{"data":{"id":"2709","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":2709,"topgoose_id":18285,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":2709,"title":"Paper Bag","display_artist_text":"Alex Hay","display_date":"1968","accession_number":"69.9","dimensions":"Overall: 59 1/4 × 29 1/4 × 17 3/4 in. (150.5 × 74.3 × 45.1 cm)","medium":"Fiberglass, epoxy, paint and paper","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlex Hay, \u003cem\u003ePaper Bag\u003c/em\u003e, 1968. Fiberglass, epoxy, paint and paper, overall: 59 1/4 × 29 1/4 × 17 3/4 in. (150.5 × 74.3 × 45.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 69.9\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Alex Hay made deadpan, over-scaled copies of disposable objects like a cash register slip, a page from a yellow legal note pad, toilet paper, and a paper airplane. Standing at nearly 5 feet, \u003ci\u003ePaper Bag\u003c/i\u003e is an enlarged rendering of its diminutive source. Hay coated the sculpture’s paper skeleton with fiberglass, epoxy, resin, and paint to achieve a rigid surface and thoroughly realistic appearance, which features wrinkles, tears, saw-tooth edges, and a brand insignia. In \u003ci\u003ePaper Bag\u003c/i\u003e, as in all of Hay’s large-scale sculptures of everyday items, the artist’s labor-intensive process stands in deliberate contrast to the ubiquity and unimportance of the throwaway objects he depicts so precisely.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Tall brown paper bag standing upright on a white platform against a gray wall.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-31T10:21:24.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:28.470-05:00","images":[{"id":94564,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/2709/69_9_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"586","type":"artist"}]}}}}