Robert Morris
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Rui MascarenhasRobert Morris
Uploaded by
Rui Mascarenhas.
'
ROBERT MORRIS
THE MIND/BODY PROBLEM
Ik
ROBERT MORRIS
THE MIND/BODY PROBLEM
SOLOMON
R.
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM SOHO
JANUARY-APRIL
1994
1994 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation,
New York
All rights reserved
ISBN 0-89207-1 17-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 0-89207-120-6 (softcover)
Printed in the U.S.A. by Hull Printing
All Robert Morris works 1994 Robert Morris.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Guggenheim Museum
Publications
1071 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10128
Hardcover edition distributed by
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
300 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010
Photo Credits
Works by Morris, by catalogue number: 1, Bruce C.
Jones, courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery. 2. 7, 11, 14, 16, 20,
24, 34, 39, 50-51, 54, 62, 71, 73-74, 76, 80-82, 86-87,
89, 98, 103, 107, 126. 130-33, 137, 139, 141, 149-51,
courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery; 6. 15. 141 (details),
Robert Morns. 12. 28. 33. 61, 64, 68, 77. 104. Rudolph
Burckhardt. courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery; 18. Axel
Schneider. Frankfurt am Main; 21-22, 94, 148, 1993
The Museum of Modern Art. New York; 23. D. James Dee;
25. 29. Dorothy Zeldman; 32. 40. 58. 106. Walter
Russell, courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery; 35, Carl Kaufman
Yale University Art Gallery. 41, Geoffrey Clements.
New York, courtesy Leo Castelli Qallerji 42 Rudolph
Burckhardt, 45-49. 95. Eric Pollltzer, courtesy Leo
lli Gallery; r>:i. Waltai J
Russell; 55, 1963 Peter
.7 finsetsj. 83 (mset), Babette
Mangolte 1993. 57. 1964 Peter Moore; 60. 1993
The Art Institute of Chicago. All Rights Reservod
|J9, 1965 Pet.
Moon S3 bottom), Ha&s Namutb
75. Giari SlnigagUa, Milan; 78. Joseph Klun.i lr
79,
mi. Linda Loughi an
in
sy Virginia Museum ol Kim- ahm. Ri< nmond; 85,
Lynn Rosenthal 18
o
91. i Andre
i
Pti
i.
Boi
ima
Will
Brown courtesy Leo
New York
Ga
Castelli
d Gallery
13, IS
iphy,
Rosalind Ki-uubb,
130
Bevan Davies
Miiiiimo Capoi
Museum
Abbot
Abbi
Pine ArtH.
"i
DuBrook Photogi apbei
Castelli Qallerj
adman
i<.
John Bei
Jon
i
ilk
111
'
Bun khardl
19
JOBI
Pi
B<
Johl
pi
<
(i
talli
Moon
Rudolpb
Ni-w York
N
LBS
Bl
This exhibition has been supported by the
Sony Corporation of America; the National
Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency;
and The Bohen Foundation.
CONTENTS
xii
PREFACE
Peter Lawson-Johnston
xvii
INTRODUCTION
Thomas Krens
THE MIND/BODY PROBLEM:
ROBERT MORRIS IN SERIES
Rosalind Krauss
18
WAYWARD LANDSCAPES
Maurice Berger
34
HAVE MIND, WILL TRAVEL
David Antin
50
FRAMEWORKS
Annette Michelson
62
WALL LABELS: WORD, IMAGE,
AND OBJECT IN THE
WORK OF ROBERT MORRIS
W.J.T. Mitchell
80
ON ROBERT MORRIS
AND THE ISSUE OF WRITING:
A NOTE FULL OF HOLES
Jean-Pierre Criqui
39
CATALOGUE
Kimberly Paice
303
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND
EXHIBITION HISTORY
NOTE
Although this monograph is published on the
occasion of a comprehensive retrospective
at the Guggenheim Museum, the catalogue
section is not meant to be a representation of the
exhibition per se. Rather, it has been conceived
as a thematic overview of that same range
of Robert Morris's career featured in the
retrospective, arranged roughly chronologically.
In the catalogue, Morris's art works are
numbered; these catalogue numbers are used as a
cross-referencing tool throughout this book. For
example, when Two Columns (1961) is discussed,
it is referred to as "no. 1" because it is the first
of Morris's works illustrated in the catalogue,
and so forth. In many cases, the works are
illustrated with archival photographs taken at
the time of their first exhibition. Often, the
originals were never meant to exist as unique art
objects; instead, they were intended to be made,
a down, and refabricated as they were moved
from one installation site to another. Thus.
there is not a one-to-one correspondence between
the objects in the exhibition and those illustrated
in the catalogue. All art works reproduced
in this monograph are by Morris unless
otherwise noted in the captions.
CATALOGUE
ENTRIES
90
94
96
100
104
106
112
COLUMNS, 1961
PASSAGEWAY, 1961
BOX FOR STANDING, 1961
PORTALS, 1961
BOX WITH THE SOUND OF ITS OWN MAKING.
EARLY MINIMALISM
THE DUCHAMP CONNECTION
122
I-BOX, 1962
126
CARD
130
CABINETS, 1963
132
134
METERED BULB AND LOCATION,
MEASUREMENT, 1963
142
SELF-PORTRAITS, 1963
148
MEMORY DRAWINGS,
154
ROPE AND KNOTS, 1962-64
158
ARIZONA, 1963
160
21.3. 1964
FILE, 1962
1963
1963
162
IMPRINTS AND BODY CASTS. 1963-64
168
SITE, 1964
170
GREEN GALLERY SHOW. 1964-65
MIRRORED CUBES, 1965
RING WITH LIGHT, 1965-66
172
176
178
WATERMAN SWITCH,
180
PERMUTATION, 1967
184
202
SERIALITY
INDUSTRIAL FABRICATION
LEADS
HEARING. 1972
206
MESH
212
FELTS, 1967-83
224
STEAM, 1967
226
THREADWASTE,
230
DIRT, 1968
234
CONTINUOUS PROJECT ALTERED DAILY.
OBSERVATORY, 1971-77
188
192
238
240
244
250
VOICE, 1974
IN
282
288
292
296
1968
1969
RUBBINGS, 1972
BLIND TIME DRAWINGS. 1973
LABYRINTHS, 1973-74
262
274
1965
PIECES. 1966-68
256
268
1961
THE REALM OF THE CARCERAL.
MIRRORS INSTALLATIONS. 1977
CURVED MIRRORS. 1978
1978
HYDROCALS. 1982-84
FIRESTORMS. 1983
INVESTIGATIONS. 1990
BLIND TIME IV (DRAWING WITH DAVIDSON). 1991
PREFACE
Peter Lawson- Johnston
That the Guggenheim Museum has undertaken
a major retrospective devoted to the work or" Robert
the nearby Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
perfectly in keeping with
rris ib
The Guggenheim
was, at
founding
its
then under the directorship of George Heard
Hamilton. The experience
history.
its
devoted
in 1937,
to "non-objective" painting; while the scope of the
museum's
The Guggenheim's commitment
Biumo
Minimalist and Conceptual art
Among
the 1960s
ot
new work and
experience
Morns was born
artistic
in
ISM
art in general
horizons were formed by the
raisonne
Abstract Expressionism, which he became
rise of
Francisco School of Fine Arts
and Heed College
when he began
195355). Thus,
San
make
Morns discovered
of
in
avant-garde dance,
in
Morns
In the early 1960s,
make
painting and began to
out of industrial materials.
large-s< ale
initially
le
but encompasses
conceived
artisni output, whi< h on ludes not only
Andre, Dan Flavin,
.irl
and Robert Smithson. By
ot
the Williams
the Massac husetts
the form
ol tins
Museum
ol
massive
fa<
an institution
ol
torship
ol tin
Du< hampian readymades;
wall
fell
Ins In In
acquire
ulptures; giant
si
1988, Krens
In
hnology spinning out
ol
oui
Tin announcement of thi Morris project in 1989
n
an
ai
I.
no-
the past thru
ol
important
roll
nlii
mi
d<
.or in tin
to
,i
in
1976,
An
<
iitral roll
also n
It
)'
On din torship
h.
In
.i-.'.o.
when Krens
parti
I" a<
tin
M
i
ii
in
.i.illi .1
.a tin
I
for
ijed
in
<
.in. in
ampu
was
iiii'i'i
nlii
li
foi
'I
'
'
program
in.
.i.
a inoiiiiiiii nl.il
mi
Musi
um
in thi
xhibition
Rosalind Krauss
to
long
inuioi
Kn
ir.
shaping
ai
round, (hen,
hi
1<
was joined
Krauss,
i.i
ot
in the
world
ai si In
Iii
1.
for
not surprising
is
run
lik<
in
.
Krens, has a long-
i.
an
role in the
Professoi ol
us founding
in
L976
nous wen u shaped
hi
An
listory
Krauss has been coeditoi
niv< isu\.
the
l<\
and theorist
with Morris's work; and, as with
ideas aboui
1960s through
civt
Solomon
in ur.iloi
dus task
work played an important
ol hei
in.
own
it
idation, but as
n lationship
olumbia
produi ed
ruggenheim has
apa< ity as Director of the
<
Sol l"
interior courtyard ol
m museum
to act
the 1960s and 19 '0s
distinguished an historian,
standing
>H\
xhil
and pn tented
ot
the
tailed to
Krens should undertake the Morris retrospei
oi tin
Assistant
'
.ii
K Guggl nlu
in
th<
iation I" twi
then
.m
ii
art
this acquisition, the
noi merely in his
\\ illiams Coll
.u
in Willi. in
'>i
With
\\ ith this b.u ks
cted thi
fli
thai
ill'
iii
had played
h k
Krens
two began
."It s
thai
in. in. r.
tin
nl ol his
depth the most important
the mosi promini
ie
Ami
ontrol.
<
in
assumed
ontinued
<
American museums lud
that
1950
sinci
and installations that examine the omnipresent threat
ol ce<
complex
ruggenhi im, w here, with Ins
acquisition of the Panza Collection, he
labyrinths and earthworks; intimati drawings;
to
ontemporarj
tory
on
histo
ol ari
was
art into a reality that
while illuminating
continuity
museums
projection about
ol his
but legendary performances thai parody art criticism
thi
ollcgc
North Adams, Massachusetts, would become a
a< ul.ir demonstration ol the new aesthetic in
din
ulpture
si
Art, and from that position he undertook
ol
The conversion
Art.
dan
1961
ol
as
Serra,
and large-scale Minimalist
me
ordinary rangi of Morris's
Museum
ulptun
S<
his sculpture in connei tion with avant-garde
This exhibition begins with works
enormous achievement
the transformation
bui abandoned
all
radicalit) of experience ol the
generation, which includes such artists
had assumed the directorship
Modern
of
dance such as thai choreographed by Martha
Graham.
thai art
this time, Krens. in addition to his teaching duties,
whi< h young
performers were critiquing the expressivity
and the
ol stale
Donald Judd, Richard
dissatisfaction with Abstract Expressionism
was paralleled
on-going.
general were not prepared to service the
in
art ol Morris's
growing
thai Ins
museums
demands
his career as a
expressive and gestural art works. In the late
1950s, however,
in five years, but,
is still
<
painter, he shared Abstract Expressionism's goals
to
such a prolific creator,
is
catalogue
By the mid-1980s, Krens was on\ inced
50), th<
>,
the
oeuvre, a project that was
heduled to be completed
si
nse he
at
the Kansas City Art Institute (1948
1951
own work,
he began work on
In 1978,
of Morris's
originally
aware of during his years as an art-school student
related to the scope of Morris's
first
second connected to Minimalist and Postminimalist
Kansas City, Missouri
in
the powerfully revolutionary aesthetic
could shape.
it
Accordingly. Krens began to act on two fronts, the
and 1970s
the more than three hundred works acquired
were thirty-four pieces by Robert Morris.
His
and the compositional openness of that
installation,
to
Amen
collection of
to
1960s and
the importance of the scale, the conditions of
abstraction culminated in 1990, with the acquisition
of the prized Panza di
of
1970s art, produced in Krens strong convictions about
that area, abstract art has remained a central focus of
the institution.
power
conceptualize the aesthetic ambitions
expanded well beyond
collection has been
working with Morris to
of
realize the piece, as well as Morris's
icpi rii
nc<
ol
at
ol
Krauss's
(hi
end
Minimalism,
most particularly that of Morris and
Serra, an
experience that revised her sense of the import of
and editing of the complicated range of materials that
comprises this book was superbly handled by the
Modern
Guggenheim's Publications department, headed by
It was out of the conceptual
work inspired that she wrote the
sculpture.
revelations their
Anthony Calnek, Managing
Editor.
seminal book Passages in Modern Sculpture (1977) and
edited this book with great talent.
came
Assistant
important exhibitions of
to organize various
contemporary sculpture. This has meant that
for her,
Managing
Deborah Drier
Edward Weisberger,
many
Editor, skillfully handled
editorial aspects of the book,
and Elizabeth Levy,
too, the project of curating a Morris retrospective has a
Production Editor, played an important role in
certain historical inevitability.
The nature of the work made special
demands on the design of the catalogue, demands more
than met by Design Writing Research, New York City.
In beginning to plan this retrospective, the
full-scale presentation
two curators shared
devoted to the
first
the
artist,
a conviction that the richness
and
complexity of the context of Morris's work could
only be served by weaving together
aspects in order to
show how they
project. Therefore, they felt,
Morris's performance
it
all its
been engaged
various
create a continuous
was crucial
we
who
grateful to Babette Mangolte,
and film
crucial to
its
realization.
directed the films
who had
Waterman Switch, generously advised
lent their talents to the reconstructions
Blankensop,
Andrew Ludke, Michele
Sarah Tomlinson, and Pamela Weese
Stella,
our warmest thanks. At the exhibition
offer
itself,
these performances are
medium
shown
made
by the National
joined in
its
support of
Endowment
essays:
we turned
its
critic
this
Maurice Berger; Jean-
du Muse'e, Paris;
Annette Michelson, Professor of Cinema Studies, New
York University, and coeditor of October; and W. J.T
Much
of
the original research that appears in this catalogue
to the
Archive, deposited by the artist at the
Kimberly
Robert Morris
Guggenheim.
Paice, Project Coordinator, utilized this
material in the course of her research to
document
the development of Morris's work; this research led to
the catalogue entries in this book.
The
staff,
including Scott Wixon, Manager
Technician, have been instrumental in the
coordination
is
who
due
to the skill
and devotion of
much
executed the refabrication ot
of the early work for inclusion in this exhibition: Peter
Read,
multiple
Mitchell, editor o( Critical Inquiry, Chicago.
Museum
Museum
those people
Pierre Criqui, editor of Cahiers
was made possible through access
Her
acknowledgment
to a variety of writers to contribute
poet David Antin;
all facets
preparation and installation process. Particular
for the
and The Bohen Foundation.
The complexity of Morris's work made special
demands on the team that conceived and produced
catalogue. In an effort to deal with
Myers, Administrator for Exhibitions and
Manager of Collection Services; Peter Costa, Senior
Technician; and Joseph Adams, Senior
Arts, a Federal agency,
aspects,
L.
Programming, who superbly handled
Graphic Design Services; Anibal Gonzalez-Rivera.
possible by the Sony
The Sony Corporation was
Pamela
Senior Lighting Technician; Cara Galowitz, Manager of
Corporation of America.
this exhibition
financial matters.
exhibition.
of high-definition video. Such a dramatic
presentation was
Husten, Manager
of Installation and Collection Services; Laura Antonow,
new
via the
Amy
of Budget and Planning, coordinated the complex
of design, fabrication, lighting, and installation for this
Pogliani,
Michael
information and assistance regarding the care and
This project has made extraordinary demands on
Susan
we
in the exhibition. Elizabeth Estabrook,
display of the diverse objects.
us on this production. To the dancers and performers
who
as compiler of
Associate Conservator, has provided important
herself appeared in the original 1965 performance of
Morris's
document
effort to
first
Lynne Addison, Associate Registrar, has
works included
are extremely
Lucinda Childs,
Guggenheim's
successfully handled all aspects of the assembly of the
superbly; her devotion to this aspect of the project
was
in the
and present Robert Morris's work,
for the present exhibition.
those performances for inclusion in the exhibition.
In achieving this ambitious goal,
also coordinated the exhibition's
the catalogue raisonne, and then as Project Coordinator
to bring
juxtaposition with his early sculpture. To this end, the
to reconstruct
Kimberly Paice
multiple aspects. Over the course of four years, she has
works of the 1960s into direct
Guggenheim undertook
its
realization.
Manager of Fabrication
Jr.,
Services; Jon
Johnson,
Museum Technician/Carpenter; David
Museum Technician Carpenter; Josh Neretin,
Museum
Technician/Carpenter; Timothy Ross,
Brayshaw,
Technical Specialist; William Graves, Chief Engineer;
and Andrew Ludke, Morris's studio
Finally, our warmest thanks go
assist
CO
Robert Morris
whose cooperation was crucial to the
mounting of this exhibition. In addition to overseeing
himself,
the refabrications of
lent generously
Irom
many of
his own
his earlj works,
collection and
deeply involved with the myriad aspe<
installation
in large
ts ol
he
became
the
and catalogue, The exhibition's mk
measure
function ol his
ess
is
efl
II
THE SOLOMON
R.
HONORARY TRUSTEES
IN
GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION
PERPETUITY
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Justin K. ThannhaustT
TRUSTEES
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
The Right Honorable
Mary Sharp Cronson
Peggy Guggenheim
Earl Castle Stewart
Elaine Dannheisser
PRESIDENT
Michel David-Weill
Peter Law son-Johnston
De Benedetti
The Honorable Gianni De Mi Jul is
Robert M. Gardiner
Carlo
VICE-PRESIDENTS
The Right Honorable
Wendy -J McNeil
I.
Robert
Gardiner
F.arl
Castle Stewart
Jacques Hachuel Moreno
Rainer Heubach
Barbara Jonas
Thomas Krens
DIRECTOR
Thomas Krens
Piter Lawson-Johnston
Samuel J. LeFrak
Peter B. Lewis
Wendy
I.-J. McNeil
Edward H. Meyer
Marcel
Ospi
L.
Ronald O. Perelman
Michael M. Rea
Richard A
M.D.
Rifkind,
Hem/ Ruhnau
Denise Saul
Rudolph
Terry
B.
Schulhof
Semel
James
Sherwood
B.
Raja Sidawi
Seymour Sine
Peter
W Stroh
phen
<
Swid
John S W.ulsworth,
St<
Ram
leigh
Warner,
Jr.
Jr.
Weber
had
Wettach
Jiirgen
Mi,
fohn Wilmerding
Donald
Wilson
WilUam T Ybisakcr
HONORARY TRUSTEE
Mme
Pompidou
laude
TRUSTEE, EX OFFICIO
I
in:'
\li
ISI
Ik
DIRECTOR EMERITUS
Thomas
Messei
PROJECT TEAM
COCURATORS
Mary Ann Hoag
Rosalind Krauss
James Hodgson
Thomas Krens
Elvis
EXHIBITION COORDINATOR
Kimberly Paice
EXHIBITION AND TECHNICAL SERVICES
Pamela
L.
Myers, Administrator for Exhibitions and
John
Henry Klimowicz
Andrew Ludke
Daniel McCarthy
James McCaul
Gary Nichols
K. Tregar Otton
Programming
Steven Plaxco
Lynne Addison, Associate Registrar
Thomas
Elizabeth Estabrook, Associate Conservator
Samuel Reveles
Amy
Phillip Rivlin
Husten, Manager
of
Budget and Planning
Radloff
Cara Galowitz, Manager of Graphic Design Services
David Rogers
Michelle Martino, Graphic Designer
Robert Seng
Laura Antonow, Senior Lighting Technician
Paul Shore
David Heald, Manager of Photographic Services
Adnene Shulman
Richard Sigmund
Lee Ewing, Photographer
Samar Qandil, Photography Coordinator
Wixon, Manager of Installation and Collection
Scott
Michael Stern
Eugene
Tsai
Services
Peter Read, Jr., Manager, Fabrication Services
Anibal Gonzalez-Rivera, Manager, Collection Services
Museum Technician
Museum Technician
David M. Veator, Senior Museum Technician
Robert Attanasio, Museum Technician
Lisette Baron Adams, Museum Technician
ADDITIONAL CURATORIAL STAFF AND
INTERNS
Joseph Adams, Senior
Carla Grosse, Research Assistant
Peter Costa, Senior
Jennifer Blessing, Assistant Curator
Jennifer
Abrams
Sonja Bekkerman
Jon Brayshaw, Carpenter
Lori Beth Carsillo
James Cullinane, Museum Technician
Chrystine de
Jocelyn
Groom, Museum Technician, Administration
Bryn Jayes, Museum Technician
David Johnson, Carpenter
Josh Neretin,
Museum
Technician/Carpenter
Timothy Ross, Technical
Specialist
Museum Technician
Dennis Vermeulen, Museum Technician
Guy Walker, Museum Technician
William Smith,
Amy
la Verriere
Fennell
Shana Gallagher
Uta Klinger
Haike Laufmann
Lisa Leavitt
Irene
Mees
Menendez
Ingrid
Maria Soledad Perez Valverde
Begofia Anduiza, Technical Services Intern
Allegra Pcsenti
Mark DeMairo,
Caterina Pierre
Facilities
Manager
Walter Christie, Electrician
Amy
William Graves, Chief Engineer
Carol Tanka
Michael Lavin, Electronic Systems Technician
Catherine Vesey
Reichel
Edward Bartholomew
Jocelyn Brayshaw
CATALOGUE
Paul Bridge
Anthony Calnek, Managing Editor
Deborah Drier. Project Editor
Jack Davidson
Michael Davidson
Marcus DeVito
dward Weisberger,
Assist. mi
Lizabeth Levy, Produi tion
Managing
Susan Fisher
Laura Morris. Assist. nil
Larry Forte
Jennifer Knox, Editorial Assistant
Richard
ditor
ditor
ditor
Gombar
Allan Greller
Designed by J. Abbott Miller and David
Howard Harrison
Design Writing Resean
h,
New V
B.
Williams.
>rk < it)
INTRODUCTION
THE TRIUMPH OF ENTROPY
/
think that what T/mt Keeper has knuu n all along. Ignatz,
Robert
work
a single
is
continuous project altered daily." To see
is
work begins and ends
of
And
exegesis in any form.
How
the current context:
With
artist. Yet
up the problem
does one "know" an
known
who
at the
same
knowing an
work
artist's
are
story of their subject. Critical
presumed
and
and important aspects
work. Special
on the occasion
Body Bob (one
remains. As
still
mediation between the experience
hermetii obje<
imbedded
notion
lii
own
.msr
-(
it
is
in
and permutable
ontiiiuotis
hess with tin
se
direi
definition he
his
Morris puts
opposition to cntropv and
game
project
hln.
m hmr
Ins
rrogatorj and expressive,
th<
on
-....
This
working with Morris and
iti
si
led to the
of study
COUrSI
through an)
Minimalism
tin
evei
Id chai
xvlll
lo
an.
an rounds
story ot
the-
text that
and transcriptions
active participation of the artist,
began work on
series ot essays that arc
text tor Morris's
atalogue raisonne',
<
in 1978.
that follow contain reproductions ot twenty six
was undertaken by
ha me,
The principal ob|ective
to
is
to his
lati
lal
noi
in
III
less ol
.1.
hint ion
espei
iallj
noi thai ol
spa.
undertake n
in thi
Ml
(II
ii
KOI
ontext
in th<
in
catalogue raisonne project was
of the
ol the artist, the definitive
tor the publication
incorporated three elements: to provide a complete chronological
description, and photograph of every work that Morris has
created; to provide a complementary volume ol
and
to treat
and discrete work
years thai
this
each
.it
i.-ntanes on Morris's
now
and
Finally, to
the author
l>v
was
tiles of
ol
2,500
Initiated in
the Leo
ipei live
objei
1978
the
its
with the rei ."ds lor
I
Sonnabend
Museum
In
was announced as
hive, but the
is
400 pieces
galleries,
was
988, when the Robert
part of the Guggenheim'-
exhibition program. The current exhibition end
assembled an
scope
he in hive on Morrl
catalogue drew substantially from the
in
provide a series of
During the fifteen
Hie nutnbei ol art woiks
shifte.l
relocated to the Guggenheim
1994-95
published texts
proiect has been under development,
excess
well in
all
article in this literature BS B
art;
wotk
and course have grown and
work, win.
made
Thomas Krens,
his.
assemble, with the assistance
ther chi sciences or
somehow, n
pan ill III spi
the author,
1978; the notes and drafts are
on< lusion thai
changing perceptions of thi work
II
arc-
intended as the text for a catalogue raisonne of the artist's work.
bui onlj through direct experience ol
mm
.III.
illustrate a series ot episodes
series of ten essays on the work of Robert Morris that were
from the
the work in
of
in the process ot pin.
am
coherence, however,
Its
later on.
selected pages of interview transcripts, notes, and drafts for a
listing,
onteni
thai 'I" noi
is, ol
his project
man
work
fields
the humanitii
gaps
in the
fill
record of the entire oeuvre. Original plans
adept, and
allj
tii
medium and
years ol
ii
raisonni
then an few
episodes and
selection ot notes, drafts,
atalogui
to
beings are.
NOTES AND KEY TO THE REPRODUCTIONS
thai he
Along the way, the
annoi win
and
ichaustivel) diverse in
i
inti
historii ally const ious
In o\<
Human
and context.
ope of his work better than any seamless
The pages
on the
ultural enterprise, mobilizing
work has been both
and things have the capacity
tacts
continuous project, they can suggest
intended as
By making
pie< e,
(in res. intelligent e, m\i\ insight in a
knows by
the whole-
tell
an iterative, creative, and repetitive
is
This proiect
i
is
of
power because the
a special
and was adapted from the
any other
ol
preihi ated
strui rural exhaustion.
himself as an artist
.
document
encounter with Morris's work Because they
The
partit ularly
is
perhaps, than that
so.
time
ot its
one
strm tun- Morris's work
more
artist of Ins
all ot
and the various me. minus that may be
in its
problematii
fragment gains
was made with the
an increasingly
ol
m my
ot Morris's
the only-
is
and
follows, then,
could fabricate.
the whole story.
tell
Yet the story, in whole or in part,
art
one of his most recent texts) says,
even "the whole story Can never
to
incomplete in a conventional sense, and part of the
of
asionally brought to bear Vet the
fictional aliases in
entirety
What
generates.
These fragments
process.
MIT
a catalogue raisonne and other feats of academic hea\
littn
its
conclusion. If "the whole story can never
and think
retrospective) and classification (hke
Guggenheim
first
must
coterminous
is
not an explanatory text but rather a
Knowing
compilation (such as the public ation by
Press of Morris's complete writings
by nature, interactive and imaginative; we experience
to tell the
historical analyses
of a
it
retain both mystery
and elucidate the most
are mobilized to define
problem
commentary
gaps between the
are
remarkably prescribed. Retrospective exhibitions and
documentary monographs
ot his art
than the oeuvre in
less
story," the
for
two decades,
in
fragments. Morris's work inevitably leads to this
who
ever lived?
the
the introduction to this catalogue of the
which the definition
the
artist
information, variety, and complexity as any artist
efforts at
it
concede the meta-definition of his work not simply
nothing
in
much
time provides in and around his work as
significant
idt ritual u ith
the artist himself but rather to the only element with
as a text that
this sets
so actively resists being
The means
is
major Morris retrospective
consciously seduces, and ultimately resists, a definitive
who
that only death
"a
any other
it
underestimate a powerful
to radically
body
his
is
Robert Morns Replies to Roger Denson"
Morris,
Robert Morris's entire oeuvre
way
Thomas Krens
Its
etalogue raisonni material
sheer scale mandated by the
IJ
Tape 1.2
Tape 1.1
Talks about 1961, what was made then: Plus-Minus Box,
Tom:
Tom's outline for book.
R.M. says he wasn't showing
Footnote for the Bride, etc.
then... mentions Ilyana(?)
PAINTINGS
California
R.M. That preceeds everything. Whether that should be included
in book or not,
...John Cage listened to the BOX WITH THE SOUND OP ITS OWN
R.M.
don't know.
MAKING for
hours.
was extremely uncomfortable.
didn't
expect him to listen...
WERNER JEFFERSON, photographer of R.M. "a Calif, paintings mentioned.
R.M.
a
few
completely atopped painting about 59. . .60. .59.
Most
threw away.
And
had all these shows out there
But later on, about 68... 69, I noticed certain kinds of reseraof
blances between some /the felt pieces and forms of those paintings.
Coincidence?
don'
know.
Tom:
Was it
R.M.
No.
came in, closed the door, turned on the tape and
through the box. A speaker is inaide, the
At that time we didn*
Certain problems exist with painting.
I
on the other hand you ended up with an object.
How long 4ki
Tom:
That was something
it
only one who managed to put those two things together.
something.
at a time.
didn't have
lot of room to work on big things.
1978
left:
Author's unpublished transcript draft, dated
raisonne not immediately feasible. Expectations that digitized
December
images and texts transferred
between Robert Morns and the author,
soon render the more traditional forms
obsolete further argued for the delay
of
Then these
That's why the COLUMN was not put together for a while.
conception made the publication of the catalogue
would
hard-copy publishing
of the definitive publication.
sanding
Sometimes I'd work on things
to laser and cd-rom disks
to
.right on the box.
was still dealing with that same thing.
RECEIVED DEC 13
original
..
The COLUMN was made in I960 and put together in 61.
2 -
changed media, and
half hours. The entire thing
other small things were being made.
made was BOX WITH THE
SOUND OP ITS OWN MAKING, which does resolve that problem.
Every tning.
That's dated January 1961.
couldn't deal with that and unlike Pollock... he was the
it take you to make the BOX.
Three-three and
R.M.
that became more and more disturbing to me on an intellectual
objects
recorder outside.
have small tape recorders.
couldn't
accept. Because on the one hand you were invloved in some activity,
One of the first tkxji
The sound is played
"fcape
quit painting
couldn't solve.
There was a kinB of ontological character to painting
this tape recorder recorded the whoe thing.
for a particular reason--certain problems
level.
continuous loop?
saved
side
1.
13, 1978, of audiotaped conversation
This
is
the
first
p.
1,
tape
1,
transcript of a series of
discussions that took place between November 1978
and February 1979
in
NY., and New York
City.
thirty
Wilhamstown, Mass., Gardiner,
There were approximately
hours of conversation, which produced more than
250 pages
right: Ibid.,
of transcript text.
p.
5,
tape
1,
side 2.
MAS KRENS
x\ x
12
Tape
It.
