Lucas Samaras

Lucas Samaras , 1936-, American artist, b. Kastoria, Greece. Samaras is noted for his unusual assemblages, incorporating such diverse materials as straight pins, multicolored string, plastics, chicken wire, feathers, and mirrors. The resulting works are both visually seductive and implicitly violent. Samaras is known for his reclusiveness, and his work is regarded as a revelation into his disturbing and complex private realm. His Untitled Box Number 3 (1963) is in the collection of the Whitney Museum, New York City.

Samaras, Lucas (1936– ). Greek-born sculptor and experimental artist who settled in the USA in 1948 and became an American citizen in 1955. His work has been extremely varied in scale, medium, and approach. In 1959 he took part in Kaprow's first happening and his own work of this time included figures made from rags dipped in plaster and pastels combining Surrealist fantasy with Pop art imagery. During the 1960s he worked a good deal with assemblages, creating bizarre and sometimes sinister objects studded with nails and pins. He also experimented with light and reflection, notably in his Mirrored Room (1966), an environment with mirrors in which the spectator was reflected endlessly. Perhaps his best-known works are his ‘Autopolaroids’—photographs of the most intimate parts of his own body that he began making in 1970 and which brought him considerable notoriety.

Samaras, Lucas (1936– ). Greek-born sculptor and experimental artist who settled in the USA in 1948 and became an American citizen in 1955. He studied at Rutgers University under Allan Kaprow, then in 1959–62 did postgraduate work in art history (specializing in Byzantine art) at Columbia University, New York. His work has been highly varied in scale, medium, and approach. In 1959 he took part in Kaprow's first Happening at the Reuben Gallery, New York, and his own work of this time included figures made from rags dipped in plaster and pastels combining Surrealist fantasy with Pop art imagery. During the 1960s he worked a good deal with assemblages, creating bizarre and sometimes sinister objects studded with with nails and pins. He also experimented with light and reflection, notably in his Mirrored Room (1966), an environment with mirrors in which the spectator was reflected endlessly. Perhaps his best-known works are his ‘Autopolaroids'—intimate photographs of his own body that he began making in 1970 and which brought him considerable notoriety.