Metamorphosis

Oppenheim was a multidisciplinary artist known for his earthworks, body art, video, sculptures, mechanical installations, and public art. He also created imaginative drawings as studies for projects realized and unrealized. He created this early pencil drawing in 1965 while completing his Master of Fine Arts degree at Stanford University. The subject is a male figure undergoing a metamorphosis, as the title suggests, though precisely what kind remains unclear. Already at this early stage, however, Oppenheim's interest in the combination of human and mechanical forms is apparent. This is something he would take up again a decade late in a series of mechanical marionettes.