The legacy of the great Italian master lives on. As visitors ascend the stairs to the Mezzanine in the East Building they will encounter Winter (After Arcimboldo), a colossal 15-foot-tall, fiberglass sculpture by American artist and filmmaker Philip Haas (b. 1954). It is inspired by Arcimboldo’s painting Winter (1563), which is on loan to the exhibition from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Paying tribute to Arcimboldo’s exuberant designs for court festivals in Renaissance Vienna and Prague, Haas has created at once a commentary on Arcimboldo’s style and a work of art in its own right. A puzzle of natural forms—composed of a human head of bark, branches, twigs, moss, fungi, vines, and ivy—the object is both bizarre and expressive. Completed in time for Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy, the sculpture will travel to the Gardens of Versailles, the Palazzo Reale in Milan, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
VAABUS 