Tony Tasset (American, born 1960)

Tony Tasset (American, born 1960). Deer, 2015. , Laumeier Sculpture Park Collection with funds from the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment Fund and donations from Dorte Bjerregaard, Jiamin and Michael Dierberg, Alison and John Ferring, Foundation for Sunset Hills, Nancy and Ken Kranzberg, Ramsey Maune, Sue McCollum, Patricia and David Schlafly, James and Paul Shaughnessy, Susan and David Sherman, Mary Ann and Andy Srenco, Pam and Greg Trapp, William Shearburn Gallery and Sherry and Gary Wolff., Tony Tasset is one of the most inventive sculptors working in the United States today. Since the mid-1990s, he has created increasingly ambitious sculptures. Deer, 2015 is composed as a nervous and pansive monumental fawn ready to make her move. The surreal juxtaposition of the supersized deer emerging from the woodland dramatizes the relationship of what it means to be human, the identity of sculpture and their respective places in nature. Tasset explains Deer "as a work that represents the highest conceptual ambitions with a delightful populist twist.", Deer's size suggests how nature is out of balance in today's urban and suburban spaces, and how humans have impacted the other species around us. In many ways, Tasset's Deer is emblematic of the Park itself. Our deer population is a silent and near invisible audience, using our 105 acres as a home and playground. This cunning work explores how we collectively dwell in the landscape but also celebrates the unique environment created when art frames nature.