TOM: They seem to hive an apersonal monumental austerity.
-ere
RH:
ude
..
if
society's evolution of llnguage was
out of concrete that'd reinforce their massivity..
of things.
method of control.
So it
and cons traint, ... spaces can be metaphors...
winted to mike something large, but purposely
then detailed.
was all those things those prisons refer to in relationship to
the individual
Exactly, and those ideas were carried on in the prison
drawings, ilso Labyrinths.
I
13
Tip* U.2
There's no given plan.
complex
Basically they dealt with
spaces you noved through or spaces that contained you.
At the end of every year there are a couple of proposals
TOH:
made
All ire to be related to one mother,
RH:
They
Were they intented to be constructed?
tacked in.
One for Goosen's Land was.
Yes.
One for Conrad Pisher
was supposed to be done, but he felt there were too many
were to be fitted together in some Tashion that could only
problems with the local police.
have been slide clear once there was a site.
Richard Roland was one.
get a lot of correspondence from different artists.
Richard Roland wanted a project from me that he could do and
Asks about his interest in prisons.
TOM:
..
the manner of the
that's why
drawings, technique as well as conception....
RMs
don't know if it was ever
think being fascinated with Pirenesi more than anything
CONTINUOUS PROJECT ALTERED DAILY:
elae and reading Pouciult (sp?) who wrote t book ibout the
history of prisons.
to do prints,
Then
hid this pressure.
hid to do them within
..
if
was going
very short time ind
sometimes like i deadline to get something organized.
They are prisons in
Cos toll
So those
an
much colder
Tom
noon.
that aociety it
lirger prison.
Leakey
things,
left: Ibid.,
right: ibid
IK
IU'
12, tape 4, side 2.
3,
tape 4, side
.11 It
IN
2.
decided to do this project.
I'd work
The warehouse was only open in the after-
thru Sat.,
it'd
had no idea of what I'd do or put in
knew I'd work everyday.
taking things away.
Somewhere
I
So
So for eich afternoon of the show, Tues.
be open to the public.
there except
organized a
started with a ton of clay on a particular day.
en it in the mornings.
says this)
Controls move from public execution to educition
When Haig Of) was up there... way up town.
..People did projects there.
Plreniil'a ldei it quit* extensive, not Just ibout prisons,
but restriln and control,
had a warehouse for a while and
show of other artiets.
very metaphorical sense... not about
how bad Rlekirs lalind ia. (But for Pirenesi they were bad in
romantic way, yours
There's a publication on that, no text, Just photos.
three conditions triangulated the project.
gave it to him.
performed.
have the text. U
also kept
altorod it, adding
record of ihat
Not only of what
did.
did, but how
felt about this, which was an extremoly uncomfortable situation.
Underlining the paradox, on the other hand,
When Marcel Duchamp stopped working in 1923 on his large glass, wire, lead,
and paint construction entitled La Marie J*f%
H6 Par Ses Celebaires,
Metae .it
was his
aiMfM
intention to publish a collection of drawings, textual notations, and various
located at some distance from an active area of critical consciousness
work of art produced between 1911 and 1923.
presented problems in the 1920's.
large glass was extremely unweildla#.
and fragile.
as
But this perception,
occasion, totally misunderstood.
The piece was heavy, over eight feet tall,
treatment of Robert Morris's work is concerned.j
The notes and drawings
in
"Tn"e
Green Box
purposefully camoflaged or obscured by the artist, for reasons ranging from a
Duchamp-like fascination with the erotic element in the partially concealed, to
in random order,
conscious attempts to structure his art in such a manner as to extend the
During the eight years that lapsed between the exhibition of
temporal vitality of
The Large Glass and the publication of The Green Box , the complexity of the piece
was virtually unknown, and its conceptual elegance completely unappreciated.
And finally it can be said that
potential and actual layers of meaning interest is certain work has been
The Large Glass was abandoned^ when Duchamp was able to finance the publication of
of the notes, drawings, and photographs,
Despite his writing Morris has never been very
least the last two decades had certainly not moved toward resolution as far a its
presented a different problem - one that was only solved eleven years after
94
*uch
discussed crisis of criticism that has plagued the American art world for at
was shattered in transit, and the piece disappeared into a private collection
facsimile edition of
forthcoming on the intent or meanings behind individual works, and the much
After its single exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926 the glass
ii
of the work that is known is only imperfectly or partially understood, or on
Physically, the exhibition of the
ultimately to be repaired by Duchamp only ten years later.
virtually unknown, having been lost, destroyed, only temporarily initallcd, or
In fact, according to writers who knew Duchamp, he saw the efforts of
in of itself
Other work
for one reason or another, the -*em*of critical coniideration.
these two parallel endeavors - the object and its essentially textual notations
a single, unified
argued that these
Numerous extant works, for example are literally unknown, having never entered,
photographs related to the conception, development, and execution of this difficult
piece.
U jgsmmmT be
are significant gaps in the available information on the work of Robert Morris.
given piece by releasing its meanings at an indeterminate
future date, a delayed art work, again, perhaps, much in the manner of Duchamp.
Even
Perhaps Morris just intuitively sensed that with some work, that to preserve
then, notes Duchamp, scholar George Heard Hamilton, "Duchamp's elegant invitation
its relevance was to preserve its mystery.
to the reader to thread his own way, with the aid of the notes, through the
artist's mind went unattended by all except Andre Breton."'4
Breton's precipient
essay of 1935, and Professor Hamilton's own/trans; ations of twenty-five of The
Green Box documents related to the concept of readymades remained the only scholarly
investigations into the multiple meanings and mechanations of the piece for more
than thirty years after Duchamp's work on it ceased.
atot
Ibvre are similarities between this situation, and the one we confront with
Robert Morris's work.
Ay-nM*./ ^JA/^V
<f
&>/'*>*<"-
**7ittttrfu*^
One can suggest that the gap in Duchamp's work between the
time and manufacture of a complex work of art with many layers of meaning, and the
process of revealing those many layers of meaning, might find analogy in Morris's
work.
As unlikely as that might seem in what appears to be our overdocumented and over *
left:
Author's unpublished draft of the untitled introductory essay
for the Morris
catalogue raisonne project, November 1980,
p.
1.
right: Ibid., unpaginated notes.
MASKHI'.
M x
The degree to
hich his concerns have shifted from moment to moment while retaining
<,
consistant
HI'
110&
relevancy for his art, has Bade t- prospect for overview and analysis 'precarious.
PerUWOWm
ieorge Cutler's art historical model can be used to
problem.
lli
lr
one aspect of the
Wl-J-f
at least as far as this stud/ is concerned, can be presented as nothing so ruch
as a critique of both the art historical and critical method.
92
tS^ENTuU. Fokm- cusses
particular problem posed by the oeuvre of Robert Morris,
Hii-i
lllf
6A*C>
ovoioi
Kubler has proclaimed that the "aim of the historian, regardless of his
specialty in erudltion.is to portray tine," but allows that "Tine, like mind,
is not
knowable as such, "-which is the fundamental paradox of the historian.
Kubler's reference, of course, is to the basic level at which
direct experience of the world
RlX HJTM-
il
r*.
human beings only
fuvt
(hi
PlAOOMAU I-Ul
Ovoios
VERTICAL CA/OIDS
through nerve endings that report immediate
is
_^
i s
at o ne with
U" * preconscious sute the >il Inn] rii~
r
-*
has no conception of %**
his environment, and feels no need for complex figurations of truth and knowledge!!
sensory stimulation.
i_
the development of consciousness has come the need to possess and conquer the
-iinlniihll
aspects of the worldj ietzche
"
drive for knowledge, this "will
to power,"
w>
il
ii
was instinctual,
tnat
thaa.
^^
reflection of the
human inability to tolerate undescribed chaos. "The so-called drive for knowledge
4mm?> be traced back to a drive to appropriate and conquer:
memory, the Instincts, etc. have developed as
the senses, the
consequence of this drive." The
|.
character of the chaos of the world was "not of
lack of necessity but a lack of
jmj
order, arrangement, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever other names there are for
mBBmjmmjmmmsBBmBSmmmmmmmmwB
fx r^Li^t
mi mi ml "" K"
ii*
it
fma
shudder In the nerve strings, being
v T 5t Sham
iNPUxriNC.
Morris catalogue raisonne project,
December 1980, p
enterprise. His work from
Pieces of Steel
photocopy
thesis,
of Morris's
"Form-Classes
Appendix D,
p.
December 1980, on
scale.
unpublished 1966 Hunter College master's
in
the
Work
of
Constantm Brancusi,"
and continues on the verso, reads as follow.
and
it
This drawing
1 1
map
either anticipates or follows the
both the foundation and the
is
KOHEIU MORRIS
literal
ot Brancusi's
mapping
achievement
activity that
is
blueprint lor Morris's minimalist
is
Hot
s.
\\%\
first
963 (Green
Gallery) to
968 (200
nothing less than a systematic catalogue
form classes ot solid geometry keyed to human
is
both a primary architectonic form and a
cottm, scaled to Morris's
own dimensions.
This
"true" minimal piece, but in both
is
its
a key
work not
form and
roughness, fhe bridge and mediation between (he dispassionate
and passionate aspects
"scientilic"
Key document.
Box (1962)
only his
92. The handwritten notation, which begins on the
front of the sheet
njo
of the major
right: Author's unpublished notation,
Hfrv
ASc*vEcrouio
m*
direct
Author's unpublished draft of the untitled fourth essay for the
left:
)#
prfnary signified.
iiu.
^jptii^iae c^i^o
.-ft
morphic defining compels humanity to create an unending proliferation of interpretations whose only
"* n
FrtAuiMBNTlMCr
As Nietzche suggests, this need for power through anthropo-
sign of nothing, leads to
'XI
and
ot Bob's nature- reflei tins the
'anafytii al" minimalist enterprise
and fhe extreme onto/ogical awareness
on the one hand,
that ripples through every
aspect ot Bob's work and being, on the other. (Build the death
here.)
WW.
lllf
lJ-*'
?
It has often been said of Morris that he is one of the roost fully
Morris's relationship to the^epistomologicaKfield in
aware and historically conscious practicing artists of his time.
general
is the
#68* -$e8rs>?s
,
development,
During the
signular characteristic of his work throughout the course of its
a^
undoubetly provides the key for
course of the four year development og this project there was nothing
continuous understanding of
in my numerous excahnges with Morris that suggested otherwise, but the depth of
J^his
stylistic departures.
His knowledge in a variety of fields is more
that awareness and consciousness, and its possible meanings, only gradually
detailed and comprehensive that that of the informed laymen, but less than that
became apparent.
of the specialist- except in
{jis
own fild where
lis
is
As the chronological
biography and oeuvre of BBJ528Se$30828ase32
the specialist- and he
this artist was slowly and even laboriously reconstructed from imperfect and
Knee* knowledge to his work. Therein
has continuously appl ied that epistomological
incomplete collections of sources- among them 4h8 s e#e?
lies a major impulse in Morris's art.
must of the over 1600
He uses^ history as his medium in a larger
works of art, gallery listings, personal archives and files, private and museum
and sublte sense of the word, beyond the consciousness of history as
lingusitic
collections, published texts, notebooks, personal and business correspondence,
strcuture, perhaps ina ritualized use of the shifting epistomogogical framework,
textbooks, reviews, artciles, catalgoes, the artist's personal library, interviews,
Levi-Strauss began the flight from history in the 1970's be pointing out that
films, and video tapes, just to mention
we are a "hot" society rapidly cooling off.
few- tN^p96CaP#
picture of the artist's
The structural analysis |S6##ee&= = $
thought also began to emerge.
It is a picture that is far from
complete in its
performed on the history of art by Jack Burnham concluded the end of art history
detail, but a picture that demonstrates certain patterns or consistencies; such
as it had come to be known;
"the driving force of avant-guardism has been it
as a practical
mystigue as an undectedted syntactical structure."
awareness of the major developments in thought that describe the
And Morris himself has
history of ideas; and
particular interest in exploring the relationship between
acknowledged that the structural gestalt once 46te& detected, exhausts itself
art and various of these Se*a*$eSs6*6S developments expressed in other fields.
qua gestalt.
The ftei0$S$06Sif$t
revelation that the historical avant-garde
Morris is a student of Art History. He read Freud and spent five years in analysis.
operated by transparently logical
,fifl5fl5fl<fiiS8S?
essentially liguistic mechanisms,
implications of Duchamp with John Cage, formalism
He discussed the theoretical
that in the mid-20th century modern historicism encountered its own irrelevence,
with Clement Greenberg,
that the continuation of art making in this post-historical
situation
David Smith with Rosalind Krauss, and structural
isrr
must
with Jack Burnham.
necessarily revolve around the ritualized activities of
tytf
He understood something of the avrieties of criticism and
process drained of
philosophy, and the methodologies that lay behind them.
His <i*i*t
master's thesis
historical meaning
was a structural analysis of Srancusi.
His minimal sculpture was based on
an interest in psychology, perception, and Piaget.
philosohpy of Hegel, Husserl
He was acquainted with the
?Jeitzche, Kant, and Wittgenstein and aspects of their
thought appeared at certain times in his work, as did Velikovsky's.
like a philosopher.
He is politically senstive.
and Derrida's "deconstroction" and "difference" influence his art.
left:
Author's unpublished draft of the untitled
Morris catalogue raisonne project,
fifth
essay for the
November 1980,
He reasoned
Aspects of Foucault's "archeology"
p. 1.
right: Ibid., p. 6.
THOMAS KKF\S
ixlil
fU*
,i^
of painting in 1949 and bis claims for the potential o( sculp-
iere not a function of a critical epiphany occassloned by a
most often generates from a
" breakdown
ing activity" im y italics),
mmmmmV
of normal-problem solvox from an exhaustion of
tbe predominant paradigm's ability to continue its development
dramatic breaatbrougb of an individual or group of artists.
or maintain
Batber It was based on a careful reading of tbe history of both
means most familiar to it.
art and culture tbat produced the theoretical conclusion tbat tb
^puieoi lal
1 1
(HmVm"mVJmaJmWmVVJ P r t*>loaiinaDt position by tbe
Tbis potential loss of relevance,
because at tbe onset of tbe crisis
it
is un-
modern sensibility was increasingly demanding an immediate, pure
clear whether the impaired functional ability is either structur
concrete, and non-referential experience from its art; and
al or temporary),
furthermore, it "asks for tbe exclusion of all reality external
turn,
Tbat this perspective
medium of tbe respective art."
generate tbe momentum for new formations and rules and a resulting
was not yet a conscious, explicit, or operational aspect of
modern art in 1949 only underlines tbe point.
re for tbe characteristics of
the
paradigm shift.
Looking into tbe
generated by tbe breakdown of normal science:
paitmng
Bal ilco's contribution s to the study of motion depend ed closely
on flBHi difficulties^^ discovered in Vistot le' mmmWrnVrnW
concerned with the immediate and the concrete experience were
theor> ty scholastic critics. Newton's new theory of light and
color originated In the discovery that none of the exi sting preparadigr- theories would account for the length of the
spectrum, and the wave theory that replaced Newton's was announced
In the midst of growing concern about the MBmtmVB anomalies in
the relation of diffraction and polarization effects to Newton's
theory.
severely limited to the literal qualities of tbe medium; to
mmmmVml
"configurations of pigment on a flat surface" or to "colors
placed on a two dimensional surfai-
Greenberg was essentially corral
If
analysis, why was he compelled eleven years later to quality his
.
nal judgement and allow that
iger than ever?
[>a
i.
Is
It
Llkewi se
the state of painting seemed
the answer to this proposition tha
in
stances:
of Robert Morris's work and sensibility are to be
that the pursuit
it
It
th<
em-
SBsaH
Author's unpublished draft of the untitled seventh essay for
the Morris catalogue raisonne project,
right: Ibid, p. 5.
ft'
'hi
h|e
oneg^
is
(may begin to lose face and
thi
of
tbe collective subscription to a common methodology or body
defines, science moves tastes
aaaaaamaaaa^^t deeply through
the transition from
willingly accepted by all the practitioners in the field.
"Though they flBmmmmml
Long as tbe tools that a paradigm supplies continue to prove
x k
But
science than the pursuit of disc
capable ol solving
left:
in
that is "that crises are a necessary precondition lor
operational model to another is not an immediate event, nor
'nary theories is even less a
ol
.rmal
mmmmmmmmmmV Kuhn found all theoret leal developments
emergence of novel theories."
Again, Kuhn's analysis of the mechanics
regular acl
the history of science demonstrated similar structural circum-
aaaaaaaassl
i
Among numerous examples, Kuhn cited the theoret
leal breakthroughs of Galileo and Newton as examples of response;
"new" art, Creenberg saw
that the theoretical sctructural options open to a
therefore precipitates a crisis, which, in
inspires an extraordinary search for solutions that may
li
M< IRRIB
December 1980.
4.
Knowledge,
in the activities of
the scientists or artists at
the
point of crisis through the period of transtion, that an explan-
ation of Greenberg's dilemma can be found.
coAfsaVu}*eii
2T
The overall goal of the book, is to develop an appropriate treatment of the
whole work, lnother words the whole work needs an appropriate response in terms
of the book. The RD or Abrams coffee table would be a waste of time, if not
for you, at least for myself.
or an explanation that Is moving Into the present and derives or focus** only
on the Immediate past
Kuhn development of the structure of scientific
revolutions is particularly effective for an analysis of this section. Talking
about the develpment of ever more comprehensive theories, based on scientific
evidence and the continually develpment and redevelopment of scientific paradigms
One thinks of Eisteln's search for unified field theory and can make the analogy
of developing a unified theory of art that explains all phenomenon and can be
used not necessarily as a predictive device, but definitely as a tool to anticipate
the future.
.
What is needed is an explanation (KB: Rk maps the expanded field of post
modernism and suggests that while this kind of investigation of an historical
structure is necessary, it is only a small area and it does not address Itself to
the need for explanation.
'
This project develops from the proposition, fully ackowledglng the need for
a reportorial and at least quasi scientific objectivity, the Morris' work
occupies a preeminent position, if not the preeminent position, of art of the
last ## twenty years, and to accompany it detailed presentation, a logical
theoretical explanation that ackowledges both the difficulty of such a task,
the specific theorretical concerns that are developed within individual and
groups of works within specific historical periods, as well as locating the
activity 1) within the larger context of the commonly referred tonhistory
of art and 2) the larger context of the demonstrated activity that we have
catogorized as art making.
3. The map of artistic actvity from beginning of artististic activity through
the present and into the future In terms of consciousness about the Datructure
of the process historically
y/WxACfWS
Essential to this endeavor is a complete and unadorned, objective presentation
of the complete chronological purve as is possible. The catalogue raisonne
approach makes logical sense from an objective and scientific perspective.
The explanation is couched in terms of neutrality. The theoretical unifying theory
is presented with proofs, but within a necessary speficic Ineluctable bias.
The work itself, without drawing specific attention to o-ly single interpretations of the material, Is explained in terms of details as thoroughly as
possible. In fact, the reportorial edge to the combined volums, the without
commentary will occupy approximately 70Z of the space in a combined total of
six hundred + pages.
The explanation: Ref. RK the need for an explanation.
Deal with the need for newness, the dialectical, development, change
Part of the structural biological develpment suggested by Piaget in Structuralism.
On the theoretical level, the structural approach sees an essential uniformity
in the development of things, from the organizations of cells, individuals,
patterns of though, soclties, and cultures. The most reasonable expanation
would be that af a kind af adaptive capability, to be able to change to adapt
to the always changing environment. What these characteristics (ability to
adapt and change) are tied to is survival, even in the Darwinian sense. Thrfse
creatures, cell, societies, that can adapt without surious rupture are those
that are the most capable and those that survive. That characteristic filters down
to artists in an unconsciousness need to be "original" unique, (giving something
of the person to the art or culture of an era.) within the last 100 years it
has manifested itself most directly in the art-making aesthetic or impulse as the
thoeyr of the avant garde, (form of the dialectical concept of history)
6*
if
(J*^
1.
2. Art History itself is only 100 years old. Measure that against the 6000 years of
art making cultyre, and you have the conscious perception of development in terms
of history to be only a fairly recent phenomenon. Within that recent histories
many theories have been suggested, developed, and mapped, but primarily in
vleM#M#6t# bounded by fairly precise historical situations, although that the
time of the development of these thoeries, they primarily explain without
particular awareness of the nature of continuing time and development. In other words,
they focus primarily on the present
left:
The consciousness is not just one of history, but also of the potential for artistic
expression on all levels, of concept, material, manifestation.
Janyes makes several points in his analysis about the breakdown. Por survival,
the bicameral mind was needed to sepearte speculation from the completion of
r|ftM# taks. If one had to cut a column for a greek temple and they sere not
being paid in a time before money was prevalent (not good analog, uae more
primitive time) the voices of authorltv kept him at his ftfi task)
More developmet in the area of how art was made in earlier times and civilizations"
1. Example, the pyrmids or stonehenge. No consciousness ab out the art of art.
These weee devices, perhaps observatories, the engineering and architecture of
based on repeltion and empirical obsrvatlon to improve that repetition over
long times rather than speculative minimalist aesthetics. Th4 communication took
place through the tightly knit and maintained groups of scientist /priests
struggling for some consciousness of their time and situation. The decoration of
those temples with specific or religious information, also had the function of
mediation. The consciousness of art as art, in entity in and of itself did not
take place until the concepts and Investigations of religion and science were albe
to separate themselves from 4#4 art and move off In areas of their own more
,
successfully
Author's unpublished notes for the Morris catalogue raisonne
project, ca. 1981.
right: Author's unpublished notes and diagram for the Morris
catalogue raisonne project, ca. 1981.
MAS KHKNH xxv
tftfTvtC
&
XL
frtsrc/J'rx
#/os*TZ
What should extiit between the attlst and the crtitlc, on the one hand, la a kind
of competitive Intellect, each trying to move the other one furhtcr along, rather
the the critic be a acre flag waver for the artist, because the artlat is reHreensted
after all, by an object rather than words. There are certain creative people, in the
fullest concept of the word, to whom the visual object represents a certain kind
of wanted energy, and don't cpoee to eneter that kind of annual situation. Yet, they
do not aake totem*, for all the power of their reasoning, and totems aove people.
There Is a point, however, when the resveres id rrue. Perhaps by force of event
of ltaulon, certain words becosM lenurtalized in a text of a particular declarartlon.
If the event associated with that declaration became Important enough, the declratlon
would cone to represent the event, being the object /symbol of a watershed or moving
situation. But those events that particularly get honored in such a way
'-arrlor-Polltic inn-Art ist-Crltlc-Sc lent 1st
*/?'/(& 'A/raj <m cftv&fat.
Sou/ //*S6t//H*i<&
'S
-/err- tJi^/-
yeW
o-
orf-frs
r^.
6e**r.
"
/>/<hSO,
Werrior-Prleat-Politic Ian-Art let-Cr it ic-Sc lent Ist-Diety
IndlvlBual-Warrlor-Prelst-Polltlclan-Arylst-Crltlc-Sclenilst-Dlety
(the stagea of life
aeCrvfal jfattfCOc/ AfSsn S
re essentially polltlcan. The artlat Is attempting to usurp the space of the
warrior, and
and in the circle, the crltlco of the dlety. In fact, Its not a
line, Its a circle.
7&-
(Stem
/v/u*S.
~/te
/*
j? a/thy
&
i<i
wrxtt
cJ*>v4-
nitinne
4<'/{/'J-t
<
o^r
//.
^cA>y~
'
tr>
fen /*>}'
,,r-vymy
'
{*>-(?-
Tat are these people the parldigme of the stages of development? The evidence would seem
to indicate not. Don't all of these "occupations" eppposedly acceptable to
"free entry (and exit) juat become a matter of choice and personal preference. And
what arwe the character lstslcs of the situation that come to be characterized by that
choice, lot particularly Inspiring. ThesmmmsP#vy socialist state la one of no
competition and no development. For all the vertuea of paclflcty. It tradlt iojally has
not been very effective. Or has it? Things, changes If thla magnitude, cannot
happen overnight. There has to be a huge commonality of purpose and that takes tiae
to generate, but once generated. It is very hard to change (here I an talking about
style)
An
rk-
*}
-uu,
left:
tlMy
*.,
flod out
+ M u mil
ud
too
ue<
^ ^
Author's unpublished notes and diagram for the Morris
relatively simple
geometric plywood lorms
show. He was certainly not the
catalogue raisonne project, ca. 1981.
firsi
in
the
Green
artisl to write
G,i
about
ait
in
recent times. The acerbic commentary ot Ad Remhardt and the
right: Author's unpublished handwritten note, ca. 1980, which
thoughtful analyses ot
reads as follows:
Hamilton did
late
much
installments entitled "Notes on Sculpture' /usf over a year alter
i).
emerging
inrcr beiies
1963 and Peter Plagens
an insight, presi
ieni e.
glib art
and syntai
til
the Green Gallery show, the public persona ot Robert Morris as
demon
Renaissance Man has contributed
ol the pen, so to spe.ik. Morris elevated the art to
mythii
jutj that
and message
rum
x * v
came
that
writer, Morris
KOI
was
to
in
no small way
surround his work
With
uncharacterlstii ally dense
to the
.1
almost
<<>r
an artisl
revealed the conceptual mechanics behind
IOKHIH
re exi itina.
Ri<
.1/
r/fic/sm
world
sty/a thai
rlff<
ism
fs
than 'us paintings, But with j stroke
one
ot high
seriousness, arguably beyond the level ot then-current art
,
hard
sensibility in the
1950's and early J960's. Don Judd began writing
lor art publications in
Ever since Artforum published the Inst ot Morris's tour
Duchamp by Robert Motherwell and
to tertilue Morris's
raking j cue, perhaps, from
George (Kubler)
/cfbL
+111^''^^
Art
If the above logic Is true, why an I waatlng ay time sfhc crlticlal edge.
Us the
next step away form being a scientist. Although the scientists may be our only canxhe to
jump from sclentlast stgae to dlety stage, artists may legitimately think It may not
be able to be done, but that's really nineteenth century. The truth Is the artists have
.-.
crcf&c
<*Y~
1965, and identified as Codex Madrid
a
Madrid
and II.
is
well organized notebook dealing with applied mechanics and
mechanical
theory.
II
is a mixture of rough notes and sketches
about canal building, geometry, fortifications, painting,
perspective, optics, designs for the casting of an enormous
bronze horse for the Sforza family, maps, and topographical
sketches.
In addition to the
Windsor Volume and the Codex
Arundel, there are now in England two other Leonardo manuscripts.
The first, known as the Codex Forster, is in the Kensington
Museum, bequeathed by John Forster in 1876.
Forster received
the codex from his friend, Lord Lytton, who bought it in
The aforesaid Testator gives and bequeaths to
"Item.
Vienna.
The other is in the possession of Lord Leicester,
Messer Francesco Melzi, nobleman of Milan, in remuneration
most probably acquired by Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester,
Notations on this manuscript
for much appreciated services done to him in the past, each
who lived in Rome before 1775.
and all of the books the Testator has at the present time,
indicate it was owned by Giuseppe Ghezzi
and the instruments and portraits pertaining to his art
in Rome in the early 18th century.
a painter who lived
Despite the wealth of
and calling as
painter."
extant Leonardo material
short biography of Leonardo
In a
in
the form of drawings and notebooks
da Vinci's life written in 1540, the Florentine Anonimo
on an incredibly wide variety of subjects described in the
Magliabechiano confirms that this entry from the last will
above provenance, Vincian scholars have generally concluded
of Leonardo dated April 23, 1518, Amboise, was indeed inacted.
that the almost 6000 pages that have survived after countless
Of Melzi
's
tamperings and losses are only a fraction of the heritage
disposition of the instruments, portraits and
other of Leonardo's effects, nothing
is
known.
once in Francesco Melzi
It is known
's
possession.
Ladislao Reti has
that the drawings and writing of the master in the form of
researched the concordance of the Codex Urbinas and discovered
Leonardo's notebooks were kept intact and returned to
235 traceable surviving originals against the 1008 headings
Florence.
Melzi worked on the material
listed by Melzi, concluding therefore, that as much as 751 of
the rest of his life,
is missing today.
until his death in 1570, presumably organizing the notebooks
the material
according to his interpretation of Leonardo's wishes fcr
amount of scholarship invested in Vincian studies has been
used by Melzi
The vast
directed primarily toward provenance and dating.
CD
left:
Author's unpublished
untitled sixth
p.
1.
essay
catalogue raisonne project,
This essay consists of two texts, to be typeset
parallel
columns, each approximately 2,500 words
text to appear
Vinci's
in
the
left
column
<3>
the first part of the
final draft of
for the Morris
is
provenance
of
in
in
two
length.
The
Leonardo da
notebooks constructed by the author, which describes
i.ie
loss of approximately seventy-five percent of the original
notebook material inventoried
at the
1516. The text for the right column
one
of the
time of Leonardo's death
is
in
in
Morris's transcription of
audio-performance elements
the disfigurement of the artist
of Voice,
A chronological
which describes
a childhood accident.
right: Ibid., p. 9.
THOMAS KRBNS * vti
Mum l>w
p*it*vi
mtuJM Jl
Since 1958, Morris's preoccupation has been with the concept of art
rather than with the for* of art. or put another ay. he has consistently refused
to recognize any foraal
limitations on the development and expression of concept
the
to
Rather than concentration and the clinactic incident, his career re-
or content.
flects variety and diffusion.
a?
For over twenty years he has assiduously moved
.V^>"'.^
concept to concept, aaterial to aaterial, from issue to Issue so thatmVmm
l^kBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBMBVaVaV the oeuvre that stretches out behind
a
remarkable equinimi
t/
Hs4*fl
.rectsely because of
Mm
betrays
diversity. Of his
sculptures in the 60's he has said that he was ciost interested In "their physicalthelr presence.
anything beyond that.
One mustn't think of preconcleved Ideas like coaposition
Ten years later his interestrnfafaWwas manifested
In
H irh MuJt
loi
Onon
Tr.nr.
want things to allude simply to their own thingness and not to
urtr\
.Ml
Art in \rvy 1 vtk
ntujl
VVh.il
ulLmAUnm.il
ni t*n
f\j(>'f
IWI
*ni plvn-
the atomic bomb with pieces like Sketch for a One Megaton Tactical Weapon ,
Instructions for Home-Built One Klloton Yield Device
and numerous drawings and
proposals dealing with doomsday devices, installations of the first A-bombs,
It.iurJ.
nan
it
lh*'
4rj*in
tmmmmmmm
Little Boy" and "Fat Man," the history of the Atomic bomb development
project at Los Alamos.
Of these pieces Morris has commented that tmmmmmmmtmtammB
One can't help but be impressed by the continuing insanity.
