Layman Jones (b. 1935)

This sculpture, Detroit Woman, demonstrates his fascination with forms for casting mechanical parts, and successfully combines craftsmanship with industrialization. Jones endows the female form with the precision of the machine made, stretching the form into repetition. The glossy finish, racing stripe, and title reference the home of assembly line production—the automotive industry. In another analogy used by the poet E.E. Cummings, the automobile is compared to the woman as object of desire. —Joan Vita Marotta, 2002