Robert Taplin
Robert Taplin, The Young Punch Dances with a Brush and Comb, 2005
Urethane Resin, 9” x 5” x 4”
Lent by the Artist, Courtesy Winston Wachter Fine Art
Size is a major issue in the work of sculptor Robert Taplin, who has rendered the human figure at both colossal and intimate scales. In his Punch series, the everyman-gone-wrong and his antics are presented much smaller than life, at the familiar scale of figurines. This choice of size helps to generate meaning in two ways. First, in order to understand each object and its implied narrative, viewers must come close and literally get in Punch’s face–precisely where he wants you. Second, by presenting Punch as a table-top object, his subversive nature is reinforced. Most little figures on tables are sentimental characters engaged in charming/cloying activities like holding hands, praying, dancing, or some other sort of pleasant, unassuming, or wholesome domestic activity. Not Punch–he’s busy urinating, fornicating, and getting himself arrested. — Nick Capasso, Curator
“The group of small works in this exhibition focuses on the figure of Punch, the deformed clown of English tradition (Punchinello in the continental Commedia del’Arte). Punch’s comic vulgarity, lack of inhibitions, and his apparent absolution from the normal requirements of society make him a figure of abuse and fascination. He is both a pariah and a free spirit, an alien among us who demonstrates the power of shame and guilt by ignoring them. He also has his origins in a late Baroque era of private extravagance, public spectacle, absolutist governments and religious conflict. In bringing Punch into our own era, I find that he appears to be entirely at home.” — Robert Taplin
