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Call Number:
MSS 60
Creator:
McHale, John
Title(s):
Sketch for Aluminum Head
Date:
1954?
Classification:
Archives and Manuscripts
Series:
Series VII: Drawings
Part of Collection:
Box 1, item 14c
Provenance:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Magda Cordell McHale
Conditions Governing Access:
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use:
In Copyright

The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, also belong to the Yale Center for British Art. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
Scope and Content:
Aluminum was a lightweight construction material increasingly used in the 1950s by architects. It is sometimes associated with the New Pragmaticist architecture being built in Britain in these years. McHale's 'head-collages' of the 1950s, although they bear a superficial resemblance to Paolozzi's works, have been better described as images of the 'media-fed man' (Robert Freeman) -- figures that are "defined by what they consume." This consumerist conception of collage differs somewhat from its predecessors.
Arrangement:
Unsigned
Physical Description:
1 drawing : pen and black ink (possibly on japan paper) ; 28 x 21 cm
Genre:
Drawings (visual works), Abstract art, Collage books, Collages (visual works), Ephemera, Exhibition catalogs, Periodicals, Photographs, Posters, Sketchbooks, and Tear sheets
Subject Terms:
Aluminum
Art, Modern
Collage
Consumption (Economics)
Dot zero
Exhibitions
Information theory
Lady Clare magazine
Mass media
McHale, John. Aluminum head.
McHale, John. Shoe-life stories
McHale, John. Transistor
McHale, John. Why I took to the washers in luxury flats
Pop art
Probabilities
Subject Period:
20th Century
Associated People/Groups:
Alloway, Lawrence, 1926-1990
Dubuffet, Jean, 1901-1985
Independent Group (Association : Great Britain)
Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, England)
Irwin, Gwyther, 1931-2008
McHale, John
McHale, Magda Cordell
Mesens, E. L. T., 1903-1971 (Edouard Léon Théodore)
Meyer, E. W.
Paolozzi, Eduardo, 1924-2005
This Is Tomorrow (1956 : Whitechapel Art Gallery)
Whitechapel Art Gallery
Finding Aid Title:
John McHale archive
Collection PDF:
https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11090.pdf
Archival Object:
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2798388
Metadata Cloud URL:
https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/2798388?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1