Robert Taplin
The Young Punch Dances with a Brush and Comb 2005
11" x 6"x 5" edition 1/9
Value: $2800

Robert Taplin is a self-taught sculptor living in New Haven, Connecticut.  He received a BA in medieval studies from Pomona College and he recipient of numerous grants and awards, most notably from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim  Memorial Foundation, he has executed Public commissions for the New York MTA Arts in Transit and the State of Connecticut.  In the past, he has also written extensively on sculpture.  He was appointed critic in sculpture at the Yale School of Art in 2004.

This piece comes from a group of works focussed on the figure of Punch, the deformed clown of English tradition (Punchinello in the continental Commedia
del'Arte). Punch's comic vulgarity, lack of inhibitions, and his apparent absolution from the normal requirements of society make him a figure of
abuse and fascination. He is both a pariah and a free spirit, an alien among us who demonstrates the power of shame and guilt by ignoring them. Taplin's
Punch has left the Rococo to join a different era in which he appears to be entirely at home – our own.