Mixed media, including found objects, partially painted; Bases: stone or concrete
Type:
Sculptures-Mosaic
Sculptures-Relief
Sculptures-Outdoor Sculpture
Sculptures
Owner/Location:
Administered by Santos, David 1000 Daniel Drive Austin Texas 78704
Located Mexico Tipico Restaurante In lots at 1707 East 6th Street & 1704 East 5th Street Austin Texas 78702
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, Texas, Austin survey, 1993.
Image on file.
(On proper left side of whale, in middle of back just below fin:) !Basta! unsigned
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
A group installation of sculptures, including a limestone block containing bas-reliefs depictions of blooming cacti, a female figure, stars, flowers, and lightning bolts; a free standing concrete wall with a profile view of an eagle's head (done in a mosaic of red, white and black granite); a whale (made of limestone, concrete, and possibly Cor-Ten steel for the tail); and a snake (of limestone, with fangs painted red, green serpentine eyes, and rock or tile cemented to its back).
Also on the grounds, is a domed oven with Baroque style decorations attached. The trim is made from cast concrete, limestone, found objects, and rock shards. A huge mask face with sunglasses (made of concrete decorated with rock shards and painted in places with yellow and blue designs) tops the oven. A small, concrete face, echoing the one on top, and decorated with paint, is found to the left of the oven's door. On the right side is a small "classical" sculpture of the upper body of a nude female bearing an urn on her proper right shoulder. The classical figure protrudes from a brightly painted cinder block, a block of pink granite and an ornately carved piece of limestone.
Laying flat on the ground nearby are three more faces similar to that which acts as the oven top. One of the faces is distinguished by its large sunglasses. Another face is cast in brown concrete and has a small mask form embedded on its forehead, decorated with polished chips of rock and tile. The third face is painted purple, orange, green and white. A concrete wall perpendicular to the eagle mosaic wall incorporates colored rocks, a face and fish in limestone and the bell of a brass horn. It is propped up on both front and back sides with several metal pipes and wooden beams. Another block of limestone is deeply carved on one of its three faces with: a football; the head of a man wearing a sombrero, upon which an eagle perches doing battle with a snake; piece of a Texas flag; a horse's head; the head of a longhorn; a crocodile; fish; a cactus. Some of the images are colored with a light coat of paint.
