DeWain Valentine
Double Top1967

Not on view

Large-scale glossy sculpture in the form of a tilted spinning top, cobalt blue with horizontal crimson red stripes and a flared disc at its widest point

Artist or Maker: DeWain Valentine
United States, Colorado, Fort Collins, 1936-2022
Title: Double Top
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1967
Medium: Fiberglass-reinforced polyester
Dimensions: 54 x 76 x 54 in. (137.16 x 193.04 x 137.16 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Kleiner Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.38.16
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: De Wain Valentine has been fascinated by polished surfaces, shimmering colors, and aerospace materials since his youth in the Rocky Mountains, where he experimented with various plastics in shop class and learned about automotive lacquers while working at his father’s garage. Double Top is a hollow, molded form with a surface that resembles the custom cars Valentine fell in love with as a teenager. Though Valentine would have preferred to cast the sculpture in liquid polyester resin, it was not until he developed his own product—Valentine MasKast Resin—that he could produce resin sculptures at a scale this large.

Exhibition label: Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, Carol S. Eliel.
Selected Bibliography: Tuchman, Maurice. The Kleiner Foundation: Gift of Contemporary Art. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.
Copyright: © DeWain Valentine / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York

DeWain Valentine
Double Top1967

Not on view

Artist or Maker: DeWain Valentine
United States, Colorado, Fort Collins, 1936-2022
Title: Double Top
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1967
Medium: Fiberglass-reinforced polyester
Dimensions: 54 x 76 x 54 in. (137.16 x 193.04 x 137.16 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Kleiner Foundation
Accession Number: M.73.38.16
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: De Wain Valentine has been fascinated by polished surfaces, shimmering colors, and aerospace materials since his youth in the Rocky Mountains, where he experimented with various plastics in shop class and learned about automotive lacquers while working at his father’s garage. Double Top is a hollow, molded form with a surface that resembles the custom cars Valentine fell in love with as a teenager. Though Valentine would have preferred to cast the sculpture in liquid polyester resin, it was not until he developed his own product—Valentine MasKast Resin—that he could produce resin sculptures at a scale this large.

Exhibition label: Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, Carol S. Eliel.
Selected Bibliography: Tuchman, Maurice. The Kleiner Foundation: Gift of Contemporary Art. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
Eliel, Carol, editor. Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2021.