Pyramid’s Shadow

Artist Benni Efrat (Israeli, born 1936)

Date1978

DimensionsPyramid) H: 34 in. (86.4 cm); W: 48 in. (121.9 cm); Depth: 48 in. (121.9 cm); Shadow) H: 34 in. (86.4 cm); W: 63 in. (160 cm); Depth: 72 in. (182.9 cm)

MediumBronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineDr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Gosman

Object number

1983.119

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Sculpture Garden

Label TextAs a conceptual artist, Benni Efrat highlights the importance of the idea behind a work of art instead of emphasizing the physical object. Pyramid’s Shadow dates to the 1970s, a time when Efrat was exploring the idea of the shadow. In this unassuming work, the smaller, open form is a representation of the shadow cast by the larger pyramid. Yet the pyramid’s shadow itself casts a shadow. With poetic brevity, Efrat’s sculpture complicates exactly what a ‘shadow’ really is.Exhibition HistoryToledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, Citywide Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition, 1984, no. 43, repr. p. 61.