File:Mia Westerlund Roosen Bariton 1985.jpg

Sculpture by Mia Westerlund Roosen, Bariton (concrete and lead, 22" x 50" x 23", 1985). The image illustrates an earlier body of work in Mia Westerlund Roosen's career: her biomorphic sculpture from the 1980s, which drew on minimalist, postminimalist and surrealist traditions, and on figural forms and more fleshy, visceral qualities in order to evoke a more psychological realm than earlier work. Their simple structures—hulks and surging or swelling, curved forms resembling gargantuan tusks, bones and or this case, limbs were compared to prehistorical remains or works by BrâncușI, Arp, Miró or O'Keeffe. Critics described them as ungainly but endearing, unsettling and enigmatic, and erotic. This work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by museums.

Artist Mia Westerlund Roosen. Copyright held by the artist.

Mia Westerlund Roosen

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating an earlier body of work in Mia Westerlund Roosen's career from the 1980s, when she produced biomorphic sculpture indebted to both minimalism and the postminimalist tradition of artists such as Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois. This work balanced formal and associative concerns and emphasized materials, surfaces and process, the body and sexuality, and qualities such as awkwardness and uncertainty. The generally figural pieces consisted of simple structures—hulks and surging or swelling, curved forms resembling gargantuan tusks, bones and body parts—with varied surfaces covered in mottled, crusty "epidermises" of encaustic or lead. Critic often linked them to artists like Georgia O'Keeffe or the Surrealists Jean Arp and Joan Miró, as well as to prehistorical objects. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand these later developments and bodies of work, which brought Westerlund Roosen ongoing recognition through exhibitions and coverage by major critics and publications and museum acquisitions. Westerlund Roosen's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Mia Westerlund Roosen, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.