Dennis Oppenheim

A pioneer of earthwork and Conceptual art, Oppenheim had a prolific career that encompassed performance, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, and photography. His drawings are primarily studies for large-scale installations and constructions, in which oneiric imagery and absurd mechanisms reflect the artist's interest in Marcel Duchamp and Surrealism. In Study for Upper Cut, Oppenheim imagined a gigantic, wide-open mouth with art and philosophy books in lieu of teeth. (Several related sculptures were fabricated, including a 6'-foot-wide version now in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Honolulu.) The colorful rendering and expressionist graphic style are characteristic of Oppenheim's later works, and representative of this artist's baroque imagination and humor.