Dossett [verso] 1970 - 1971

Ed McGowin made this untitled drawing on a sheet of paper. The image shows a dossett, or four-poster bed canopy, brought to life with legs. McGowin came of age as an artist during the 1960s in the United States, a time of great experimentation with new kinds of sculpture and earthworks. The art world was expanding beyond traditional easel painting and freestanding sculpture. McGowin’s image of the animated canopy suggests the way the art object itself might come alive and move beyond the confines of the gallery or museum. Perhaps it also reflects on the traditional associations of painting and sculpture with the domestic space of the bourgeois home. The art historian can help us understand an image like this by researching the networks of artists with whom McGowin associated, the galleries that showed his work, and the critical debates of his time. Attending to such details reveals the significance of an artwork that might at first seem strange or obscure.