Recent Acquisitions

Edward Renouf

Edward Renouf, a prolific American artist who worked in a broad range of media, created Mahout’s Seat using assemblage, a technique that brings together disparate found objects to construct a unified sculptural whole. While the word mahout refers to a traditional Indian elephant driver, whose seat was perched atop his gargantuan ward, this Mahout’s Seat measures only eighteen inches high, and is comprised of components that include a steel trailer hitch and a roller skate wheel. This sculpture is part of a group of works from the collection of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel that were donated to the Spencer Museum of Art as part of the nationwide initiative The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States. Edward Renouf met these exceptional collectors of twentieth century art through his daughter, acclaimed artist Edda Renouf, whose work is also represented in the collection of the Spencer Museum.