Untitled

Philadelphia Wireman, Untitled, ca. 1970-1975, plastic bag, plastic cup, and wire, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.50
Philadelphia Wireman, Untitled, ca. 1970-1975, plastic bag, plastic cup, and wire, 6 × 3 × 2 in. (15.2 × 7.6 × 5.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.50

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled
Date
ca. 1970-1975
Dimensions
6 × 3 × 2 in. (15.2 × 7.6 × 5.1 cm)
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
plastic bag, plastic cup, and wire
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
Object Number
2016.38.50

Artwork Description

Within the record of artists whose identities were lost over time, one known only by an assigned label, the “Philadelphia Wireman,” remains among the most enigmatic. In the late 1970s, about one thousand bundles of wire, wrappers, reflectors, lost possessions, trash-treasures—intentionally encompassed and shaped—were found in a South Philadelphia alley.

Each cocooned sculpture is unique and roughly fits in the palm of a human hand, more specifically that of their maker. These objects have no designated front, back, top, or bottom, no title, and in and of themselves raise questions about both art and artist. Scholars’ observations and anecdotal accounts, together with where the objects were found, suggest an African American male maker working predominantly with his hands. Additionally, the small works are not unlike protective charms or power bundle objects that trace back over a thousand years across Africa and its diaspora. Such bundles, clusters of objects or materials that are inherently meaningful or symbolic, may be imbued with a protective force that can help the holder feel safe, healed, or empowered.

These works describe a maker who went unnoticed and unappreciated in his lifetime, and who may have faced insecurities on a number of fronts. But they also point to an artist who created a body of work chronicling reclamation and transformation, and used the ritualized acts of gathering, seeing, and making as a way to survive, day by day.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Works by this artist (2 items)

Milton Glaser, "Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.."--Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1791. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1957, India ink, gouache, watercolor, and varnish on paperboard mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.108
Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that…
Date1957
India ink, gouache, watercolor, and varnish on paperboard mounted on paperboard
Not on view
Milton Glaser, Earth Fair (Art Air), 1995, mechanical reproduction on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1998.4, © 1995, Milton Glaser
Earth Fair (Art Air)
Date1995
mechanical reproduction on paper
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

New York Cultural Center
Artist
Date1973
color lithograph
Not on view
Walt Kuhn, Christmas Greetings 1937, 1937, hand-colored photo-mechanical relief reproduction of an ink drawing, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of LaSalle Spier, 1980.124.32
Christmas Greetings 1937
Date1937
hand-colored photo-mechanical relief reproduction of an ink drawing
Not on view