The work of Carl Andre occupies an essential transitional position in contemporary art. The artist himself places it in a tradition spanning Constantin Brancusi to Henry Moore, yet historically it rests within the more recent context of ideational gestures, starting with the early paintings of Frank Stella. The Guggenheim Museum’s collection covers a wide range of Andre’s oeuvre, including the viewer-interactive 10 x 10 Altstadt Copper Square, in which space is defined by both the work and the spectator who is free to walk across it; Fall, an angle of hot-rolled steel; and Trabum, a cube made of nine interlocking beams of Douglas fir.

These examples embody the characteristic features of Andre’s sculpture, such as the use of ready-made materials, the employment of modular units, and the articulation of three-dimensionality through a consideration of its negative as well as positive space. Andre has sought to reduce the vocabulary of 20th-century sculpture to basic phonemes such as squares, cubes, lines, and diagrams. In his avowed transition from the exploration of form to that of structure and of place, Andre has placed significant emphasis on the relation between site and viewer. His pseudoindustrial, untheatrical arrangements hover between being ideas and testing the limits of physical presence.

Poetics play an important role in Andre’s work, manifested most literally by his experiments with linguistic equivalents to his sculpture. Since the 1960s he has created poems and, in the tradition of concrete poetry, situated the words on the page as if they were working drawings. He has often reached to ancient languages for titles in his attempt to craft a primordial language of form; for example, the title Trabum is derived from the Latin for log or timber. Andre’s consistent search for the simplest, most rational models embodies a moral philosophy as well as an artistic practice.

Cornelia Lauf

Purchased from Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, by Panza in 1973; purchased by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1991.

Solo
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Ontologische Plastik, October 21–November 11, 1967.

Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (organizer), Carl Andre, January 10–March 3, 1987; Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (organizer), January 11–March 1, 1987. The work was exhibited in Eindhoven only. Catalogue with catalogue raisonné of Andre's work from 1958 to 1986 by Rita Sartorius with Bertha Sarmina; p. 26.

Ace Gallery, New York, Carl Andre, January 25–March 31, 1997.

Group
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, sculture minimal, January 16–March 2, 1980. Catalogue (Rome: De Luca, 1979) with essays by Giuseppe Panza di Biumo and Ida Panicelli; p. 14 (illus.; published as Copper Square, 100 copper plates).

Stadthalle Düsseldorf and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (organized by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunstmuseum, and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf), Das Bild einer Geschichte 1956/1976: Die Sammlung Panza di Biumo. Die Geschichte eines Bildes: Action painting, Newdada, Pop art [more], Minimal Art, Conceptual, Environmental Art, September 19–October 12, 1980. Traveled to Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Minimal + Conceptual art [more] aus der Sammlung Panza, November 9, 1980–June 28, 1981. The work appeared at Stadthalle Düsseldorf only. German catalogue by Germano Celant (Milan: Electa International, 1980): p. 114 (illus.; published as Copper Square). Swiss edition by Franz Meyer: no reference to the work.

Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Un Choix d'art minimal dans la Collection Panza, July 12–November 4, 1990. Catalogue, pp. 44–45 (illus.), 99.

Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, From Brancusi to Bourgeois: Aspects of the Guggenheim Collection, June 28–September 6, 1992.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Tradition of the New: Postwar Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Collection, May 20–September 11, 1994.

Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Sala BBK, and Sala de Exposiciones Rekalde, Bilbao, Berriaren Tradizioa: Guggenheim Bildumako Maisu-Lanak, 1945–1990/La tradición de lo nuevo: Obras maestras de la colección Guggenheim, 1945–1990, May 10–July 15, 1995. Catalogue in Basque and Spanish, pp. 113 (cat. no. 27), 173.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, February 9–May 12, 1996. Catalogue by Mark Rosenthal, p. 293 (illus.).

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Rendezvous: Masterpieces from the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Guggenheim Museums, October 14, 1998–January 24, 1999. Catalogue (New York: Guggenheim Museum; Paris: Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1998) with essays by Jean-Louis Cohen, Yve-Alain Bois, Mark C. Taylor, Stanley Cavell, Bernard Blistène, and Lisa Dennison; p. 581 (illus., cat. no. 339).

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Pertzepzio Aldakorrak: Guggenheim Museoaren Panza Bilduma; Percepciones en Transformación: La Colección Panza del Museo Guggenheim, October 9, 2000–January 28, 2001.

Carl Andre: Sculpture 1958–1974 (exh. cat.). Bern: Kunsthalle Bern, 1975. Catalogue raisonné by Angela Westwater and Andre; p. 27.

Knight, Christopher. Art of the Sixties and Seventies, pp. 169 (illus.), 259. Revised and expanded English edition: pp. 95 (fig. 52 shows the work at Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 1988), 209 (illus.), 299. French edition: pp. 169 (illus.), 259. Italian edition: pp. 169 (illus.), 259. Revised and expanded Italian edition: pp. 95 (fig. 52 shows the work at Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 1988), 209 (illus.), 299. (The work is published as Copper Square in all editions.)

Meyer-Hermann, Eva. Carl Andre: Sculptor 1996: Krefeld at Home, Wolfsburg at Large (exh. cat., Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld; Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld; and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg). Stuttgart: Oktagon, 1996, pp. 156, 242.