Clamdigger is a bronze sculpture by Willem de Kooning. [1] It may have been inspired by "the men who dug for clams along the beaches" near his home in East Hampton, New York. [2] It has been described as one of his "extraordinarily tactile figurative sculptures" that "seemed pulled from the primordial ooze," [3] and "as part man, part creature of the mud and the shallows." [4]
The sculpture was modeled in clay in 1972, and cast in bronze in 1976. It was his "first large-scale bronze work." [5]
As of 2014, Clamdigger is on display in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. [6]
De Kooning, known for his abstract expressionist paintings, took up sculpture later in his career, after a 1969 visit with a friend in Italy "who had a small foundry." [7]