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Steve Linn
"Racing into the Sunset (Jack Kerouac)" wall sculpture
2010

$42,000List Price

About the Item

Sandblasted carved glass, cast glass, bronze and wood. Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, conducting meticulous research on each of his selected subjects and choosing which references to interpret for the piece he then creates. Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, to French-Canadian parents. He won an athletic scholarship to Columbia University, where he met Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, but dropped out after one year after an argument with the football coach. He then became a merchant seaman all through World War II, with the idea of becoming a traveler and novelist in the tradition of Jack London and Thomas Wolfe. After Kerouac's stint in the Merchant Marines, he settled in New York and began his first novel, “The Town and the City”, which took about two years. His father died in 1946 and Jack lived with his mother, Gabrielle, to whom he was extremely devoted. He referred to her as Mémère, and she continued her work in a factory in order to support him while he was writing. During this time, he met a young would-be writer from Denver, Neal Cassady, who would become the model for Dean Moriarty, partner to Kerouac’s Sal Paradise in “On the Road”. The adventure that turned into that novel began with a cross-country hitchhiking trip by Kerouac in 1947 to meet up with Cassady in Denver and culminating with a trip to Mexico City in 1950. The book was started in early April 1951 and Jack got the idea that by typing nonstop he would get the momentum he was seeking. He spliced together rolls of tracing paper trimmed to the width of his typewriter, and by April 27 the book was finished, a roll of paper, typed as a single paragraph 120 feet long. Contact the gallery for information about purchasing, or to inquire about commissioning a custom documentary sculpture portrait. Steve Linn describes himself as a documentary sculptor, and indeed, his work rests on the meticulous research he conducts on each of his selected subjects and the interpretation of the references he chooses to develop for each one. Yet his definition would seem to leave out the intensity Linn puts into the materiality of the work. His range of preference is vast and often surprising, using wood, glass, bronze, other metals, and now even holograms to depict the clues he gives the viewer about the work and personality of his subject. He most often combines them all and his mastery of each craft is truly impressive. The subjects Linn chooses for his multi-faceted portraits are often visual artists and musicians he admires, but also sports legends, workmen, and craftsmen (and women). Each tableau contains one or several views of the face or torso, first painstakingly drawn and then most often carved from plate glass or cast from a ceramic original via the kiln-formed glass technique. Tools and objects we would easily associate with the person if known to us are added in a careful composition, but Linn does not stop there. His Portraits series, begun over 50 years ago, now includes more elaborate installations and invites the viewer more deeply into the influences and relationships -- webs that creative humans weave.

Creator:
Steve Linn
Creation Year:
2010
Dimensions:
Height: 69 in (175.26 cm)Width: 63 in (160.02 cm)Depth: 10 in (25.4 cm)
Medium:
Bronze,Glass,Wood,Mixed Media
Movement Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Glen Ellen, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU71214793692