| Borofsky, Jonathon (1942- ) , American artist, whose complex installations combine painting, sculpture, and less traditional elements such as sound, video, and mechanized movement. His work is often associated with the neoexpressionists (see Neoexpressionism), a loosely associated grouping of artists whose figurative work gained widespread acceptance in the early 1980s. Borofsky grew up in Maine, where, encouraged by his parents (an artist and a musician), he studied art from an early age. He received a B.F.A. (bachelor of fine arts) degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1964 and an M.F.A. (master of fine arts) degree from Yale University in Connecticut in 1966. Borofsky moved to New York City in 1966 and began a period in which he simply wrote down his thoughts and observations, presenting them in 1969 in Thought Book. He then spent two years obsessively counting, writing consecutive numbers on pieces of paper that he later exhibited in a stack. Between 1971 and 1972 he incorporated these number sheets into other works, drawing or painting on top of them, tacking them to the walls as part of art installations, or using them as components in sculptures. He later began to include the number he had most recently reached as part of the title of each artwork. In Borofsky's 1972 Age Piece (private collection), he incorporated a painting done when he was eight years old along with his Thought Book and eight other works from different periods in his life, each labeled with his age at the time of its creation. Borofsky's works share the detailed contents of his mind and include pieces inspired by his dreams, such as I Dreamed I Was Taller Than Picasso at 2,047,324 (1973, Collection of Martin Sklar, New York City). Borofsky's first major exhibition, made up of everything in his studio, was in 1975 at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City. A number of recurring images began to appear in Borofsky's later work, including a giant ruby; a man with a briefcase (himself carrying his drawings); a hammering man; a man perforated with little holes, called the molecule man; and a chattering man, whose mechanical jaws move to the incessant accompaniment of a recording of unintelligible talking. Many of Borofsky's pieces are temporary installations that either survive only in photographic documentation or are intended to be re-created each time they are exhibited, as is the case for Man in Space #2 at 2,783,196 and 2,783,197 (1972, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City). |
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