ART: ALL-AMERICAN BARBARIC YAWP

RAUCOUS, CORNY, SOMETIMES BRILLIANT, ED KIENHOLZ ASSEMBLED JUNK INTO POWERFUL METAPHORS

The artist Edward Kienholz's last piece was his burial, which took place at a hunting cabin he owned on top of a mountain in Hope, Idaho, in 1994. He had died of a heart attack at age 65, and now his corpulent, embalmed body was wedged into the front seat of a brown 1940 Packard coupe. There was a dollar and a deck of cards in his pocket, a bottle of 1931 Chianti beside him and the ashes of his dog Smash in the back. He was set for the afterlife. To the whine of bagpipes, the Packard, steered by his...

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