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Lot 1273

Michael Cooper (American, born 1943)
Boy Scout Special, 1976

7 October 2013, 10:00 PDT
Los Angeles

Sold for US$13,750 inc. premium

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Michael Cooper (American, born 1943)

Boy Scout Special, 1976
Machined and anodized aluminum, fiberglass and steel
together with the toy gun sent with final payment to artist Michael Cooper
height 65in (165cm); width 36in (91.4cm); depth 28in (71.1cm)

Footnotes

As a teenager, sculptor Michael Cooper was held up at gunpoint at his father's Lodi California grocery store. Since that time, his work has included a strong anti-gun thread and many of his kinetic sculptures include gun iconography. The creation of 1977's Boy Scout Special involved radical technique with the shaping of solid blocks of aluminum on a metal lathe and a vertical milling machine. This early piece from the artist's career was granted a coveted SECA award from the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1977.

Owner of the Boy Scout Special, advertising creative force, John Holmes of Marin County California, notes that the piece inspired an interesting method of payment to the artist. When the final installment for the piece was due in 1977, Holmes mailed Cooper a toy gun modified so that when shot the barrel unfurled a final "check." Holmes recalls, "I wanted to make a statement to Michael with my method of payment - to impress on him the impact the Boy Scout Special had made on me."

Exhibited:
Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA)
San Francisco Musuem of Art, November 18-December 31, 1977

"Michael Cooper: A Sculptural Odyssey 1968-2011"
Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA July-October 2011
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton MA November 2011-May 2012
Musuem of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA January 2013-July 2013

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