Page 61 - Studio International - May 1968

Facing page Untitled 1968 Kandinsky called the 'inner necessity', Morris appears monolithic but is obviously made of parts.
Nine natural fibreglass sleeves (translucent) takes the necessity beyond the spatial limits of the Evidence of construction are the thin lines which
Below Untitled 1967 work. In doing so, he eliminates any hierarchy interrupt the grey tensionless surface. They are the
Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris among the parts of the work and also between the lines that separate the identical elements that have
work and its spatial context. been assembled to produce the doughnut shape;
Grid-type ordering is non-hierarchical: all units they offer an immediate understanding of the
are identical and each contributes equally to the whole structure and of the role each individual
whole. Nine identical, rectangular and translucent element plays in it. The doughnut is bulging out
fibreglass 'sleeves' are precisely arranged on the and would tend to compress surrounding space if
floor, two feet apart from one another, in parallel this centrifugal force weren't neutralized and
rows of three. Grid-type overall patterns elude anchored by the rectangular negative space at the
easy perception, and the eye shifts constantly centre of the sculpture that restrains a movement
are unusually large by European standards. But from the individual 'sleeve' to the whole; both are that would assert itself over the room. There is no
scale is relative to the beholder's height and the morphologically the same. Neither columns (they tension in the air, the sculpture rests firmly on the
surroundings: Morris' sculpture is larger than support nothing) nor wells (they conceal nothing), floor as we move between it and the walls, quietly
man, but smaller than the room in which it is the hollow and bottomless 'sleeves' simply channel aware of its grey surface and of that empty core at
placed; it is neither looming over us nor easy to space and light. The whole piece is perfectly inert the centre of the sculpture which is being kept
handle and therefore neither imposing nor inti- and stable. What the 'sleeves' close off is visible: it away from us, an echo of the room in which we
mate. It simply is, on the floor, inaccessible and is the floor on which we stand and the space in stand.
independent, and therefore at a certain distance. which we move. The whole work covers approxi-
Conscious of the distance that separates us from mately 9 square metres of the floor, but it is so por-
Major examples of Robert Morris' work were recently
the object as we walk around it, we become aware ous that it does not seem to assert a great volume;
shown in one-man exhibitions at Galerie Sonnabend,
of our own physical presence. Whereas post-cubist instead, it seems perfectly integrated in ambient
Paris, and at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eind-
sculpture and past art in general were governed by space, leaving the room relatively unpunctured.
hoven. His work is also included in the major exhibition
internal relationships, Morris reduces these to a The other sculpture is somewhat more compact. of Minimal Art at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague,
minimum and takes relationships outside the work It is a square 'doughnut' shape bulging outward until 26 May, and he will be showing at the 1968
of art; whereas past art was ruled by what but with a rectangular 'hole' in its centre. It Venice Biennale.