ROBERTGOBER(b. 1954)Cat Litter.Signed "R. Gober numbered of seven and dated '89" on the reverse. Cast plaster, vinyl-acrylic, graphite and ink.16 ¾ x 8 ⅛ x 4 ¾ in. (42.5 x 20.6 x 12.1 cm).Executed in 1989.This work is from an edition of seven.Provenance
Galerie Max Hetzler, BerlinExhibited
New York, Paula Cooper Gallery, Robert Gober, September 30-October 1989;
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, May 13-July 1, 1990 and Kunsthalle Bern, September 1-October 14, 1990, Robert Gober, p. 78 (other examples exhibited);
Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, Strange Abstraction, June-August 1991 (similar example exhibited);
London, Serpentine Gallery and Liverpool, Tate Gallery, Robert Gober, March-August, 1993, p.10, no. 4 (similar example exhibited; illustrated);
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Supernova: Art of the 1990's from the Logan Collection, December 13, 2003-May 23, 2004, p. 54 (another example of this edition exhibited; illustrated)Literature
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Robert Gober, 1991, pp. 32-37 (illustrated);
C. Heinrich, Family Values: Art in the Eighties and Nineties, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1996, pp. 24-25 (illustrated);
D. Frankel, On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the Werner and Elaine Dannheisser Collection, New York 1997, p. 56 (illustrated);
K. Jacobson, ed., Robert Gober: Sculpture + Drawing, Minneapolis 1999, p. 16 (illustrated);
U. Grosenick and B. Reimschneider, Art at the Turn of the Millennium, Cologne 1999, p. 179 (illustrated);
M. Grynsztejn, ed. Supernova: Art of the 1990's from the Logan Collection, p. 54 (illustrated);
K. Varnedoe, P. Antonelli and J. Siegel, eds., Modern Contemporary: Art at MoMA Since 1980, New York 2000, p. 252, no. 263 (illustrated)Robert Gober's formal artistic vocabulary comprises elements drawn largely from his own stock of experiences in such a way that draws wider, universal concerns into play, the common lot of humanity. Familiar, apparently innocuous everyday objects appear initially to be ready-mades. But they are made by hand, meticulously, painstakingly; their emotive energy exerts a powerful effect on the viewer, prompting the projection of past experiences and unconscious currents.

The works of Robert Gober refer in terms of art history to movements like Surrealism, Dadaism and Appropriation Art. They fuse minimalist form, serial strategy and narrative content and their impact on contemporary art has been considerable over the past twenty years or so. With Cat Litter, Gober invokes a "hand-made-ready-made", stemming from the Duchampian tradition. While Marcel Duchamp chose everyday, industrially produced objects as his ready-made works and elevated them to the status as an art object in the act of re-producing and declaring them to be so, Gober scrupulously recreates an already existing product; Gober uses plaster-casting and then paints by hand the imagery to imitate the real object.

In speaking about the Cat Litter sculptures, Gober explains, "The kitty litter I never saw as being that far a step from the wedding dress…for me the kitty litter was to a large degree a metaphor for a couple's intimacy – that when you make a commitment to an intimate relationship, that involved taking care of that other person's body in sickness and in health. If I had chosen to do a box of diapers, which is an equivalent of a bag of cat litter, it would have been obvious. But because I was juxtaposing a low symbol which a high symbol and a deflated symbol with an inflated one, people had a very hard time reconciling the two, and they had a hard time, I think, seeing that I could be connecting the two with some respect"
(K. Jacobson, ed., Robert Gober: Sculpture + Drawing, New York 1999, p. 123).