The fall art season in New York is almost upon us, and galleries across the city are using the doldrums of August to install ambitious exhibitions of work by contemporary stars as well as old masters of modernism. Mnuchin Gallery is placing its bets on the latter category, mounting a historical show of Carl Andre sculptures called “Carl Andre in His Time.” The presentation will feature a group of the Minimalist artist’s seminal floor-based sculptures from the 1960s and ’70s.
Andre abandoned verticality in favor of what he called “sculpture as place,” explaining, “a place is an area within an environment which has been altered in such a way as to make the general environment more conspicuous.” The signature floor pieces on display are rendered in copper, zinc, aluminum, slate, magnesium, lead, and steel, illustrating Andre’s nuanced explorations of the physical properties of his material.
To provide context for his revolutionary creations, Andre’s work will be shown alongside contemporaneous paintings and sculptures by Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, and other masters of Minimalism. With that stellar lineup, the presentation echoes watershed exhibitions from the 1960s, such as the Jewish Museum’s “Primary Structures” (1966) and the Whitney Museum’s “Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials” (1969).
The Mnuchin show coincides with Andre’s traveling retrospective, “Sculpture as Place,” organized by Dia:Beacon and currently on view at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid through October 12.
September 9 through December 5 at Mnuchin Gallery, 45 East 78th Street, New York;