Carl Andre

20 Aluminium Rectangle

2008

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After 1959 Andre did no more sculpting or modelling or pasting of materials, but turned to the use of industrially produced standard-size modules, whether these were found materials, as in his early works, or pre-cut units: ones which were small enough for anyone to be able to lift and move around manually, which he put together following exact arithmetical relations. The relationship between a work of sculpture and the space it occupies is an essential feature of Andre’s continuous pursuit of a form of sculpture which can stand naturally in space without its taking on an architectural function or, on the contrary, being merely decorative. This search leads him to conceive works which occupy space without filling it and, from the mid-Sixties, to create rectangular compositions of interlocked metal plates which are deployed on the floor in such a way as to mark off a “passageway” which can be seen from any number of points of view. These works, which can also be physically explored and experienced by means of the specific tactile, chromatic and sound qualities of the materials from which they are made, thus appear to be a “place”, as their very titles tell us (Brooklyn field, 1966, Copper-alluminium plain, 1969, Small weathering piece, 1971, Twelfth copper corner, 1975). Their rigorous, minimal classicality has nothing systematic or mechanical about it. The chequerboard configuration which is their distinguishing feature in fact follows precise metrics, rhythm and proportion taken from the numerical table, which the artist views in the same way as a painter does the chromatic spectrum.

Quincy, Massachussetts 1935
For a while I sculpted in things. So I understood true sculpture was the thing I was carving and then rather than sculpting a material, I decided to use the material as a ...
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