Untitled (Rabbit)
Artist
Michael C. Luchs
(American, 1938 - 2021)
Datec. 1980
MediumCopper, paint, duct tape on canvas
Dimensions42 × 55 in. (106.7 × 139.7 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Dennis Nawrocki, 2014
Object numberUAC6130
DescriptionThe rabbit is a well-known symbol, sometimes of luck, speed, virility, or prosperity. It is spiritual, while also being firmly of the natural, physical realm. Within Michael Luchs artwork, the rabbit is a common motif; one which combines the romantic with the industrial. Being an artist of the Cass Corridor movement in Detroit during the 60s and 70s, Luchs was certainly familiar with, as well as a participant in, the so called “urban-expressionism” of the time. Firmly rooted in the industrial decay of the city, the movement sought to capture the spirit of this change, both positive and negative. Within Luchs’s work, this state of flux is evident. His focus on animals, always just a gestural echo of their form, is transitory. They are fleeting, and one barely catches a glimpse of them within the mixed media that Luchs chooses to employ. Untitled (rabbit) in particular, uses a smorgasbord of copper, paint, duct tape, and canvas as a backdrop for the rabbit that is barely hinted at through a vague carved outline. The work has a found object feel, as if one might not be shocked to find that the work was discovered under a bed spring which coincidentally left the rabbit shaped indent. In this way, Luchs’s work feels both intentional and happenstance- puzzling out nature’s place in industrialization as well as humanity’s pointed interruption of it.
Michael Luchs graduated from Olivet College in 1961, and after attending University of Michigan in 1964, moved to Detroit. He would later attend Wayne State University from 1966 through 1968. Ultimately, Luchs work is noteworthy in its questioning of the trajectory of the Detroit cityscape, with a tendency towards the more hopeful outcome- perhaps alluding that the rabbit is a symbol of luck and prosperity in the fight towards true change.
Written by Samantha Hohmann