We are in a very critical state. .. (These pieces are) a physical
manifestation of something that occurred ten years ago but didn't
have the opportunity to be realized or somehow just didn't come
together before now. That's true of a lot of my work. It happens
when an occasion arises or you get preoccupied with something
that wasn't realized earlier.
don't know why I am that in1
tensely focused on these particular Issues at this particular
Jpture
y*- activated by the conviction,
>.
The structure of his Investigations
of art's potentiality has been delineated by concerns that are fundamental
to
the concept and exercise of art- such as process, material, the variety and mechanics
left:
Author's unpublished draft of an unresolved essay for the
Morris catalogue raisonne project,
December 1981,
right: Author's unpublished notations on p.
ol Robert
Moms
x x v
it<
ih
29
of
p. 3.
The Drawings
(Williamstown, Mass.: Williams College
of Art, 1982), July
ii
1993.
MUHHIN
njildrrun
stated In the broadest manner
>
be
Although he may amtmme willing to Identify his motiva-
tions, Morris's decisions are not gratuitous.
bcxirvr-k trv*\
'
possible, that art can be anything; but that is precisely not to say that for
Morris art is anything.
munul
jiiimjl*
Museum
Wmw
vj
sunu'd
in
hLuk
MrlDhottl
WW
INTRODUCTION NOTES: August
drained the activity of art making of values is the ultimate act of valuation. Hit obftcttve it to
appropriation, resist understanding, but without ever relying on subterfuge or misrepresentation So the
for him is a continual play with meanings, conscious and subconscious, exercise*, processes,
experiments, mobilizing his strengths through the accumulation of work and history, leaving an
intellectual imprint rather than a dtscemable visual style. Hit it the contrarian's response to changes in
1992
game
the environment; look to the other direction.
SET UP THE ARGUMENT FOR THE "UNKNOWABIUTY" OF MORRIS'S OEUVRE AND
TEXTUAL AM? CONTEXTUAL RICHNESS BY REFERENCE TO DUCHAMP]
11.
ITS
In 1923, when Marcel Duchamp stopped working on his masterpiece. La Mane mise d nu par ses
celebaires, Meme, it was his intention to publish, more or tess simultaneously, a collection of drawings,
and photographs related to the conception, development, and execution of this difficult
and complex work. In fact, although tlut work was produced over a twelve year period, Duchamp saw
the efforts of these two parallel endeavors the actual object, on tlie one hand, and its process
documentation, on the other as a single, unified work of art. But his intention to present it as such met
with difficulty. TJte work itself resisted definitive completion, and progress on it was intermittent (a fact
that was perhaps most dramatically attested to by Man Ray's famous photograph of dust gathering on
the surface of the targe glass dust that had to be carefully lacquered at two month intervals to render
the seven sieves in different degree of opacity). Physically the piece was large, unwieldy, and extremely
textual notations,
1926 the glass shattered in transit. There it
fragile. After a single exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
remained in its packing case for another ten years, ultimately to be "repaired" by Duchamp, with the
fracture lines cemented intact and incorporated into the work as yet another chance element. The notes
and drawings presented a different problem. They came to public and critical attention only in 1934, when
Duchamp was able to finance the publication of a facsimile edition of 94 of the notes, drawings, and
photographs in random order in a work that was entitled Green Box Certainly during the eight years
.
that lapsed between the exhibition of the Large Glass and the publication of the Green Box, the
interactive complexity of the unified work was virtually unknown, and its conceptual brilliance
unappreciated. Even then, notes George Heard Hamilton in his and Richard Hamilton's 1960 topographic
version of the Green Box, "Duchamp's elegant invitation to the reader to thread his own way, with the
aid of the notes, through the artisfs mind went unattended by all except Andre Breton." Between
Breton's percipient essay of 1935 and the Hamilton/Hamilton commentaries a quarter century later, critics
and art historians were virtually silent on the topic of Duchamp and his masterwork. A war intervened.
Picasso, surrealism and abstract expressionism
imagination. The art world had
moved
came
to
dominate the popular and informed visual
on.
12. ANALOG Y OF THE TIME CAPSULE, BACK TO THE LARGE GLASS. MORRIS AS AN ARTIST WITH
AN EYE ON HISTORY; RECOGNIZES THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF INSTANT COMMUNICATION AND
THE TRANSFER OF MEANING LN PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL TERMS, SKETCH OUT THE
FUTURE MODEL OF READLNG MORRIS'S WORK THROUGH A INTERACTIVE DATABASE}
His feats of making are prodigious, and he has written extensively It is impossible to engage and
surround this material in any reasonable detail, subject it a critical exegesis, and reduce it to m
convenient series of statements that capture its essence The most significant aspect of Moms's oevvrt,
like Duchamp's Large Glass and Green Box, (besides its richness, complexity and tubfettivtty) is its
interactivity with textual and conceptual reference. There is, however, a logistical problem. Duchamp
made about ISO works; Moms well over 3,000 so far. The Large Glass was a lens, a filter, a lighthouse.
a point of reference for the rest of the work. The sheer quantity of Moms's work, the force of his
personality, and the difficulty of lighthouse construction in contemporary society has removed the
possibility of a single work in all of Moms's oeuvre with such a towering presence
Therefore,
Moms's
Large Glass
is
his entire ouevre
To see
it
with a similar clarity and
to realize its
potential use as a reflective device, a mirror lens through which to scope the relentless activity of a
remarkably self aware artmaker in a given chronological and historical context where transcendent
meaning has been drained from the basic activity requires a new technology Imagine this Thirty years
from nolo, squadrons of enterprising curators and art historians working for the Guggenheim la division
perhaps, of Time Warner Entertainment Japan) with far more computing power and efficiency at their
fingertips then we ever dreamed of in 1993, will undertake to organize a vast hypertext
catalogue/interactive database of everything that Moms has ever made (and make no mistake that this
is an artist of prodigious output), written or recorded, and everything that anyone has ever said, recorded
or written about him. Every photograph, film and video tape or disk that contains an image of Moms
or his work will be added to the great concentration. All the information will be catalogued, indexed,
cross referenced and stored. Visual Designers will be hired to develop story lines and shape the vast
quantity material into an HD-TV spectacular at the high end, a sort of tatter day Masterpiece Theater
Supplemented and inspired by those works of art that are actually available and on view in museum
collections that wilt testify to the power and necessity of direct experience, the vieweri reader will hare
access to the thousand themes of Robert Moms. On this giant interactive video game, the Moms psyche
will be exposed. The tapes of Voice and Hearing, the story of his childhood, the thousands of minutes of
interviews and performances from the relentless progression of residencies at colleges and universities
around the country, the articles, the reviews, the commentaries, the grocery bills, and the tax records, the
snap shots and the target from that summer day when Moms and I shot pistols in his backyard. But God
is in the details, as Morris well knows, and it wilt be an enormously engrossing toot. Subjects can be
scanned, computing is instantaneous, Moms and his art will be more susceptible to understanding and
appropriation than ever before. Did Bob plant this time capsule.
Any
exercise in analysis ultimate ends in self referential subjectivity. Understanding and knowing
demands appropriation; the "knower" is m a superior position to the "knowee." Moms resists
appropriation and understanding every step of the way. He knows that the ultimate power of his art
resides in its inscrutability, and that once the paradigm has been defined, inscrutability vanishes TJie
conventional approach has most critics and historians assume that the artist has a consistent message
that they want to convey, and most artists act as if that is true. Perhaps they lack the verbal and
analytical skills to accomplish the full communication of their message; perhaps the message is simply
not powerful enough. To sell and survive as artists, they must engage active collaborators in getting the
message out. With Morns its more complex. He regards himself as an intellectual superman and a
physiological everyman. He is always just one step away from the ontological quiver. That he has
13. NOW IS NOW. MORRIS'S OEUVRE IS A SINGLE WORK. JUST AS THE THE EXHIBITION AS
PART OF THE PROCESS. THE WORK IS NOT REDUCIBLE; BUT, THE MUSEUM THAT HAS THE
BEST AND LARGEST COLLECTION OF MORRIS'S WORK UNDERTAKES THE ENTERPISE;
MORRIS'S COMPLETE WRITING ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY PUBLISHED (title is the k*yj; THE WORK
IS INSTALLED UPTOWN AND DOWNTOWN AS BEST AS CAN BE ACHIEVED UNDLR THE
PHYSICAL UMTTATIONS OF THE EXHIBTTOIN SPACES; THE WRITERS WHO HAVE BEST KNOWN
MORRIS'S WORK ARE ENGAGED TO WRITE ESSAYS; ITS NOT COMPLETE. BUT THE OBJECTS,
THE TEXTS, THE RESEARCH IS BROUGHTTO THE HIGHEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE LEVEL
YET.J
left:
Author's unpublished
first
draft/notes for the introduction to
the present exhibition catalogue, August 1992, p. 1.
right:
Ibid., p. 2.
THOMAS
K R K N8
nil
The visibility of process in art occurred with the saving of
art as icon. Under attack is the rationalistic notion that art is
sketches and unfinished work in the High Renaissance. In the 19th
century both Rodin and Rosso left traces of touch in finished
course, attacked the Marxist notion that labor was an index of
Like the Abstract Expressionists after then, they
finished product. Duchamp, of
value, but Readymades are traditionally iconic art objects, what
registered the plasticity of material in autobiographical terms.
It
form of work that results in
remained for Pollock and Louis to go beyond the personalism of
art now has in its hands is mutable stuff which need not arrive
at the point of being finalized with respect to either time or
the hand to the more dir ect revelation of matter itse lf, how
space. The notion that work is an irreversible process ending in
Pollock b roke the dom ination of Cubist form is tied to his
inve stigation of means: tools, me thods of making,
nature of
static icon-object no longer has much relevance.
The detachment of art's energy from the craft of tedious
material. Form is not perpetuated by means but by preservation of
object production has further implications. This reclamation of
separable idealized ends. This is an anti-entropic and
process refocuses art as an energy driving to change perception.
conservative enterprise. It accounts for Creek architecture
(From such a point of view the concern with "quality" in art can
changing from wood to marble and looking the same, or for the
only be another form of consumer research
look of Cubist bronzes with their fragmented,
involved with comparisons between static, similar objects within
faceted planes. Thf
conservative concern
perpetuati on of form is functioning Idealism. C^~-.
closed sets.) The attention given to both matter and its
In object-type art process is not visible. Materials often are.
the phenomenon of means. What is revealed is that art itsel
self is
^JV
When they are, their reasonableness is usually apparent. Rigid
an i-^i^lifY ^ "hanis,
Industrial materials go together at right angles with great ease.
discontinuity and mutability, of the willingness for confusion
fusion-
But it is the a priori valuation of the well-built that dictates
even in the service of discovering new perceptual Modes.
inseparableness from the process of change is not an empha
hasis on
of disorientation and shift, of v iolent
th e ma terials. The well-built form of objects preceded any
consideration of means. Materials th emselves have been limited to
At the present time the culture is engaged in the hostile and
those which efficiently make the general object form.
deadly act of immediate acceptance of all new perceptual art
moves, absorbing through institutionalized recognition every art
Recently, materials other than rigid Industrial ones have begun
to show up. Oldenburg was one of the first to use such materials.
left:
Author's notations on p.
39
of the draft for
Continuous
Protect Altered Daily: The Writings ol Robert Morris (Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1994), October 1993.
right: Author's notations on p.
56
of the draft for Continuous
Protect Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris (Cambridge.
Mass
m x
MIT Press, 1994). October 1993.
HOBER1 MORRIH
act. The work discussed has not been excepted.
JC
unfinished
definition provided by viewer
also need to consider way elitist subsequent artists also
complete work
7 3 Cubism tends to formalism vs. materials/process approach
Krauss, The Mind/Body Problem
analytic philo displaces mind/body problem onto medium of
language
all else is nonsense
75 automatiion removes taste and personal touch by copting
forces, images, processes
76 artist steps aside for more of the world to step into his art
critique of metaphysics -- rejection of substance
77 minimal art of early and mid-sixties -- based on method of
construction
rectilinear forming precludes arranging of parts
[can see how this comes together with poststructuralism
also see how this leads to the lack of continuity, substance
that Antin stresses
series of works that not clearly connected by underlying
intention or anything else]
80 materials not brot into alignment with static apriori forms
but material is probed for openings that allow artist
behavioristic access
113 the dumb dense energy of things
art facts both generate and destroy speech
art facts are dedocated tp o,[i;ses beupmd ratopma;ozomg
Morris
Box with the Sound of Its Own Making
first of M*s many interventions in mind/body problem
114 tidal undertow has informed most art discourse: rational,
deterministic, and progressive mainstream of history connects art
facts that are borne along
mediate twin properties of interruption and flow
[note how much he uses the image of the river
performance piece recongigures Beckett
sounds made constructing box play from box
mocks notion of privileged access to contents
also mocks notions of autonomy, self -containment of
consciousness
Heraclitus
6 frequent recourse to language
9 way lang functions has less to do with Duchamp and ore to do
with Beckett, mind/body problem and analytic philosophy
most art discourse conforms to this Hegellian oceanography
in modernismbecomes comical and even fascistic
linear as inevitable, developmental
defense agaist the discontinuous merely sequential and
unnecessary
in a society so governed by pragmatism, nonutilitarian needs
ready rationalization
,
'
Beckett -- language ventriloquizes itself thru Unnameable
capacity of language to spin itself out in infinite regress
carries along helpless vagrants of B
12 charactrs want to stop but impersonal voice wants to continue
invasion of language as malicious because unstoppable
abstract art seeks to rescue its status from mere decoration -say it signifies something beyond its existence as mere object
and thus not to become what Levi-strauss calls the signifier
without a signified
116 effort to bestow on artistic development dialectical progres
is effort to deny contingency of man's acts
rationalize discontinuities
13
Morris's 21.3 -- repeats Panofsky's taped lecture
but is as if someting slipped
words not refer to things
15
Beckett's world of extreme ordinariness
related to minimalism
unable to arrest spin into seriality, run the risk of
absurdity, madness nonsense
118 pm raises this to critical self-consciousness
sees developments as moves rather than permutations of forms
with questioning of dialectical development, flooding pluralism
emerges
pictorial mark that would have no interior, no
connection to virtual space
no internal or expressive meaning
16 how to
only conceptualism claimed dialectical necessity
dial necessity had been way abstract art justified itself
Morris sees this argument as intended to secure value and power
in other words, is ideological
make
usually neo-Dada wh becomes pop set over against minimalism as
figurative to abstract
20 as early as 1961, Morris involved with art as language
left:
for
Author's unpublished notes from his reading of the draft
Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert
Moms
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994), October 1993.
right: Author's unpublished notes from his reading of the draft
for Rosalind Krauss's
Series,"
in
"The Mind/Body Problem: Robert Morris
in
the present exhibition catalogue, October 1993.
mas KRENS
k x x
ESSAYS
THE MIND/BODY PROBLEM: ROBERT MORRIS IN SERIES
Rosalind Krauss
Ayer. a
There are two important reductions
perform on the assertion,
tirst
true,"
is
the
as wholly redundant, since to state "that
to assert that
is
to
The
true."
is
head of the sentence
to lop off the
is
think" part
think that p
"I
think
The second
it.
attack the feet of the proposition, getting
true" appendage, since "that p"
simply, a statement that p
its
ol
riel
by itself
all
is
to
the case rather than not p.
is
Ayer never ceases to term "nonsense." For tacking
true" onto the proposition produces the verbal illu-
is
sion that then
on the one hand, something called
is,
this
is
what
Ontology,
floats
the
is
it
think
that
There can be no mind/body problem
"sunt- these
sense-contents
see x;
if
conscious-
pain.
The
may be
may be
(though
it
hear x
they
or
form
in
is
a series
notion
verj
all
(Ins .ma lysis teceivi
in.
>m
there
when
Watt s
bj
in null
In hi
W .hi
.'
I
to
to
hav<
Kplain iIh
ili>
th<
ol
the
that
mosi
nt<
and
precisely
not calm
if
or tree
tree-,
e.ilm. or tree, or
at least
Hsi
organized within the realm
ol
Watt in
in
famous: "And the poor old lousv old earth,
is
ways
'I
ol
umstam
mt
in
this gaii
01
.111
ut
be-
w< n
15).
th<
thi
meant
philosophy's
And, thus,
to plug
it
perform instances
language- spinning out ol control and distressingly
language- perversely biting us
The
must extraordinary
own
"nonsense
ol
so to speak
tail,
series ol all the- series
Watts aci ol communicating to the narrator,
Sam, what happened to him at Mr Knott's house.
which Watt dues as the- two ul (he in walk, pressed
Watt
is
and forehead
to belly
to
Sam moving forward and Wati backward,
Wad moving forward and Sam backward, along
then
iln
1
extremely narrow passage formed by
ham
link
Inn
is,
the one
in
li
now
in
tin
otht
Wat or in a n
switch
si
rializai ion
iiiiiniiitiH
ul
hi
.it
ion
linguist
\i
letters
speaks
foi
in.
is
(In
01
her
W an
asylum where-
tin
resides
logii
ul
llu
this
two parallel
garden teiuc ol (In
the-
asylum Sam
insane
tin
Knoi
that analytic
leaching into Ayer's very domain
ighi
any otht
Mi
is
opening onto
precisely the
is
conundrum
said that these- series, in Watt,
human
izi
1
(W
recourse to language
logical analysis
in
window
the
room
and my mothers tather's
mothers mothers and my
tather's and my tather's lather's
lather's
forehead,
Watt,
whit h
in
giv<
rh<
"
.
observed thai
<>r
my
infinite regress
rved thai
tsi
and my
and my mother's lather's and
father's mother's father's
insoluble logical
my mothers and
my mothers mothers
and
against one- another, belly
it
l>\
Kplain had alwa
IRRIH
the novel
hair] are noi
I ol
hav<
performanci
1
ham
com
door
rooms
into
no one has
elaborate
and
left,
theii entrj
way
for
or free and
tree,
not calm and
it
(W
it"
and glad,
free
terms of a linguistic progression, frequently produce
logical
fi
li
For
and my pasi obsi rvations
in asseri thai
knowing
series,
mothers.
ol
ing
la>
beii
And
mother's tather's
.Amis refutation ol
now
mj room, have
pan
has
.in
glad, without
of
dismissed as
theii
,on to believe thai [us tabli
Km was
of
But he thought that
so.
calm and
and glad, or glad and calm,
of
the passages in Lang*
ol
being pei
is
could have been pronounced
lian idi all
i
in i.M
certain
instance thai
lor
glad, or glad and calm, or
mother's and
"sub-
oi
and the
languagi
ol
Samuel Beckett's novel Watt
and Lo
Truth,
.is
medium
and glad, or
tree
least
at
my
philosophy displaces the mind/body
response. Indeed
calm and
kit
calm and
intro-
and mental, is thus
comprehends them both
third form thai
ol
felt
and glad,
father's mother's
iinni.iteri.il,
problem into the medium
It
free
Now,
analysis ol propositions. Everything else
met blows
perhaps he
and
that p.
explicitly disallows thi
Analytic
stance")
Watt
that
of the
substances, one spatiall) extended and plnsn.il. the
dissolved by
"Not
did not, and had never done
lu
father's fathers
artesian distinction between two different
other unextended,
nose?
117),
Watt's mouth, this very
yet. in
my
propositions that arc structurally equivalent,
them taking the lorm
(W
rational analysis quickly takes on the character of
sense-contents are the ver-
remember x
have been pressed' By
bell
projecting tooth?"
earth and my father's and
spected from the world internal to the perceiver
feel a
heel?
my
set of propositions
bal translations of sense-experiences that
external world
A
And
toe?
about
simply reduced into a
is
the kinds of openings onto infinite regress tor which
underwrites Episcemolo
ness
thumb, could the
And
Being and, on the other, something called Truth.
if
pressed the bell? For by what but by a finger, or by a
series:
Thus beautifully shorn, that p" then rises up out
nt the foam of metaphysics like a mermaid returned to
the litheness of a fish: mercifully released from what
Knott's and Erskine's and Watts, that might have
"is
very
is,
and other thumbs, than Mr
fingers in the house,
)a\
it
ol
Knott with now
b nodrap" >W
urs in
SJ
nta\ and
which Wati
must, night
(
162)
<
ionships but
the
h rough
o<
not |ust in the
relai
nl
tihei
thai
is
ol
pan.
reb nodrap,
s >> thai
Sam
must comment, "These were sounds that at first,
though we walked pubis to pubis, seemed so much
balls to
(W
me"
mental
pubis"
to
is,
perhaps, the most
embrace within which the
efficient description of the
remains. All the attempts to reduce the mental to the
physical,
Moreover,
mental
gait, as the
not just their strangely de-eroticized
is
nude couple inches across the stage and
back again, that reconfigures the scene between Watt
and Sam; Morris has,
up
as well, conjured
a sense of
the confining corridor within which Beckett's pas de
deux
The narrow
executed.
itself
is
tracks comprised of
two long wooden beams, which are aligned parallel
with the front of the proscenium and on which the
dancers
make
Walking
moves
just
woman
former, a
and
claustrophobic intensity.
its
behind the tracks
is
which
a third per-
letting
to say "consciousness" to "the brain,
is
simply not work. The pattern that allows us to
reduce one level of description to another, more funda-
to
level, as
when we reduce water
DNA, saying that the
neurophysiology of the brain. Because subjectivity,
or consciousness,
And
what
is
that
we
To hold out
for
a bat.
"what
down
Morris's art, of his
list,
drawn up by
numerous references
writers on
to the
work of
Marcel Duchamp, here to Duchamp's "mile of string"
installation for the First Papers of Surrealism exhibition
in
New
\brk (1942). But
Switch's unmistakable
more convincing
homage
context of Waterman
to Watt, the figure
different
far
is
as an allusion to Beckett's clowns,
somewhat
thus to a
in the
and
form of endlessness and
repetition than that of the bachelor machine.
is it
like to be a?
it's
of
is,
nowhere except
regress. For
directly into the "nonsense" of infinite
one of the features the neodualist has to
that
is
which
mistaken about what
and
own
contents
is
has privileged access
it
to say that
is
the case for
sense, "incorrigible"
it
is
cannot be
it
that
it;
it is,
how
analytic philosophers can always reply, "But,
it
knowr'"
this
The
"how does
claim that
"I
in this
to this claim that the
does
threat of infinite regress that arises from
(or you)
it
am
know?"
is
that
if
am
feeling pain" or "I
add
my
to
seeing blue"
the further condition that, subjectively speaking,
cannot be mistaken about these things,
must,
Thomas
like to
be
in
order to claim this incorrigibility, have something like
an inner pattern or rule (the "constancy hypothesis"
Suppose,
Nagel suggests, we were to imagine what
be a bat"
like to
it's
their charge that discussions of "the mental" lead
an example), which
Bat. what
its
the analytic philosophers and
to its
sometimes figured on the
by examining
brain states.
claim for "consciousness"
labyrinthine associations, has
like for the bat to be
it's
will never get to
both sides of the stage, to create a kind of linear web.
its
to claim that sub-
be reduced to something objective like the
jectivity can
out the string from a ball of twine that she attaches at
This string, with
H.O or genes
to
nothing but the
really
first is
when we want
second, doesn't wash
course, to stare
dressed in a man's suit and hat. She
more quickly than does the couple,
far
will
their way, recreate both the setting's vec-
tor within the novel
an irreducible,
is
of the world and the subjectivity of consciousness,
two dancers are clasped for their promenade in the
opening and closing sections of Robert Morris's most
celebrated performance piece, Waterman Switch (1965).
it
conclusion, that there
its
ontological distinction or gap between the objectivity
165).
Now, "pubis
types of substance in the world, the physical and the
consult or to which
this particular sensation of pain or of color,
allow
me
to
know that I'm
And tins,
is
compare
that would
I
right about this case of
a bat. "It will not help to try to imagine," he says,
toothache or of blue.
webbing on one's arms, which enables
one to fly around at dusk and dawn catching insects in
one's mouth; that one has very poor vision, and per-
point out, leads to the problem of knowing that I'm
ceives the surrounding world by a system of reflected
over this instance of application, which would then
high-frequency sound signals; and that one spends the
necessitate another rule, and so on.
"that one has
day hanging upside down by one's
will not help,
he explains, because "insofar as
imagine this (which
what
it
would be
But that
is
Nagel
its
is
not very
like for
me
not the question.
like for a bat to
is
feet in an attic."
to
I
far),
it
want
to
know what
think, he
It's
on
is
be a bat."'
is
Whatever we
saying, of the original Cartesian for-
mulation of the problem
that there are two different
the story
tlic
of
the
back
itself
be supported, replies. "On
would
Box with the
Sound of Its Own
Making
man who
supported
giant turtle, and
of a
how
is
,isk(
.1
turtli
//
.ill
"
would
Ami when
'Bui
be supported?" the
man answers
turtles
that turtle
p< rsists.
inter lot utor
in
which
when
..iicii lii
rehearsing the mind/body problem
rule to this case,
tli.it
needing another rule to adjudicate
claims that the world
only
it
to
Ir
can
me
would then lead
behave as a bat behaves.
postbehaviorist, neodualist phase.
may
tells
right about applying
the analytic philosophers
the Wa}
ROS
( ,
problem:
his
how
first
it's
down
:i
In 1961, when Morris made Box with the Sound of
On n Making, he had constructed the first of his
own, many interventions into the domain of the
cuitry in the building, that in turn connects to the
mind body problem. A nine-inch cube, handcrafted
mockery
It
roughly
walnut, the box
skull
and screwing that took plan
own fabrication. With what
drilling,
during the process of
its
"memory" inside it.
viewer from the other
could be thought, then, to be
the box seems to confront
its
its
side of that divide that separates object
hat
\\
this question
however,
box
ble
seems to
is it like," it
That
a
be
say, "to
No
been wired into the vcrv possibility
Card
public
can be
viewers from imputing thoughts and feelings to them,
from granting them, that
is,
kind
mod-
of inferiority
object's
own
like"
simply the
is
from the behaviorist form
clear
is
as
privacy of subjective experience,
tin-
0and
oiitamniclK
selt-i
of
multitude
Card
as
tl
performs
it
kind
oj
COgitO
of
although we could say that
F6l
own founding experience,
tivitj
onds
maker, and thai
its
of
minds and
i" 'In
ami that
lluil
/.
with
tht
'.'i
IS
Si,
its
tin-
mind ami
activity itself
other makers,
which Morris made
iduI
anoi
In
lime tor
'ii.ii
was
exhibit
first
produi
lie
1963, the yeai
in
Own Making
lh
a/
ion oi
infinite repress within the situation of a professed
Th< cabinet, which bears on us
privacy and inferiority
photograph
.1
in
v. .J
\i
K-.
.ii 11.
And
1 1
wnii
IV..
work
puncturing
'in
with
aim:'
I"
op< mil, whit
ilniil
joins Box
with us dooi opened, opens
of itself
anothei dooi
111
wot
lil
<
iju
oj
Its
idea of autonomy and
along anothei trajectory broached bj
iln
Foi
1
1.1
an
|'H
It
11
wtnl.
iln
n v oi
'.limed
1.
mini
1
II
1.
II
III
in
lull .Mi\
Mi
ill
HIS
il
hi
In
ami
rd
111 it 111
1
'
W.Anr.
File
Morns,
ard
vviih
File
containment
.uiit.it
<
bulb
light
(lit
bull)
ting iln
woi
an.
on
which n
in
seems
also
11
lear that (he vvav
the early works
in
Duchamp and more
like
do
do with Beckett, the
employed, has
is
to
to
less
mind both problem, ami analytic philosophy.
Notes, where aiuoiioiiiv
For unlike Due lumps
ami
reference are not
sell
parades us
issue,
at
own presumed
An
regress nte within u
ardFi/t once again
containment ami com-
sell
pletion, with, nine again, the
same problems
ordinary
of infinite
containing
tile
flat
note cards onto which an alphabetized account
onception,"
"Purchases")
"<
onsiderations," or "Decisions," tor
is
Mm
its
conception (the cards headed
example, "Prices" ami
(foi
entered, iln
similiar to thai oi
Making
ot
of
example) ami fabrication
work performs
with
/>'"\
this time,
Sound
th,
specifically
critique
oj
//
Own
indicates
tin piibln space in which us "thinking" or
remembering" now takes place is the medium oi the
neatly typed on us
linguistii event
the that p
that
paia.lt of linn
bj
six
An examination
by
earliei object
th<
which bears both
1
Metered Bulb
Own
oi itseij
in reveal
sell
.1. hi. 111
si l!
11
tins group,
Sound
//<
photograph
projects throughout Ins
of
While it seems obvious that
this was an important source tor
own process
Photo Cabinet,
in
/A.//
tivities of
a<
refereno
equally obvious thai
that founding originated elsewhere:
ai
sell
of
box "contains"
tin
is
it
carpentry, bur-
of
lesques the idea of the <losicl circuit
Making,
not only tor the con-
career.
<
Own
1990, has
of
struction of the Largt Glass but tor a
claim to the internal privilege ami "incorrigibility" of
//>
Blind linn
the role of Ins copious
made
"Notes,"
language actually functions
Sound
drawings
Duchamp and
the threat of infinite regress that hangs over the verj
tht
to the
1973 ami up through the
of
Investigations
Taking up the analytii philosopher's taunt about
mental events. Box with
often been related to the example of
OHS lousness.
continuing
drawings
other, associated notions of subjectivity such as the
autonomy, or
in 21,
with the Memory Drawings of 1963
mock
to
performance, as
of
64), ami various graphic exercises beginning
(19C'''
idea of the
seems
also
it
terms
(1964), or a variety of verbally embossed lead pieces
public view.
only does the object deride
iirther, mil
tor the overt space of
1962 and then proliferating within
in
"privileged access"
full
knower
to the
in
Filt
work both
his
Which is to say that "what it's
sum of all those acts, themselves
The box has no
it happened in
because
is
Morriss frequent recourse to language, beginning
response.
in fact built.
to this,
reduce the "mental" to "language
known only
wholly external and observable, through which the box
was
tht
presumed privacy of thinking into the
medium of speech and the logic of propositions.
well to exchange the mvstenous domain of what
with Card
the
of
Box with
shared events.
eled on the dualist's idea of consciousness. Rather, the
box's irony
of
The
\iaking's ability to "think."
<:
To
file
box'"
but that has never stopped
literally conscious;
0i<
of course,
to transform the
It is
painted portrait or sculpted mar-
dependence had,
of this electrical
Sound of Its
from subject:
being asked tongue-in-cheek.
is
current in the ground, that in turn connects
not just a function of the obvious fact that
is
can't think.
is
human
the size of the
contains a recording of the sounds of the saw-
hammering,
ing,
in
the plug in the wall, that in turn connects to the cir-
er, that
In
11
the same
mi
Watt
(
> t
kmd
ot
ha.
