Clive Barker British, b. 1940
Coke with two Straws, 1968
Chrome-plated bronze
27.8 cm high
Signed, dated and titled underneath
Edition 1/8
Edition 1/8
During a three-week visit to New York in April 1966, Barker became acutely aware of American consumer culture embodied in the Coca-Cola bottle. He cast his first Coke bottle immediately...
During a three-week visit to New York in April 1966, Barker became acutely aware of American consumer culture embodied in the Coca-Cola bottle.
He cast his first Coke bottle immediately upon his return to London in May 1966. In 1968 Barker returned to the Coke bottle as a subject for two years, when he subjected it to numerous permutations: bottles in pairs or groups of three, with or without straws, upright and on their side, with caps on, off or in the process of being removed. The series of Coke bottles became icons of the 1960s and define Barker's ambition to challenge the limits of chrome-plating. By casting the found object, Barker turns the ephemeral into the eternal and as such positions himself as an heir to Marcel Duchamp and a forerunner of Jeff Koons.
Clive Barker's work is in museum collections worldwide including: Tate, London; British Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Staedtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museum fuer Modern Kunst, Frankfurt; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Museu Coleção Berardo, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
He cast his first Coke bottle immediately upon his return to London in May 1966. In 1968 Barker returned to the Coke bottle as a subject for two years, when he subjected it to numerous permutations: bottles in pairs or groups of three, with or without straws, upright and on their side, with caps on, off or in the process of being removed. The series of Coke bottles became icons of the 1960s and define Barker's ambition to challenge the limits of chrome-plating. By casting the found object, Barker turns the ephemeral into the eternal and as such positions himself as an heir to Marcel Duchamp and a forerunner of Jeff Koons.
Clive Barker's work is in museum collections worldwide including: Tate, London; British Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Staedtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museum fuer Modern Kunst, Frankfurt; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Museu Coleção Berardo, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
