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PROPERTY FROM THE VANTHOURNOUT COLLECTION

B. 1935
UNTITLED (100 COPPER SQUARE)

1/4 x 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. .6 x 200 x 200 cm.

copper, in 100 parts

Executed in 1968, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and dated Antwerp March 1968.

PROVENANCE

Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp
The Agnes and Frits Becht Collection, Naarden, Netherlands
Jablonka Galerie, Cologne
Acquired by the present owner from the above

EXHIBITED

Antwerp, Wide White Space Gallery, Carl Andre Classic, May 1968
Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Carl Andre Sculpture 1958 - 1974, April - June 1975, cat. no. 1968.13, p. 31
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Made by Sculptors, September -- November 1978
Brussels, Palais voor Schone Kunsten; Bonn, Kunstmuseum, Wide White Space Gallery Museum 1966 -- 1976, October 1994, p. 160, illustrated

LITERATURE

Marc Callewaert, "Individuele Emotie is Reactionair, Kennismaking met Minimal Art," Gazet van Antwerpen, March 28, 1968
Exh. Cat., Eindoven, Stedelijk Van Abbesmuseum, Carl Andre, January - March, 1987, cat. no. 1968.13, p. 28, illustrated, p. 29

NOTE

Carl Andre's modular floor sculptures are among the most paradigmatic in all Minimalist art. Created at the apex of an art world that privileged theory over materiality and concept over aesthetic, Andre's works participated in this vein as he rid his sculptures of all that was considered unnecessary according to the reductivist canon of Minimalism. In his contribution to this axiom, Andre jettisoned figuration, subjective content, the artist's touch, motion - and it brought him upon a unique solution. Using ready-made metals in programmatic and geometric arrangements, Andre approached a penultimate literalism of material and form. With the metal floor pieces, such as Untitled (100 Copper Square) and the masterpiece 37 Pieces of Work of 1969 that was installed on the floor of the rotunda at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the overall format mimics the square of the individual units, making Andre's compositions formally incremental as well as unified. For Andre, the weight and texture of the chosen material and its quality of reflecting or absorbing light were key to the integrity of concept for each work, and it was a concept he pursued with the same fervor that Albers brought to his theories about color or Marden favored in his multi panel paintings.

Gravity as an intrinsic factor comes into play as the weighty elements rest on the floor, as opposed to the suspension of Donald Judd's progressions and stacks, and the physicality of each unit is subtly suggested by the alternating tones created by the footsteps of the viewer as they traverse Andre's ``plain'' or ``square.''