Cut,+Flamed,+Spalted

Date: 2013
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2015/2015.10_1a.jpg&max=460 width="356" height="290"]] || Title: **Cut, Flamed, Spalted**

Artist: **Dan Webb** Born: East Lansing, Michigan 1965

Medium: maple Dimensions: 18 × 37 × 33 in. (45.7 × 94.0 × 83.8 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase through the Decorative Arts and Crafts Endowment, the Richard T. Evans Fund, and the Renwick Acquisitions Fund © 2013, Dan Webb

Accession: 2015.10 || In his sculptures, Webb combines irony with themes of “flourishing in adversity, destruction in creation, humor in futility, vulnerability in protection, and knowledge in ambiguity” (Fragile Fortress, 12). As such, through his work the artist examines the human condition. Pieces like //Cut, Flamed, Spalted// recall moralizing seventeenth-century Dutch still-life paintings. The arm in //Cut, Flamed, Spalted// is not connected to a body, so it cannot serve its natural purpose. Attached to a block with a cutout center section, the significance of the arm is unclear. The word “spalted” refers to coloring of the wood caused by fungi. Woodcarvers admire spalted wood, because of the distinctive coloration and patterns.
 * About the Artwork: **

Woodcarving is not a popular area of artistic study, but the medium appealed to Webb. He has also experimented with bronze, resin, rubber, marble, and duct tape as well as combining wood with other media. Webb’s sculptures range in size from pieces small enough to fit in a gallery space to large-scale public works.
 * About the Artist: **

Atkinson, Nora, Jenni Sorkin, et. al. //Fragile Fortress: The Art of Dan Webb// (Bellevue, WA: Bellevue Arts Museum, 2014).
 * Resources: **

Cartwright, Derrick R. //Dan Webber – Destroyer// (Seattle: Greg Kucera Gallery, 2012)

SAAM Collections Page Spalting Wikipedia Entry Dan Webb website Dan Webb at the Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle
 * Links: **