© The Estate of Terry Adkins
On view
Modern and Contemporary Art
Theodora Walton William Walton III Pavilion
Theodora Walton William Walton III Pavilion
MVET Lunar Diptych,
1989
Terry Adkins, 1953–2014; born Washington, DC; died Brooklyn, NY; active Brooklyn and Philadelphia, PA
2021-178 a-b
The jagged edges of the two wooden ovals of Adkins’s work suggest phases of the moon, the oblong gears of machines, and the calabash resonators that amplify the sound of the mvet, a stringed musical instrument belonging to the Pahouin or Fang people of Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo-Brazzaville. The term mvet encompasses not only a type of instrument but also an expansive art form including dances, mimicry, chants, and recited poems. Similarly, Adkins conceived of his practice as multidisciplinary, understanding his works as compositions and describing them as “a way to make music as physical as sculpture might be and sculpture as ethereal as music is.”
More About This Object
Information
Title
MVET Lunar Diptych
Dates
1989
Maker
Medium
Diptych: polychromed wood
Dimensions
each: 97.8 × 50.8 × 9.5 cm (38 1/2 × 20 × 3 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Hugh Leander Adams, Mary Trumbull Adams and Hugh Trumbull Adams Princeton Art Fund
Object Number
2021-178 a-b
Type
Materials
Techniques
Subject
Private collection, Michigan, Illinois, consigned; to [Rago Auctions, Lambertville, NJ], sold; to Jason Schoen, Boca Raton, Florida , sold; to Princeton University Art Museum, 2021.
