{"data":{"id":"10292","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":10292,"topgoose_id":18260,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":10292,"title":"Das Tannenboot","display_artist_text":"Tim Hawkinson","display_date":"1994","accession_number":"96.49","dimensions":"Overall: 65 9/16 × 69 3/8 × 44 13/16 in. (166.5 × 176.2 × 113.8 cm)","medium":"Christmas tree, fabric, elastic, string and metal","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Gift of Eileen and Peter Norton","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eTim Hawkinson, \u003cem\u003eDas Tannenboot\u003c/em\u003e, 1994. Christmas tree, fabric, elastic, string and metal, overall: 65 9/16 × 69 3/8 × 44 13/16 in. (166.5 × 176.2 × 113.8 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Eileen and Peter Norton 96.49. © Tim Hawkinson, Courtesy Pace Wildenstein, New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDas Tannenboot\u003c/em\u003e is a visual pun derived by combining the German word for Christmas tree (\u003ci\u003eTannenbaum\u003c/i\u003e) with that for boat \u003ci\u003e(Boot\u003c/i\u003e). \u003ci\u003eDas Tannenboot\u003c/i\u003e is a Christmas tree, stripped of its needles, turned on its side, and then outfitted with little sails and rigging. The resulting work defies easy description. It is delicate, strangely beautiful, and yet—with its mass of barren branches and sails like dead leaves—somewhat melancholy. Laid out horizontally, the conical symmetry of the fir tree creates a mirror effect above and below the stem that suggests a fantastically inefficient flotilla sailing across a body of water, or a useless structure that is nearly all sail and no boat. Yet despite these illusionistic or metaphorical possibilities, the work is absolutely literal: in the end, \u003ci\u003eDas Tannenboot \u003c/i\u003eis exactly what it says it is—a tree-boat.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Wooden log sculpture with yellow fabric fragments suspended by many thin wires on a metal stand.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-31T10:21:15.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:28.312-05:00","images":[{"id":101129,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/10292/96_49_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"4528","type":"artist"}]}}}}