One
been
ni
III
oi
aids
.
eonin ntt
iln
loose
ards reveals, howe>
being performed
is
categories
oil
lllelll
categories,
ategories," mi the card
numbei
these note
orderliness .m.l system of analytii
iln
elllles as
111.
foi
\4
which
111
foi
is
proci
(he world
example,
of
is
given the total
generated In Card
File.
Another category
number of
the
accidents
we
in
which, in addition to
number
are given the
of
cards (49), of changes (0), of decisions
of mistakes
(1),
numbered
things
"Number,"
categories,
(2), of
of losses
(12),
is
and so
(14),
of purchases
(4),
forth. It
(4),
of
hard not to
is
look at such an account without remembering the
conundrum Watt
elaborate
how
he wonders
tries to solve as
a dog is brought nightly to Mr. Knott's house to
what might or might not be the remains of Mr
eat
understanding language to have dissolved the
term, one that
which
interminable, because serial.
somehow played
is
"wordy-gurdy,"
tin-
through his
harac ters, as
<
their bodies rot (trying, as Molloy says, to
finish
dying"), their minds
empty out ("Unquestioning.
says the Unnamable), but language,
say I,"
I,
"I'm
ventriloquizing itself through them
words,
up not only the
ground
solutions
itself is
Beckett calls this third thing
Knott's food, for which, in the course of his attempt at
a solution, he totals
had
wmt
not apparently prevailed, but also
objections that were perhaps the cause of their not
done
so,
oj those
for their settling.
doubted, no.
having
It
itself
Number
Solution
That there
is
on the
I,
2nd
3rd
independent persistence of language as
entity, capable of
stories
say "I": "Unfortunately
Number
one must not forget that, one must try and not
me
them, by
of Objections
the voice
it's
..
..
who
want
say "I,"
impersonal but
insistent
my
walls,
it is
to stop,
that con-
not mine,
14
..
can't stop
for-
(T 354). So that although the char-
."
clamours against
tinues: "It
who
a question of words, of voic-
it's
get that completely, of a statement to be made, by
oj Solutions
burgeoning from within
that carries along the helpless vagrants ami
acters themselves, the ones
Number
spinning
out into infinite progressions, or of stories bur-
clowns and Watts of Beckett's universe, the ones
es,
..
never
persists
geoning from within
of Objections
1st
..
this
is
stories
4th
."
.
some kind of maleficent
distributed as follows:
these
all
these strangers, this dust of words, with no
all
one hand, and this noise on the other, that
that
differ-
ence, but merely to have added an irrational third
prevent
can't
ing me, assailing me.
..
it,
it,
from tearing me, rack-
not mine,
It is
have no voice and must speak, that
..
..
..
..
2 (W95)
have none,
is all
know
."
.
(T281).
This invasion by language as anything but
mind/body problem but instead as
resolution of the
The
inside language
when
system, as in "and
my
madness that
itself
it is
my
malicious, because serial and unstoppable, third force,
is
is
linked, in
reaches desperate proportions in the last words of The
generated
considered as an open
mother's mother's father's and
father's father's father's
mother's and
problem"
to "solving a
Watt, to the very serial
and
my
mother's mothers
."
.
what
pointlessness of this system in the face of
might be relevant
Unnamable
on"
as
but
"you
in
Watt
when Mary
is
must go on,
still
it
has
its
go on,
can't
I'll
amazingly comic
go
cast,
described as "eating onions and pep-
permints turn and turn about,
mean
an onion,
first
then a peppermint, then another onion, then another
In its turn this brings us to the distance that
peppermint, then another onion, then another pepper-
Beckett himself takes from what might be thought of
mint, then another onion, then another peppermint,
and
then another onion, then another peppermint, then
as the linguistic euphoria of Language, Truth,
Logic. For just as Beckett sees the infinite regress that
opens within the world
the
way down," he
"mental" into "turtles
of the
also sees the regress that threaters
move from sense-experience to the propositional form of sense-contents.
Because in order for this move from the denotation of
the apparent simplicity of the
something
in
the world
p, say
to a proposition
that p, say
we must, in order to move
from the truth of p to the truth of that />, have a
about/*
further proposition,
is
true
if/' is
true,
Y, that states that
true,"
If
and so on
let's
call
it
Z, that states that that
which
itself refers to a
"Y
true
is
if
proposition.
Z, that p, ami
/'
are
Beckett takes up the linguistic "solution" to the
Morris had taken up the charat
Dressed
ironically, not
in a "professor
podium, Morns silently
tape Morns hail recorded
tion of the levels of visual
Panofsky writes, there
ing Ins hat to
me
formal pattern
in
of
natural meaning"
tins
is
is
."
.
(W
50>
year before Waterman Switch, in 21. 3 (1964)
is
the clown tor his
ter of
continuing exploration of Beckett's
then
to infinity."
mind/body problem, then he does so
another onion, then another peppermint
all
serial
of
Irwin Panofsky's explana-
meaning
is/;:
the
insinuated.
man on
greetini
colors
man
linguistics.
sun and standing at the
recited what the "voice"
ami shapes
the strut
,
lifting a hat.
ru
in e
in
read as a greeting (call this iconograph)
<>n
irst
lift-
w hose
endow with a
or that p. Then
the culturally interpretive level,
which one can go
which
I,
from
to higher levels ol interpretation
them
(call
iconology). So Panotsky also begins by glid-
was
lc
Judson dancers con-
in this spirit that the
ing effortlessly and imperceptibly from the sense-expe-
ceived of the notion that walking
rience into the statement that expresses
simple
Yet tor the audience watching 21. 3,
Erskine had explained to Watt
truth: that p.
its
was
"something
as if
it
as
smoothness of language
so that the sell-evident
hooking into denotation, with sense-contents being
transparent to experience, noticeably begins to
mimed performance
the
fail.
As
increasingly goes out of sync
with the cape and opens a gap between the performer
and the "noise" that speaks through him, the professor
when
turns clown, most burlesquely
the gurgle-clink-
And
of "dance" movements.
tempt
slipped.
bending were
lifting or
it
down
the street or
iust fine as repertoires
was
same con-
in this
of "mental" space that Yvonne
for the privacy
Rainer would side with ordinary-language philosophy
Mind li
in truculently declaring. Tbi
a Muscll (the
title
most celebrated dance).
This is the context in which Morris composed his
dance Sitt (196 D, whose movements, the shifting of
heavy sheets of plywood around the stage, are those of
of her
ordinary labor. Inferiority
is
also referred to in Site, for
plywood panel
is
removed,
gurgle sound effect seriously lags after the water-
as the last
pitchcr-pounng-drinking routine of the lecturer, or the
Manet's Olympia
nude posed as
revealed, reclining in an imitation
is
tape registers coughing and throat-clearing episodes
of the image sequestered within the virtual spate that
way before Morris does them. Thus the ease with
lies
behind the picture plane of traditional painting.
which we apply "natural meanings
But
if inferiority is
move from
anil
we could
to that
/'
own
right this state of
of course, that that rule would need
affairs, realizing,
its
would
find a rule that
observed objects
and we wonder where
falters,
to
which would need
justification,
own
its
Since
body
of a dance of ordinary
manifesto
Dance The
dance world into which Morris was
introduced by his wile, Simone
extreme reorganization
iyr>()s
underwent an
1'orti,
ered at the Judson Memorial Church, in
new conception
this
dance
of a
gath-
New
York,
ordinary movement,
of
or ot "task performance," actively sought a
way
make
to
"interior
was
ot
gestures,
Balletic
nlled emotions
*&
the music or
ol
the body, ol an inaccessible,
ot
virtual field stnu cured bj
established
folded away from real spai
The dan<
im<
Si,e
mally labors to externalize these meanings;
would
the body
tin in
worker, or someone
thai ol the logger, or ih<
ing
down
of
ordinary
ol
walk-
iust
movement" the
dei taring solidarity
ordinary language," whit h
with
notion
is
its
(win
ii.'
tin
noi
iiln
i.
te
nothing bui
which
word
is
KOI
<
n>
is
alone
publii
haw
I
access
ithi
iRRIH
us<
of
that attracted
York dancers and performers very powerful-
itself
And Waterman Switch would develop
own experience ot the novel Watt,
its
behaviorism
us spin into seriality,
its
word
To know
ture "i us
refer;
ii
something
implementation
oi
to
Expressionism, abstract The kind
hec k
is.
don't
"i
to
the
<>!
att.uk
ot
gesture carried out by
balletic
the dance ol (ask performance had been paralleled in
the
1950s In
[asper fohns's ati.uk on (he virtuality
the pictorial gesture, particularly on those gorgeous
smears and swipes and oozes oi viscous pigment
through which the Abstract Expressionist painter
was thought i" have conveyed his mini sell
A wcuk
like
Icilinss
sink mac hed
at
/),;/,(
smeared
the
"i
and unci
paint,
it
he
canvas
moves,
mocks both
the "device," (he
us putatively
<>i
is
which
rotated
circular swathe
meani
the
such
smear
private world
public one ol (ask
:nh (1959)i
presumed expressiveness
tuiiciiein oi
out
us midpoint to
160 degrees to register, as
and
tly
Unable
language opens out into
absurdity, madness, "nonsense
the supposed pictun
orrei
need to stage
A serious walk with Watt. hovvcv
own extreme reservations about the
certainties ot linguistic
li
private,
other things
produces
hi
and
this very attraction
Beckett's work.
one's manifest ability
civi
thi
work
to his
<>t
ii
ii
pit
which one can
funi tion
wholly subjei
ol a
Wittgenstein as saying
noi to have a
is
the word, n> perform
mind
in tin
had evei read him)
they
word means, then,
meaning in ones mind,
what
he meaning
would
in
en
la
extreme ordinariness
formed through
hi
to say, ol thai philoso-
is
phy that dissolves the mind body distinction into
behaviorisi view ol
New
on the virtuality
ludsnii dancers wi n
of
own
"Specific
more than
stairs
tin
embracing a danci
M\
without
lor
ordinary, nothing
In-
was Beckett's world
taking off and putting on their shoes
these
er,
md
It
among
body nor-
er's
in Morris's
tramps and hat-passing routines, of actors scratching
themselves and talking about farting or halitosis, or
out of Morris's
pre
emv cnl inn and
as well as that refusal
Objects."
ly
the dis-
of
movement
painting that would become the
Minimalism, whether
of
ater collective,
it
are always expressive
felt,
an inner meaning:
of
The Mabou Mines, an important theconnected to Minimalism through
the intermediary- ot the composer Philip Cilass. was
gesture that would have no
who
hanneled through the performers
joins her
"Notes on Sculpture," or Donald Judd's essay
the late 1950s and early
in
only to be rejected.
is
it
and blood, she
flesh
is
to the anti-illusionism expressed in the very idea
of the inferiority
referred to,
Olympia
Site's
"gesture."
is
wrenched
ol
feeling
own
Rebelling against his
initial training as a
relation to their maker. But, further, insofar as they
latter-day Abstract Expressionist, Morris encountered
mock
Johns's "device" from within the Judson's search for
units
And
ordinary movement.
he considered the
mark
pictorial
it
artist's
was from
this position that
problem of how
to
make
that would have no interior, no connec-
tion to virtual space, no expressive overtones. SelfPortrait
(EEG) of 1963 was one of Morris's answers,
much more overtly than Johns's, ties
a solution that,
the very meaning of measurement for which the
such
as inches, feet, or yards
must be
invari-
ant and repeatable in order to signify, Duchamp's
metersticks form a certain parallel with a behaviorist
critique of a mentalist notion of
is
meaning
which
as that
guaranteed by internally held ideas or rules that
allow us to
know how
to use a
word
correctly from one
instance to another.
the issue of the device to the question of selfhood,
subjectivity, private experience
short to the
Fluids, body
in
mind/body problem.
To make the work, Morris had his
electroencephalogram taken for
a period that would produce a line
the length of his
own
The double
filiation
of the long series
of ruler works (such as Three Rulers, Swift Night Ruler,
MUM Mill
and Enlarged and Reduced
pursued
Inches) that Morris
during 1963 was a declaration of his own connection to
Duchamp
body. For good
through Johns. Begun as early as 1961,
in
the page onto which, over the course of two and a half
measure, during this seismographic
hours, Morris repeatedly copied out the "Litanies of
recording of his brain waves, Morris
the Chariot" from Duchamp's Green Box (his notes for
decided that he would "think about"
the Large Glass), the connection was declared again in
himself. In this sense,
if
we could
1962 with Pharmacy, and then over and over
say,
in 1963,
there were ever a line expressive
with works such as Fountain, Fresh Air, and Portrait.
And
This connection, which has been endlessly discussed in
of the
artist's "self," this is
it.
yet the absurdity of the claim
the literature on Morris, was given
is
equally obvious. Neither a picture
of Morris's thoughts nor an image of
his person, Self-Portrait
early analysis by
Self-
Portrait
as to declare,
(EEG)
(EEG) has
a line that will itself intersect, but only ironically,
And at the same
"What is it like to be
most important
"Duchamp's work constitutes
whose interpretative reading
turned to medical technology for a "device" to produce
its
Annette Michelson, who went so
far
a text,
is
Morris's uniquely
historical writing
on the development
personal accomplishment.
While much
with the traditional aesthetic genres.
of the 1960s splits artistic production into either a neo-
time
Dada concern
it
slyly asks the question,
that itself evolved into Pop art, or a
a brain?"
Minimalist position focused on large-scale sculpture,
Contemporaneous with Self-Portrait (EEG), anothwork associates this search for a device "to make a
mark" not only with the mental but with language.
Morris's Memory Drawings, based on a page of writing
and by so splitting
er
that
summarized
current theories of
own research into the thenhuman memory, are executed in a
his
written line that gradually comes to "picture" the dete-
memory,
rioration of
recall
as Morris repeatedly
and rewrite the
initial
attempted
to
page, allowing several
days to pass between each repetition.
If,
the
postures
abstract
presents these as two opposing
it,
first
figurative and the second
certain texts contemporary with this pro-
duction argued for the continuity of a sensibility
shared across this landscape. Barbara Rose's "A
Art," for example, postulated that a
common
B C
concern
way the ordinary object could be mobilized
complacency of American
culture meant that between Pop and Minimalism
for the
to critique the terrifying
there were both shared strategies (repetition, scale,
in certain versions of his Device Circle paintings,
among them
banal materials) and shared sources,
paint-mixing stick
the immediate example of John Cage
as his
smearing "device," this was undoubtedly a
Duchamp's own notorious "device": a set of
three metersticks deformed by chance but ironically
and Merce Cunningham, but more
reference to
remotely that of both
Johns used
given the
a ruler instead of a
title
"standard," in reference to the standard-
ization of measure.
Duchamp's
the shape
assumed by
dropped onto
a surface
It
made by
own
recording
manner
a set of
artist
production, refusing to divide
maneuvers, resulting
from one meter above, and
templates that the
this notion of continuity
in small-scale,
Fluxus-like objects, on the one hand,
and the massively
then
inert
works
used to design various works, among them Network of
Stoppages (1914) and parts of Tu m' (1918). Devices pro-
Minimalism, on the other
duced by chance, the
elaborating, two of
lines they trace have
Duchampian
no internal,
expressive meaning, for they clearly have no gestural
it
into a set of neo-Dada, absurdist
meter-long piece of string
repeating the experiment two times, generated in this
arbitrary
is
that Michelson argues for Morris's
Trois Stoppages etalons
(Three Standard Stoppages, 191314),
Duchamp and
Russian Constructivism
Fountain
of his
( )t
the six
tropes she sees
Morns
parency/reflection
them
(.is
in
th<
trans/
ROSALIND KRAI'
Glass's use of glass
and mirror) and the revised found-
object
function
within his Minimalist sculpture;
one
the strategy of framing
shared by both the
is
sculpture and the more "conceptual
development
when
(as
direction of his
in Statement oj Estbi
Withdrawal [1963] he "untrames" an object he previ-
made by withdrawing aesthetic value from it);
two more art as money and the subversion of
ously
measure relate exclusively to the Conceptual work;
and a final one art intervening in the ecologically
Duchamps
sensitive held of the social (as in
Green Box to "cut
in the
by 1969, the date of her
suggestion
had extended
the air")
oft
work, and
tive
own snubbing
based on
style,
of an art criticism (and an art history
Michelson's
guage,
thus joining and extending Rose's
fairly useless categories
Duchamps
of
as this
in
itself
of tropes omits the whole register
list
conceived as a self-justifying
drops from consideration.
ity,
much
that
posals
of morphology or
Notes." As a result, the
field of lan-
decided
of his work could remain at the level of pro-
famous projection
as in his
for a
"transformer
designed to utilize the slight, wasted energies Mich
.
Portrait)
laughter.
porated into Morris's work as
the
dropping
of
bad been incor-
linguistil
earl)' as
mediums
to be
added
which the
in
expressive body, whether as dancer or as painter, had
traditionally performed
gestures from within
its
and precisely permuted
iihllessly
about the humor involved
lessly
But
Duchamp and
if
who
wordy-gurdy
sees the
and permutation, which
drum
only he
is
It
way down.' language
juent
Rainer
among
mere sense
Some
I'hxi
and pi
.
in the
ui
with
plat
endless
its
'
was
tin
</<.///<<
ami
diary
oj
oj tht
u\i
Parts of
fot
illnesses
banality
oj tht
and
an tighteentb-
danct action, which consisted in part
\tack
oj
mattresses from ont
J noli
of
his large-scale- sculptural production
makes no
paralli
hi
pan
th<
bi
rwi
in
"i
n the
iii
'
them
'
>r
considet
eai
lllllS
what they
arl
on then
hei tex(
dam
er's
and the sculptor's production
Id
-.hi
Row opens
conjunction,
itatements
the-
stani
in
which
rs<
of
ironii
Andres solution
kill'"),
she-
li
har.u ten/ed as tautological
lor
with an epigram
gave Mornss Minimalist work,
other,
lum
sides,
body
<>n
and attacked by
lions as
kind
S,
with
the
mind
the one hand and to language
of
infinite regress
on
common ground
all
tor
Morris's production, m all its main guises Portrait,
beyond us relation to Duchamp, weighs in to (he
mind body debate, as its lows of bodied "subsumes,"
in distillations of the
oi
w.ii
al
sh.u klc-d to the
on
"a
quality
pineal eye
And although
to
is
is
without any elements or
of
Bui Bee ken's absurdist me -taphwu
land minister) provided an ironic contrast
transportin
/'/
Tht morbidity
namely,
argued, us aggressively anti Modernist, antimeta
physk
becoming m
"musical accompaniment"
chost as
Sextets,
the dancers
dualism
the indivisible impact of a sense-experience that
she-
/>
process and
she called the phenomenologic.il tirstness
In jail tin ust oj taped narrativa that either do not a
own
its
Morris as collapsing into what
that Miclulson saw
cube
action
of "turtles all
operate
"Duchampesque speculations on
either
tht
in tact
had described Morris's early work as raking
Rose
up
cube
tpond ui th or contradict
will
infinite spinout.
whic
conun-
to say as a logical
is
from dissolving the dilemma
that, tar
only Beckett
is
it
as a strategy tor endlessness
mind body problem forever
who performs the conclusion
that leaves the
unsolved.
the
confidence in the
Beckett join hands in cele-
brating a kind of hilarious absurdity,
t,
New Dam
permeates them
relations"
into the
ideas
oj
the wordy-gurdy cease-
in
undefiant separateness and even
autistic
This mip.u
lies
bis limited sim-t
"In
Watt
playing inside these characters' skulls, that "an
been remarked by Rose, as she described the invasion
dramatic spee<
Malone, or
and meager belongings," Morns wrote, commenting
conventionally mandated verbal silence had already
of
Murphy,
[Beckett's] spaces, a
sex or illustrations of (artesian dualism,"
)<>1
had somehow
field
kind of third force to those
,i
i.
proposal Morris "completed" in his
(a
this idea of art-as-language
That the
nails.
movements of fear, aston-
ishment, boredom, anger.
tears
as:
the growth of
other body hair and of the
of hair, of
of urine and excrement,
tall
as
smoke
the exhalation of tobacco
head
artistic activ-
Duchamp had
If
functioned as a crucial, enabling, strategic model:
text, into Morris's Process art.
argument is in dissolving the
difference between the two "halves" of Morns s forma-
As important
composed of paired remarks by Duchamp
"There is
no solution because there is no problem"
and
Beckett
wished, merely
"I could die today, it
by making a little effort, if 1 could wish, if 1 could
make an effort.''
However, although Beckett puts in various
epigrammatic appearances in the critical literature
on Minimalism and on Morris
the line from The
'tamable: "I seem to speak, it is not I, about me, it is
not about me. twice used as exergue by Maurice
Berger, tor example"
it is only Morris himself
who has ever pointed to what it was in Beckett that
the
silt.''
constitute
version of the
artesian attempt to locate thai part
body when- the connection between
tin
it
and us
mental counterpart takes place The comic, Beckettian
mode
i.il
ni
of this rehearsal,
nature
tin
within
ot (In
endlessness
.ill
however,
bottles
ol
and
(lie
the search
is
taken Up by
the
set
Suggestion (his makes
fbi
mental substance
the various (lows ol the body
Further,
olumn (I960), which Morns constructed
work" for the Living Theater, has also
from the vantage of Beckett's mind/body
as his "dance
weight, etc.) are related to one another by a conscious-
to be seen
ness that claims to
ribaldry.
This column, a gray-painted, hollow, rectan-
gular prism, the height of a person (six feet
was
tall),
conceived as a performer. Revealed at the center of the
stage where
minutes,
had
to
it
remained standing
was offered
it
for three
and
own volitional center, or "mind," at
moment when it suddenly and spontaneously
this eerie quality of a volitional object
intentional
somehow, miraculously, only had
one property:
the gestalt.
was
It
in this
context that Rose connected Morris's
use of "elementary, geometrical forms that depend
for their art quality
on some sort of presence or
concrete thereness" to Wittgenstein's philosophical
fell
questions about "pointing to the shape" of something.
was
To this
effect she cited the Philosophical Investigations:
by Morris's insistence that
testified to
is
Minimalism,
the
its
That
over.
"know" them.
could be argued, was bringing into being objects
that
a half
as a brute thing that, however,
be reinterpreted as a body inhabited by some-
thing like
it
"There
of course, what
are,
there was to be no external source of the column's
can be called 'characteristic
movement
experiences' of pointing to
topple
one could pull
like a cord
To this end Morris
it.
would have
to inhabit the
the dualist arguments to
(like
in order to
the homunculus that
(e.g.)
mental sphere in order for
make
with one's finger or with
sense, according to the
derisive attacks of the linguistic behaviorists) decided
to stand inside the
column and,
the shape. For exam-
ple, following the outline
one points.
one's eyes as
at the appropriate
But
S ab
does not happen in
this
moment,
When, during
to propel its fall.
this resulted in a
rehearsal,
head wound, the performance took
column
place with Morris in the infirmary and the
manipulated by
was
a string.
still
the
meaning
There are no bodies independent from the
clear.
within which their orientation
series, spatial or verbal,
is
But
istic
process occur in
From the beginning,
then, permutation in Morris's
Watt
"endlessly
and precisely permut[ing]
his limited store of ideas. ..."
she concludes: "The thing, thus,
supposed
than
Which
brings us to the problem of
how
have been pared
down
to nothing but
gray-painted shapes. As Judd wrote of
make fun of
anything, intended to
dualists, gestalt
is
itself
great chain of "turtles
the
way down."
the eyes of the linguistic behaviorists, gestalt
we recognize
set of sense data as a "square" or a "triangle."
just a rectangle or a triangle
commenting on the extreme reductiveness of
early pieces like Slab or Cloud (both 1962), Judd
to say that in the
recalled Robert Rauschenberg's self-mocking defense
referring to a mental
and,
set of totally
blank White Paintings: "If you
to
know
that
in order to
we
it
seriously, there
nothing to take.
is
sure that we've
That extreme simplicity would reduce the experience of something like Slab to Michelson's "phenomenological firstness"
or the
shape
seems
to
be the point of Morris's stress on the importance of
gestalt in his
ingly, his
own
search for "unitary" forms. Accord-
"Notes on Sculpture" explained: "Charac-
teristic of a gestalt
is
that once
it
is
established
all
That the
of the lesson
and not the
pointing
or
texture,
image
or gestalt
right.
matched the two
But
of
a square,
order to be
in
we would
correctly,
is
part
of "pointing to the shape." Because
how
it
clear that its the shape
we "mean"
color, say. or the size of the thing we're
to; or
how would we know
that we're
pointing to an object and not just holding up
be a bundle of properties
dimension,
is
backed by
are seeing a square are
gestalt cannot be so disentangled
would we make
for
it,
Which
square, and so forth.
qua gestalt, is exhausted.
(One does not, for example, seek the gestalt of
a gestalt.)"
The gestalt or the "firstness" would then
cut through the old mentalist dilemma of how the
various aspects of objects (the fact that they must
the information about
this or that
need, Wittgenstein winks, the model of another
explosive impact of a
single, irreducible, perceived aspect:
constancy hypothesis our claims
check that we are
"
don't take
In
is
mentalist notion, like the constancy hypothesis, that
operates like a rule by which
is
to the
regarded as a turtle
all
into something that
own
is
it
the very idea
these objects: "Order, in the old sense, can't be read
of his
is,
of gestalt. For in the battle between the behaviorists
in the
large,
that
is;
it
stopping of the experiential buck at "firstness." They
and the
mute,
presumably not
is
what
shape are not meant to invoke the gestalt as a kind of
to interpret the notion of gestalt in Morris's earliest
to
to 'mean' other than
itself."
explanations of his Minimalist work, work that
appeared
Applying
''
But Wittgenstein's questions about pointing
are, if
Gestalt
these cases." 2
all
this notion of "pointing to the shape" to Morris's work,
sculpture was attached to the Beckett problem,
to a
'mean
not supposed to be suggestive of anything other
determined.
and thus
which
cases in
all
the shape,' and no more does any other one character-
our interlocutor's attention; or why
something that moves from the
ringer to the object
and not up the arm to the body
Pointing to the shape. Wittgenstein
whole matrix
more
of
tin-
insists,
of relations that lie calls a
frequently, a "language
a finger
pointing
is
game.
pointer'
is
"form
And
part oi
of lite,
further,
ROSALIND KRAI
'
what does not underwrite the successful playing of the
"pointing to the shape" is a mentalistic form
as
called gestalt.
What
game
opposed
pressure
own "Notes on
In fact, the second part of Morris's
pressed. So
us.
also could be said to ask:
it
be a body
like to
is it
The
shown
to the optic. Yet as Beckett has
is
behaviorist, shunning the "what
/tit" part
is it
Sculpture," published later in 1966, also implicitly
of this question, points to the body's connection to
questioned an idea of gestalt as "firstness" or "concrete
world in the execution of those tasks through which
may be no
thereness." There
argued, but this
is
"gestalt of a gestalt" he
only to say that
formal relations
if
are not conceived as internal to the Minimalist object,
this
is
part of a strategy to take "relationships out
make them
the work and
a function of space, light,
The
the viewer's field of vision."
and
"firstness,"
end up with an endless
permutations operating
as
space and
two properties
to the
add
light
shape of the object and serialize
its
wholly public meaning. And "task
is
indeed registered as a series of traces
Hand and
like
Holds
Toi
instead to
themselves
hands and
feet.
Although lead was the medium Morns
most frequently employed
served
him
in
to register imprints, plaster
another work, Stan* (1964),
noticeably changed by them. In some sense it takes these
Hun
variation.
shape
variation
it*
a function
is
who changes
the shape constantly
l>\
his
Yet the body's imprint
although
was
And
as in Fortran.
these
another form
took, beginning
ir.H es
1963 and continuing
and beyond, was the
(it
In
e of imp. ii
\|m -rieni
bod} encountering the resistance
materia] external to
(it
leaving us
ii.'.
ol
contact
ow
ii
thi
v.
and.
that materi-
deformed
itself
ted by
inflei
Pageway
mark on
being
al,
LI
or
These are he
bodj s membranous
ii
n h an exterior, as us
oilier surtai c
is
pressured
nnamabli
on mj
pressure against mj rump,
knees,
ol thi
nisi the soles of mj E
unsi the palms of mj
hand., against my knees Against my palms, the
ni
is of mj
1, against mj km es ol mj palms,
but what is
that presses against mj rump, against
,n re
ribes this
n exerts
know
am
Bet kett's
seated,
the
narrowed
it
to nothing
neo-Duchampian gesture
my hands
This
work was not
Y\cs Klein's exhibi-
of
tion-as-empty-gallery (1958), but rather an attempt to
make palpable
around
ai
ol
\c r\
(1961),
Passagt u ay
first,
blind alley that led nowhere but to the point
ot a
which
the body's physical limits experienced
between
as a reciprocal pressure
into 1964
the end
The
discover themselves pressured between the two
body, in Morris's version of the
an entirely different scale and through
curving cul-cle-sac of a corridor that formed
walls
deposited
at
different means.
changt in position
mind/body "problem," was projected early on not only
as in Column
but in the
in the space it displaced
ii
not the only way to
is
surfacing into external
space. Two other early works address this problem,
its
the "exhibition," which visitors entered only to
it is
"''
Haptic The
performed the
it
stairs.
capture this sense of
at
traces
walking up
task:
the viewer
does not remain constant. For
relative to the U
oj their
most patently unalterable property
its
which
in
three steps were fashioned so that a section of each of
the treads could be flipped open to reveal the imprint
it:
Some of the best of the >nu work, being more open
and neutral in terms of surface incident, is more fetish
to the varying contexts of space and li^ht in u hich it exists.
It reflects mure acutely then two properties and is n
itself as
lead in
which two
1964), in
of a foot that had been captured as
two things into
warm
captured in the impressionable surface of
lead bars, spaced five feet apart, record the clutching of
from finding an unanalysable
set of
performs
performance"
works
oi
result of this, so far
is
it
its
and
itselt
space
the-
it.
made Pim
In 1961 Morris also
Portal, a free-stand-
ing doorway, nothing but threshold, doorjam, and
lintel.
The work
through
it.
In a
is
wa\ with mirrors.
meant
piece
task performance: walk
of
second version, Me>rns lined
each time one did
that
the-
Now walking through
"trace" of one's
it
passage was registered, albeit ephemerally;
peripheral vision (here would be
outward from
memory
body and into
one's
spatial told that
appeared
ot
weird
in one's
extending
trail
kind
like a
door-
the door
unloe atahlc
terimage:
al
wrenched away from
one's body ami made strangely out ot synt with
the
it.
