Nick Cave

Acquired directly from artist

New York, Mary Boone Gallery, Nick Cave, For Now, September - October 2011

As an Alvin Ailey trained dancer and a graduate from both the Kansas City Art Institute and Cranbrook Academy of Art, Nick Cave has never pursued a conventional career; the art he produces emphatically defies standard definition. The Soundsuits that Cave creates both as art objects and as costumes for dance performances exemplify his multidimensional approach.

Cave, one of seven sons growing up in central Missouri, was never in short supply of hand-me-downs from which he would fashion new pieces.  This Soundsuit may contain echoes from his youth, with the inclusion of stuffed toys, including Yoda, from that mainstay of American childhood, Star Wars.  However, literal connections of objects with the artist only go so far; the use of tremendously varied materials in Cave's Soundsuits ultimately serves to disassociate the artist from the pieces. Individual personality is subjugated to the inherent power of the materials and the fashion in which they have been arranged, stacked, and multiplied. For Cave, the connection between his work and various ethnographic arts – especially African and Native American -- which derive their spiritual power from repetitive color patterning is  paramount.  Much of Cave's work is directly related to his own personal history, but it is by combining  it with traditions from other cultures that he succeeds in creating works of universal appeal.