Five men leaned toward each other, their hands up and their heads tilted as though they were talking and listening intently. Their bronze bodies belled out into round bases, like the kind of toy that never falls over. Below their lean heads and shoulders, they ballooned in swags of bronze cloth. They could have looked clownish, but for the intelligent concentration in their expressions and the strength in their hands — and their intense oddity. Steel cables harnessed two of them together, one towing the other. 

Behind them the mountains stood out clearly against the sky. On a June morning five years ago I was standing on the terrace of the Stone Hill Center at the Clark Art Institute, among the sculptures of “Conversation Piece” by Juan Muñoz. 

It was a bright, hot day, and...

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