Cliff

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Artist Horace Clifford Westermann (American, 1922–1981)

Title Cliff

Date 1970

Medium Glass, wood, chrome, and and paint

Dimensions Overall: 37 3/8 × 16 3/8 × 16 3/8 in. (94.9 × 41.6 × 41.6 cm)

Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 70.79

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About this Work

H. C. Westermann’s often whimsical mixed-media sculpture was influenced by folk art, popular culture, politics, and his own life. Cliff, a diorama of a western scene enclosed in a glass case, shows a lone cowboy peering over the edge of a cliff. This small enclosed “world“ is illusionistic, but the stagey tableau has references to theatre and popular films (i.e. “westerns“). An autobiographical reference is coded into the title of the piece: “Cliff“ was the artist’s nickname. The western background was painted by Westermann’s wife Joanna.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Secondary artist Joanna Beall Westermann (American, 1935–1997)

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"Cliff | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=70.79