Adaline Kent
Figment, 1953

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Figment
Artist name
Adaline Kent
Date created
1953
Classification
sculpture
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
65 × 9 1/2 × 11 1/2 in. (165.1 × 24.1 × 29.2 cm)
Date acquired
1967
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of Robert B. Howard in honor of Grace McCann Morley, Director (1935-58)
Copyright
© Estate of Adaline Kent
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/67.10
Artwork status
On view on Floor 2 as part of Open Ended: SFMOMA's Collection, 1900 to Now

Audio Stories

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transcripts

GALEN HOWARD HILGARD:

Figment is something made up out of, one’s own thoughts and feelings. It’s not literal. I’m Galen Howard Hilgard. My mother was Adaline Kent.

 

SFX: Piano music, woven in and out with voice to create interludes of thought, remembrance

 

HOWARD HILGARD:

She was always sketching out in nature…trees or rocks. I think this Figment could be related to seeing beautiful trees in the Sierras that get very weather beaten. I think she liked the irregularities in nature. The accidents, you know, the odd things. She was very funny. She’d come into the room and everybody would go: “Oh, good. Addie’s here.” And she’d make people laugh. And I think she put some of that into her sculpture, and the quirky things. To me as I look at this, I see the bottom solidity of the piece making it very stable. And then when you go up a couple of notches — and then it has kind of a smile to it or a quirky upswing that kind of makes you smile yourself. Makes it fun to look at. It’s not too serious. It looks different from any angle…

 

SFX: Music fades

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