Bluffs

Artist Tara Donovan (born 1969)

Date2006

MediumButtons and glue

Dimensions48 x 25 x 27 in. (121.9 x 63.5 x 68.6 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2012.498

Accession number 2012.498

On View

Not on view

Provenance(PaceWildenstein, New York, NY); (Sotheby’s, New York, NY), November 14, 2012, sale N08901, lot 573; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2012
Label TextBluffs demonstrates Tara Donovan’s method of accumulating small objects such as paper plates, toothpicks, pencils, or foam cups into large-scale organic sculptures. In Bluffs, Donovan transforms thousands of common, mass-produced shirt buttons into a luminescent sculpture. The teetering stacks of buttons trigger multiple associations with natural forms—mountain peaks, coral reefs, crystals, or cave stalagmites. With her meticulous artwork, Donovan both evokes wonder and invites viewers to take a closer look at everyday materials.