What
is
it
ot
tiki
one's progress,
tO
be-
body
hi
loles "i
ii..
"pri
i.
that can I"
ed
pun
iuch
wt could saj
Lining, isolating
creates
it
as a
peeled away from the
corporealit)
i
a hat
10 ROBBR1 M"i
E(rat
Kemonstrandum)
might
h
bi
is
an awareness
kind
sell
ol
bound
collet
and present
(ot
tactili
ma ry
ive
ended
ret
Box
the rubric
structu res
which
of
body as physical pressure,
called the baptu
JcDD, Donald
Bod) contact
it
BOX
Q(uod)
in a
museum
to
pi ion ot
due
I
misleading path
debut
Ins
nde c
sm made
he
in
e
lit
it
wink dow n
ol
1966,
an aesthetit
the-
ol
we can
ideal forms, the notion of "system," argued via another
It is
exhibition later that year (Systemic Painting), applied
takes "relationships out of the
same idealism
this
If
Minimalist
to the issue of serial composition.-*
tended to work
artists
in series,
was
it
argued, this was in order to demonstrate the wholly
realm
rational basis for their work, each object the next
for
and
was Judd who
publicly objected to this idea
first
kind of
series,
Which
of
agree with Morris, that
work and make[s] them
and the viewer's field of
function of space, light,
vision."
element of a mathematical progression.
It
this
to say, the series, transferred into the
is
sculpture, enacts the object's endless capaciu
permutation
as "it takes these
two things [space
light] into itself as its variation
But
their variation."
a function of
is
from being an underlying idea
far
of rationalism as a way of responding to Minimalist
or reason that
work. Speaking of European geometric art (he gave the
work, or group of works, allowing one to essentialize
example of Victor Vasarely), which was, in fact,
pledged to what he saw as "rationalism, rational-
around a kind of diagram of
istic
philosophy," he countered, "All that art
based
is
on systems built beforehand, a priori systems; they
express
LeWitt
as
-"'
world's like."
idealist,
he
object
example
substituting for such a priori systems was instead, he
taken
And no
claimed, "just one thing after another."
tenaciously the rationalist reading of
Judd was always
matter
Minimalism
dogged
just as
in his
problem
In 1983, speaking of this
it.
from
the
up
thought his own work and that of his colleagues was
rejection of
to
students at Yale University, he said: "One conspic-
uous misinterpretation for example is the idea of
most writers in the United States have always
said that it's Platonic in some way and involved in
order:
some great scheme of
order.
dropped and taken up again
having been characterized as
"the look of thought"
added his own
he explained in a recent interview, "each part
dent on the
which
only
it
is
it
to be
ment" was
just as
ferent placements
much
a function of the object's dif-
and orientations
in space as
it
was
the simplification and reduction of
detail. Idealism, that
began
is,
to
Morris began to reason, that ver)
make
You have
thing
a rational decision
think about
to
is
depen-
you don't think about
it.
it.
It
is
something you
is
on each time.
In a logical sequence,
a
reduction toward an increasingly
bald shape only served to make
more naked and unmistakable the
^M
Two Columns
of this irrationality. For an
language one could easily
Hot
to
window
from the door
bed
bi
and
to the
fire;
from
(W
\at.
fro,
Here
In
reflectivity of the mirrorlike
sense of the
change
way the shape was newly
in its
/row the bed
the door
203)
to
ted by ever)
infle(
placement.
examining
this Brancusi
knelt.
the
Hen
to the
be lay.
window,
window
to tht door.
the fin
to
to
fire,
the
the period he was
problem, Morris's L-Beams
(1965) enact the pressure that placement exerts on an
cite:
from the door
door: from the
window; /row
to the
to tin
fire to the bed:
position of the form in space.
surfaces of Brancusi's polished bronzes heightened this
object's shape
Here he moved,
new
The
L-beams Conceived during
There are many images
Here be stood
changes brought about with each
way of not thinking.
irrational."
in
follows in a certain sequence as part
last. It
of the logic. But, a rational
and seeing
inception in a prime
as in late Cezanne. As
Morris considered the prime object in Brancusi's
work
the ovoid of the head detached from the rest of
the body and presented as a separate whole
it
became clear, however, that the form of its "develop-
exasperation to Judd's protest. "In a logical thing,'
the door.
its
itself
is
classical land-
historical context
as in Poussin's landscapes
whose work more than perhaps any
his art
Cartesian, as
the
its
yield to material context. In fact,
Sol LeWitt,
from
a notion of series that
is
frescoes of Pompeii or Boscoreale, for
That's certainly
other Minimalist's has been saddled with a rationalist
from the
master's thesis on
across those centuries through
example
Writing
project a formal problem from
Nine Fiberglass Sleeves
persisted,
walling off a particular form
scape, say
Judd's
type of order
It is
endlessly.
196566, Morris followed out George Kubler's notion
description of the
have to
it
from
it
does in Beckett's linguistic spirals:
it
and
irrationally
of form-classes.- This
what the
finding out
reading
that justifies
Brancusi's use of bases, during the academic year
pretty
is
much discredited
now as a way of
wrong."
itself
within, series operates in the art of Morris, Judd, and
Kubler. george
type of thinking and
how
one's experience of the
certain
logic that
would ground
fire,
thi
bed,
/row
from the
tht
fire to
whether
it
an ob|ei
is
seen from
outside and thus encountered as a body; or an obji
experienced from inside, as though
form nagged, so
"What
is
it
reflects the
///f-t
were one's own
to be a
body?" And each /.. as it
ol weight ami dimen-
apparent distribution
sion, according to its position
ing split
it
to speak, by the mentalisi question,
between the
the upright
/.
appear-
solid halt cleaving to the floor
ROSALIND
l:
II
and the
"lighter" half reaching skyward; the
L poised on
the
on
lying
two extremities takes on an arched,
its
lightened quality
of the
seeming thickened and dense; while the
side
its
resonates with
mind body problem. There
there
self;
is
sardonic account
its
the body; there
is
is
of
which certainty
be simple geometries based on squares,
and
circles,
would be sectional
ovals,
more rectangular
freestanding to
its
example, an eight-part,
peculiarly linear diagram of
inwardly sloping donut,
itself.
migrate to join another,
centrate on this type of
own kind
of insane reasonableness
like the text or score tor these
at
the scale of the
human bod) and
concomitant sense
something
could
into another tinny, and another
Mirrored cubes
By L965
transmute
turn transmute
in
should have been
it
Minimalism
in
concrete thereness," lor the galleries
which
in
the various works were displayed were even then awash
with the
effet ts ol optic
Judd's work, lot
illusioiusni
.il
was opulent with the
ot the
mark.
Williams Mirrors
In 19") he devised an untitled
which tour mirrors, hung on the tour
installation in
opposing walls
were accompanied by
ot the gallery,
paired frames hanging
at
an angle
such that to look through any
mirrored surface was to
haw
front ot each,
in
the frames into the
ot
the illusion ot looking
receding line of frames within frames within
frames
The three-dimensional,
unbend mto the
Two
monument.il
ot
sp.ui.il
impossibility ot a straight
years later, in Portland Mirrors
si
(I
)"),
Minimalism
ing
reflective
slum
ol
Plexiglas
to
empty
medium
into the
but nature also makes a mark."
and by the early 1 0s Morns had begun to think
about the strut tures both made (like Stonchenge)
r
and found
(like caves) In
Convert the an
straight
line ot
ot
societies to
prehistorit
the suns revolutions into the
the intelligible, arrowlike trajectory,
,i
paradoxical term "uncanny materiality" to describe
to
experience tins culturally ancient notion
tin
basii
stria
llii.
hum.
tin
i,
tout
first
ing
fa<
ol
.il>\ss
mon
tin
It
in
to
whuh
is
to say, ol entering
nun which
than evident
exhibited
l>lo(
'I'
in
1965
set
ks, the gestalt
part
ROBER1 MOI
mto
to
think and
text
ot
mark
that
one
he produt ed lo the end
sol. u
"primary structure" and
inn, infiniti
the object
in
bj
itself
<!
n [tress
seemed
in
the
It
present
is.
<
as
perhaps,
l'
'5
to see
he
massive and mysterious
N.i/i
pie
it
in
in
Pel u,
ross fire
absorbed In the
its
ol
line
this
the surfaces of the
is
Thinking the "mark" at
si a le led
Mollis to
to
Morris's Mirrored
[rapped
up
constantly delayed experience;
..
mi;,
whuh
m.issive project through
has not oneself written, and that will continue to
the mutual reflections
ot
tin
"engulf
tun
clarity
reflectivi
vanish was
(.a In
swamp and
(1971)
to "read" the solstice. Observatory
contradictory relationship between the
I
ot
Observatory
is
way the glinting suri.ues acted to
this
of turn-
inside out: the art ot massive, closed
volumes now seeming
and thus
line-
work
and magisterial simplicity,
ale
mirrored "device"-fbr-marking had the effect
and industrialized lacquer surfaces, which Robert
Sn
li son
acknowledged in 1966 by coining tin
1
volume
cubit
within which one was standing seemed to flatten or
the infinitely long line.
obvious that something was going on
besides
identity
self's
just as easily
which could
else,
coherence and
of the body's internal
thus serving as a kind of model lor the
over time and space
possess-
projecting
ing the simplicity of geometric shape
into
production
at a
of the exhibition, was to have the Strange feeling that
something
Mirrored
after
Cubes, Morris began to con-
encounter Stadium, even outside the context
to
Ten years
four side sections
like
transmute the three
to
were shown,
into the
dimensions of space into a
reorganizations.
But
mind
tor
fiberglass,
has
the capacity
interpermutational
wedge.
it
of the body and the com-
Stadium (196 7 ),
In the exhibition
cross-
its
another type of "device" to "make
to an
a linear
formed something
it
spin.
its
away into
the encephalography capacity to transform the densitv
linear trace
they were, in fact, rearranged daily by the artist.
chart that had
of
mark." Impersonal and mechanical,
plexity of the
which these works, made of
in
makes
trajectory
a
they could be submitted
piece, or else they could be left
form
mirror displays
tact that the
and organized such that
that
Beams
will continue to drain
reflections as the straight line of an endlessly receding
could be reorganized so
L
kind
infinity
The
permuting the form-class, Morris had, by 1967, hit on
the strategy of making works that, though they would
defined
is
trapdoor opened at the back of experience through
the series.
sink any residual idealism out of the idea of
[b
work more than any other that senality
this
as the opposite of progress, being instead a
iiiim-i v.iiin v
.1
hand
lines
ai
in
ing
an .uh
t
lent
order to
pco
own
make a
he sun's
mark. "Aligned with Nazca," Morris's reflection on the
Quarter horses
enigma of these
span (reminiscent of Watt's and Sam's shuttle),
seems
hang over the
to
plained talisman.
opens with an epigram that
lines,
text like
its
own kind
of unex-
was
stop
"I
am
not one of the big world.
was an old
refrain with
am
of the
Murphy, and a
little
world."
conviction,
The other
it made
that
material
Pollock, jackson
"Ann Form" was Morris's first
written analysis of what he would later call "The
aspect of Pollock's gesture, however, was
clear that one of the properties of his
from
55
because, as Morris wrote, "the duality
is
established by the fact that an order, any order,
is
operating beyond the physical things," Morris
turned approvingly to Pollock's example: "Probably
no
art can completely resolve this.
Pollock's,
comes
This was
seemed
so,
Some
art,
such as
close." 56
sup-
porting lathe. Without
those internal props to
enable the materials to
hold as (geometric) forms,
the cloth or Poster would
Pace and Progress
yield
and
gravity
to
become formless. What Pollock demonstrated with his
dripped and thrown paint was, Morris argued, the
division between the internal, rigid armature that
maintains form in the field of the vertical, and the
openness of matter to the gravity that pulls
horizontal
forcing
field,
forsake armatures and
Morris argued, because Pollock's order
plaster applied to
^^V
(^^^^g^\
/ \
j
of the rebellion not against but specifically under the
"rationalism"
is
frames or clay modeled
over metal armatures or
jP Hlflfe^.
1968 and the second from 1970, stage this new phase
Taking up that problem in the reception of
Minimalism in which repetition and serial organizations of simple elements seemed always open to
an unwanted, dualistic reading
Judd's despised
always the result of a
stretched over wooden
aegis of Jackson Pollock.
is
continual struggle against gravity, as canvas
J^
first
relation to gravity. Artistic
its
is
now observed,
Abstract Expressionist gesture, of finding a "device" to
a "mark." Except that both texts, the
paint
form, Morris
Phenomenology of Making." It is continuous with the
problem, posed by the opening rebellion against the
make
before he was forced to
deep track etched into the ground, the
product of this centaurian "device."
two
'
convictions, the negative first.
for the
himself to drop
for either the horses or
from exhaustion. The result
taken from Beckett's Murphy:
It is
time necessary
back and forth over a 200-yard
like cloth or latex
it
work
was
to
to yield to the
it
into the
ground. To
directly with soft materials
produce
art in
which "consid-
manipulating, so that "to
become as important as those of
space," and where, "random piling, loose stacking,
make
hanging, give passing form to the material."
matter he was
to be fused with the very
a mark" was not
work according to a
formal system, but to
expose a process that
erations of gravity
In the "Anti
to
Form"
designated as one of the
essay, Claes
first
was represented through an image of
his
continues over a duration
(1967), one of
absolutely coterminous
object to the ceiling of the gallery,
with the making of the
electrical cord falling floorward
object.
Acknowledging
article,
it
Soft
flaccid blades attaching the
its
and
Fan
limp
spaghetti of
and sprawling on the
in the
Morris himself had also explored this yield to
gravity and
able to recover process
to
Giant
ground. Although he did not illustrate this
that "only Pollock was
and hold on
its
Oldenburg was
to use such materials
its
defiance of "form" in two early
Tangle
as part
of the end form of the work," Morris saw this as a func-
"The stick which
which acknowledges the nature
Rope pieces made
in
1963 and 1964,
in
which the
tion of Pollock's relation to his tools:
free fall of the material into formlessness (and in
drips paint
case from vertical to horizontal) had been contrasted
is
a tool
it
is
with the geometric frames from which the ropes
sympathy with matter because
it
emerge.
of the fluidity of paint.
in far greater
Unlike the brush
sympathy with the nature of
But beginning in 1967, Morris had embarked on a
more systematic exploration ot gravity's production
of anti-form, for it was then that he began to work
been inherent
with
acknowledges the inherent tendencies and properties
of that matter.
far
Making the mark
in
one's tool had, of course,
dancers' manipulation of bizarrely
in their search for
And
in
the Judson
commonplace props
an aesthetics of "task performance."
so the notion of process art as a
mance came
form of perfor-
when
naturally to Morris, as
in 1969, for
an exhibition in Edmonton, Canada, called Place and
Process,
one
he proposed to ride several
felt.
Laying great lengths of fabric on the
floor, as
had Pollock, Morris then marked the material with
line, as had Pollock, except that where Pollocks line
was formed by liquid paint soaking into canvas,
Morris's was made by a razor slicing into the surface <>t
make the work
felt. All that was then necessary to
was to lift it onto the wall, where cra\it\ pulled
ROSALIND
Ki
11
against the order of this line and opened the work to
and aggressively against the grain
most
ot its
orthodox. Modernist interpretation. In the eyes of the
seemed
it
to defy gravity, hovering
being thought by
Smithson. Robert
the simple illustration used
in
Monuments
experi-
Smithson's
monuments was
ence that demanded that one
think it apart from anything
open grave
"optical''
bodily or physical
sing
don't
but the result will not
had produced
it
a cut.
want
avoided the edge that would cui
it
would
into space, the edge that, by isolating forms,
By not cutting,
differentiate figure from ground,
it
could allow the canvas to read as an unbroken continu-
And
undivided plane.
a singular,
ity,
of
the visual
and
field,
immediacy,
of
the-
ot
own
the viewers
perception
the Modernist logic, was the wr\ essence
By avoiding the production
within the
formulation
hut tor Morris, everything
indeed to do with
it
Tin
lengths
ot
tin
whi
could
to
maintain
drains oul
thi
of a systi
the formli
'
ni ss
m, and
arrives
Form
is
i,
ii
rati
parati
between things om
.,i
./
>ial
and an
increast
notion
of
of
anti-form, exemplified by his
the de- architectun of
own enactment of
alt Rundown I9i
his
made
"entropy
Buried
as realized in his Partially
visible,"
dshed (1970), and
\\
form's yield to gravity, as in
But the parallel between Smithson and Morris,
this
moment
might
call
in
the
the W
latefa
cor,
which
to say that anti-
is
form, an irreversible, abyssal endlessness,
a
type
ol
serialitj
that
at
1960s, relates to what wt
is
itself
has us true site in language.
Smithson wrote,
"In the illusory babels ol language,"
our plane
ol
'iits.
he
arr/tt
might advanct
sections oj
meanin
irregularis cami
plain
ot
the wall
in
the fabrii
or voids
but this
oj
unexpected
knowledgt
\ttomlt
./'/./
endless architectures
and counter-architectures
md.
end, art perhaps only meaning/ess
if
then
is
an
Smithson had always countered the
ol Minimalism, and specificallj
reading
\t tht
lou
and
in
thi
and
desi ribi ng
energj
di
b\
r\\ itt's
yield to paradox, his
distini
pli
ai
LeWitts
"concepts,"
ol
form
domain of gravit)
thi
rationalist
ol
supposed manipulation
wit
surfa
tm
diffi
ss
welcome
also
is
ssar]
of
n ntiai
onsi rvativi
in
enterpri
lii
extended
pit
la
Is
ol
Far from
Ian
fi
language guai anti eing
ii
difFerentiation
Morris had thus argued
ntropii
ridors oj history,
unknown humors,
echoes,
and to
dd inter-
to get lost,
specifically
intoxicate bimselj in dizzying syntaxes,
uts themselves
th<
entropy, in which
of
hi
ynesi
called neither figure nor ground
I"
horizontal field as the
the operatoi
he
onto
lilted
gaps thai som< how opt
[*h(
hundreds ofti
sand
disturbing theii
pulled open large gaps
thai
ross
from hooks or suspendi d from
ing
it)
a<
fal
regular slashes
work was
slicing not
the canvas plant
Systematil
of
n while the
metricallj
had
lint
Morris began to work with
felt
process
ed into their ph. mi
planar
whin
mn
half
in
sand on
Indeed, Smithsons imagination was idled with the
an
form,
oi
rigid
were submitted to
sIk
vision
of
Pollock's
something
cut, with
th<
onv< ntionall)
vision
to
forms (cut out
of
of
in
into space but into the continuity
as
wbitt
the work, then, could produce form
tie-Id),
as the law ot the
itsc-ll
and
entropic production
opticality,
iinbrokenness
that field, in an all-at-onceness that, according
itself.
division but
would
that plane
then, according to the Modernist logu
yield an analogue of the
sand box divided
\tdt
had
to," he
it
For Greenberg, the importance of Pollocks
was that
of
cutting edge that goes into
"A brush stroke can have
deep space when you
liquid line
an
it
turn grey; after that wt havt him run anti-ct
to
Knots
was
able to avoid the sensation that
explained
to
clockwise in the box until tht
vation in the development of
it
of
sandbox, whose
to explain the irre\ ersibilit)
bild and havt bim
into the unsized canvas, was
hailed by Greenberg as an inno-
drawing precisely because
it
with black rand on the ont
bleed
its
Picture in your mind's eye the
said. "
frequently softened by
One
Passaic."
of
a child's
entropy, Smithson advised his reader:
Clement Greenberg had
The dripped line itself,
as
his
in
horizontality Smithson stressed by comparing
mirage.
"a
it
purely
astt
(1967), hooks into the notion of entropj as that was
to explain
weightlessly before one's eyes like an effulgent cloud, a
field of
as
1968), or profligate Process pieces such as
web was prized
pictorially devout. Pollock's linear
specifically because
of Morris's telts, as well as
works such
ressively horizontal
Morris, of course, was reading Pollock's painting
directly
anti-form
In tins sense, the
the continuous disorder ot anti-form.
In
order
of
smithson
Ins
thread watt*
Everything
logit
insisted
LeWiti
thinks, writes, or has
The
dictory.
made
is
inconsistent and contra-
'original idea' of his art
is 'lost
mess
in a
of drawings, figurings, and other ideas.' Nothing
where
it
seems
to be.
is
the success or failure of the task), tends to ignore the
presence of the text, neatly, fanatically, pencih J
into the left corner of every sheet. Entering the third
Beckett returns, then, through the very guise of
As the body
tries to finish
dying, something
own
anti-form was
made
The
textuali-
the record of the task, once completed. But whether
explicit in the
diary he kept for Continuous Project Altered Daily
(1969), in
which he
duced by
his labors.
the beautiful equilibrium that marries subject and
mind and body. For the text is either the
command to do the task, given beforehand, or it is
a text, its logic is that of repetition to infinity, the
imitation of form produced by the abyss.
term, language, into the equation, the text pulls apart
mad
nonetheless, relentlessly continues. Taking the form of
ty of Morris's
talks about the bodily disgust pro-
object,
preceding or following, the text
how
regressive paradox of
has understood the task;
Never one with the
voice that puts in
its
appearance in Morris's work of the early 1970s, the
argumentative, internal drone that
fills
both
Hearing (1972) and Voice (1974), continues to attach the
third force of language to the staging of the
of these enactments
to be
is
found
in the series called
Blind Time, initiated in 1973 and returned to in 1976,
1985, and again in 1991- These drawings,
Time
made by
attempt in
with plate
either
"uncanny materi-
he
It
was
Freud tells us that
is experienced as
uncanny is precisely this
displacement of the single, coherent, collected
or of
shapes to be applied to
(phallic)
the sheet
ole of multiple, shifting,
were pure
a case of
said.'
sheet of paper
itself,
found the
what was expect-
form by an aureMirrored Cubes
spooky things gathered
r
around an unspeakable absence.
the Medusa, he said; this
is
This
is
the image of
the dreadful recurrence
of what the child must strive to repress: the appearance
of the "castrated" mother, proof of the oedipal threat.
areas,
everywhere redolent of the
The uncanny, he
and
pressure pressing back. In this, the objective geome-
become dangers
in the
world
the vertical
and horizontal bifurcations of the rectangular sheer,
example, or the masking tape deposited as a
take on the resonance of Maurice MerleauPonty's argument about the body's role in the phenom-
for
enology of perception.
It is
what he called the "internal
horizon" of the body's density, the fact that
a back, a left
and
a right, an
up and
it
has a
down,
that allows us to "surface" into a world always already
anticipated as meaningful. Mind, in this sense,
present in the very dimensionality of carnality:
is
What
The phenomenological reading of the Blind Times,
though it captures the striving after an exquisite
is
the return of this threat,
narcissistic exten-
thus, according to the infantile
"omnipotence of thoughts," protections of
logic of the
oneself
body describes
explained,
reminder that what were once
limit as a sense of pressure pressing against the
be a bod)
reflections "uncanny," a disruption of
those of the rectangular
oil.
like to
."
.
ed from Minimalism.
explored in the Leads: the experience of the body's
is it
is
to
disappearance of the "unitary" form behind a surface of
sions of oneself
and
command
Uncanny materiality Smithson
spread, take on exactly that haptic quality Morris had
front
what
say,
onward from one task
task, the textual
series
then another onion, then another
in a
"square"
we could
then another onion, then another pepper-
hand's pressure, the fingers' extension, the palm's
tries the
is,
mint, then another onion, then another peppermint,
what
mark" that would deposit a record of his
a smear of velvety powdered graphite mixed
These marked
".
another:
description of simple
Morris, with his eyes closed, would perform his task by
a
what pushes the
ality,"
exercises in "touch." For
"making
also
carrying out graphic
tasks geared to the
geometries
Blind
know whether one
mind/body
problem. But, perhaps, the most effortlessly beautiful
in
it
what opens up the
is
to
introduces the turtle.
The textual body The
relentless,
intentional
artist's
marking) and an outside (the external record of
His concepts are prisons devoid
of reason.""
anti-form.
balance between an inside (the
have suddenly
the double that
turned against one and
to one's very being.
is
no longer
It's
of
this sense
guardian but now
menace that accounts, Freud says, for the location of
the uncanny in the doppelganger, in the mirrors
through which departed spirits can re-enter the space
of the living, in the bodies of androids, and in the
endless series of substitutes for the threatened penis.
The uncanny is thus itself a serial production,
whose vehicle can often be the mirror, but whos<
medium is the body, and the mind, and langua
The casting of body parts, in a multiplication
of phalluses and phallic stand-ins. to torm
around an opening,
1980s, was one torm
uncanny seriality.
in
in
Ir.inu
the Hydrocal works of the
winch Morns pursued
ROSALIND
Ki:
this
Vetti. house of the
through the
Another, of course, was
and pleats
pieces, the folds
relt
which
of
permutability, Duchamp's "Litanies" merely illustrate or thematize
from 1970
Felts
gradually bloomed at the end
m
House
image
into the
(1983)
It
these works that the
meticulousness
of
their
Minimalist
of
now
is
seriality
able
under the
the repressed.
of
So that the later Felts conduct a rereading of
Minimalism by entering its own series into a new one,
which
may
turn
in
enter into
English
how
stood
(W
among
relation to,
iii
>>.
exhibition
was further peculiar
that
this,
singly,
le
followed
"This
12
pronounced
(W
tart"
whom
who had
of the .mists
own
to Ins
',
An
and
h.
Hi
Oxford
Rosi
'
>.
Notes,'
\n
in
mpia Press
<>l\
Hoefei
.1
study "i U
was
tit
il
firsi
t" placi
|ai
qui
.,t
tin
ract
and
l.ii
Rosi
10
pp
Cambridgi
Mortal Qmilioiu (Cambridgi
Nagel
early
to -in undi
inn. linn
In
he
.it
Duchami
\.
Administration to
ni
.iii. ti.
Buchloh,
Bf
in
\ted in
'
ritiqui
a luriti
1962
13
semiotii
.i
with
ni
of [nstitutioi
..i
iii.
I,. i,
.ii
in |oi
n
iii,
win.
to whii
It
inn in rnaki
Of all
ti
drawing
1.
li
n|
lo in
1.
rring to othi
by
losed
In
it
M,
n,.
it
1.
Noti
m lopmi
speaks
inn.
1961
I"
no
14,
An Aesthetics
v.
li
(Octobei 19
rransgression,"
ol
ot
ol
on
Man
1',
d in ludd
qi
1964), n p
I,
idptun
Si
describing
thi
<
multiplicity
Rorty says,
paci
is
made
e)
u
is
(February
'
synthesized
ncepts
ti
nfin
e
i.
ni
ms
(embedded
ol
sunn.
cannoi
I
whicl
rransci ndi ntal
si
thi
1.
sit
relation to the
Running
versus sin
.,i
whi n Ki
h 'I"
thi
spelled oui in thi
is
is
given
laim thai
..i
singula! presentations to
brought to consciousness
representations (unnoticed by
rintoom many
I
lrti
urns to knot*
in intuitions)
Kani
relations
tedui tion, Rorty says,
can only be conscious of objects
tivity
Galleries,
p. 11
18
collection
intuitions
.i
mind/body problem's
assumption
.,
by
il
In
1965),
16
"the assumption thai manifoldness
hai
[contains]
bin thai then
sense,
in ibid
.1
so mology and probh
ol this issue ol
no
19,
icepts) as analysed by
li
in
run
!84
Galleries
In
Richard Rorty
unless
fi
nd thai
Bui unliki
tin
id its
di
.mil ih. i> unity
ted within the
in
19)
"Wayward
the top ol
ai
it
DonaldJudd: Complett Writings 1959
Morri
first
1990
ii.n
tti
Harper and Row, 1989
\ri
Robin Morris
From
1969
ill
mi
An
traditional
.is
..i
of Morri
Conceptual
thi
Duchamp's
fun ing
as
Lahyrintbi
of
19,43
nivenity
relation to
ill say so") disruptivi
form
191
1),
he also places
as
Robert Rauschenberg
Benjamin Buchloh analyzes Morris's
Michel
ed
Silltr,
,1
Michelson,
|udd
11m. tn.
p 50
rransgression,"
ol
George Heard Hamilton (New
1960s (New York
lb*
.Mt
it. ih, s
Watt
See Hoefei
tlu
Nova
B9
Marctl Ducbamp, Salt
Morris, "Aligned with Nazca
19
novel in colloquj with
thi
si
Landscapes," his text for this catalo
"\i
positivism, although she specifically argui
tin
by
8(1965),
/''" s (Halifax
!94
with tins citation,
Paris
ritical
<
maliim,
Hen
no 6 (February
i.
lr* Yoarbooi
Aesthetics
Bergei opens th< lust chaptei
18
l>
195
read \\ ittgenstein in the
Artfimm
pp
I),
nivetsity Press, 197
them have
ol
to," pp. 274 9
B(
[bid
(New Vork
Allrcd Jules Aycr, Language, Trull
an
number
account, Jasper Johns,
ulpture,"
MorrisAn
Michelson, "Robert
Rosi
-iutk
kett, U
know
Donald Judd, "Speci6i Objects,
28;
Minimalist
French objective novel,
reprinted in Minimal Art
14,
IV Duchamp,
25).
X, Y, Z -...
relates the
ol
Novembet 1965], reprinted in Minimal
ed Gregory Battoxk [\e York Dmion.
960s was, according
Ruben Morns.
Robert
Corcoran Gallery
quite the contrary to tluir knowledge of
is
then adds,
One
p. 292).
rransgression,"
IM
[Washington.
Sanouillei and Elmei Peterson, trans
task performance
ol
cautions against assuming that these artists
sin
Am
i< ollegi ot
13.
resembled the
it
Aesthetics
Robbe-Grillet and the
Critical Anthology,
Inverted Shoulder
short time by another, less
.i
true. In tins
is
it
.itic r
An
reprinted in Donald Judd: CompUtt Writings 1959
seldom
but was
it
other things, Judson dance, which she calls
i.u.iliii;iK
to Al.un
sensibility
pp 222
in
il\
Row, 1962; 1939), p
An. 1969], pp. 55-59).
11
In her essay
A B C Art." Barbara Rose
1966), pp
Watt's smile
Hereinafter,
Themes in
Michelson, "Robert Morns
12.
s ~i
S56
.is
two
the
>.
the "dance ol ordinary language" and ot
early
23).
\i
French in
Annette Michelson's important early essay on Morris analyzes his
work
l)
statement (p
267 and pp
York: Harper and
1968],
was done"
it
of
in
English trilogy,
Ironi the
.ire
Molloy
Erwin Panofsky
9.
