Lipton’s work explored a range of ideas including heroism, beauty, sexual conflict, and the mystery of birth and death. Manuscript depicts the struggle between law and violence throughout history. The curved layers of iron symbolize the paper on which laws are written and displayed. Lipton disrupted the smooth surface of the “paper” with a tangled mass of jagged metal, evoking the effect of violence within the human community.
“The mood of Manuscript is that of the pages of man’s history … it is a visual unfurling of the world on which is seen the interplay of chance and law, of ugliness and beauty …” Seymour Lipton, New York Times, August 1965
- Title
-
Manuscript
- Artist
- Date
- 1960
- Location
- Dimensions
- 11 7⁄8 x 15 1⁄2 x 6 7⁄8 in. (30.2 x 39.3 x 17.5 cm.)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Mr. Seymour Lipton
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- iron/brazed with nickel-silver on limestone base
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- Abstract
- Object Number
-
1978.127.1
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
