WattsOS
LF
Linked Figure with Ball
1994 · Steel
10' 8" x 16" x 16" (325.1 × 40.6 × 40.6 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Tom Otterness
American, 1952
Wichita, KS, USA
SculptureNaive Art
Representation
None documented
2
Institutional Exhibitions
6
Works in Collection
14
Assets Indexed
4
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
90%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Movements
- • Naive Art
Related Artists
No edges recorded
Influence Graph
No influence edges encoded yet.
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
View all exhibitions →No image
Projects: Tom Otterness
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1987
No image
An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1984
About
Why this artist matters now
Tom Otterness is an American sculptor known for cast bronze figurative work rendered in a deliberately cartoonish, almost toy-like register. His public sculptures populate plazas, parks, and transit systems across North America and Europe, depicting whimsical or absurdist scenes of everyday life, often with a sly political undertone. Working primarily in cast bronze, he combines mass production techniques with fine art tradition, blurring the boundary between public monument and accessible design object. His formal vocabulary draws from folk art, commercial signage, and the vernacular aesthetics of American consumer culture.
Source: Sothebys · Trust score: 100% · Updated 1mo ago
Graph relationships
Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
Naive Art
Medium
Sculpture
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (6)
Record
Images
Related artists
Adjacent in the graph
Brent Wadden
Shared movement
Hervé Yamguen
Shared movement
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Shared movement
Horace Pippin
Shared movement
Krsto Hegedušić
Shared movement
Danny Lyon
Shared movement
John McCracken
Also sculpture
Jeff Koons
Also sculpture
Dan Flavin
Also sculpture
Louise Nevelson
Also sculpture
Ruth Asawa
Also sculpture
Isa Genzken
Also sculpture
Record
Movements and affiliations
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Cleveland Museum of Art
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
Market
Auction sale history
Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction
Market
Auction History
Range: $6,250 – $1,512,500
| Work | Auction House | Date | Estimate | Hammer Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christie's | Dec 2025 | $20,000 – $30,000 | $30,480 | |
| Christie's | Dec 2025 | $18,000 – $25,000 | Unsold | |
| Christie's | Jul 2024 | $8,000 – $12,000 | $17,640 | |
| Christie's | Nov 2023 | $200,000 – $300,000 | Unsold | |
| Christie's | Jul 2023 | $15,000 – $20,000 | $12,600 | |
| Christie's | Dec 2022 | $50,000 – $70,000 | $47,880 | |
| Christie's | Oct 2021 | $20,000 – $30,000 | Unsold | |
| Christie's | Jul 2021 | $20,000 – $30,000 | $23,750 | |
| Christie's | May 2021 | $18,000 – $25,000 | Unsold | |
| Christie's | Dec 2020 | $5,000 – $7,000 | $6,250 |
Showing 10 of 20 results
Record