An: A
and thought he under-
17
published
lirsi
textual references to the trilogy arc preceded by
read" (Art in
waft hid jn-ople smile
citations
(p
statements by the Unnamable (p
\\ ittgenstein," she
had
pp 16
wen subsequently published
own translation (London John
Beckett's
The above
1959)
follows: "wordy-gurdy
themselves had read
Watt - "Watt
as a trilogy,
which, however,
Mark lour
trans
1950. 1951, and 1952, respectively; they
in
10.
Shoulder (1978),
of Stn<i
Press. 1990),
and Tbt L'nnamabte. All were
0,
"system," as in the repeated.
supple bands of Inverted
Tbt Logic
from Beckett's trilogy, which consists
Calder
perhaps, the brilliance
is,
of
uncanny and the repetition
sign of the
explicit
uncanny body.
petals of the
These
never so
directly as in House of the Vetti
of the vetti
to restage the
and
of the decade
(Ne* York Columbia University
8.
on the
basis of Gilles Deleuzc's aitaik
certainties of analytic philosophy in
and repetitions of the
swells
in tbt lar:^
it
argument forms rhc
Ilns
Morris came increasingly to read as genital. The
random
do noi enact
repetition, they
laims
itituted
w
is
batches
iup|
by our own
of alt representations, combination
through
objects.
is
the only one which cannot be given
For where the understanding has not previously combined,
it
cannot dissolve, since only as having been combined by the understanding can
anything that allows of analysis be given
and
Philosophy
to the faculty
of representation (Rorty,
Mirror of Nature [Princeton: Princeton University
the
Press, 1979], p. 153).
26. Rose,
"A B C Art,"
291.
p.
27. Morris, "Notes on Sculpture, Part 2," Artforum 5, no. 2 (October
1966), pp. 22-23, reprinted in Battcock, pp. 233-34.
28. Primar) Structures, organized by Kynaston McShine, was at the
Jewish Museum,
mounted
at rhe
in
New
York (April-June 1966);
Systemic Painting
was
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum by Lawrence
Alloway (September-November 1966).
News (September
29- Bruce Glaser, "Questions to Stella and Judd," Art
1966), reprinted in Battcock, p. 151.
Donald Judd: Complete Writings,
30.
vol. 2, p. 25, as cited in
Yve-Alain
Donald Judd, exhibition catalogue (New York: Pace Gallery,
Bois,
1991), note 12.
31. Sol LeWitt,
quoted
in
Frances Colpitt, Minimal Art: The Critical
University of Washington Press, 1990), p. 58.
Perspective (Seattle:
Yve-Alain Bois called
my
attention to this statement.
Work
32. Morris's master's thesis, "Form-Classes in the
made
Brancusi" (Hunter College, 1966),
ed
in
George Kubler, The Shape of Time: Remarks on
(New Haven:
of Constantin
use of the concept as articulatthe History of Things
Yale University Press, 1962).
33. Robert Smithson, "Donald Judd," in 7 Sculptors, exhibition
catalogue (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1967), reprint-
ed in The Writings of Robert Smithson, ed.
New
York University
34. Beckett, quoted in
Nancy Holt (New York:
Press, 1979), p. 22.
Moms,
"Aligned with Nazca,"
p. 25.
35. Morris, "Anti Form," Artforum 6, no. 8 (April 1968), pp. 33-35;
"Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search
for the
Motivated," Artforum 8, no. 8 (April 1970), pp. 62-66.
36. Morris, "Anti Form," p. 34.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid., p. 35.
39-
Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture:
Critical Essays (Boston:
Beacon
Press, 1961), p. 169.
40. Greenberg, as quoted in Steven Naifeh and Gregory
Jackson Pollock:
p.
An
(New York:
American Saga
White Smith,
Clarkson Potter, 1989),
535.
my Optical Unconscious,
MIT Press, 1993), pp. 243-320.
Smithson, "The Monuments of Passaic," Artforum 6, no. 4
41. For an expansion of this argument, see
(Cambridge, Mass.:
42.
(December 1967), reprinted
in
The Writings of Robert Smithson,
pp. 56-57.
43- Smithson,
International
p. 67.
"A Museum of Language
(March 1968), reprinted
in
in the Vicinity
of Art," Art
The Writings of Robert Smithson,
For an analysis of Smithsons relation to language, see Craig
Owens, "Earthwords,"
44. Smithson,
October, no.
"A Museum
10
1979), pp. 121-30.
(fall
of Language in the Vicinity of Art," p. 69-
45. For such a reading, see "Blind
Time Drawings, 1973"
pp.
24449
in this catalogue.
46. Smithson, "Donald Judd," p. 22.
47.
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny," The Standard
Psychological Works of
Sigmund Freud,
ed.
(London: Hogart Press and the Institute
Edition of the Complete
James Strachey,
for
vol.
17
Pscyho-Analysis, 1953-
1973; 1919), pp. 214-35.
ROSALIND KRAUS
WAYWARD LANDSCAPES
seem
not
to speak, it is
Morns
In 1973, Robert
Nazca
lines.
I.
year
about me.
most
traveled to Peru to observe the
made
tor
own temporal
The description
process of investigation, his
relationship to the site as spectator.
Morns provides
repressive,
centers on
between the
dialectic
.1
overpowering verticality
Nazca was neither
What
Nazca
instead, he saw in the
publicness;
its
phenomenological passage
model
be
scientific or
anxieties
mathematii
as the
spate, in ettct
the art
t,
to the vertK al axis
involved
ol that d<
adi
the institutional hit-ran hies ol the
of
modern
sot letv
Ould offer
moments
e,
was
iewet and
wedded
at
museum
little at
ess
awa) from the Minimalist
ol tin
ami
.,i
.1
object
objei
oltl,
the
in
logic al
iui isi
rui iion ot
.il
in
'
nil'
Insure
ii
.i
uion resonant
;upported
problematii
.in ot
In
lisi
art
over) in
h<
si
It
In
ape
in th(
wt
n ch<
abstrai
ii
inabilit) to gi
'
at thi
si
spai
inoiion.il
.ii
and
w nh
In
si
ch(
al
the self."
ol
our reach into the
humor
that define
Rather than reletting
cion
and
lives ol
isual arts:
when
space
itself
model, he looked
Murph) and Malone
is
once
at
intellec tually
world where people
real, a
in the
own
it
pain and
contradiction and paradox
and every thought
it
II
bet kett's
End their emotional
nevet to
where people
oppression that robs them ol
is
or
also a place
tins
iln
e ol sell
idea ol
hi
iron)
agmi
i.i
is
ii
onl) aftei
we accept
the
out selfhood chat wt i.m trul) establish
ot
st 111
identity
paradoxical and complex space
mod
in. ii ioii
is
d( lint
he had embraced
d through stairs
ol
ol
the
unity
through mimetii detail and
was not new
earlier, in a set ies ol dani es
world,
exposed
beset b) aseemingl) limitless autism
sensor) experience
physii
also
it
examining, testing, and
world that
condemned
semblam
of how
ts ol
where the individual replaces the mythic
ilit)
w< n
n lation co ch<
mi
ot a
milum
argued, allowed for
aspet
protagonists journej around and around
center,
i
nam
vehicle tor shaping our notion
entered
world
physical center
ironic
struggle against the
its
lab)
is
in circles
ndered
ngi
and
and
losi
ever)
ult
universe
when
systems that reiterated the
Morns ultimately
lives
a
and viscerally
an both
earl)
manipulated, and subjugated b)
But
,|
mon complex understanding
world around u
ii
mi
psy< hologii al landsi
iIh
toi
Sinn tun of this work,
in iln
i,
arthworks and installation
"solipsisi
i
iew
pr< dii at<
ometry of out oppression,
mi!
oi
our
ol
exist in a
confusion,
d on ai ritic al v
while orthodox Minimalism
objei
were built on
t
art ol
ol
allowing the
1
selfhood, however, his argument suggested a rather
to the barren
in
ol
as an extension ol the sell, for Ins
tin
tti
art tor
extraordinar) possibility tor the
ess
me
st.
.on,.
and even
tht m.
dust, grime, and even
ol
the pOSSibilit) ol art as
and the
arthworks and installation
argument was
.m
measure
ol facilitating
the complexities
ol
to
the earl) 1970s might provide the possibility
Morris's
contradk tions that drive our alienation chose
ahstrat
greater
of /><
undefiant \eparatenesi
in the autistii pi rmt
incapable
then
humor
tht
other words, those resolutely abstract spaces were
men who
represented In the
in the plastic arts
physical existence,"
private, individual space ol the self, Morris reasoned,
tin- slntt
andfor
bam ImL to do
[paces oj
//><
ultimately shaping the interior space
still
the crumbling intellectual architectun
It
fashioning out spaa
rtist
understood the extent to which
In
oriented
dialogue between
in a critical
own
1960s Minimalist
ot
object that was relatively stable and
gallery
thinking
aJ
urban, industrialized spat
c>l
Literary
Beckett must sun/)
But
"a single indi\ [dual's limit in
ontradicted by the
<
geometry, and abstraction
tht telf
An
isolation.
of
confidt >n
us
Nazca could serve
This freedom, he reasoned, was
Times
itself.
While endorsing the new
for aesthetic experiences that return to the
through
instant
rst
an extension of
now bang built
./i
pert ti\ ing self [to] take
individual those processes of perception and cognition
lost
see>.
world in
./
"something intimate
lines
at
greatcoat fluffed u ith the
.i
Supplement uj\
ii
propose that his
to
<
insidt
and unimposing," something that could help us
to rethink the way our bodies relate to the world.
Morns went on
rt
Forifthesi \paces imp/) aloneness they indicatt nont of tht
impressed him most about
large scale nor
its
t/.u
Murphy, a Malone, ora
with the dust, tht grimness, or even
and the more expansive, liberating realm of
the Peruvian plain.
discontinuous with
./
endlessly
ideas
these//
urban spaces
<>t
xpact
and precise!) permuted his limitei
and meagt belongings. IL rt counting andfarting
an aesthetics of the self
artist's
out for himself in the post-
yean an
II
of the world. In those spaces,
his
Aligned with Nazca" constitutes
section of
'nna>:
The gi
war
what Michel Fbucault would call a description of the
monument" a meticulous and personal diary of
the
Beckett, The
later, in a critical analysis ot his
argument
significant
first
Samuel
not about me.
it is
journey published in Artforum, the artist
The
Maurice Berger
inst sui h
co Morris
A decade
reated from 1962
an
arti<
Although theses dances represent
ulation
ol
the
sell
his only lull scale
choreographic works, they formed a conceptual core
for
much of his thinking about the vicissitudes
War (1963, no. 56), a jousting tournament
of the
self:
between Morris and the
artist
Robert Huot, examined
masculine power and aggression; 21.3 (1964, no. 57), a
disorienting art-history lecture, questioned the extent
which conventional perceptions understood through
to
language can be taken for granted; Arizona (1963,
body
no. 55), a study of the
in
motion, examined the
and productive
relationship between useless
Site (1964, no. 63), a juxtaposition
laborer and a naked Carolee
Schneemann
Olympia, explored the nature of the
and
its
relation to play
tasks;
of Morris as manual
as Manet's
artist's
labor
and freedom; Check (1964),
a dispersal of forty performers into a large audience,
and
Waterman Switch (1965, no. 69), a nude encounter
between Morris and Yvonne Rainer and a transvestite
refigured the artist/spectator relationship;
accomplice played by Lucinda Childs, broached
the scandalous subjects of sexuality and liberation.
While these dances centered on various processes and
task performances, the reliance on props, sound
tracks, words, and role-playing allowed greater access
to the humanistic,
emotional space of the self often
banished from the resolutely abstract, antinarrative
realm of 1960s Minimalist sculpture and dance.
examined
In these works, Morris
own
his
role as actor:
neither a directly autobiographical "I" nor a neutral
task performer, he walked the fine line between
representing different personae and attempting to find
own
a place for those fragments of his
him
that might allow
examine,
to
history
test,
and shape the
interior space of the self.
He holds
a shield adorned with a photograph of President Eisenhower.
wears a
His opponent
in
advance
dance
at
in
make
to
total
suit of
their
darkness.
armor made
of junk.
They have agreed
weapons harmless. They begin
large
gong sounds
their
continually.
They stand
opposite sides of the stage. They taunt each other with voodoo
dolls.
They
hesitate.
They charge
at
each other. They clash. He
releases a pair of white doves. They fight as the doves flap overhead.
They run out
weapons. They
of
fight hand-to-hand.
They
fall
War, 1963. Morris
In
with Robert Huot at
Judson Memorial Church. New York.
21.3, 1964. Morris
Theater,
Man
Ray,
print. 8'
New
in
costume
for
performance
performance
at
in
Stage 73, Surplus Dance
Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Selavy. 1924.
S.
collaboration
York.
2x6";
The Samuel
to
inches (21.6 x
White
III
7.5 cm). Philadelphia
Gelatin-silver
Museum
of Art,
and Vera White Collection.
10
the floor. They
for three
roll
throughout most of Arizona, a position that neither
toward the audience. Blackout. The gong sounds
disrupted nor questioned the
more minutes.
iewer's sense ot self, the
made
disorienting finale of twirling lights
He stands barefoot
a single finger to indicate the start of the
gesture that
sunglasses and a blue denim
list
He wears
accompanied by
of instrucbons
monotonous sound
for sorting
He stands center
returns.
his
blue
He throws
He stands
Blackout.
joint.
lights
was pushed into
memory:
and hence into
a centerless space
which the psychological
in
maintaining
darkness of the hall, Morris was
his place
but masked by the
fairly invisible at this
point. In contrast to Panofsky's notion of perception
emerging into
of
labored breathing and a heart beating. Blackout. He twirls an electrical
cord capped by two blue
mesmerizing repetition served
in the absolute center ot the action
with his back to the audience.
accompanied by a sound track
a javelin at a blue target,
their vertiginous,
center was perpetually unsure
He rearranges
a blue T-form constructed of a lamp stand and two sticks attached
by a swivel
audience's concentration on the luminous specks
and
kind of autistic solipsism
cows. He leaves the
impossible
it
viewer to he comfortable or compliant
The
it
track, a rambling
stage.
tor the
to suppress responses rooted in narrative or
upper
are almost imperceptible. His
used by farmhands
He
stage. Blackout.
and trousers. He twists
movements
torso so slowly that his
actions are
shirt
raises
section (a counting
first
introduce each subsequent episode).
will
He
the middle of a large, darkened stage.
in
clear
meaning bound by
historical
convention, the clash ot reduplicated voices and the
intentional lapses in synchronization that permeated
over the heads of the audience. The
lights slowly dim. Blackout.
21.
also frustrated the spectator's ability to render
Tu
Marcel Duchamp,
122'
m', 1918.
Oil
on canvas and paintbrush. 27
inches (69.9 x 311.8 cm). Yale University Art Gallery,
Gift of
the
estate of Kathenne S. Dreier.
He steps up
white
shirt,
He begins
podium situated
to a spotlighted
darkened stage. He adjusts
and striped
He drops
tie.
his lecture. His
moves
is
He
and out
in
a gray
suit,
was eschewed, thecontem
feels his chin.
about the
echoed by a tape
haltingly,
moments
meaning from the performance. In this strange theater,
ol spontaneity
in which even the most benign instant
the middle of a
dressed
hat
of synchronization
in
me
acquaintance greets
on the street by removing
from a formal point of view
within a configuration that
lines,
I
"When an
Iconology, describes a single, everyday gesture:
is
his hat,
forms part
world of vision.
automatically do, this as an event (hat removing),
limits of purely
When
of clashing
\s.is lost .is
lell
I'u
identity,
Morris's first threi dances
within
pi
.i
fragmt
rformani
nt<
Morris's
ni
d visual and aural
oi
ikewed temporal setting
ol
n,
ii
audiena
i
21)
,i
u|
li
'i
iv<
oupli
ll'ilil.lll
Mm'
'In
nl
an
could be
ai
ci
maintained
tion on
si
i.i
ili<
ni
he
passivi
being
1
is
oherent
consistent connection with
al "I
sc
tion ol a
fragmented
hi Ins
prim
Duchamp
For
named
I,
reared
a ret
sell to
som<
iple influence
Duchamp,
only by absurd aliases
R Mutt, marchand du
human
identic]
rirj
found du
Ins
ni
ii
>ui
ol his
sel
Marsllavy,
"The
idea
an essential concept
invention
Duchamp said
mi. ept <! a
Ifhood
identitj
.
(the artist
doesn't exist at all in reality,
believe in,"
elliptii al
loud, repetitive
threat! ning
spe< tatoi
H lationship to
ol
these
field; in
ol
although Morns remained
always riven, torn between multiple possibilities
Kicisc Selavy,
in
violent clashing
In
with
and even
Although the
ntri<
'I
and 21.3
prom
the 1960s, Marcel
w.is
was defined
irizona,
identity was an extension
s,
W&r,
extent parallels the work
sounds and actions. Silence. Blackout.
dissonant
(the art historian), or even with a stable "von."
"In
have already
formal perception and entered
both actor and audi
well:
ol
In this sea ol
ions
and mis, ues anj sense
ih. ii
In
at
personhood
either an autobiographic
.phere of subject matter or meaning." The lecture reaches a
crescendo
by the histrionic dash
dislot ations
could not maintain
of the general pattern of color,
my
was confused
resolutely at the center ol Ins performance, the viewei
see
nothing but a change of certain details
and volumes which constitute
overstepped the
what
argument
Panofsky's
ol
ultural (inks that define the tipping ol a
sounds and overwrought
a pouring sound
later,
heard. His lecture, a verbatim excerpt from Erwin Panofsky's
Studies
as
in
his glass with water. Several
fills
in
is
his left hand.
words come out
recording of the speech that
He
He
his glasses.
and which
don't
ambivalence toward
onventionalized -mA fixed nut ion
li.nnps strategies for
m.u nines
foi
<lc
essentializing
shattering the mythii
language, sexuality, and representation
waj into Morris's formal and theoretical
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917,
reproduced
in
lost.
Photo by Alfred
The Blind Man, no. 2 (May 1917),
Anemic Cinema, 1926.
Marcel Duchamp,
Stieglltz,
white
p. 4.
film.
from 35
Still
mm
black-and-
Private collection.
Widow (and copyrighted by Rrose
vocabulary through his reading of Robert Lebel's
is
monograph on the Dadaist master in 1959, the year
of its publication. 8 "I was bored with the deaf and
dumb objects of high modernism, objects which, more
herself); the inverted urinal (Fountain [1917]) that
or
less,
have refused to accept their transitive
and conditional
"My
influence.
Duchamp was
idea that
all
status," Morris has said of
fascination with
Duchamp's
and respect
related to his linguistic fixation, to the
of his operations were ultimately built
Duchamp was
and contingent
spiraling
itself."
and the form of the female
sex.
The internal contradictions
Duchamp's work allow identity
One such
known
The term
Jakobson
is
"shifter"
was
initially
used by
is 'filled
with signification' only because
identity by contextualizing
within a sentence, phrase, or physical gesture.
This arena of operations not only fascinated Morris,
pronoun
dependent on
dynamic of his work of the 1960s and
the shifter
Searching for a solipsistic subject that could
its
own
complexities and division,
Duchamp
that
"I"
and defining meaning
"this" is a shifter, its
shaped the aesthetic, theoretical, and ideological
sustain
it
empty." 12 Essentially, shifters assign personal
realms of process, temporal experience, and language.
early 1970s.
Roman
to describe "that category of linguistic
perceptual states that would allow art to enter into the
it
as the
Duchamp's dislocation
of identity and the inherently autistic nature of his
sign [that]
for
example, are works that demonstrate his interest in
swing between other
rooted in the use of the figure of speech
work."
states. Optique de precision (1924), or the
that motivate
to
oscillation of subjectivity,
"shifter," plays a central role in
indeed fascinated with transitive
puns of his film Anemic Cinema (1926),
alludes simultaneously to the male excretory system
polarities as well.
for
on a sophisticated understanding of language
also a Fresh
its
referent;
"this
meaning can
and "you"
The
meaning wholly
it is
only
when we
qualify
pen" or "this cup," for example
exist at all.
The
personal pronouns
are also shifters because their referents
looked beyond the standards of normalcy that had
are entirely contextual, shifting in
often defined the stable self in twentieth-century
conversation volleys back and forth between speakers.
Western thought;
As Rosalind Krauss has argued,
argued,
it
was the
for
him, as Annette Michelson has
linguistic
and behavioral structure
meaning
it is
as the
precisely a
collapse of control over these qualifying factors
of autism that formed the most convincing parallel to
of language that characterizes Duchamp's transposition
our sociological disequilibrium."' Just as The Bride
of the shifter into visual language.
Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (191523) identifies
psychological centering inherent in the normal use of
the subject as perpetually divided between the
personal pronouns
worlds of the bachelor and the bride
that demarcate the boundaries of a conversation
a metaphor, of
course, for the inner contradictions that define
sexuality
Duchamp's work
divided psychological
self:
female alter ego Rrose Selavy; the French window that
sense of
the smoothly functioning shifters
down in his work.
The problem of naming an
often breaks
continually mirrors a
the artist in drag as his
The
individuated
central to the condition of childhood autism
all
silt is
also
lor
children, however, the ordering .uul applii ation
ol
MAUHK'K HKHCJKH
personal pronouns
mum mum
difficult to master, and, in feet,
is
the conceptual distinction between "I" and "you"
be learned. In cases
or the lasc things to
one
is
of adult-onset
aphasia, where the ability to orient speech correctly
is
entirely lost, personal
pronouns are among the
first
things to deteriorate; in the case of the autistic child,
achieving this orientation
As Krauss points out,
between the
"I"
Duchamp's
in
precisely this distinction
and the "you" that most often
fails
regressive world: the aimlessly pointing
finger in the painting
m' (1918); the complex
'in
and inversions
alliterations
almost impossible
is
is
it
puns of
in the revolving
Anemic Cinema that continually confuse the subjectobject relationship; the tense interchange between the
and the "other" that charges the transvestism
"I"
or
Rrose Selavy. Indeed, many ol Bruno Bettelheim's
clinical observations
on autism
in children
the collapsed shifters, obsession with revolving disks
with an oscillating
(as
being
fen), fantasies of
machine, and withdrawal from coherent speech into
world of private allusions and riddles
are evident
throughout Duchamp's oeuvre.
These autistic formations are to some extent also
present in Morris's dances and his
constructions
Duchamp- inspired
the earl] 1960s; the repetitive,
ot
dizzying sounds anil hyperactive, disjunctive play
ot
convention and meaning
in
War, the confounding
viewing
21.
of
where the
J,
self,
defined by
common
experience mk\ memory, yields to the solipsism,
who must
subject
world;
renegotiate
hypnotic effect
tin-
ot
confusing, labyrinthine
the spinning Lights
the construction Pbarmai
1962),
two small shapes, juxtaposed between two
Circular mirrors, seem to spiral in endless repetition
the compulsive and urn h.mistK tasks" ot Arizona;
in Art: ">u, or
in
the linguistit play and private puns ot a
ot
Dm ha m
Cunt [1963, no
Litanu
1961
>.
vers
ot
in
lei
.i.l.i
mi
ii
Mi trace
a half
oi
hours, the
text ol "litanies ot
oi his
1963
ol
the artist,
[964
oi
dislocated and
emotional and intellectual
le<
ttoencephalogtam and lead
X
ln(
has
/9. 7 x
ot the
1962, Painted wood and mirrors, 18
(29.2x91.4
Inchi
Mori
Stage 73, Sutplus
in .hi K
two ami
(tamed with metal and glass. 70't*
Pharmacy
2K
rfornu r
43.2 cm). Collection
site
hi< h, tor
ephalogram
Self Portrait (EEG)
labels,
36
Pt
no, 52],
Duchamp's Green Box (published in 1"'
(EEC (1963, no 14), which consists
Self Portrait
>M.
hariot," copying n directlj from the typographic
the wasteful onanism
54]);
in
repeatedh wrote out the
artist
(In
|1
number
inspired constructions (e.g.,
>-
Switch [I960], Swift Nigbt Ruler
an
whuh
cm). Collet tion
irolee
Dam
>
Schneemann
Nrw York
IIiimIit,
'
oi the artist.
in
performance
at
Yvonne Rainer, The Mind
Church,
center; the
two dozen or so objects and drawings of
rulers, rods,
New
produced between 1961 and 1964 that fundamentally
at
Judson Memorial
York.
approach to personality and meaning was not entirely
commensurate with
and other objects of measurement
a Muscle: Trio A, 1966. Yvonne Rainer
Is
performance with David Gordon and Steve Paxton
in
was never
either sensibility. Morris
comfortable, for example, with the formalism of
challenged "objective" or fixed standards by
the Minimalist choreographic milieu out of which he
manipulating or skewing calibration.
emerged. Having participated
in
Ann
Halprin's San
Francisco improvisational dance workshop in the
He stands upstage and
He
arms are
right of center. His
dressed
folded. His back
work clothes and boots. He wears
is
to the audience.
papier-mache mask that reproduces, without expression,
features.
Downstage
is
left,
in
a white box conceals the hardware for the
sound track, a tape of construction workers
He walks upstage center
first
board
off
stage.
drilling
to a large structure
washed plywood boards. He
the
his facial
He
with jackhammers.
composed
slowly begins to dismantle
returns.
He removes the
of whiteit.
He takes
rest of the
late-1950s
where
task performance, non-narrative
improvisation, and intuition were championed
Monte Young
the performance projects of La
early 1960s, Morris
was drawn
operational, and task-oriented choreography of the
Judson Dance Theater
in
New
York." Deconstructing
the style, conventions, and aesthetics of ballet and
Modern dance, these choreographers
who, in addition
Morns, included Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs,
to
the last panel. She
Steve Paxton, and Yvonne Rainer
is
revealed reclining on a lounge of pillows and
powder and a ribbon
around her neck, she recreates Olympia's pose. He walks downstage
left.
He
He moves one
carries
it
on
of the
his back.
plywood boards
He kneels next
into various positions
to
it.
He puts
the board
down. He walks upstage center. He covers her with a board. He
returns
downstage
left.
He
turns his back to the audience. Blackout.
the
to the passive,
boards, relocating them to other parts of the stage. He takes away
white fabric. Naked, except for a dusting of white
and
in
advoi ated
the elimination of narrative and the employment
everyday movements and activities
They placed emphasis on
in their
oi
dances.
the temporal actions and
interrelationships of the performer rather than on Ins
The operational
members of
or her personality or autobiography
exercises choreographed by soon
the juilson group
While the dances were influenced by Duchamp's
autistic economy as well as by the work
oi
of Morris's avant-garde dance contemporaries, his
a degree,
Morris's dances
and
wen
<
Minimalist sculpture
shared us
<
simultaneously explored
in
oexisteni with the nsi
in
the mid-1960s and, to
on( erns.
hart bj Rainer,
MAIHIlii
who
S3
and worked with Morris
lived
mid-1960s,
in the
new
the areas of convergence between the
lists
sculpture
and the new dance:
energy equality
factory fabrication
1.
\\9
DANCES
OBJECTS
and
"found" movement
2.
unitary forms, modules
equality of parts
3.
uninterrupted surface
repetition
4.
nonrejerential forms
neutral performance
and discrete events
5. literalness
task or tasklike activity
6. simplicity
singular action, event, or tone
7.
human
human
scale
scale
As an example, Rainer pointed out
gestures in her dance The
(1966) were not mimetic but
Modern dance,
body
end,
was "geared
takes the actual weight of the
it
go through the prescribed
to
was the task
it
and
Eliminating
literal.
Rainer's choreography
time
to the actual
Muscle: Trio
and the prescribed narrative time
narrative references
of
that the actions
Mind Is a
itself
and the
motions."''' In the
stresses sustained
by
the body in expediting that task that determined the
"The demands made on the body's
dance's structure.
(actual) energy resources," observed Rainer, "appear to
be commensurate with the task
the
floor, raising
would get out of a
as one
walk down the
or
movements
lit
getting up from
it
when one
stairs
mimetic ...
are not
etc.
much
chair, reach for a high shelf
The
manner
not in a hurry.
is
for in their
execution they have the factual qualities of such
The pedestrian
actions.""'
Is
be
an arm, tilting the pelvis,
a Munlt was reflected
character of The
dam
of the
New
in
performance
Judson Memorial
at
York.
artist
grounded the discourse of Site,
extent that ol Arizona and
was eliminated (David Gordon,
er"
Church,
Mind
in the work's rejection
hit-ran hies of traditional dance: the position of
"principal
Arizona, 1963. Morns
21,
},
subjectivities: here, female prostitute
Duchamp,
as he did to
whom
and male worker.
Paxton, and Rainer held equivalent roles on stage); the
In contrast to
nan issism
a deautobiographizing process in which the work
attai
bed
the "beautiful" dancer's body
t<>
was suppressed (ordinary street clothes were worn); and
romantii
artifii
Kami
gestures were discouraged. "The
balleti<
performance has been reevaluated," observed
ol
Ai lion, or
what one dots,
and important than the exhibition
and altitude, and that
through submerging
is
at
oi
not even Oneself, one
tion
[more) interesting
is
ol
an best be
lot
USed on
the personality; so ideally one
is
a neutral
lot
urn.
movements,
intrit
.md
historical references,
this
kind
ol
ate
sound
tr.u ks,
and elaborate
anonymous posing
favored
l>\
xampli
was
lass laboi
built
and
n adii
tin
thi
ii'
Morns, wearing
faithful reading ol
in
many Judson
I"
19 i0)
II'
It
fai
.t
(1st
(a
Herbert Marcuse
ilitate this
at
mask
much
oi
her
ol S//t
ot his
OU n lair, was engaged
"various job activities [he| bad while working in
in
onstrui tion
As
it
to undersi ore the impossibility oi being a
lor
when a student
in
in
l>\
ontamt
Art ana's
land the
at
the
understanding, the
tl
numerous autohiogr.tphu
"method
for sorting
al
ows"
tual instrut tions for sorting
the adolest ent Morris and his father,
ows used
who was
in
the hvestot k business; the artist's lassoing motion
in ailed his work as
Marxian
Reed College
references
it
own
the mid- 1960s, while
Morris's tlaiu es
produt tion gleaned from his
philosophy and psyt hology
mid
84
ol tht
oi
avoided
on an analogy between working
work
barat teristit oi
horeography
neutral doer uninst ribed by ideology or history,
texts,
choreographers Th< ideological content
narrative
horeographii literalness as well as the
(is)
panit ular person or
self-representation; Schneemann's nudity, tor
example, was also
artist as a
"Rrose signals
Morris's performers were permitted a degree
master.
of
Mut Morris's dances, involved as they were with
-
bed Iron) the
notorious
harat ter
tletat
tor
some
professional
in specific,
an
history at
1961
a sei
horse wranglet
tin
1950s;
related to his experience as a graduatt student in
21
Hunter (
63; and UKr/t
nun
ni
ollege in
New Mirk from
rman Switch was the name
roadway
in
San Prani
isi
ol
o he had surveyed
in the early 1950s.
