Object Details
- Luce Center Label
- Lipton’s work explored a range of ideas including heroism, beauty, sexual conflict, and the mystery of birth and death. Manuscript depicts the struggle between law and violence throughout history. The curved layers of iron symbolize the paper on which laws are written and displayed. Lipton disrupted the smooth surface of the “paper” with a tangled mass of jagged metal, evoking the effect of violence within the human community.
- Luce Object Quote
- “The mood of Manuscript is that of the pages of man’s history . . . it is a visual unfurling of the world on which is seen the interplay of chance and law, of ugliness and beauty . . .” Seymour Lipton, New York Times, August 1965
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- Seymour Lipton, born New York City 1903-died Glen Cove, NY 1986
- Date
- 1960
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Seymour Lipton
- Medium
- iron/brazed with nickel-silver on limestone base
- Dimensions
- 11 7/8 x 15 1/2 x 6 7/8 in. (30.2 x 39.3 x 17.5 cm.)
- Type
- Sculpture
