{"data":{"id":"8279","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":8279,"topgoose_id":5003,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":8279,"title":"Boy","display_artist_text":"Charles Ray","display_date":"1992","accession_number":"92.131a-h","dimensions":"Overall: 71 1/2 × 39 1/4 × 20 1/2 in. (181.6 × 99.7 × 52.1 cm)","medium":"Painted fiberglass, steel, fabric and glass","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from Jeffrey Deitch, Bernardo Nadal-Ginard, and Penny and Mike Winton","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"Edition of 3","publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharles Ray, \u003cem\u003eBoy\u003c/em\u003e, 1992. Painted fiberglass, steel, fabric and glass, overall: 71 1/2 × 39 1/4 × 20 1/2 in. (181.6 × 99.7 × 52.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Jeffrey Deitch, Bernardo Nadal-Ginard, and Penny and Mike Winton 92.131a-h\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eWith his sculpture \u003ci\u003eBoy\u003c/i\u003e, Charles Ray transforms a recognizable, familiar subject—a clothed department store mannequin—into an unsettling figure. As in several of his key works, Ray manipulates scale to uncanny ends and uses illusionistic, provocative means to disrupt our customary experiences with ordinary objects. His “boy” stands as tall as a full-grown man (he is in fact the artist’s height), and the figure’s pose is possessed of an adult quality that more readily suggests the stance of a Roman orator than the informal manner of a child. Ray conjures the innocence of youth in the boy’s knee socks, short pants, and porcelain features, yet his realignment of scale and gesture renders that innocence puzzling, even threatening. With his pointing finger, the boy appears confrontational and accusatory, while his fusion of prepubescent and adult features treads close to the taboo territory of childhood sexuality.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A child mannequin wearing light blue shorts with suspenders and a white shirt stands with one hand raised.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T15:55:27.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T11:59:49.970-05:00","images":[{"id":99561,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/8279/92_131a-h_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"3652","type":"artist"}]}}}}