NARRATOR:
In Untitled of 1969, the American sculptor Robert Morris aligns twelve identical steel boxes in a row, leaning on one another like fallen dominos. He declined to provide an explanation for this sculpture, insisting that it be seen solely as what it is: a conceptual sculpture inspired by pure geometry.
The cube has been used as a formal element in human expression since the Stone Age. In this repeated form, it alludes to standardized mass production, and the American love of predictable sameness, undercutting traditional notions of the unique masterpiece. Created in the 1960s, sculptures like this are called Minimalist because they reduce form to its bare essentials.
Morris takes pains to avoid traces of the artist’s skill and originality; he often had his sculptures fabricated by others according to his specifications. To him the work of art was not an original, but an objective representation of the idea from which it derived. Later, he pioneered the idea of melding sculpture with its surroundings, experimenting with transient materials like steam.
In the Norton Simon Sculpture Garden, Untitled sets up a magnificent study in contrasts—between geometric simplicity and organic abundance, man-made and natural form.
Details
- Artist Name: Robert Morris (American, 1931-2018)
- Title: Untitled
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Steel blocks, 12 units
- Dimensions: overall: 16 x 174 x 18 in. (40.6 x 441.8 x 45.7 cm); each: 6 x 18 x 24 in. (15.2 x 45.7 x 61.0 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of the Artist
- Accession Number: P.1969.111a-l
- Copyright: © 2017 Robert Morris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Reproduction, including downloading of ARS works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
Robert Morris, gift 1969 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Floorworks
- Los Angeles, The Temporary Contemporary, 1989-09-16 to 1990-02-18
American Art of the 1960s from the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1990-03-13 to 1990-06-17
[Installation]
- Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum, Sculpture Garden, to
Selections from the Permanent Collection and the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1989-02-05 to 1989-05-28
American Art Since 1950 from the Norton Simon Museum
- Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1990-06-30 to 1990-09-09
Recent Acquisitions, 1969
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1969-11-24 to 1970-01-18
- Sculpture Garden, Norton Simon Museum, no. 18
- Pasadena Art Museum, Recent Acquisitions 1969, 1969, no. 35 p. 24
- Vyverberg, Henry, The Living Tradition: Art Music and Ideas in the Modern Western World, 1978, fig. 23 pp. 537-539
- Cutajar, Mario, L. A. Style, 1991, p. 168
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