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Albert "Kid" Mertz, Untitled, ca. 1980, painted railroad spikes, weight: approx. 1087 lb. (493.1 kg), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.42
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Untitled
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1980
- Location
- Dimensions
- weight: approx. 1087 lb. (493.1 kg)
- Credit Line
- The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
- Mediums Description
- painted railroad spikes
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Object — tool — hardware
- Object Number
- 2016.38.42
Artwork Description
After retiring from a career as an automotive die cutter, Albert “Kid” Mertz turned to painting and sculpting. He covered his modest Michigan home—which he variously called “Owl’s Rest,” “Owl’s Roost,” and “Al’s Roost”—with polka dots, stripes, and colorful embellishments. He painted objects as well, including hundreds, possibly thousands of railroad spikes he had collected from tracks near his property, giving each spike a cheerful face. Unlike some art environments, Mertz’s space was not intended for performance, protection, or preaching; it was simply a place for the artist to creatively transform, and for visitors to delight in.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)
Exhibitions
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and Douglas O. Robson.