Soldier X

Soldier X is a powerful anti-war statement made with minimal means: a worn-out army helmet mounted on the end of a rusty spade. Does the sculpture evoke a soldier's emaciated, hungry body reduced to a thin wooden handle? Or a fallen soldier whose helmet, now an empty shell, sits atop the shovel that was used to dig his grave? The quick transition from life to death in wartime is obvious, and obviously criticised. 

In 1977, Edward Kienholz said, “All my work deals with life and death, fear and death.” Soldier X (1990) is one of the most important works in the series of committed sculptures he made with artist Nancy Reddin, his wife, to denounce American militarism and the immorality of war.

Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin's sculpture Soldier X is being presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection at the “Untitled, 2020” show at the Punta della Dogana in Venice (2020).