''Clamdigger'' is a bronze sculpture by

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

. It may have been inspired by "the men who dug for clams along the beaches" near his home in

East Hampton, New York East Hampton is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York United States. It is located at the eastern end of the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town i ...

. It has been described as one of his "extraordinarily tactile figurative sculptures" that "seemed pulled from the primordial ooze," and "as part man, part creature of the mud and the shallows." The sculpture was modeled in clay in 1972, and cast in bronze in 1976. It was his "first large-scale bronze work." As of 2014, ''Clamdigger'' is on display in the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

. De Kooning, known for his

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

paintings, took up sculpture later in his career, after a 1969 visit with a friend in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

"who had a small

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

References

External links

''Clam digger''
sketch by de Kooning * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clamdigger 1976 sculptures Sculptures by Willem de Kooning Bronze sculptures in Washington, D.C. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Sculptures in the Smithsonian Institution Outdoor sculptures in Washington, D.C. Sculptures of men in Washington, D.C.

See also

References

External links