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David Ireland

David Ireland (American, 1930 – 2009) 
Cake Dome Vitrine, 2000-2001
Glass cake stand with dome, Fixall, and blue pigment
Westmont Acquisition

After a traditional art education, military service, and a marriage that ended in divorce, Ireland seemed to want to reinvent himself artistically, beginning with an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. He remained in the Bay Area for the rest of his life, achieving success as an artist. The conceptual artist Yves Klein, who was active in the 1950s, inspired Ireland’s own expanded definition of art, one that pushed the boundaries of materials and processes. Cake Dome Vitrine is sculpted from FixAll––a patching compound that, when dry, is cement hard. Mounding slabs of FixAll, Ireland then added powdered ultramarine blue pigment––a color made famous by Klein. Ireland juxtaposes the friable blue pigment with the durability of the FixAll, and then displays the strange blue heap under the preciousness of a glass cake dome, creating layers of mysterious incongruities.

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