Mirror/Mirror - Table/Table 1964

Richard Artschwager made these four objects, ‘Mirror/Mirror – Table/Table’, out of wood, formica, and paint. Artschwager produced this work at a time when the institutions of art were under intense scrutiny. Thinkers like Michel Foucault were questioning the social function of museums and galleries. You might see Artschwager’s objects as a response to this. He has made art that looks like furniture, testing the boundary between the gallery and the home. Are these mirrors? Are they paintings? Are these tables sculptures? Or are they simply functional objects? Made in the late twentieth century United States, the work evokes the clean lines of mass-produced furniture. But it also evokes the cool detachment of minimalist art. Artschwager prompts us to ask what we expect from art, and how art relates to commerce and the everyday. To understand this work more deeply, we might research the history of interior design, or the debates around minimalism. Art history is about understanding how social forces shape the objects we see.