Title:Singing ManArtist:Jonathan Borofsky Date:1994Creation Place:North America, United StatesCredit Line:Gift of Donna and Cargill MacMillan Jr.Image Copyright:© Jonathan BorofskyAccession Number:2010.58.5a-e Jonathan Borofsky, born in 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts, has stated that most of his work is a mode of self-portraiture. Singing Man (1994) reflects an autobiographical expression of the artist’s interest in music, while, at the same time, manifests of his long struggle with the anxieties of daily patterns.
Borofsky took aspects of the competing impulses of Pop art and Minimalism and combined them in this playful figurative sculpture, the aspect of his work for which he is best known. This classic example of his sculpture also merges his interests in humor and spirituality. It is an artwork that stands as both a timeless piece of figurative sculpture and a signature piece of its time. With its cyborg-like form of stainless steel and a mechanical jaw stuck in endless repetitive “singing,” it reflects one of the central concerns of 20th century philosophy – the loss of humanity in an age of mechanization. At its essence, it is an artwork that raises questions about the human spirit.