Herb collects pins shaped like a painter's pallet. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on Mar. 14, 1879. Einstein's parents, moved from Ulm to Munich when Einstein was an infant. The family business was the manufacture of electrical parts. When the business failed, in 1894, the family moved to Milan, Italy.

Description:

1981 mixed media
15'h x 5'w x 6'd

Three panels vertically (totem) aligned. The top panel is a neon representation of Einstein. The middle panel is a painting of the full spectrum of light. The bottom panel is a box containing fluorescent lights spelling out an "A" and an "E". Over the box is a window shade with quotes and witty remarks by and about Einstein.

Concepts:

Oil Painting: Middle panel.

Country Item: There is a German made compass in the middle of the oil painting.

Contracted Art: The neon was bent by a professional neon artist (hand painted by herb).

Pun: The bottom panel is filled with humourous sayings, but the main wordplay is the anagram "lite is near bent" (transformed from "Albert Einstein") made out of neon, bent light and glowing through his head.

Copyright © 2000 Herb Grika. All rights reserved.