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Photography by Emily Followill

Carousel

Elevated on a platform, a joyful blur of long-limbed carousel figures parade around in a circle, saddles open and ready for museum guests to climb aboard. Overhead, the jaunty canopy leans over in a playful echo of the spaghetti-like arms, legs, and poles of the figures below. While this carousel does not move, the elaborate garden that encircles the artwork is planted with long, wispy foliage that dance and sway in the breeze like a merry-go-round in motion. Looking around the garden, can you find the one carousel figure that has escaped?

ArtistTom Otterness, born 1952
Date2017
MediumSeven bronze sculptures, canopy, and mast
Dimensions101 x 94 x 14 in. (256.5 x 238.8 x 35.6 cm)
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift from the collection of Candace P. and W. Michael Humphreys, 2024.107
ClassificationSketchbook
On ViewNo
Carousel101 × 94 in.Standard/Movie Poster40 × 27 in.

This artwork's face covers about 8.8× the area of a standard movie poster.Drawn to the same scale.