Of this
autobiographical content,
Morris observes:
Although
that
is
had sympathy with Duchamp's
never centered,
kind ofpresence
bothered
narcissistic
drew on
I even
shape this persona. While
to
effortless
work
Modern dance
was trying other ways
lot.
a persona. To some degree
own past
wasn't interested in
body doing
every psychological nuance.
me a
notion of a self
wanted to manifest a particular
my performances.
in
showing the perfect,
and masking
to establish
the events of my
many
of the
Judson performers were involved in blank-faced, neutral
a
name it, to acknowledge that this
a person and the audience must deal with
movements.
persona
to
character
is
self-consciously trying to create
frame
it,
to
25
that person.
It is
was
not surprising then that in a recent essay, Morris,
names that characterized
referring to himself by special
various aspects of his
work
(the Minimalist sculptor
"Major Minimax," for example, or the earthworker
"Dirt Macher"), combined corporeal signifier and
proper
name
"Body Bob"
to refer to his
choreographic persona. 26
Indeed, Morris played a tangential role in only one
dance piece
Check. This work,
which the
artist
considered his least successful dance, was performed
only twice
1964 and
in 1965.
at the
at the
Moderna Museet
in
Stockholm
Judson Memorial Church
in
New
in
\brk
Engaging the audience more directly than
Waterman
any of the other dances, Check was organized around
strategies of infiltration
chairs were placed at
room, with
performers
aisles
Rainer
in
Switch, 1965, Morris, Lucinda Childs, and Yvonne
performance
at the Festival of the Arts
Today, Buffalo.
and displacement. About 700
random
in the center of a large
rendered actions. Repeatedly dispersing upon a signal
around the perimeter. Forty
men, women, and
executed
through the entire space. At a given signal, the forty
resume their wandering, the performers formed
what Morris has termed a "proto-audience." Since the
approximately 700 spectators were free to sit or stand
assembled into groups
as they
children
to
various actions in these aisles and then "wandered"
for simple,
simultaneously
watched, the performed actions were mostly
them. "Purposely antithetical" to his
invisible to
previous dances, Morris reminds us that in contrast to
had "no central focus, climax, dramatic
these, Check
Two L-Beams, 1965.
24 inches (243.8
Painted plywood, two units, each 96 x 96
243.8
61 cm).
intensity, continuity of action."
some of the
As such,
it
suggested
neutrality and task-orientation of
the Judson Minimalists without the narrative and
interpersonal complexities of his other dance pieces. 27
The stage
is
set with fake stones and two sets of plywood tracks.
tape recording of
stage. Blackout.
Boccanegra
rolling
stones drones on. The stones
lush aria
blares.
He
is
roll
along the
from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Simone
clutched
in
a tight, face-to-face
embrace
with her. They are both nude. Their bodies glisten with a coating of
Another
woman
appears. She
dressed as a man
mineral
oil.
and
She walks alongside them as they navigate the
tie.
She holds
line
a ball of twine.
She
is
is
in
suit
parallel tracks.
seemingly directed by the taut
stretched over her shoulder to a point off stage. The aria ends.
Blackout. The
woman dressed
holding the end of a long pole
as a
man
stands at center stage
capped by a red
flag.
Holding the flag
MAURICE BEROER SB
end
of the pole
in
front of him, he runs around
in
circles. His
recorded
voice talks about rearranging the stage. Blackout. Three real stones
appear on stage. At stage
study of a muscular
man
an Eadweard Muybridge locomotion
rear,
a stone
lifting
permeates the
of his voice
He
hall.
A sound
track
reading a passage about water
is
from Leonardo's notebooks. Blackout. The two nude figures once
again walk along the tracks accompanied by the Verdi
mercury-filled vial
in
He pours
his hand.
down
the mercury
He holds a
aria.
her back.
each cube were sloped
idea of completely losing himself in his art
to Morris
an
who was
artist
so fearful
relinquishing control that he refused to enter the
of
Labyrinth (1974, no. 119) in Philadelphia
succumb
to his
his dances
own
1965, no. 67), an
in
he
lest
known
shape, the gestalt,
(despite the displacement of
the same
at
two
ot its sides). In the
simplest shapes, such as cubes and pyramids, "one sees
and immediately
-
The
'
believes' that the pattern within
the
tact of
altered gestalts of Battered Cubes prevent
who now moves around
the spectator,
a
the piece as
it
the individual shapes in the arrangement; one has
work
understand
in timt to fully
its
nuances.
another work, Three L-Beami
In
Morns juxtaposed
1965, no.
i),
three large, /.-shaped polyhedrons.
the artist to the center of his work. Perhaps the most
The three identical forms, with their massive eight-
dramatic, albeit metaphoric, representation of this
foot extensions,
return occurs in Morris's last dance, Waterman Switch.
the floor: one lying on
an absurd love duet," wrote David Antin, "and
is
It
there
sense that the artist
is
'simulating'
is
Duchamp:
deliberately recalled
man
Rrose Selavy
guiding
woman
dressed as
the naked and glistening
and Bachelor beyond
bruit
the
a brilliant inversion of the transvestism of
No
return
Waterman Su
wonder, then, that the
itch, essentially a
final
scene
duplication of the
first,
si^iiiIk ant in tin
coming,
lor in
jai
ontcxt ol Morris's perform. inces,
Dm hamp
as
ulated onto the surfai e
faunf (19
>'
literally
did
when he
"painting'' l't\
ol Ins
pain, in whii h
is ol a
As such,
possible
is
and
to psy< hi'
when
the fantasy
least
ai
this final symbolit return
physii al equilibrium, as well as th<
purposeful, ideologii ally impai
ol S//i oi
ili
\ is"
'ill
oui ol
d bod) languagi
c<
cot sorting method of Art
suggest iiiuments
emergi
m Mm
its autistii
is s
<"/./
dani is u here tin bod)
whirl and into
kind
ol
groundedness.
i
an
mi
rg< ni
bodies thai find theii identities through
self
temporal
icpi
ii
n<
and struggli
plinths,
i
.
in tins
ulptun
and
th(
Beam
performative kind
"t
the
mid
.1
frustrating the visualization
disruption
2(1
ll'lllllll
ol
its
thn
dim<
ol
is
must be
viewer's preconceptions
known mentally
rendered
is
With
irrelevant by public experience.
inoperative, the
brute perception
hi'
or she
is
must
iewer
start
from the
order CO grasp the
in
sin h
ot
what
iewer's del entered relationship to
ol
profoundly on his or her
ts
selfhood as constituted within the
cxpcricnic, the engagement
aesthetic,
level ol
re. ilit\
seeing
these gestalts impai
through our bodies and our gestures
dependent on che other beings
these works
Ol
Fbi
to
"are full)
whom we make
them and on whose vision ol them we depend on to
make sense
In effet t, in these works, Morris is
undermining che myth ol che sell as coin. mud
whole, lor che viewer must now grasp his or her
ios nun in sp.u e through an exocentrit relationship
,i
with
iln
im
.is
it
Ultimately, the
world
"ci
,i
dependenci
lam kuu
ol
ill. ii
01
In
II
than as an
in
Mm
selfhood
I
ii
artist's altered gestalts
cognate
for this
naked
us mo\i mi ins and gestures
is,
Tins urn inn ni
i
of
intention and meaning upon che bod)
understood, thai
i.i
surfaces into the world in ever) external
p. ii Hi
\\(
form through
ir.uni.il gi m.iIis
what
accumulations of memory and knowledge made
Minimalist
Morris sought >" prolong and intensif) the
viewer's temporal experienci ofthi object
\,\
somewhat
as
n late to Ins
ol
The
their difference.
sc
[nasmui h as Morris's darn es depii
..
unity
ol
because their similarity must
suggest that the meanings we establish and express
person's emotional
and physical equilibrium are momentarily shattered
.ukI into a plat
And
as the same.
understanding
somewhere between pleasure and
a (pi
them
understood,
is
their positioning precludes seeing
ot
Moreover, the
disorientation ol scxinl desire and eX( itement
thai state, situated
one upended, one
be judged by standards that exist prior to actual
Morris symbolic ally emerged out of the
"
in positions relative to
logic ot the form's uniformity
the variability
set aside, tor
ol
ended with Morns pouring mercury down Rainer's
back
a metaphor tor ejaculation. This allusion
is
its side,
experience, the L-Beams are particularly challenging in
postvirginal point of no
the
were arranged
inverted. This displacement creates an optical illusion
While the
being stripped bare."" As Antin suggested, the dance
in
Minimalist dance, from immediately apprehending
were built around autobiographical cues and
self-referential gestures chat continually returned
sides of
affirming the impulse to see the shape as a cube
to negotiate the
As such,
severe claustrophobia.
two
order to question the
time that this gestalt was made even more visible by
object."
The
of tour identical cubic forms,
ones mind corresponds to the existential
They walk to the end of the track. Blackout.
was anathema
B..
arrangement
durability of the
projected. The three
is
barefoot actors stand on the rocks holding a thick rope.
example, in
oi
is
is s
,i
ol
the
sell
onl) inexperience."
sell
constituted
in
experience
prion, contained whole relates as
dances
a field ol a< civitj
where
neither stable nor ((instant but emerges in
both che performei and che
vii
wi
il
Fathers and Sons, 1955/1983. Painted Hydrocal and
ink
on paper, 33'/a x 51
inches (84.5
/s
130.5 cm). Collection
of the artist.
One must
Minimalist sculpture permits the spectator insight
operations.
into the self through the phenomenological experience
dances to find the kind of space that he suggested in
of visual dislocations, these disjunctions, as Morris
"Aligned with Nazca"
himself has observed,
involves a notion of selfhood as tied to an earlier,
still
function within the
atavistic stage in
stage where identity
dependent on an
is
and
its
psychological development, a
formed outside of mathematical
is
moment
Indeed, no psychological
and the viewer's perception of a degree of deviation
gestalts. Discussing
a visual and sensual field that
logic.
inherent contrast between culturally encoded forms
from these normative
human
context of mathematical logic; in other words, the
destabilization that permits the viewer to refigure his
or her relationship to the world
look, therefore, to Morris's
Minimalism
does the "mirror stage"
childhood development, according to the French
evolution into the later object-oriented art
psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan,
"Aligned with Nazca":
into being.
There
eight and eighteen
in
its
reliance on simple systems.
But
if that
u,
work was an
art of wholes with underlying, understated structures of
information, later object art became
which
visible,
together.
an art ofparts
underlined structures of information bound
Such work, while object-bound, moved toward
diminishing the density of the physical unit until a
first
is
when
months of age) when the
identifies
with an image of what
be an integral person.
If the
it
infant
looks like to
mirror stage
true source of the unified and authentic
it
comes
recognizes him- or herself in the mirror and hence
often
is
in
is
seen as the
self,
as
humanistic psychologies, then, Lacan
Not
argues, our selfhood can only be inauthentu
only does the illusion of integral selfhood originate
masking of an actual fragmentation [the
(it ,k InU <>t this
in the
illustrated the information structure.
disjunctive physical awkwardness
on Lacan's theory,
age]," writes Louis A. Sass
radical possibility, suggested by the artist, for a
self-identity
development (between
a period of
point was reached where physical manifestations merely
The
more than
that instance in
of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Morris wrote, in
Analysis as a strategy was present in earlier minimal u
appears to
parallel the sensibility of Morris's dances
by means of a certain alienation:
Beckettlike space of the self would not be possible in
selt is, after all,
such a limited, institutionally bound realm of logical
who
a mirrored
stands outside of the
tor the
image
at
self, like
.i
does so
it
sense of
distant
e.
.i
being
the other
MAHKIl
>
17
as a moi, not aye; selt-as-ob)cct rather than self-
(i.e.,
as-subject
But
alienation
it
most particularly
implied by the mirror stage,
is
in its earlier phases,
when
the
subject vacillates between an image of totalization and
one of fragmentation and disarray, the subject's
emergence into the realm
calls
or the "Symbolic," as
Lacan
implies an axis of linguistic self-identification
it,
that allows the child's nascent identity to emerge
two endpoints
In assessing
initial
assumption
forms the ego
or the
and the
itself,
for the point at
himself
to her- or
the
the gestalt that
is
subject's internalization
of this image and his setting
Lacan allows
mirror stage
tor the
image that
up of its social function
which the child can refer
sentence as the subject ("I") and
in a
not the object ("me"). In other words,
the ability
is
it
to utter this "I" that permits the child to see the self-
word
as-subject. Because the
I-Box
1962 (open
next speaker,
plywood cabinet covered with
Sculptmetal, containing photograph,
19 x 12
Punches
(48.3
3.5 cm). Collection Leo Castelli.
32.4
moment
lingering tor only a
view). Painted
[that]
if
this transpersonal
myself in
moi
is
one
that
can be
be taken over by
lets oneself
system that preexists and transcends
it
like
an object.""'
born
ironically
And
in the self-alienation of visual
him- or
after the subject loses
impersonal, larger system
ol
While Morris allows the
language,
subjects of his dances to
language (his
more
the Surrealists allowed the
It
subsumed by
the paradoxical freedom
inherent in giving oneself over to the flow of
system (becoming
wntmg,
automatic
\(
It
oi resistance
chough neither
losi
roi ./</
>">'~>>.
ol
desublimation, and R
1959),
Freud that advanc ed
ol
mental
underscored the
disempowered
id< :a
sell
// liln
I'nlt
ii
i.
idea
>t
chat
.i
Ii'.
It
(H
he psyt
would
illness,
onlj
disunified
incapable
of ./>/ illusory
man and
sin rtby
a mil.
giving
modern Western
ID
Marxian
ritique
politic s
ol
hi. urn
haw
selt
was also
,i
the kind of social
him
Of this weakness,
writes
s.iss
tin
was an
D. Laing's Tbt Divided Selj
agency that was important to
a< t,
ultund and sexual
<
liberator) approai h n>
treatment
"I."
Morris's reading of Marcuse's
of
nor an absolute
a definitive
ivilixation
of
example), Morns maintained
him, constituting the
for
a larger
the loops and skeins
in
tor
ideological gesture
/
on the
built
full) CO the
docs not permit his performances
linguistic realm), he
entirely to overtake In in
to be
ot
Duchamp was after all
Dadaist's ability to submit art
form only
herself in the
be taken over by the larger system
fascination with
losing
the
so, |ust as
reflection (the "Imaginary"), theje can take
subjet
identity myself in language, but only
"I
to the
a unified source of "casual efficacy
experienced only
one":
moving on
an effect or language
is
also a shifter,
is
can engender only a fleeting sense of
it
center and being
x
"I"
before
/</'
telfJotH rcomi
it
i/m
most
to
of tbt
//'<
division
h\ effacing both
aspirations
il><
/ tbt
tradition. Instead of being reconciled, <<//
and world simply disappear
into the middle term, the
Foucault has observed, that "caring for the self [can
constitute] a practice of freedom." Such a formation of
language-like structures that replace these supposedly
outmoded polarities. Thus freedom and self-expression are
given up since the volitional
to
be
an
illusion
truth
is
and individual self turns
the structures
the unity that
achieved
is
is
is
circumvent to an extent the systems of power and
domination that govern our
illusory, since there is no
world but what
since it
the subject, Foucault reasoned, allows the individual to
out
allow
to
appear; further
a unity devoid of vitality
not to overcome alienation but "to
in our alienated being.
make
ourselves at
and
to achieve a
While such a
a state of psychosis or autism.
self-
orientation has, throughout history, been denounced as
that of a mechanical rather than organic system.
And so the most that such a perspective could promise is
lives
degree of political agency that would be impossible in
home
" 43
a "kind of self love ... a kind of egoism or individual
one must
interest in contradiction to the care
show others
or to the necessary sacrifice of the self," 15
Foucault s ethos of freedom, while somewhat naive
To watch a schizophrenic person descend into an
abyss of delusions, paranoia, and self-destruction
is,
of
course, to witness a tragic dismantling of control,
a loss rendered
more perilous by
society's relentless
intolerance, even hatred, of the mentally
ill.
Laing, for
example, while advocating the concept of a liberated
self that blurs the restrictive
boundaries between
in its disavowal of the role of self-interest, rejects these
admonishments
as repressive
and
coercive. In the
oppressive world of selflessness, the subjectivity of the
individuated self must yield to broader social contracts
of truth; in effect, personal narratives surrender
to official texts.
These games of truth
the individual voice
empower
by
foreclosing
only the dominant
so-called normal and pathological behavior, also
culture that establishes the parameters of truth.
acknowledged that the Modernist romance with ego
By advancing
loss
was problematic
for
most human beings:
cannot take the realness, aliveness,
"If the individual
autonomy, and identity of himself and others
become absorbed
granted, then he has to
ways of trying to be
real,
for
in contriving
of keeping himself or
put
his self."
it,
power
to prevent himself [from] losing
returned to the disenfranchised
for a practice of the self as a
Duchamp's fracturing of subjectivity, he has always
to underestimate the political
been ambivalent about the aesthetic realization of a
if,
Even the
paths of Arizona and 21.3 avoided a limitless
autism; instead, they sporadically centered around
fragments of coherent speech, proper names, logical
and
specific personae, bits of information
some aesthetic,
meaning. The lucid
in his essay
literary
detriment, obsessed with the
its
"human
actions,
Foucault calls
Roland Barthes eloquently argued,
While Morris's desire to transcend the formalist
myth of organic completeness was commensurate with
self.
means of empowering the
"The Death of the Author" (1967), that
criticism was, to
hopelessly fractured or neutralized
it
individual subject.
14
elliptical
view of power
not evil, that
itself is
can be wrested away from the dominant culture and
others alive, of preserving his identity, in efforts, as he
will often
a wholly unpuritanical
in believing that
person" of the author. But Barthes's defense of
the textual over the "sway of the Author""' would seem
for
power of authorship:
example, the dense poetics of Mallarme suppress
the author in the interests of writing, they do so
invariably at the expense of politics
social voice in an
obfuscating the
opaque, albeit elegant, web of
metaphors and fractured meaning. In the formalist
criticism of the 1950s
and 1960s,
in
which the
that allowed the spectator to cull
exigencies of form, texture, and composition reigned,
psychological, and political
the
cow-sorting narrative in Arizona, for example, serves as
a provocative
backdrop
of useless tasks; this
for Morris's enaction of a series
list
of actual instructions for
"human person"
from the
for
text.
of the author was banished
Such formalist biases did not die
easily,
even the avant-garde of the 1960s continued to
be embarrassed by those cultural figures (most often
discharging a difficult job recapitulates the hierarchies
women and
of labor and production where workers follow, rather
"weakness," spoke the forbidden language of the
than give, instructions. In this context, Morris
self.
acts as an
empowered
ringleader (and, as in
all
of his
performances, a "principal dancer"): working outside of
people of color) who, in
moments of
Despite such proscriptions, from the
onward, Morris's own discourse as an
late
1950s
artist,
choreographer, and writer oscillated between
these repressive hierarchies, he functions at the center
the required anonymity of avant-gardist practice, the
of an aesthetic world controlled and manipulated
autism characteristic of a more transgressive
by him.
modernism, and reference
Morris's
fundamental refusal
to lose himself in his
throughout his
art, a refusal that
manifests
oeuvre
dances and conceptual self-portraits
from
his
itself
to the personal, the
individual, and the autobiographical.
1970s, in his writings at least, he
a fully
formed discourse of the
own
By the mid-
was able
to enter into
self that included
of the mid-1960s, to his diaristic writings of the 1970s
the narrative of his
and 1980s,
consistently invoked a powerful "I" that spoke ovei
father
is
to a recent
drawing of himself and
his
ideologically grounded, reminding us, as
life,
a discourse that
loudmouthed, bullying voices
Ik-
of critical authoritj
MAURICE BEROER 89
illuminating to end this discussion with I-Box
It is
box with
shape
naked and grinning cannot be
The work
(1962, no. 25).
of the letter
the
that conceals a photograph of
The
in I -Box not as absolute
self
read as a
its
in this essay
Ibid
taste, the act ot closing
drained vision
recalls Beckett's
often
is
more than
little
The work
self.
of the
a vacant
world, where
Ibid .p
i.
Ibid..
>
Morns
Morris himself
it is
Molloj or Malone
like Beckett's
who
such
In
continually retiring a fragile word that both breaks
6.
empowerment: "I
From the dance
"I"
would continually
resurface in Morris's work: the political activist
museum
work
who
invited the public into the
of American
lands* ape ol
in his
who
explorer
perception
.is
om
Lung. Tit
/'
Whitney Museum
monumental
Mm
don:
,l
fracturing ot identic]
MIT Press,
1989), pp
snowy landscape in Ins him Mirror (1969, no. 137); the
blind man. lost in a sell-imposed darkness, who losed
direct parallel
km.
,i
.>t
Below
wanted postet announces
Learning
no\.
<
between subversion
B4QI
Welch,
Known
how
revealing
wot Id
also undei
Dm lump
the me. nanisms
lueled In iht need to
.in
its
alias
chat draws a
them
in order to control
N anud from Lebel, or rrom
Duchamp's 1963
nIioin
.shop in \.
identity an.l criminality,
ol
ilitator,
identify things in the
ol
raced Bui k<
By constructing an imagi
..i
.iihI
unit
$2,000
\\
( >|><
domination, and manipulation
ol p.. veer,
for
One
GtOVI Press, 1959)
\ \.rk
n ,uh nuJc U
parod)
iIiin
name RROSI mi
che
tbt
Duihamp (New
York under name llooki
name and
he walked mirror in hand through a
Drama
CNewYork Viking
Dm lump
more on
Bull. alias Pickens etcetery, etceterj
.h ts .in
negotiated the complexities of vision and
boredom
Godot
wail tor
reward for information leading to the an
timbers, and steel, the
rete,
who
that hel|xd shape Morris's conceptualization ot a multivalent
hunp,
Art in 1970 as he installed a
<
selfhood was tin renin,
Conceptual projects of the early 1970s; the workman
who
it
pi
1,
Robert Lebel. M.ir
campaigned against the Vietnam War and the
institutional hierarchies of the
Century (Cambridge. M.inn
pieces on, this self-referential,
no contradictors 9
is
Rudolf Kuenzli, "Introduction
see
performatorv word the
197
on
Beckett, lor
180-N^
ua with
7. Pierre Cal
Press.
usscd this discomfort in "Notes on Dance." Tulant
disi
Retiru 6 (winter 1965), pp.
Modernist anonymity and proclaims
of
Morns
to live." See
Penguin. 1965), pp. 40-41.
the language of self-identity and potentially of
which there
way, the two tramps
stands at the center of his particular universe,
the rules
"With Sjnim!
health and validity to mitigate the despair, terror,
condemned
are
pp
I,
significant mriuenic
Til On...
in
early thinking about selfhood:
existence
ot
ns
self in its
But, as in the dance pieces that would follow,
l|
no. 2 (October
1,
subject in claustrophobic isolation.
its
Minn. Rcc Morton.
As R D. Lung wrote
5.
word, a coffin
instance, one enters a world in
that enshrouds
Man
Bruce Nauman. Joel Shapiro, and Phil Simkin See Robert Morris.
2.
and
acknowledge
icm Viro Acconci. Michael Asher. Alice Aw.sk,
"Aligned with Nj;.a, ' Artfortm
denies representation of a specific
also like to
not specifically discussed, the work ol several artists was used
to illustrate Morris
exposes an improbable self-portrait that challenges
it
divided self helped to
the
would
Chris Burden, Peter Campus, Marvin Lorrticld,
the
swinging of a door. While the act of opening the door
art-historical prohibitions
generous advice and
debt to the groundbreaking work of Rosalind Krauss and Annette
Though
1.
but as somewhat arbitrary,
articulation hinging on an external action
number of issues
for his
Duchamp and
Michclson.
spelled out
is
thank Mason Klein
like to
clarify a
my
Morris
conventional self-portrait.
would
criticism; his ideas un Marcel
a dtxjr in
recycled version as the postei
vn Museum,
retrospective at thi Pasadena
<
drew on paper with graphite and plan
his eyes,
and
later
s< r.iv.
led
.i
t<
who posed
of the drawing; thedominator
m
1
i.
helmet and ScVM drag
astelli exhibition;
nli.
in
rei
.i
<
nt
Whether naked
work
lothes in
the son
bottom
naked
halt
poster tor his 19
who
imp's joke
WANTED
most wanted men
stands next to Ins
known
in
Waterman
in
S//i
own
episodes Irom Ins
ret alls
brain surgeon
donning
Switch, or
Last
-in
similar antisot
lorse,
Morris,
activities in
lightl)
nifii
ant
at
sthi
and so
tii
ntering into the labyrinth
i
ial
sell.
Ifhood without diminishing
onfu lions within
thi
ti
mporal and
strovi
nil
work
represent
it
"i
<
ai
sell in
dam
e, th<
on< eptual
was permitted
sell
the mti istn
l><
lui
<
and unit] decenteredness and control,
tun and languagl
dam
(achieved w hat
itsell
to
fragmentation
abstrai
In this sense. Morris's
th<
work
add n
works
in
ontrasi to
ould (with the possibli
ki
pn.ni
19
th<
the
101 in.
.11
is
KOI
.in
as
dam
.1
iii
i0111i1l.11n.il
..1
on
ol
in iIiin sense,
in
failure to establish ide
i.ini
./
..
y,
and mid
for thi lubjeci
is
lologyofthi
I'h
concomitant
In
See
Mason
Marcel Duchamp's
s,ii
dissertation
it)
(<
niveriity ol
York, forth
Aii'iiii.
Michclson
li
Red
is
repi
on an Emblematii
Mich
.1
in
imj Baker Sandback (Ann
Critically
Arboi
hamp
a function of thi unconscious
adearl) bound referential
unpublished
In
is
aligned with Lacan's major thesis thai within
rowardsaPhei
Klein,
in ctx
subjectivity, thai l>n.
\\ orl
construction of space itself as an extens
ai
As Mason
equivocation thai occurs
specificall) thi
the sense of sell Ionn thai
nnin
lump,
in.
i.
UM1
Research Press
143-48
1984), p|
.
sell
and weight
delimiting and arbitrary
ol
his performancelike installations of the early
ot
On. lump, howevei
world according to convention attests to Iun
this inabilit) to establish referenci
New
in Ins
n.
1.
In
oeuvn
157, scar
aucobiographical allusions to Ins work
in <h<
Klein writes
tf.tim
on chest in pattern of 1 s Map
employmem .in cap darn er, pi time
known employmem in an air works Last contacted
vi 1I1.
naming thing*
complexities
its
defrauding garb
apitulation of thi linguistii sign as arbitrarj
Moms
earl)
of Ni
om
,etc.,
eti
<>l
onstrui tion
the
ol
appropriating
to hav Nought
thi
and .miNi
the spe< tator) in an age
artist (as well as
role ot tin
rolt
ial
description contained his propei name, height
well
Morris helped reshape the
Nt
nsed
Life
himself
handwritten diar) notation from the
..
man
lor
i.8,W1
III
collectors
'
foi
painting; the autobiographei who,
series ot essays,
,i
in a
oil,
lions at the
ol Ins ai
Old
MorriN had proposed
nil
li
.ills
ihisschiio
..nun.
III. II..
I'.
*\
Mirror. 1969.
Still
from 16
mm
black-and-white film.
Courtesy Castelli-Sonnabend Videotapes and Films.
MAUHII-I
on
Duchamp
Michel Carrouges, Lebel, and Jean Reboul. See,
as
example, Lebel, Marcel Duchamp,
MIT
,"
The
and the Russian
"Shifters, verbal categories,
Press, 1957); as
quoted
13. See Krauss,
"Notes on the Index, Pan
Rotary Spheres, in
the forms of rotation
and
Anemic Cinema
being considered as
therapeutic device to be
David Antin. "Art
of natural laws into highly artificial
and controlled codes,
the disdain of community, the extreme interest in scientific
of the autistic economy
and speculative
so
remarkably converted by him
Adam and Fu
who
lived
Bruno Bettclhcim, The Empty Fortran
description of the case, see
the Birth of the Self (New
Autism and
New
York, where the
Two
Another work
pharmacy
bottles,
one
red, the other green, are depicted,
ptoxy
sec
more on Morris's development
see
as
Labynmhi: Robert Morrn, Minimalism, and tit I960i
rger,
26-28,49,81-105
York: Harper and Row, 1989), pp.
Dana
ludson
Yvonne
18. See
Tendem
A Quasi Survey
Rainer,
Plethora, or an Analysis ol Trio A.
Anth
Battcock
Some
'Minimalist
Minimal
in
Art:
Critical
(New York: Dutton
this
ml >l
d himsell
in
'Expli
..i
irthworki
snd
traditional
Hoi
desi ription ol Ins role in
si it
silt
'atorman
referential, sell ...us. ious,
Does that ring a
'
Sti
..
and corporeally
Maybe
hob up hen
think we should get Bod\
numbet che'Heroii
ulptun
s,
Well
bell, Ignatz?
V. itch, greased up, bare
ball Itoni H
tr.u
onvt rsely affirms the
ks
(Morris, 'Robert Morris
ol eat
\ i-.ii.il
rhis situational
strength
poU bedron,
li
the
ol chi
will
us irregularity
early dis< ussion ol the phenomenological
For an important
and
ube, only
Bamv.sei Krauss, Passagu in
name* to a
(Whili a
it
was built on an
I'Ai
as thi
in.
den
wen soon
igt rn
..im
i
is
ol
latei realizing
\lodtrn
ol
the
Sculptm (New York Viking,
re
'I
<Ui
in
kind
and white-collar laboi Pol
iisiiii
re
on
thi
in.. o
\\ uii
ol hai
t-m
.1
yi
Nazi
was
often
PAG,
I,
has,
over the past quarter century,
intellei cual
support on whit h co hang
of arguments about selfhood and culture,
than wan. unci
Morris himsell has been
and meaning, chroughoui hiscareei
in ins
.ii'.
dii
1961 (no
10)
work
from
thi
ias.
its
application here
maud
with
\i...
thi
Leo Cascelli Gallery in March
essay co a
small catalogui on
works, Morris mentions Lacan directly
Lacan ha
mirroi has appeared
mirroi lin
and \Mrrorody asarol 1965 (no 66) to an elaborate
installation of skewed mirrors at thi
psyi hoai
..
mirror stagi
Indeed, in his introd
hum
hi
Alignt
il"
nntiois. and tin relationship of the reflected Lmagi co thi formation ol
oi
luggi so
it ii.l.
identity
itoi ol
,ii
blue
..ill
i.
