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Ark de Triumphe


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Image of Ark de Triumphe

Ark de Triumphe
Sculpture

1993
23 x 17 x 36 in. (58.42 x 43.18 x 91.44 cm)

David Gilhooly (aka David James Gilhooly) (Auburn, California, 1943 - 2013, Newport, Oregon)

Object Type: Sculpture
Medium and Support: Glazed ceramic
Credit Line: Gift of Barry and Toby Fernald
Accession Number: 2006.27.01

Exhibition

Nuts and Who's: A Candy Store Sampler, August 11, 2023 – February 25, 2024, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

Renegade Humor, February 3, 2012 - July 8, 2012, New Wing, Second Floor, Central Skylight and South Metro A Galleries, San José Museum of Art.

Tales from the Kiln: Contemporary Ceramics, September 1, 2005 – July 9, 2006, New Wing, Second Floor, North Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

SJMA Label Text


Renegade Humor (2012)

Robert Arneson, along with the rest of the art faculty at the University of California, Davis, encouraged students to develop their own identity and personal narrative in their work. David Gilhooly’s signature voice became vested in an amusing troupe of animals and eventually the manifestation of “FrogWorld” in the late 1960s. As an allegory for contemporary society, FrogWorld became Gilhooly’s chosen vehicle for addressing a wide array of topics ranging from art and mythology to religion, politics, and history.

In 1975, the artist introduced another vehicle for discussion: the ark. Filled to overflowing with animals, foodstuffs, souvenirs, and everything in between, the arks provided a seemingly limitless playground with which to work. In , in contrast to some of his more lighthearted works, Gilhooly made a pointed statement about the degradation of the arts caused by human greed. Dressed as famous characters from the past, the inhabitants of FrogWorld plunder and pillage some of history’s finest treasures. Napoleon frog steals King Tut frog; Viking warrior frog takes Cleopatra’s obelisk; Pocahontas frog brandishes a gun; and an amphibious Scottish soldier loots the . In the center of this chaos stands a totem pole, which represents the demise of Native American culture as Western ideas have taken root. Although the work appears benign and even comical at first glance, closer inspection reveals that Gilhooly is not celebrating artistic plunder, but rather condemning the false notions of “triumph” that often result from human avarice. This is the last ark that Gilhooly created; he considers it the final summation in which “everything ‘frog’ comes together.”

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Dimensions
  • Sculpture Dimensions: 23 x 17 x 36 in. (58.42 x 43.18 x 91.44 cm)

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