Robert Klippel
(Australia, United States of America 19 Jun 1920–19 Jun 2001)
- Title
- Philadelphia
- Year
- 1978-1979
- Media categories
- Mixed media, Collage
- Materials used
- photomontage on paper on canvas
- Dimensions
-
151.5 x 242.5cm
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r. corner, black ink "Robert Klippel 1979".
- Credit
- Purchased 1980
- Accession number
- 4.1980
- Copyright
- © Robert Klippel Estate
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
This collage is made from photographs taken from a nineteenth century book containing hundreds of finely detailed drawings of machines. Klippel cut and assembled the work, beginning with the vertical forms and building up the landscape section. The title 'Philadelphia' is taken from the frequent appearance of that name on the machine parts. In the late nineteenth century Philadelphia was the centre of an important industrial area in the United States of America. Klippel kept the name partly because of its mechanical associations and partly because of associations with works by Duchamp and Cézanne he had seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
An overwhelming surrealist/mechanist landscape, it is the largest and most important collage Klippel had so far produced, and a key work in the Gallery's representation of his art.
Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000
- Bibliography (9)
-
Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), Robert Klippel, Domain, 2002, 138, 139 (illus., detail), 141, 143, 167 (illus.), 257.
'Positions vacant' by Humphrey McQueen, pg. 21-23., Art Monthly Australia Sep 2000, Sep 2000, 23.
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Dead Sun, Domain, 1997.
Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Robert Klippel: large wood sculptures and collages, Domain, 1995, 26 (illus.).
Brian Ladd (Australia) (Author), The sculptor's studio: Robert Klippel, Domain, 1990, 4 (illus.).
'The sculptor's studio: Robert Klipel' by David Tunny., Look May 1990, May 1990, 12 (illus.).
James Gleeson (Australia, b.1915, d.2008) (Author), Robert Klippel, Kensington, 1983, 447 (illus.). LS 108
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Robert Klippel: collage and drawings, 1947-1983, Domain, 1984. cat.no. 147
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981, Sydney, 1981, 17 (illus.). cat.no. 23
- Exhibition history (6)
-
Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981.
Robert Klippel: collage and drawings 1947-1983 (1983-84), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Nov 1983–03 Jan 1984.
The sculptor's studio: Robert Klippel, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 Feb 1990–24 Jun 1990.
Dead Sun, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 02 Oct 1997–09 Nov 1997.
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.
Robert Klippel: a tribute exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 09 Aug 2002–13 Oct 2002.
