Untitled (Frustula Series)
Object Label
After working in public health in New Jersey and studying parasitology at Columbia University, Buchanan began making art in New York in the late 1970s. Establishing herself through the mentorship of Norman Lewis and Romare Bearden, Buchanan found success in the contemporary art world, where she was included in several groundbreaking feminist exhibitions and was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Buchanan took a particular interest in the revelatory nature of ruins and their ability to expose the histories of a place and its former inhabitants. To make her multipart Frustula works, the artist cast pigmented concrete in molds she constructed from milk cartons. Borrowing a term from her work in biology for the structural casing of a cell wall, Buchanan conceived the Frustula as representations of ruins and time, striated deposits of history meant to commemorate quiet, often overlooked historical moments.
Caption
Beverly Buchanan American, Fuquay–Varina, NC, born 1940, died 2015, Ann Arbor, MI. Untitled (Frustula Series), ca. 1978. Concrete, Weight of all three components together: 625 lb. (283.5kg) component a: 21 × 11 × 17 1/2 in., 245 lb. (53.3 × 27.9 × 44.5 cm) component b: 12 1/2 × 15 × 16 in., 215 lb. (31.8 × 38.1 × 40.6 cm) component c: 22 1/2 × 6 × 15 in., 142 lb. (57.2 × 15.2 × 38.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arden Scott, 2017, 2017.9a-c. © artist or artist's estate
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Artist
Title
Untitled (Frustula Series)
Date
ca. 1978
Medium
Concrete
Classification
Dimensions
Weight of all three components together: 625 lb. (283.5kg) component a: 21 × 11 × 17 1/2 in., 245 lb. (53.3 × 27.9 × 44.5 cm) component b: 12 1/2 × 15 × 16 in., 215 lb. (31.8 × 38.1 × 40.6 cm) component c: 22 1/2 × 6 × 15 in., 142 lb. (57.2 × 15.2 × 38.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Arden Scott, 2017
Accession Number
2017.9a-c
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What art movement does this belong to?
Buchanan's work can be considered in conversation with Minimalism, but instead of the pristine cubes other Minimalists are known for, many of Buchanan’s works are intended to be irregular and rough-hewn. This work was displayed in an outdoor location before it entered the Museum’s collection, and you can still see traces of the wear and weathering it experienced, which was also part of Buchanan’s intent.Can you help me to grasp the intention of Buchanan here?
Yes, of course. Buchanan was interested in the relationship between memory (personal, historical and geological) and place. She focuses on walls, houses, memorials and burial sites–formal structures. Her work questions methods and repercussions of history by asking who is commemorated and how.What is that made of?
This work by Beverly Buchanan is made of concrete!Buchanan says that the idea for these sculptures came from her observations of destroyed buildings in New York.She made the molds for the concrete out of old milk cartons.Really?Yep! She says, "I began casting small cement pieces using old bricks and milk cartons as forms in a fourth floor walk-up in East Orange, New Jersey. From nine to five, I was that city's health educator. . . . So I had to do this late at night."When was it made?
It was made around 1978.Originally, it was installed outside, which is why it looks a bit weathered.It's been here at the museum since 2016, when it was included in a retrospective of Buchanan's work. Unfortunately, the artist passed away before the exhibition opened. The artist Arden Scott donated the work, saying that Buchanan would have been proud of her show.NiceWhere was it made?
It was made in the artist's apartment in New Jersey!Later in her life, Buchanan had a studio in Athens, Georgia. After that she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she settled.
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