"Pork Chop Cowboy with Lasso"

Henry Rox (1899-1967)
Pork Chop Cowboy with Lasso
c. 1940-1945
Vintage Silver Gelatin Print
8 x 10 inches
Estate stamp verso
No known negatives extent

This 8 × 10 inch vintage silver gelatin print presents a Western scene constructed from everyday materials: a cowboy figure formed from a pork chop sits astride a fence, swinging a lasso overhead. The action is immediate and legible, with the figure caught mid-motion as the rope arcs through the air.

The figure is built from a large pork chop, its bone and marbled surface fully visible. A small frying pan serves as a hat, with a pipe extending forward to suggest the face. One arm—modeled in plasticine—lifts the looped lasso, while the other stabilizes the pose. A belt with a miniature holster and gun is attached at the side, and small spurs are fixed at the feet. The fence beneath him is constructed from French fries, stacked and bound to read as rails and posts. Each element remains recognizable, but together they resolve as a coherent figure and setting.

The composition is driven by movement. The circular swing of the lasso creates a strong arc across the upper part of the image, while the body of the figure provides weight and balance below. The horizontal line of the fence anchors the scene, giving the action a clear base. The background is left open, allowing the gesture of the lasso and the silhouette of the figure to carry the image.

Rox constructs every element—the figure, the fence, and the lasso—from everyday materials, then stages and lights them before making the photograph. The photograph is the final work, not a record of something else. What appears playful at first becomes more structured on closer view, as the placement and balance of each element are carefully worked out.

The transformation is simple and direct. The pork chop remains fully visible, functioning as both material and body. The added details—the pan, holster, and spurs—complete the figure without overwhelming it. The result is both clear and inventive, with the sense of motion carrying the scene.

Executed circa 1940–1945, the photograph reflects Rox’s American period, when his photo-sculptures often drew on familiar subjects and settings. Having trained in Berlin and Paris before emigrating in 1934, and later teaching at Mount Holyoke College, Rox developed a method in which sculptural construction and photographic resolution are inseparable.

Unlike the London publication works created in collaboration with James Laver in the mid-1930s, this photograph reflects Rox’s later development in the United States following his arrival in 1938 and subsequent settlement in South Hadley, Massachusetts. During this period, he expanded his photo-sculptural vocabulary into independent constructions rooted in narrative action, gesture, and theatrical staging.

Rox referred to these works as “photo-sculptures.” Rather than photographing existing subjects, he constructed miniature sculptural environments from food, fabricated elements, and everyday materials, staging them specifically for photographic realization. The resulting images synthesize sculpture, performance, and photography into a single resolved composition.

Rox’s photo-sculptures circulated widely within mid-twentieth-century illustrated magazine culture. His constructed images appeared in publications including Life, Vogue, Town & Country, Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Coronet, Collier’s, and The New York Times Magazine, participating in the editorial environment associated with Time Inc. and Condé Nast.

Context and Development

Rox’s constructed photographs emerge from the late Weimar photographic environment in which experimental approaches to lighting, object study, and staged imagery were actively developing. His photographic training in 1933 at the Berliner Fotoschule placed him within this context shortly before leaving Germany. Following his arrival in London in May 1934, he translated his sculptural training into what he termed “photo-sculpture”: carefully constructed three-dimensional tableaux created specifically for photographic realization.

A documented 1930 photograph of Rox’s Berlin studio confirms the scale and sophistication of his sculptural practice prior to exile. His subsequent photographic training in 1933 took place within this same advanced design and photographic milieu.

In London, Rox’s work entered publication through his collaboration with James Laver, resulting in Tommy Apple and His Adventures in Banana-Land (1935) and Tommy Apple and Peggy Pear (1936).

General Overview

Henry Rox (born Heinz Rosenberg, Berlin, 1899) was trained as a sculptor in Berlin and Paris before exile in 1934 necessitated a transformation in his working method. Operating first in London and later in the United States, he developed a hybrid practice in which sculptural construction, theatrical staging, and photography were fully integrated. His images appeared widely in mid-20th century publications associated with Condé Nast and Time Inc., while his sculpture continued to be exhibited in American museum contexts, including the Whitney Annual exhibitions.

Beginning in 1992, Rox’s photographs were reintroduced through a series of Modernism exhibitions in the United States, where they were presented within a broader design and material culture context rather than as a defined photographic corpus. These exhibitions, while not academic in structure, were instrumental in reintroducing Rox’s work to collectors and establishing an initial market presence in the United States.

In recent years, Rox’s work has undergone renewed European institutional reassessment through the research of Wolfgang Vollmer (Cologne). This includes exhibition at Fotohof, Salzburg (2021); participation in the European Month of Photography, Berlin; presentations in Paris; and inclusion in the exhibition at the Bonartes Photo Institute, Vienna (December 2025 – February 2026). These presentations have begun to situate Rox more fully within the history of 20th-century constructed and staged photography.

Rox’s career bridges European avant-garde sculpture, émigré reinvention, British publishing culture, American commercial modernism, and postwar academic practice. His photo-sculptures stand as hybrid works—simultaneously sculptural, performative, and photographic—reflecting a practice shaped by displacement, adaptation, and sustained formal inquiry.

Rox illustrated three books: Tommy Apple and His Adventures in Banana-Land (1935), Tommy Apple and Peggy Pear (1936), and Banana Circus (1940).

No known negatives survive, and Rox’s photographs do not appear to have been produced in formal editions. Individual images exist in varying and often limited numbers, with some examples appearing to be unique or known in only a small number of prints. As a result, each photograph functions less as part of an editioned corpus and more as an individual artifact within the artist’s working process.

Provenance and Survival

This group of photographs originates from Henry Rox’s final residence in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where a substantial body of material—comprising photo-sculptures, documentation of his sculpture, and self-portraits—remained stored following the deaths of the artist and his wife. The material was preserved in situ until the eventual dispersal of the property, after which it entered private hands. No known negatives are extant, and these prints constitute a primary material record of the artist’s photographic practice.

Condition

Very good vintage condition. Minor handling marks consistent with age. Verso with later collection stamp.