Queen Ida's Chair

Object NameSculpture

Artist Kéké Cribbs (American, b. 1951)

Made FromNon-lead glass, wood, mixed media

Date1986

TechniqueCut; sandblasted; assembled w/carved, burned wood,

SizeOverall H: 93 cm, W: 45.2 cm, L: 43.7 cm

Accession Number86.4.181

Credit LineGift of Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser, and Kurland/Summers Gallery

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

This chair is not meant for sitting, but for imagining. KeKe Cribbs is a storyteller, and her stories take place in the magical world of enchantment that is the domain of the fairy tale. Her art is similar to that of outsider or visionary artists, who transmit thoughts, memories, and ideas through symbolic, visual vocabularies developed to access their intensely personal worlds.

Place Made

United States, MA, New Bedford

Physical DescriptionMulticolored non-lead glass; cut, sandblasted, glass assembled with carved and burned wood with applied tin toys. Straight- backed wooden chair with overall patterning of wood burned designs; back consists of gridded framework; (top row): three small rectangular panels, striated pink with white panels flanking solid aqua, facing pink panels, sitting on frame edge are small, non-identical, carved standing figures; (second row) orange panels flanking striated amber and white, each orange panel fronted by three large multicolored glass bead; (third row) solid rectangular panel of opaque green faced with a saw-toothed opaque orange piece which in turn is faced by a lower wooden saw-toothed piece; framework decorated on top edge by gold- leafed "fang-like" additions alternating with small ovoid glass beads; sides have elongated gold-leaf additions and, towards seat, two serrated wood arched "handles", each enclosing a colored tin alligator-shaped "cricket" noise maker; facing entire back and standing on bottom panel frame is a large, carved, nude female figure with outstretched limbs; head has spiked "crown" draped with lengths of small glass beads, two strands of beads also hang from neck, waist, and one band around right knee; body decorated with round inlaid sections of lighter wood; (seat) red background covered with panels of window glass sandblasted on both sides with decorative gridwork enclosing stylized toads, birds, humans and quadrupeds; two wood "pegs" with gold spots sit at front two corners; wood seat frame has series of irregularly projecting dowels; two front legs, each decorated with an applied alligator placed vertically near seat edge; leg "stretchers" consist of three blue, angled dowels with pointed ends and hanging gold-leafed clothespins, one stretcher is a wider, carved, unpainted piece surmounted by a tin alligator; "Keke 86" in relief on front edge, lower right hand corner of glass seat.
Provenance

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