The Veryables

Artist Jason Knapp born 1951; lives Albuquerque, New Mexico

Date1987

Mediumwood, enamel, paint

Dimensions34 1/2 × 41 × 20 in. (87.6 × 104.1 × 50.8 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, museum purchase, 1987 General Obligation Bonds

Object numberPC1989.33.2

DescriptionA wooden sculpture depicting various forms balanced on a short red stepladder. A wood-colored bucket of red paint labeled "VERY" sits on a rounded platform which extends from the bottom of the stepladder. A paintbrush rests on the rim of the paint bucket. The steps of the ladder read "SQUARE" and "ROUND." On the top of the stepladder is a wooden dowel, upon which is balanced a variety of forms. A large tobacco pipe extends outwards between a brownish-red disk and a green, blue, and orange upside-down jar-like form. A circular platform rests around the top of the jar-like form, with several wooden wedges pinned between the two. Two forms resembling thick, wide bowls sit on opposite sides of the circular platform.

On View

Not on view

Text Entries

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Ingenio, humor y sátira

25 Junio 2022 – 29 Enero 2023

La gracia de The Veryables tiene que ver con una referencia la famosa pintura de 1929 del artista Rene Magritte, La traición de las imágenes que representa una pipa con un letrero en la parte inferior que lee: «Ceci n’est pas une pipe» (Esto no es una pipa). Magritte quería con ello ilustrar cómo una imagen e incluso una palabra no es el objeto que representa. Knapp afirmó sobre la obra «Al igual que Magritte, estoy muy interesado en averiguar qué es lo que nos lleva a mirar la imagen creada por un artista como representativa de algo perteneciente al mundo “real”. Mi pipa tallada, el cubo con la brocha y la escalera no son una pipa, un cubo con brocha o una escalera». Knapp va incluso más lejos y añade las palabras «cuadrado» y «redondo» en los peldaños de la escalera, en otro ejemplo de la actitud lúdica del artista a propósito de las mentiras.

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Exhibition: Wit, Humor, & Satire

on view June 25, 2022 - January 29, 2023

The joke of The Veryables relies on a reference to artist Rene Magritte’s famous 1929 painting, The Treachery of Images which depicts a pipe and below reads “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (This is not a pipe). Magritte was illustrating how an image or even a word is not the thing it conveys. Knapp stated about the work “I, like Magritte, am deeply interested in what it is that leads us to see an image made by an artist, as representing something from the ‘real’ world. My carved pipe, bucket and brush, and stepladder are not a pipe, bucket and brush or a stepladder.” Knapp takes it a step further, adding the words ``square” and “round” to the steps of the ladder, showing another example of the artist’s playfulness around telling lies.

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