Stiff Box No. 12

Lucas Samaras
1997; Cor-Ten Steel; Sculpture
Central Campus; In east court between Alumni Memorial Hall and the Frankel Family Wing of the Museum of Art

Part of the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Gift of the Lannan Foundation in honor of the Pelham family. “Samaras’s engagement with the box as a sculptural form began in 1961…[and by] the early 1970s he had produced a subcategory of this work that he dubbed Stiff Boxes; in these he used Cor-Ten steel to make sculptures that explored balance and structure while still referencing the box form. In Stiff Box No. 12, a box is placed at the center of the piece near the implied dividing line between two very distinct halves; this creates a dichotomy between the soft, graceful curves on one side and the sharp, angular edges on the other.” (Quoted from, and for more info, see UMMA website.)