The Deer 1958

This sculpture of a deer was made by Dusan Dzamonja. It’s made from bronze, or maybe some other metal, that looks like a substance poured out over time. See how the whole thing feels kinda drippy and porous, like lava rock. It doesn't have the smoothness of conventional bronze sculpture, it’s more about the immediacy of how the material is formed. I love the way the legs have this inside-out feeling, like the deer is hollow. It’s like Dzamonja is thinking about form as a diagram, an outline for an idea. The antlers are all about the feeling of reaching up, like growth. I'm reminded of the work of artists like Henry Moore who were interested in the abstract potential of organic shapes. This sculpture invites us to see art as a process of ongoing exploration, where the boundaries between representation and abstraction blur.