Details

Object type

sculpture

Title

Memorial to a Marriage

Artist/Maker

Patricia Cronin artist

Culture/School

American

Place Associated

United States, New York, Brooklyn (place of manufacture); United States, New York, Woodlawn Cemetery (place associated)

Date

2004

Materials

bronze

Dimensions

overall: 1340 mm x 670 mm x 430 mm

Description

This bronze sculpture, Memorial to a Marriage, cast by American artist, Patricia Cronin, in 2004, shows Cronin, lying in bed, embraced in the arms of her partner, and fellow artist, Deborah Kass. The couple lie together, heads resting on a pillow with hair splayed around them; the figure of Cronin lying flat on her back, with knee bent upwards; the figure of Kass, tuned on their right side, towards Cronin, with left arm reaching around Cronin; a bed sheet is draped and twisted around their legs with their feet and toes touching.

This sculpture was made when same-sex marriage was illegal in the United States of America. The only way in which Cronin’s and Kass’s relationship could be legally recognised was though documents such as wills or health care provisions that would only be enacted if either Kass or Cronin died. As it was only in death that their relationship could be ‘recognised’ in law, Cronin decided to create the sculpture for her personal burial plot in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx (New York) - a funerary ‘memorial’ to her relationship with Kass. The original marble sculpture was installed at Woodlawn Cemetery in 2002.

On 24th July 2011, same-sex marriage was legalised in the state of New York, and Cronin and Kass married on this same day. A bronze version replaced the marble original in September of that year to protect the marble sculpture from air pollution. The version owned by Glasgow Museums was cast by Cronin from the original marble sculpture but at a smaller two third scale.

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased with the assistance of the National Fund for Acquisitions

ID Number

ICE.2011.2.a

Location

Kelvingrove Sculpture Highlights E Balcony