Like his Minimalist cohorts Donald Judd and Robert Morris, Carl Andre challenged the convention of thinking of sculpture as a distinct, precious object. And, like Judd and Morris, Andre attempted to redefine sculpture, in his case, affirming that “FORM = STRUCTURE = PLACE.” Andre’s work not only engages and interacts with space but also is made viable by it. His metal squares, for example—laid directly on the floor and intended to be walked upon—provide what he feels is the ultimate engagement with space. “All I am doing is putting Brancusi’s Endless Column on the ground instead of in the air,” the artist once stated, referring to the father of modern sculpture as his “master.” 144 Aluminum Square is the ne plus ultra in structural self-definition. The piece’s own composition is determined by the logic of the individual element—the square—which then comprises a larger square of its own. Walking upon the work, viewers experience the material difference between the floor and the sculpture and become fully aware of their own sense of place.
Details
- Artist Name: Carl Andre (American, 1935 – 2024)
- Title: 144 Aluminum Square
- Date: 1967
- Medium: Aluminum, 144 units
- Dimensions: overall: 3/8 x 144 x 144 in. (1 x 365.8 x 365.8 cm); each: 3/8 x 12 x 12 in. (1 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift
- Accession Number: P.1969.093
- Copyright: © Carl Andre / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
[Dwan Gallery, New York, sold 1969 to];
Anonymous, 1969, gift to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Carl Andre
- City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1971-05-13 to 1971-06-27
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1970-09-29 to 1970-11-22
Some Grids
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996-06-20 to 1996-09-08
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994-04-16 to 1996-06
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997-01-06 to 1998-11-07
Beyond Geometry - Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2004-06-13 to 2004-10-03
- Miami Art Museum, 2004-11-18 to 2005-04-23
Inaugural Exhibition / Extended Loan
- Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, 1999-01-18 to 2004-05-30
A Look at New York
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-06-12 to 1973-07-22
Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture
- Norton Simon Museum, 2013-04-26 to 2014-01-06
Recent Acquisitions, 1969
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1969-11-24 to 1970-01-18
American Art of the 1950s and 1960s from the Collection of the Norton Simon Museum
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988-08-11 to 1994-04-03
Works from the Pasadena Art Museum
- Vancouver Art Gallery, 1970-04-14 to 1970-05-10
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
- Pasadena Art Museum, Recent Acquisitions 1969, 1969, p. 17
- Waldman, Diane, Carl Andre, 1970, no. 22 p. 47
- Westwater, Angela, Carl Andre, Sculpture 1958-1974, 1975, no. 1967-18
- Zelevansky, Lynn, Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s, 2004, pp. 14-15, 216
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