Richard Artschwager, Description of Table, 1964
Play with descriptive language.
Description of Table (1964) consists of a simple plywood cube inlaid with pieces of black, white, and faux wood-grain laminates. Richard Artschwager (b. 1923) cleverly laid out the different colored laminates on the cube to create the illusion of a cloth-draped table. Ask students to consider the properties of a table and debate if Description of Table can in fact be a table.
Richard Artschwager (b. 1923), Description of Table, 1964. Melamine laminate on plywood, 26 1/8 × 31 7/8 × 31 7/8 in. (66.4 × 81 × 81 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 66.48. © Richard Artschwager. Photograph by Steven Sloman; © 2000 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York