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"Things in their elements, not in their relations."
—Carl Andre, 1967Epitomizing Carl Andre’s unwavering engagement with minimalist principles, 36 Copper Square, 1968, is an outstanding example of his most recognizable work. A paradigm in Minimalist art, the artist’s modular floor sculptures challenged the tradition of sculpture itself by defying notions on matter and space. One of his very first floor pieces of 6-by-6 squares that culminated in his historic installation, 37th Piece of Work, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1970, 36 Copper Square marks one of Andre’s largest floor pieces after the disaggregation of the Guggenheim installation. Composed of thirty-six square copper plates that are unfixed and arranged to form a larger, unified square on the ground, the present sculpture featured in the groundbreaking exhibition, When Attitudes Become Form, at the Kunsthalle Bern and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1969. A testament to its era-defining stature, 36 Copper Square participated in the “constitutive historical event in 20th-century art history [that] presented new trends in contemporary art, which were later identified as post-minimalism, Arte Povera, land art, and conceptual art,” and later featured in the Fondazione Prada’s landmark tribute to the Bern exhibition in 2013.i
The present work installed at When Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1968 The Fall of Sculpture
"My ambition as an artist is to be the Turner of matter. As Turner severed color from depiction, I attempt to sever matter from depiction."
—Carl AndreAlong with Donald Judd, Robert Morris, and Dan Flavin, Andre is credited with changing the history of sculpture by defining the visual language of American Minimalism. Departing from his earlier carved wood sculptures inspired by Constantin Brancusi and the ideas of his close friend Frank Stella, Andre began collapsing the verticality of sculpture in works like Lever, 1966. “All I’m doing,” Andre noted, “is putting Brancusi’s Endless Column on the ground instead of in the sky. Most sculpture is priapic with the male organ in the air. In my work, Priapus is down on the floor. The engaged position is to run along the earth.”ii
By the end of the decade, this “fall” of sculpture through the act of installation and arrangement materialized into a consideration of the terrain it covered that tested the fundamental nature of three-dimensional sculpture. Constructing sets comprising identical units arranged as grids on the floor, Andre, in his words, “minimized structure as much as possible.”iii As Shahar Molcho observed of the present work, “Within this seemingly simple installation, Andre compacts complex aesthetic ideas that seek to challenge sculptural conventions such as three-dimensionality or a prerequisite talent in art or craft. The work’s material and grid dictate its final form, with all elements symmetrical, devoid of hierarchy.”iv
An Elemental Palette
"In my work there is only the theater of the properties of materials."
—Carl Andre
Carl Andre's 37th Piece of Work installed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1970 Developing an interest in prefabricated industrial materials, Andre took the periodic table of elements as the palette for his floor pieces, which is also reflected in the square form of the individual units. “The periodic table of the elements is for me what the color spectrum is for a painter,” Andre expressed. “Copper is more profoundly different from aluminum than green is from red.”v The theme of six in the present work embodies the six common metals—aluminum, copper, steel, magnesium, led and zinc—that he primarily engaged with for his floor pieces, and the theme of thirty-six reflects all thirty-six possible combinations of their pairings, which was eventually demonstrated in his 37th Piece of Work at the Guggenheim Museum. Attune to the distinct physical properties of the various element, he considered the weight, color, luster, and sound of each metal—in this case, copper. For Andre, working with the material’s inherent properties was remaining true to his sensibility: “You might say that I submit to the properties of my materials out of a kind of reflection of my own temperament.”vi
Sculpture as Place
"All my works have implied, to some degree or another, a spectator moving along them or around them….They’re like roads, but certainly not fixed point vistas. I think sculpture should have an infinite point of view."
—Carl Andre
The present work installed at When Attitudes Become Form at the Fondazione Prada, Venice in 2013 Manifesting the artist’s use of real space as a medium activated by the viewer, the present work sensitizes the viewer to copper’s material properties as they traverse the sculpture, feeling the weighty elements anchored by gravity under their feet and hearing the subtle tones generated by physicality of the modular units. The sculpture plays in direct response to perspectival shifts of the eye and body, each new step or glance offering a perceptual transformation. “My idea of a piece of sculpture is a road,” Andre explained. “That is, a road doesn’t reveal itself at any particular point or from any particular point. Roads appear and disappear. We either have to travel on them or beside them. But we don’t have a single point of view for a road at all, except a moving one, moving along it.”vii Epitomizing Andre’s terse account of modern sculpture, 36 Copper Square embodies “the course of development / sculpture as form / sculpture as structure / sculpture as place.”viii
A Selection from Paul Sutinen’s “Twenty Questions for Carl Andre,” June 1980
i Shahar Molcho, Red Over Yellow: A Selection from a Private Collection, exh. cat., Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2017, p. 76.
ii Carl Andre, quoted in David Bourbon, “The Razed Sites of Carl Andre,” Artforum, vol. 5, no. 2, October 1996, p. 15.
iii Carl Andre, quoted in “Carl Andre – Works of Art Don’t Mean Anything,” TateShots, Tate, London, 2014, online.
iv Shahar Molcho, Red Over Yellow: A Selection from a Private Collection, exh. cat., Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2017, p. 76.
v Carl Andre, quoted in Paul Sutenin, “Carl Andre: The Turner of Matter?,” Willamette Week’s Fresh Weekly, August 1980, p. 9.
vi Carl Andre, quoted in Phyllis Tuchman, “An Interview with Carl Andre,” Artforum, vol. 8, no. 10, Summer 1970, 59.
vii Ibid., 57.
viii Carl Andre, quoted in David Bourbon, “The Razed Sites of Carl Andre,” Artforum, vol. 5, no. 2, October 1996, p. 15.Provenance
Galerie Konrad Fischer, Dusseldorf
Helga and Walther Lauffs, Krefeld (acquired from the above in October 1968)
Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 2008, lot 19
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
Kunsthalle Bern; Krefeld, Museum Haus Lange; London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, When Attitudes Become Form, March 22 - October 27, 1969, no. 1, n.p.
