Barry Flanagan British, born 1941 Thinker on a Rock, 1997 cast bronze Gift of John and Mary Pappajohn 1999.30.1

Reacting against the formal, constructed metal sculpture that predominated when he was in art school, Barry Flanagan explored painting, dance, and installation pieces. He has produced an inventive and varied body of work filled with humor and poetic associations, often evoked by the particular organic materials he employed. While working with clay in the early 1980s, Flanagan perceived the image of a hare "unveiling" itself before him. The hare has appeared in an endless variety of guises in Flanagan's bronzes. In Thinker on a Rock the artist substitutes his signature hare for Rodin's Thinker (1880), making a witty and irreverent reference to one of the world's best-known sculptures.(9 of 17)