Carl Andre (September 16, 1935 – January 24, 2024) was an American recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large (such as Stone Field Sculpture, 1977, in Hartford, Connecticut,[ Hartford Advocate November 13, 1997 "Twenty Years After Stone Field Sculpture shook the Insurance City, Carl Andre Returns" by Patricia Rosoff [1]] and Lament for the Children, 1976,
In 1985 his third wife, contemporary artist Ana Mendieta, fell from their 34th-floor apartment window and died. Neighbors heard an argument and Mendieta shouting "no" immediately before the fall. He was acquitted of a second-degree murder charge in a 1988 bench trial, causing uproar among feminists in the art world; supporters of Mendieta have protested at his subsequent exhibitions.
Early life
Andre was born on September 16, 1935, in Quincy, Massachusetts, the youngest of the three children of George (a master designer of freshwater plumbing for ships
) and Margaret (Johnson) Andre.
He completed primary and secondary schooling in the Quincy public school system and studied art at
Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1951 to 1953.
[ Naked by the Window, by Robert Katz published 1990 by The Atlantic Monthly Free Press ] While at Phillips Academy, he became friends with
Hollis Frampton, who would later influence Andre's radical approach to sculpture through their conversations about art
[ 12 Dialogues, Carl Andre and Hollis Frampton 1962–1963 published by Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Press and New York University Press, edited by Benjamin HD Buchloh ] and through introductions to other artists.
[ Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties, edited by James Meyer, published 2004 by Yale University Press , ]
Andre served in the U.S. Army in North Carolina from 1955 to 1956, and moved to New York City in 1956. While in New York, Frampton introduced Andre to Constantin Brâncuși, through whom Andre became re-acquainted with a former classmate from Phillips Academy, Frank Stella, in 1958. Andre shared studio space with Stella from 1958 through 1960.
Work
Early work
Andre cited Brâncuși as an inspiration for his early wood sculptures,
but his conversations with Stella about space and form led him in a different direction. While sharing a studio with Stella, Andre developed a series of wooden "cut" sculptures
(such as
Radial Arm Saw cut sculpture, 1959 and
Maple Spindle Exercise, 1959). Stella is noted as having said to Andre (regarding hunks of wood removed from Andre's sculpture), "Carl, that's sculpture, too."
From 1960 to 1964, Andre worked as a freight brakeman and conductor in New Jersey for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His experience with blue collar labor and the ordered nature of conducting freight trains would later influence Andre's sculpture and artistic personality. For example, it was not uncommon for Andre to dress in overalls and a blue work shirt, even to the most formal occasions."
During this period, Andre focused mainly on writing, and there is little notable sculpture of his on record between 1960 and 1965. His poetry resurfaced later, most notably in a book published in 1980 by NYU Press called 12 Dialogues, in which Andre and Hollis Frampton took turns responding to one another at a typewriter using mainly poetry and free-form essay-like texts.
Mature work
In 1965, Andre had his first public exhibition of his work in the
Shape and Structure show curated by
Henry Geldzahler at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery.
In the late 1960s, entrepreneur Karl Ströher from Darmstadt, Germany, acquired three major works from Andre to give them on loan to the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.[Peter Iden; Rolf Lauter (ed.): Bilder für Frankfurt. Bestandskatalog des Museums für Moderne Kunst. München 1985. ] in 1981.[Bee, Andreas: Zehn Jahre Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Köln 2003, ] exhibitions (1992–2002) at the museum in Frankfurt[Rolf Lauter : Carl Andre : extraneous roots, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt at Monastery of the Carmelites, Frankfurt 1991, ] and internationally.[Peter Iden, Rolf Lauter: Dalla pop art americana alla nuova figurazione : opere del Museo d'arte moderna di Francoforte, Padiglione d'arte contemporanea, Milan, 1987 ]
In 1969, Andre helped organize the Art Workers Coalition.
In 1970, he had a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Equivalent VIII
In 1972, Britain's
Tate Gallery acquired Andre's
Equivalent VIII, an arrangement of 120
.
The piece was exhibited several times without incident, but became the center of controversy in 1976 after being featured in an article in The Sunday Times and later being defaced with blue food dye. The "Bricks controversy" became one of the most famous public debates in Britain about contemporary art.[John Walker. (1999). "Carl Andre's 'pile of bricks'- Tate Gallery acquisition controversy – 1976". Art & outrage/ artdesigncafe. Retrieved December 23, 2011.]
Lever
Andre's
Lever consists of a single line of 137 firebricks.
The work concisely divides a space as the bricks hug the floor.
The exhibition of
Lever at the 1966 exhibition Primary Structures at the
Jewish Museum in New York brought considerable recognition to Carl Andre.
Criticism
The gradual evolution of consensus about the meaning of Andre's art was compiled in the book
About Carl Andre: Critical Texts Since 1965, published by
Ridinghouse in 2008. The most significant essays and exhibition reviews were collated into this volume, including texts written by some of the most influential art historians and critics: Clement Greenberg,
Donald Kuspit, Lucy R. Lippard, Robert C. Morgan,
Barbara Rose and
Roberta Smith.
Personal life
Andre's first two marriages ended in divorce, and the third in the alleged murder of his wife, for which he was acquitted under controversial and contested circumstances .
In 1999 he married artist Melissa Kretschmer.
Andre died in Manhattan on January 24, 2024, at the age of 88.
Death of Ana Mendieta
In 1979 he met his third wife, artist
Ana Mendieta, through a mutual friendship with artists
Leon Golub and
Nancy Spero at
AIR Gallery in New York City.
Andre and Mendieta married in January 1985.
Mendieta fell to her death from Andre's 34th-story apartment window in September 1985, after an argument with Andre.
Their neighbors, a couple next door, are reported to have heard Mendieta scream "No" the same night, and Andre was also seen with multiple scratches on his face after that night.
Andre was quoted from a 9-1-1 call after her death to have said, "What happened was we had ... my wife is an artist and I am an artist and we had a quarrel about the fact that I was more, eh, exposed to the public than she was and she went to the bedroom and I went after her and she went out of the window".
The same night Andre was charged with second-degree murder. He elected to be tried before a judge with no jury. In 1988, he was acquitted of all charges related to Mendieta's death.
Museums that exhibit Andre's work have been met with outrage from Mendieta's supporters. The 2022 podcast Death of an Artist detailed a culture of secrecy around Mendieta's death and Andre's potential involvement.
Artist books
-
Quincy Book. Andover: Addison Gallery of American Art, 1973. Artist book by Carl Andre which features commissioned photographs of landscapes and monuments in his hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts. Quincy was originally printed in conjunction with Andre's 1973 solo show at Addison Gallery, and reprinted by Primary Information in 2014.
-
America Drill: Red Cut, White Cut, Blue Cut. Brussels: Maîtres de Forme Contemporains/Michèle Didier, and Paula Cooper Gallery, 2003. Limited edition of 100 numbered, signed and stamped copies, 400 numbered copies and 100 artist's proofs.
Further reading
-
About Carl Andre: Critical Texts Since 1965, 2008, published by Ridinghouse
-
-
Rolf Lauter: Carl Andre: Extraneous Roots. Museum für Moderne Kunst in the Monastery of the Carmelites, Frankfurt am Main 07.06.-14.07.1991.
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Rolf Lauter; Christian K. Scheffel; Carl Andre: Blickachsen 4, Skulpturen im Kurpark Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, Bad Homburg 18.05.-05.10.2003.
-
Christel Sauer: Carl Andre: Cuts, DE/EN, Basel 2011,
-
Rider, Alistair. Carl Andre: Things in their Elements. London: Phaidon Press, 2011.
External links