Kunsthalle Bern, Carl Andre: Sculpture 1958-1974, April 24 - June 8, 1975, no. 39, p. 37
Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Sammlung Helga und Walther Lauffs - Amerikanische und europäische Kunst der sechziger und siebziger Jahre, November 13, 1983 - April 8, 1984, no. 2, pp. 152-153 (illustrated)
Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Schwerpunkt Skulptur, June 21 - October 11, 1992, p. 5 (illustrated, p. 4)
Krefeld, Haus Lange und Haus Esters, Carl Andre Sculptor 1966, February 4 - April 21, 1996, no. 35, p. 148 (illustrated, p. 149)
Venice, Fondazione Prada, When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013, June 1 – November 3, 2013, no. 1, p. 550 (illustrated, pp. 166, 619)
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Red over Yellow: A Selection from a Private Collection, June 21 - December 2, 2017, pp. 10, 40, 42 (illustrated, p. 41; installation view illustrated, pp. 59, 62, 63, 94)Literature
Carl Andre, exh. cat., Haags Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, 1987, no. 39, p. 34
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, Schwerpunkt Skulptur: Hundertvierzig Werke von achtzig Künstlern, 1950-1990, Bonn, 1992, no. 2, p. XXXIII (illustrated, p. 63)
Property from a Distinguished Collection
Ο38
36 Copper Square
copper, in 36 parts
each .5 x 50 x 50 cm (1/4 x 19 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
overall .5 x 300 x 300 cm (1/4 x 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 in.)
Executed in 1968, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Estimate
$2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
Amanda Lo Iacono
Head of Auctions
New York
+1 212 940 1278
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 23 June 2021
1
Cinga Samson
Two piece 1
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $378,000
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2
Jadé Fadojutimi
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $390,600
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3
Salman Toor
Fort Greene
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $4,144,000
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5
Matthew Wong
The Reader
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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6
Winston Churchill
The Moat, Breccles
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,845,000
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7
Matthew Wong
Field in a Dream
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,934,000
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8
Jean Dubuffet
L'homme à la toque
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,571,000
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9
Emily Mae Smith
Waiting Room
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $756,000
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10
Nicole Eisenman
Whatever Guy
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $840,700
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11
Norman Lewis
Abstract City
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,119,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol
Bananas
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,300,000
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13
David Hockney
A Neat Lawn
Estimate $9,500,000 - 10,500,000
Sold for $11,000,000
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14
Vija Celmins
Untitled (Ocean)
Estimate $5,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for $7,748,000
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15
Carmen Herrera
Green and Orange
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,200,000
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16
This lot is no longer available.
17
Brice Marden
Elements III
Estimate $3,200,000 - 3,800,000
Sold for $5,233,000
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18
Amoako Boafo
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $655,200
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19
Titus Kaphar
Untitled III
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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20
Amy Sherald
It Made Sense...Mostly In Her Mind
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $3,539,000
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Winding River
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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22
Mark Rothko
Untitled
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,700,000
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23
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Batman
Estimate $1,600,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,800,000
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24
Keith Haring
Untitled (For John Sex)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $899,000
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25
Takashi Murakami
Red Demon and Blue Demon with 48 Arhats
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $6,080,000
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26
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild (940-2)
Estimate $4,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $5,112,000
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27
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,902,000
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28
Willem de Kooning
East Hampton V
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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29
Amy Sillman
Flower Giver
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $598,500
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30
Alexander Calder
Fourteen Black Leaves
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,300,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Julie Curtiss
Three Widows
Estimate $110,000 - 150,000
Sold for $466,200
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33
Norman Rockwell
My Mother (Soldier with French Woman)
Estimate $350,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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34
Richard Prince
Nurses Dormitory #3
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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35
Mickalene Thomas
Portrait of Jessica
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $1,542,500
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36
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,000,000
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37
Georg Baselitz
Drei Herzen (Three Hearts)
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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38
Carl Andre
36 Copper Square
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,692,000
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39
Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (Elemental Sculpture)
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $315,000
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40
Bruce Nauman
Musical Chair
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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41
David Hammons
It’s Not Necessary
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $5,475,000
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42
Andy Warhol
Shadow (Double)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $877,000
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43
Toyin Ojih Odutola
Quality Control
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $340,200
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44
Robert Colescott
Gift of the Sea
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $504,000
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45
Dana Schutz
Swiss Family Traveling
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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46
Banksy
Love Is In The Air
Estimate $1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,179,500
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47
Keith Haring
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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48
Louise Bourgeois
Labyrinthine Tower
Estimate $550,000 - 750,000
Sold for $756,000
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49
Paul McCarthy
White Snow Dwarf (Doc)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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50No Reserve
Jeff Koons
Gazing Ball (Demeter)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000 •
Sold for $998,000
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