Broken Nose IV

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Broken Nose IV

Artist Juan Muñoz (Spanish, 1952-2001)

Date1999

Dimensions56 3/4 x 23 13/16 x 41 in. (144.1 x 60.5 x 104.4 cm)

Mediumcast bronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Marshall Field's, by exchange

Object number

2000.10

Not on View

DescriptionTwo cast bronze male figures stand facing each other. One holds a metal rod, square in cross-section, vertically near the face of the other figure. One end of the rod rests on the metal plate to which the feet of the figure are bolted. The other figure is also bolted to a metal base of the same dimensions. The metal rod is embossed with centimeter units of measure with zero at the top and ending at 127 centimeters at the bottom end. The surface of the sculpture has a tannish patina with light and dark modulations.

Label Text“I try to make the work engaging for the spectator. And then unconsciously, but more interestingly, I try to make you aware that something is really wrong.” — Juan Muñoz Wearing the protective leather suits used in bronze foundries, the two nearly identical figures of this sculpture face each other in a provocative relationship. One holds a metal rod marked in centimeters and seems to be taking the measure of the other. The heads of the two figures were apparently cast from a replica of the ancient Egyptian “Berlin Green Head” in the Berlin Egyptian Museum. Juan Muñoz’s bronze casts repeat every feature of their source, including the pillar at the back of the head and the broken nose. The figures’ hands strongly resemble mummified limbs rather than the hands of living men. Through his inclusion of ambiguous details and references to ancient Egypt, to bronze casting, and to artistic creation, Muñoz creates a work with shifting associations, leaving it up to the viewer to interpret the sculpture’s ultimate meaning.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 354, repr. (col.).