Carl Andre

During Semester Two I have been frequently visiting the Murray Library and getting several books out at a time about Minimalism and Minimalistic artists to help me gain a further understanding and clarity about the subject matter and contexts that I have chosen to be apart of. Whilst doing my research I came across Carl Andre, who is an American minimalist artist who works mostly as a sculptor and has been recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns, that are arranged site specifically on the floor of an exhibition space. Andre is most well known for being the most innovated of his 'generation' and played a central role in defining the nature of Minimalist Art.

Andre’s sculptures are often assembled using common industrial materials such as bricks, blocks, tiles and metal ingots which he arranges into a simple geometric pattern. His sculptures are always placed on the floor rather than on plinths. Not simply objects to look at, they become part of the environment, altering the viewer’s relationship to the surrounding space.

Reading more about him there has been a lot of controversy over his artwork, in particular the 'Equivalent' series, which consists of a rectangular arrangement of 120 firebricks. Although the shape of each sculpture in the series is different, they all have the same height, mass and volume, and are therefore ‘equivalent’ to each other. This artwork caused massive uproar and outrage because people claimed that you cant make artwork out of bricks. I completely disagree. I think that it was pretty ground breaking and really pushed what we consider as art. It is what it is, it is an arrangement of bricks in different formations, take it at face value, it doesn't have to have a conceptual, deep thought surrounding it.

Researching further into his methods and ideology of his artwork, I went onto the Tate website and watched several videos about him and his sculptures. Something that really stood out to me was an interview Tate had with Carl Andre, he talks about his tile sculptures, he mentions "I have over the years, minimised structure as much as possible in my work. I mean, the typical pieces made of squares of metal, very often, they're not joined together permanently, they're just laid out. I don't think I have ever made a serious sculpture in which the parts were fixed together in any way. I always assure people, there are no ideas hidden under those plates, those are just metal plates. They're just sitting there on the floor minding their own business". I particularly like this abstract from the interview because he isn't trying to make something profound about his artwork, he isn't saying some rubbish about what it might be, he is just saying its plates laid out on the floor.

website: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/carl-andre-648/carl-andre-works-art-dont-mean-anything