(born in Cincinnati/USA in 1935)
The metamorphosis of a plant into a fan (series of 5), 1963/73, each signed, numbered, dated Jim Dine (scratched) 1963–73, inscribed 1–5, Ex V from the edition numbered in letters A-Z, aluminium cast, each approx. 70 x 40 x 35 cm

Provenance:
Private Collection, Chicago
Private Collection, Germany

Literature:
D. Shapiro, Jim Dine - Painting What One Is, New York 1981, no 141 (another cast); Marco Livingston, Jim Dine - The Alchemy of Images, New York, 1998, p. 135 (another cast)

“The Metamorphosis of a Plant into a Fan conceived in the early 1960s and finally editioned in 1973–74, in which a ficus plant undergoes gradual mutation into an electric fan (...)”

“Dine asked Alan Eaker, with whom he worked on the sculpture, to provide five wax ficus plants and five wax fans made to his specifications; leaving one of each intact, the artist then exchanged elements from one type of object to the other to achieve the varying degrees of transformation”
in: Livingston, p. 131

Jim Dine is one of the most important representatives of Pop Art. In the 1950s he developed a new artistic approach with, inter alia, Claes Oldenburg. He removed everyday objects, such as tools, pieces of clothing, shoes and bathroom accessories from their usual context and gave them a new aura – objects served as a metaphor for his own personal experiences. This is also visible in the present work, in which the artist achieves a metaphorical level and instills his art with emotional warmth.