medium: Beeswax, human hair, pigment. Dimensions: 24 1/4 × 17 × 11 in., 85 lb. (61.6 × 43.2 × 27.9 cm, 38.6 kg) Classification: Sculpture. Credit Line: Courtesy of the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery. Object Number: PC.203. New York.

2025年2月20日 · Milwaukee Art Museum, Gift of Contemporary Art Society, with additional funds from Donna and Donald Baumgartner, Terry A. Hueneke, Marianne and Sheldon B. Lubar, James and Joanne Murphy, Bud and Sue Selig, and Lynde B. Uihlein.

One of the most important American artists of the last twenty years, Gober works primarily in sculpture, installation, and photography. He is perhaps best known for his delicate and ghostly handcrafted versions of domestic fixtures such as drains, beds, doors, and sinks.

Robert Gober UNTITLED SHOE, 1990 red casting wax Sculpture 3 by 2 5/8 by 7 1/2 in. Signed, 28 from an edition of 35 plus 6 artist's proofs