Gorilla

Artist Daisy Youngblood (American, born 1945)

Date1996

DimensionsH: 36 3/8 in. (92.4 cm); W: 36 in. (91.4 cm); Depth: 48 5/16 in. (22.7 cm)

MediumCast bronze.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP in honor of Georgia and David K. Welles

Object number

2000.4

On View

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

Label TextDaisy Youngblood’s Gorilla sits alone, powerfully meeting the viewer at eye level. Youngblood deliberately combines animal and human characteristics in her sculptures, explaining: “We’re all about the same thing.” This sculpture plays with the idea of animals as mediators in the process of comprehending ourselves. The ape’s arms and legs thrust downward, but the limbs are not clearly formed. Instead, they appear to rise from the base of the sculpture to support the bulky body. Like an outcropping of rock, Gorilla seems immovable and ancient, imbued with an air of wisdom.Exhibition HistoryAmherst, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Daisy Youngblood, 1996, repr. (col.) (not paginated).

New York, McKee Gallery, Daisy Youngblood: Sculpture, 1999 (no cat.).