Hank Murta Adams
American, b. 1956
Block Head, 1987
Cast glass and copper
For Hank Murta Adams, portraiture straddles the line between humor and tragedy, allowing him to explore how the human head can express intense psychological states. A self-taught artist, Adams combines unpolished glass surfaces with industrial debris such as copper wire and broken glass to give his sculptures a rough, textured quality. When asked why he works in glass, Adams stated that “the slight translucency of glass gives the pieces a spirit, makes them alive, moody,” as can be seen in Adams’ other works in this gallery.
Gift of Lisa Jan Rose and Kenneth L. Koenig, MD and Sara Jane Rose and Jay Shanker, 2021
Visual Description: This is a glass portrait bust of a man. The head is a pallid, frosted white with clear glass bubbles over the figure’s pinpoint eyes. Jutting out from under his eyes are two thin, rusted metal rods. The man’s mouth is a piece of blue metal. Thin, blue metal rods protrude from the top of the figure’s head, giving the illusion of short strands of hair. On top of the figure’s head is a large rectangular block comprised of twisting strands that resemble the rusty blue metal rods emerging throughout the sculpture
