Giorgio Vasari famously reported that in 1494 Piero de’ Medici commissioned Michelangelo to make a snowman – it was ‘very beautiful’, but nothing more is known about it. Contemporary artist have made more permanent snowmen…
Sean Landers: ‘Snowman’ 2024. Sean Landers originally placed this weeping snowman in a backdrop taken from his favourite painter, Bruegel. ‘Looking at the melting snowman’, He explained, ‘I realized it represents one of my biggest anxieties—that my art will recede with time and not matter… I would love to be as everlasting as Bruegel, but my greatest fear is that I may not be.’ We can also take this (and the others) more broadly, given that melting ice might well be the single most significant global issue…
Nate Lowman: ‘Snowman’, 2014. That board. Not so legible in this shot, has an inscription stating ‘I will be dead soon’. I guess, being bronze, he will be around for a while, but the reference is to all the real snowmen. No snowmen possible in the world, no humans possible in the world…
Gary Hume: ‘Back of a Snowman (Brown)’, 2000. Given his liking for iconic simplicity, it’s logical that Gary Hume has probably made more snowmen than any other artist. This one is enamel paint on bronze, the colour and permanence playfully with the real thing.
Tony Tasset: ‘Snowman in Two Parts, 2017. If Hume gave us a version of a childhood dream, this glass and resin interpretation is darker, more decollated than decorated for the season.
Klaus Weber: ‘Fagman’ 2018: This smoking bottle snowman is made from a copper structure filled with constantly refrigerated spirits, so that the conductivity of the copper and the sub-zero temperature of the alcohol creates real frost.
Fischli & Weiss: ‘Snowman’ 1987 / 2016. To create the figure, humidity was pumped into the freezer, which then condensed around a three-part copper mould. A modicum of energy – equivalent to a small air conditioner – is then enough to keep a real snow snowman alive all year round.
