Lucas Samaras

1936–

Since the late 1950s Lucas Samaras has demonstrated an insatiable desire to experiment. He has produced work in traditional mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography but has also created book art, reconfigured furniture, and sewn tapestries. His enormous output ranges in scale from three-inch Polaroids manipulated by hand to room- sized, mirrored installations.

Samaras made the first of his numerous sculptural boxes in 1960. He was drawn to the form because it offered an artistic “category of its own” that combines aspects of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Although he initially constructed these mysterious and compelling objects out of found items such as cigar boxes, Samaras soon began producing custom designs with removable components. When closed, the brightly-hued, yarn-covered Box #42 resembles a sewing kit or storage container for treasured items. Once opened, it reveals a glittering array of contrasting content: sharp items and soft, the playful alongside the menacing. A spiked, pin-covered skull rests on a bed of cotton; a toy globe is placed next to a syringe. Beneath the upper tray Samaras propped wooden sticks topped with cutout photographs of nude figures. These dismembered, eroticized paper dolls poke out from a bed of multicolored beads. In addition, the artist’s self-portrait— a frequent element in his work—appears affixed to a dowel. Samaras’s boxes evoke reliquaries yet house no overt religious content. Instead, by acknowledging the danger present in the ordinary and the pleasure found in the harmful, they reveal his persistent fascination with transforming everyday objects. The act of making, Samaras has explained, “is a ritual, almost a religious act.”

Wikipedia entry

Introduction

Lucas Samaras (Greek: Λουκάς Σαμαράς; September 14, 1936 – March 7, 2024) was a Greek-born American photographer, sculptor, and painter.

Wikidata identifier

Q663175

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 9, 2025.

Getty record

Introduction

Greek American artist was devoted to using new forms and materials, working across sculpture, photography, performance, and installation. He is particularly known for his photographic works made by manipulating Polaroid instant film products, assemblages, and work with mirrored environments. Samaras was born in 1936 in Kastoria, Greece, and immigrated to the US in 1948. He began studying art history at Columbia University under the art historian Meyer Schapiro in 1959.

Country of birth

Greece

Roles

Artist, installation artist, painter, photographer, sculptor

ULAN identifier

500021682

Names

Lucas Samaras

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 9, 2025.

Not on view

First acquired
1966

Date of birth
September 14, 1936

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