Carl Andre: matter matters

The American minimalist artist Carl Andre is perhaps best known for his sculptures made from square metal plates, placed in grid-like formations, lying flat on the surface of the ground such as in Mars (1981). Yet over the course of five decades Andre’s output has been immense - encompassing large, outdoor artworks; ephemeral installations; scavenged objects; precisely formed precious metals; photography; and a significant body of poetry. 

At the heart of Andre’s vision lies a commitment to seeing things as elements: as separable self-contained units. His most significant contribution was to distance the medium of sculpture from processes of carving, modelling or constructing such as in Uncarved Blocks (1975) simply by sorting and positioning.

First entering the public eye in the mid 1960s with a series of works so profoundly simple in their form and arrangement, Andre's work continues to help redefine sculpture for a whole new generation of artists.