Alternari
mom
.i.i.
v. lull
explicit equation
berwei n laboi
i
18
othei artists to add
'I
I'Ai
tht
..i
Ibid
mill
is
number of artists n
iki
proji
Speeches
inviti
'
woi!
nts
an
mploymi
Art
(6
Moms.
Morris
19
Demonstrations''
possil
ici [ji
ee
1'
l.i
Politii
Novembei
is >
...
\.irrjint in
>
,otk shosken.
as a
n lationship in in advertising campaign
imber ofart
Imsi
few
in sexual desire,
'.
their
Forms
/>.
pi
22 Morn
chi
behind, to serve
leti
imperatives ol Minimalisi sculpture, and most partit ulat U
It,
c<
em
toni
iid
21
iVu
Despite the altered side
270.
|.
port rait ot
ontinuc co read ns lorni
19 Ibid
im
gestali
Minimal Dana Activity Midst the
the Quantitatively
ies in
ol
nudity
and overweight, inching down the
status
[983)
sclt-
ol
eja< illation
IxkU lUnds (including semen),
plus to Rogei Denson," p
Morris, as quoted in Berger, Labyrinths, p 53
id
Banes, Democracy'^ Rudy Judsun Dance Theater, 1962-64 (Durham, N.C.:
1993
rei
wouldn't be that meat
assed
Theacer, see Sally
andalous
S s,
chey have his
it
ol
"excreted," literally
is
existem
and Modern Cnltw,
Assyrian Art
grounded
a dancer and choreoj rapher,
Dui lump
essentia IK s
J),
with Unties
particularly celling in us
spiraling reduplication of red and green forms
supposedly prurient use
more on the condition of disequilibrium
32. Morris's
infinite,
irs
Leo Bersani and llvsse Dutoit,
pp. 2
up an
human
lor
devices tor rotation goes beyond the formal: by juxtaposing the images
sets
its
no
Kis.
sublet
one on each side of the glass plate The comparison to Duchamp's
on the glass plate between the mirrors, Morris
l
i
Morris, nanus
31. For
between two circular
bourgeois
ol
newspapers attacked
local
of the period also relates CO
painting: Portrait
as
1967), pp. 233-339.
mirrors.
over Adam's genitalia.
fig leal
it
permitting that which
York: Free Press, 1972;
15. Morris's construction interposes a glass place
tableau vivani ol Lucas
Referring to a documentar] photograph
repression. This intention clearly succeeded given the dance
JO.
years at the Orthogenic School in Chicago. For a detailed
Morns.
Paint. Robert
was. This exchange suggests that Morris's use of nudity in U .Herman
run in Buffalo,
p. 145).
Bettelheim's description of Joey, a severely autistic child
Infantile
7,
Duchamp and Brqgna
in Francis Picabia's
the "sensational attraction" for
some
the failure
Duchamp if the camouflage was present in the at tual
Duchamp answered that was not. though it probably
Morris asked
Mit nelson's categories of autistic behavior arc taken from
for
Gray
Switch was meant to attack the no rmalising mis. nanisms
to the
thought (Michelson, "Anemic Cinema: Reflections
on an Emblematic Work,"
Information,
of the ballet RilJ.it (1924),
at is
performance
enchantment with the psuedo-science of paraphystcs, represent only
strategies
of art
comment about
his
rhat indicated the discreel placement ot a
the subversion of
measure, the constant movement between alternatives [that] supported his esprit
uses
&
Perlmuttcr appeared nude
Cranach's
used in the restoration of Vision), the elaborate linguistic play, the recasting
a few
179; Bcfgcf.
p.
Art Sewi 63, no. 8 (April 1966), p. 58.
29 Between
motion, the insistence upon the usefulness of objects (exemplified in his joy at
discovery, the
made
Morris
MS
1994), pp. 287
"Notes on Dance,
see Morris.
of Check in a telephone conversation with the author on Decembct
28.
dc contradiction,
MIT Press,
(Cimbr dgt .Mass
more on Check,
27. For
77* Vritings
1992.
persistent interest in
the possibility of
22,
That
Is
Paragone')" in Continuous Project Altered Dally
Labyrinths, p. 102, note
197.
Michelson writes:
Duchamp's
My
in
of Robert Morris
in ibid., p. 197.
1," p.
Denson (Or
Morris, "Robert Morris Replies to Roger
Mouse
verb," Russian Language Project (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
14.
New York, October
with the authot.
in conversation
25. Ibid.
196-206.
Press, 1986), pp.
Roman Jakobson,
12.
Morns,
Atanl-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge,
Originality of the
Mass
1992.
Sec Rosalind E Krauss, "Notes on the Index, Part
1 1
for
p. 30.
in hii
opat
|ui
way
Ins
'Recently chi French
point)
.1
to tin
infani
experienci with thi mirror as essential to the construction of selfhood
See Roiert Morris
M/rrw Works (New York Leo< utelli Gallery,
ii.
irro
AnOri
'
!< volution iry
;
Ufinilnnly
ridge, Mass.:
Louis
H
'nfini
MIT Pn
11
i
Ml ROBI
ii
MOI
iii<
Sass,
Sell
Jytit
to
Its Vicissitudes
mi Gardi
Sociat
An
'-'
'Archaeological
no
(wintei 198
i
Study of thi
|ui
i
i
in,
iiur.
Alan Sheridan (Ne% York
No
i,
1977); as quoted in ibid., p. 601.
41. For insightful discussions of the "mirror stage," see Sass,
Self
and
Its Vicissitudes,"
"The
pp. 597-609; and Fredric Jameson,
"Imaginary and Symbolic
in
Lacan," Yale French Studies, nos.
5556
(1977), pp. 338-95.
more on Morris's
42. For
intensive reading of these authors and his
notion of activism and political agency, see Berger, Labyrinths,
pp. 47-79, 129-62. Perhaps Morris's greatest political effort was his
involvement
in
War
anti-Vietnam
1970s. For more on the
New York
protests in
in the early
activism, see ibid., pp. 10727.
artist's social
43. Sass, "The Self and Its Vicissitudes," pp. 604-05.
44. Laing, The Divided Self, pp. A2-A5.
"The Ethic and Care of the Self as
45. See Michel Foucault,
Freedom,"
Rasmussen,
p.
46. Roland Barthes,
MIT
D. Gautier (Cambridge, Mass.:
trans. J.
11.1 would like to thank Morris for directing
trans.
a Practice of
The Final Foucault, eds. James Bernauer and David
in
"The Death of the Author,"
(New
Stephen Heath
me
in Image/Music/Text
Wang,
York: Hill and
47. Morris's autobiographical position reached
Press, 1988),
to this text.
1977), pp. 142-48.
apex in the recently
its
published essay "Three Folds in the Fabric and Four Autobiographical
Asides as Allegories (or Interruptions)'' (Art in America 11 [November
1989], pp. 142-51).
The
essay openly juxtaposes a critical text
concerning the relation between
art
and
discourses with a series of
its
autobiographical "asides," stories from the
from
his
childhood fascination with Egyptian
Duchamp and
encounters with
Barnett
past," he writes in relation to the
dominate the
own
arrist's
Newman. "Today,
economic
avanciousness
may be
art
works.
And
ranging
just as in the
interests that pervade
a time of such heightened
time when those other supporting narratives
of art need to be examined"
Rigorously exploring three
(p. 143).
paradigmatic (and for the most part preeminent) approaches to
the twentieth century
psychological
art in
the formalistic, the political, and the
intellectual
more than
serve as
Morris's text repeatedly returns to the private, primal
own
scenes of his
and
commercial ones
art world, "there are stories besides the
which bear on legitimizing
life,
more recent
art to
and aesthetic development. These asides
interruptions; they resound with Morris's frustration,
even disillusionment, with the institutionalized language of cultural
discourse.
48. In the radical psychiatry of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, the
schizophrenic's refusal to speak in the
first
person
romanticized as a
is
kind of surrealistic rebellion against the repressive order of language:
who
"There are those of us
word
uttering the
this
/,
will maintain that the schizo
and that we must restore
is
his ability to
incapable of
pronounce
hallowed word. All of this the schizo sums up by saying: they're
fucking
me
word again;
over again.
it's
third person instead,
And
it
make one
won't
statement
is
if
won't say
damned
just too
I
happen
anymore,
I'll
never utter the
stupid. Everytime
to
remember
bit of difference
"
hear
to. If it
it, I'll
use the
amuses them.
The quotation from
their
taken from Samuel Beckett's The Vnnamable (1952), a work
that, in a certain sense, refutes their basic premise.
As
in
most of
Beckett's writings, the voice that speaks often utters this illusive "I"
in
an
effort to find, albeit
momentarily,
a center for
enacting various
gestures of self-protection. See Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari,
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism
and Schizophrenia,
trans.
Robert Hurley, Mark
Seem, and Helen Lane (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1983), p. 23.
MAUKICK
HKllliVH 3 3
HAVE MIND, WILL TRAVEL
David Ant in
Enthusiastic for the Ratio. 1989. Encaustic on aluminum,
47
76
'
At the end
inches (121.6
exhibition with the rather melodramatii
Deny
thi
rid Th(
drawing and appeared tocovi
title Inability
paintin
in
Ins
whole
em
letting for his recent
aluminum
hall ol
shows of well known
artists
hibition with
Smiih
thai laisc
hough)
"i
Mbn is
nil-, oi
,i
notion
In
i.
ol
major
savagi
ii*
as an ai
..i
in
'
to
with respei
a
question
tin
Mbn
nu
Times Arts and Leisure
York
which usually responds
tion,
ol
.
isi
ill
authi
.,o .1
In
.H
originality,
.iii
harged thai
<
foi
thin\ years he had echoed "ideas and motifs deftlj
I
from
whethi
hi
i'i.ip |y
The
34
work of other an
thi
had
and
New
vi
on\
ai
and
|u< si
to laugh,
telling
mc thai
from
haim Soutini
<
n n n inln red anoi
Is
Ik
because
artists
worth
soon
as
.in
gol
.in
ichibition ai
and
fantasy,
s.
In
.is
ii.ii
in
.is
.i
<
Moi
h
I.
iw
in ni
mow
ii ii
ii
.ii
my
on hi hardly ihmk
someone
Smith review,
thi
ai
the beginning
beach with a well known
thi
astelli's,
had
had stolen everything
Bui reading
idea,
an dealer
At the timi
w.is like
It
Kelly
remembei dn
si ill
occasion ba< k
hadn'i
is
bitterly thai
almost
would
"II
seemed
imii
i.i
win
rip
iii
funny Sol
like a
up an
il
lb
elaborati
took to be a temporary
Id p. ii .nu
ii.
hieved mui h an thai was
nglj
ists
was
Im.it ion
thai Morris
Beuys
<
tomaniai and,
ion,
nu
told
young sculptoi who omplained
.ilw.i\s
iis.ii
room
Living
of the 1970s, walking on
and
ntii ity
I
kle|
i<
by Roberta
mj
years ago a verj intelligeni
oi
two more dissimilar
ol
museum
tful reviews,
ai tai
sitting in
though
att ni ion to thi
couple
an world gossip
like this before,
stolen every) hing from Joseph
On January
works on display
theSunda) Seu
20,
on
austii
it
paintings, whii h accounted for nearly
tli-
omments
who
Moreover, whai
art-world scold
official
she said hears a certain relation to
paid mui h
and
mints as the
had heard
areer, bui
bui Smith ism Hilton Kramer,
in criticism,
i
xhibition was
work
to Morris's
|j
of the artist.
Corcoran Museum of Art in
opened a massive Robert Morns
L990
oi
Washington, D.C
194.9 cm). Collection
hi-,
All
IK distinguished
\tui
a dou
hatu
a in
.i
in tin i\
(iii/zi
book, notan
///i
with
.,'
./
great idea, You unit
'gipi // / i"/^
lau u
r,
a safe-deposit box with
who with two
witnesses places
one key that
placed in the hands of a neutral trustee
is
who has no idea what bank
hang out
in
the box
Then you just go
is in.
wind up
him about your great
telling
when he puts on
you can't keep your mouth
show at
the
Ad Reinhardt owns
squares.
relation of
and
come
quite different person from someone
Conceptual piece.
Russell terrier.
trustee,
knew
the whole plan, even in fantasy, was
fundamentally flawed.
set
up
knew
that
if
like
charade and shot
this elaborate
off his
mouth
would have kept him from shooting
plan was never tested, and like most gossip of
supported or refuted.
world
of the art
nor blow away.
like a
And
just sits out there at the
It
because
anything about
I
beliefs
was
another
just
whole cluster
This
So Smith
not surprising.
is
what kind of
can't tell
is.
The notion
of persistence
has always been important for art criticism. That's
is
the understanding that
if
an
artist
works can be read as a
series of related actions that
one of the fundamental suppositions of traditional
history
it is
that
all
of an
artist's
works
of Time, to lay out
all
And
proposal, in Tin Shapt
the artifacts of a culture in
temporal order to obtain an
it.)
art
laid out in
not a great step beyond that to George Kubler's
somewhat more archaeological
the assumption that an artist can
establish a kind of proprietary right to an idea. (You
an idea unless somebody already owns
temporal order form a kind of artistic biography.
context of Morris's major retrospective at the
can't steal
earthworks,
art,
unite to form a trajectory of intention. This has been
of
Guggenheim.
is
a lot of dogs.
because there
and that these were worth discussing
First there
art.
Neo-Dada, Minimalism,
does related things in work after work, the sequence of
never thought of doing
resurfaced in Smith's review,
it
was
owned
edge
about contemporary art that Morris's work
collides with,
in the
until
it
realized there
it
Morris's "inauthenticity."
process art and installation art." Morris has apparently
dog owner he
gray cloud that will neither rain
piece of art-world weather,
when
kind,
its
vehement opinion has neither been
the sculptor's
clearly a
who owns a Jack
"Since the 1960s Morris' art has mirrored nearly
Conceptualism, and performance
my
So
it.
is
its
a little
absence of persistence that Smith
in this
main symptom of
He's been associated with
mouth
his
off about his even better idea for protecting
it is
owner
is
every twist and turn in American contemporary
about his great idea, nothing in the world
to Morris
A Doberman
having a dog.
finds the
the sculptor had
to be
owner. In this sense having an idea
artist
Now
But
this
defined by the idea he or she owns, and the idea by
and you let the editors open the safe-deposit
box with the dated and notarized page from your notebook,
and you claim Robert and the whole show as your
your
And
ownership eventually becomes mutually
self-defining. So that an artist will
witnesses,
owns
black. Christo
wrappers. Jeff Koons owns sleaze kitsch.
shut,
idea. Then,
Artforum magazine with your lawyer, your
through persistent employment. Josef Albers
owns
you appear at
Castelli's.
Wright brothers, and the U.S. Patent Office. In
ownership right is more often established
practice, this
your usual way. Sooner or later you '11 run
into Robert, and, because
you'll
in
it
artistic
biography of the
This proprietary right obviously also depends on
culture.
the assumption that artists have ideas and that their
sequence should count
work embodies them.
(If
can steal them, and
they don't show up in your
some twenty years of
making nonhgurative process paintings, Philip Guston
opened a large exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery,
work no
artist will
if
you don't have ideas nobody
think to steal them.) But
how do
you acquire the proprietary right to an idea?
This
is
where primacy comes
held belief that being the
you property rights to
the gold-rush model:
else,
we
This
you can stake out a claim.
will recognize
it.
But
little
hard to do. Even
Who
poured
first.''
Mark Rothko? But
There
is
in
a loosely
one to have an idea gives
what we might call
you get there before anybody
it.
if
first
in.
you can prove
in a global art
in a
small one
it's
Every
who
critic
it
dealt with the
is
not so easy.
show
went beyond
figures.
ailed
upon
that. In order to approvi ol
i
ii
Guston's artistu identity up to the
exhibition:
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, the
new work, sympathetic nt s had to find an
aspect of this new series of paintings that would
connect them to the process paintings that had defined
in spite of the difficulty of proof,
and
tilt
apparent break in Guston's car
the
the notion of primacy remains, sustained, at least in
of
York, with thirty-three paintings ami eight
Helen Frankenthaler' Morris Louis?
principle, by analogy with invention or discovery,
memories
New
for a great deal.
after
drawings populated by hooded cartoonlike
For some,
it,
world this
October 1970,
to explain this
is
If
In
In such biographies apparent breaks in the
ourse
in
le
took three lessons
artooning
<.\.i\
in a
ot the
new
orn spondi
when he was umIm
Hed
always
admired Barnej Google and Kra/v Kai lie used
in do arii atures ol Ins artist iru iuK Th< dark, Not
i
k\
oi
Henry Ford, founded
the
and behavior), could
as
was on the invention of
it
Model-T (and publicized accounts of his opinions
reliably be
invoked to justify
adaptations in the Model-A and subsequent economy
:<
models but got progressively harder
compan) began
to reconcile as the
produce the more upscale Mercury
to
and then the positively luxurious Lincoln Continental,
Split personalities or multiple identities are not favored
world either. The positive reception of
in the art
Guston's new figurative work required an account
ol a
between two kinds of
draw mi: before the cartoon style won out. Only after
two-year struggle
tor his soul
the account of his struggles had been circulated was
1963 Lead over wood,
Litanies.
twenty-seven keys, and brass lock, 12
(30.5
Museum
18.1 x 6.4 cm). The
7-
acceptable tor
inches
Modern
of
New
Art,
York,
Johnson.
Gift of Philip
Leave Key on Hook 1963.
Key, lock, and patinated bronze box.
13x7
19.1 x 8.9 cm). Private collection.
plywood
(see pp.
a square,
sectioned
(1962, no.
[is
hes
a lyrii
biographii
cit
al,
culmination
.il
recuperative criticism
L978
in a
Art in
arti< le in
America by Smith. 'When you take Guston's career
new Gustons
as a whole," she assures us. "the
haphazard and questionable array
she triumphant!)
a certain voi
On
into
i.
thl
authl
ntii
harai
ti
to
adapt to
for iiarrar
istenci
Pei
mly
.is
,i
appan
Ik
icy
their
"| >
hi
thi n bei
ii
ti
thi
world
art
artist's
ol
in
whii h
and Morris an made,
d tends to requin
rsonalit
artists' asso
omi
his
is
.in
iati
hai artists
dedui ed from
and support!
a kind ol warrant)
works. 1
thrift
in chi
an world system
con,
.i.iiii
automobil
and ingenuii
foi
w hat
lust ry, in
hii
ited with thi
all
rs
pro
thi
idi
futun
like the early
molds
some
oi sin h objects,
machine parts
or
machine- parts, others bearing traces
oi
thi
Yanl
pi rsonalit]
ol
as
mysterious or threatening memories
probably dangerous events
or almost
come
to
anyone w ho had
world
of
New York
in
the time-, his
Exhibition at the
ultural
as an assurani
valuati
low
suggestions
s(
both shows, the
<
1961
(
oi
work
areer break. Hut Morris's
still
So
He had only
New York art
quite short.
for the
areer was barely tour years old.
Green Gallery, New York, December 1964-
January 1965. Left to
ores
[aiming
pro<
partii ulai
Gu
gl
or
critics
works and whatevei supporting information
and
and
onsisti ni
pop
also
it
The
works of Beuj
iuti
an publii
h fun tions
ni
it,
uision had
though minor, mandarin
Othei
mark,
cradi
rty n^his,
authentii
.u\<\
i\<
consequence of his personalit) and
art that w-.is a direct
.
tS,
public career was, in fact,
ontinuous
other hand, hos till
th<
b>(>
to gel
lif<
uner used ihe break tO argUI thai
ndoni d
work.
ruston has had
consideration, but has taken his wholi
them
static gra) relicts,
small objet
might havi counted as a
in his
arrangements under
oi
orner Piect
discrepancy in style between the two bodies
thematic,
ol
"<
oro ludes thai
abular)
edge; Cloud
Leads (1964, nos 78 85)
somewhat
it
and psychological recurrences
an elevated square slab;
12),
Beam,
.'
embedded with
oi
areas oi Ins previous
development." Compiling an extensive
hnii al,
L964, no. 64), a corner wedge; and Boiler
and motions
tei
earlier ac nous, invoking arrested or potential functions
ma) at firsi seem: they're a surprisingly
onsistent summation. In them Guston seems to have
revisited all his past successes and failures, tout hing
all
oi large,
among them.
beam with one rounded
17071)
electrodes, batteries, and other
aren't the
betrayal they
base again and again with
an installation
boiler-sized cylinder. The other featured the enigmatic
palette remains the same, ed
Tins kind
rea<
One was
with each other.
freestanding, elementary forms oi uniformly painted
shapes in his later nonfigurative works suggest objects
I
common
that appeared to have virtually nothing in
nches (33
it
him to say. "I wanted to tell stories
Now, in December 196-4 and March 1965, Morris
had two exhibitions at the Green Gallery in New York
steel key ring,
right,
clockwise: Table, Corner Beam,
Corner Piece, Cloud, and Floor Beam.
and
most members of this world,
for
shorter than that, since his
first
Green Gallery hadn't occurred
it
was probably
solo exhibition at the
1963-
till
Still,
had already staked out a place with works
number
(1963, no. 21) and a
objects like
Box with
the
Morris
like Litanies
of other paradoxical
Sound of Its Own Making
It was a place
what most critics were then calling neo-Dada,
which meant that they read his work as taking account
of Marcel Duchamp's readymades and Jasper Johns's
gray paintings from a position at some distance from,
but somewhere alongside, Fluxus's absurd objects.
The large, geometric sculpture in the "white
show,"* on the other hand, seemed to declare itself as
(1961, no. 11) and 1-Box (1962, no. 25).
in
altogether different, situating Morris
among
sculptors
Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol
like Carl
LeWitt. Morris reinforced his claims to this position
with his
own
critical writing, the
two-part "Notes on
Sculpture" that he published in Artforum in 1966. 9
These precise and polemical essays engage with
all or
the basic theoretical issues raised by the Mimimalist
him alongside Judd
sculptors and established
major spokesman
as a
group; their republication in
for the
1968 in Gregory Battcock's widely read anthology
Minima/ Art consolidated
his reputation for a
more
popular audience as a leading theoretician of this
Donald Judd. Untitled, 1968. Galvanized
elementary, object-oriented sculpture just at the time
each 6
that he
was beginning
Morris's "Notes
abandon
to
27
24 inches (15.2
New
Castelli Gallery,
68.6
York.
it.
on Sculpture" explicitly rejected
the self-referential and enigmatic objects had been
for him
seemed
based: "The relief has always been accepted as a
suggested an idea of development.
nearly all of the ideas
viable
upon which the
mode. However
it
lead reliefs
and
cannot be accepted today as
The autonomous and literal nature of
demands that it have its own, equally literal
legitimate.
sculpture
space
not a surface shared with painting."
"
This
Morris's claim to be chef d'e'cole of the
it
new object
goes on to reject intimate scale and
to
precise, intellectual,
make
his
And
world the opportunity to consider
it
that
He had come
art
as a Minimalist.
intelligible. It
own
offered the
all of
into
New
York
the
absurdist or paradox pieces as "early works," in spite
no one was
really in a position to
establish the chronological order of the conception
many
or fabrication of
all
and humorless
1960s career
his
of the fact that
polemical and deliberately pedantic essay stakes out
sculpture as
boxes,
iron, ten
61 cm). Courtesy Leo
of them. In fact, during
much
of the period between 1961 and 1967, there was
internal relation of parts, including incident,
considerable overlap between what seem to be two
configuration, texture, and color.
different
It
also proceeds to
separate his work from that of Ronald Bladen and
working
logics,
though
may be
it
truer to say
that while paradox remained a working element in
Kenneth Snelson, and from some of the works of
nearly all of Morris's successful sculptural projects,
Andre and Judd, by
simply ceased to be foregrounded.
rejecting both
monumentality and
conspicuously displayed mathematical, logical, or
technological ordering systems in favor of the simple
polyhedrons and more or
less
human
scale of the
instantly knowable, uniform, and obdurate shapes in
Morris's second
Since Morris's neo-Dada works
articles
Minimalist pieces, works as
elevated inches above the floor or a plywood pyramid
wedged
(first
aired in 1963)
significant
into a room's corner,
whose
color
it
nearl)
had not been published about them
in the art
them had not
they never became
cubes with mirrored faces become nearly m\ imNi
turning into
floor.
Ring with Light
<
divided
been widely circulated
at the
and emits
in halt
two
cuts.
light
But while many
pm es
mark out
never mentioned in the writing So
writing very quickly established a Minimalist persona
hand,
it
is
is
.ire
marked
delivered deadpan and
by this sleight
of
66, no
trom an unseen SOUTH
established as his trademark and, consequently, didn't
a distinct public personality. Moreover, his
1965
a circular fiberglass ring eight feet in diameter,
journals, photographic reproductions of
clearly
apparently neutral as plywood slabs invisibly
matches, become absurd through displacement Simple
Green Gallery show.
had not had a very long public career
Even the most
it
it
is
never becomes
part of the persona.
HAVID ANTIN 37
By 196 7 Morris
,
closed object to the
works
is already moving away from the
more open pieces the felt
example. Stacked and Folded [1967, no. 92]
(tor
and Tangle [1967,
93])and,
no.
by 1968, their
weak "formal"
apparently strong material and
properties are beirn; exaggerated in the truly formless
where hard and
scatter pieces,
soft,
is*.ous
spread on the pristine gallery or warehouse
In an appropriately polemical fashion
arguments
a set of
"Ami Form" and
and
and fabricated, are heaped
triable materials, natural
he
or
floor.
lays out
1968 Artforun article
tor this in his
1969 curates ^ in a Warehouse^
in
an exhibition or work by nine artists relating to
rhis idea ar the
Leo CastelU Warehouse
The
is
exhibition
Artforum
Corner Piece, 1964. Painted plywood, 78
108 inches
New
in
York.
accompanied by another
"Notes on Sculpture, Part IV: Beyond
article,
Objects
Question:
(198.1 x 274.3 cm).
really.
The hard-edged
in
change?
this a career
Is
Answer: Not
work
object
is
given
its
rationale
terms of a kind ot abstract, audience-oriented
psychology
the perceptual adventures
unoccupied individual
The newer work appears
ot
an otherwise
an otherwise empty space.
in
evoke the relationship
to
of
the maker, rather than the viewer, to the different
properties ot
varied materials
its
those
powder, and pools
piles of
ot
and hard,
soft
sharp and brittle scraps and shards, snarls
of fiber,
gunk, Vet both
types of work remain equally abstract arrangements,
and the anti-rorm pieces derive their perceptual
aesthetic ism not only from their contrasts with each
orher, but from their contrast with the architectural
Mirrored Cubes. 1971 refabrication
1965
of a
original.
Plexiglas mirrors on wood, four units, each 21 x 21 x 21 inches
(53.3
53.3
53.3 cm).
elements
the spat es in whit h they're arranged.
ot
by the 1980s, Morris himself would characterize these
works as a straightforward continuation of the
abstrat
i,
Modernist impulses
demythologized, made
ol
literal,
\.u
kson Pollot
k.
and typically bound
to
simple mechanical operations chat determine their
final
an ati.u k on
form
And
appearance.
Notes on
and
the
work
ot
promise an
Si
while the
"Ann Form"
tat
lonahst
that results
art that "lias
whit h need not arrive
it
notion that
m a finished
m its hands
at a
same
the
tat ionalisi
cm
Morris's
>
work
is
as
mutable
Stufl
point ot being finalized
cheargumem
is
abstrat tart sp.ue as the earlier
essays and speaks in the
is,
art
product" and
with respect to either time or space,"
placed
essa\
tilptnre. Part IV" present this
same assuicd Minimalist
(that
voi< e
Conceptual works
of
the 1970s appear to
straightforward continuation and extension
ol
the ideas articulated in connection with the anti form
wotks The essaj
Ring with Light
'glass and fluorescent
191
intensified
ties (61
(35.6
<
iti
cm)
high,
urn
hlng grai
of
An, General
is |it
is|
hut
in
National
>
liol"
them
\\
averj simple
>
places an
hatevei else
at
ii
Mm
is
level
was
broadens the context
ol
an
making
ot this
making from the phenomenologii al to the sot ial
nun \t of laboi ami produi cion: "What wish to
38
that introduces
emphasis on process
16 4 (.m)
ml
"
light,
point
Untitled, 1968.
overall
Felt,
rubber, zinc, aluminum, nickel, steel
dimensions variable. Collection
out here
is
of the artist.
that the entire enterprise of art
making
THE PERIPATETIC ARTISTS GUILD
provides the ground for founding the limits and
possibilities of certain
behavior of production
become
so
kinds of behavior and that this
itself is distinct
expanded and
visible that
it
ROBERT MORRIS
has extended
the entire profile of art." 15
These were the
Available for Commissions Anywhere in the World
political 1970s, the
Nixon
government was continuously expanding the Vietnam
War, and many not especially
were
finally
beginning
and announces
and has
offering to undertake
political artists
to question their relation to the
cultural institutions of the gallery
and the museum,
which despite their support seemed
EVENTS FOR
XPLOSIONS
CHEMICAL SWAMPS
M(iM
Till
SOUNDS FORTHE VARYING W
to function
QUARTER HORSE-
MENTS
SPEECHES
iLTERN
iSONS
DESIGN
\ll
AND
primarily as the legitimators of a brutal, technocratic
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
nil if, is
imperialism. Accordingly, a political tone begins to
ENCOURACI
color Morris's writing.
OTHER VAGUELY
MUTATED FORMS OF LIFE AND
ULTURAL PHENOMENA, SUCH \S
EARTHV ORKSDl MONSTR WONS
This political stance shows up characteristically
a
November 1970 "advertisement" by Morris
appeared in several art magazines. In an
typical of
its
in
that
elliptical style
commercial models, here strongly
ironized by hyperbole and comic juxtaposition, the ad
presents
\ll
DISCIPLINED
PRl STIGIOI
\l ol
111
"i.ii
{GRIi
I
THEATRli U PROJBt
AND STATU
FILMS
POR HOME, EST
is
TS
OR Ml
SEl
V)
FOUNTAINS IN LIQUID METALS
\w UBLl SOP CI R101 SOI
TRAVELING M HIGH SPEEDS
VTE,
FOR nil MASS!
i" HI
SEES U
NAimwi
llll
PARKS VND
ID A N T N 3 9
I
ING GARDENS
PTURAL
ARTISTIC DIVERSIONS OF RIVERS
It
the
seems too short, the
list
"the above
PROJi
the artist
At
modern expansion of
glance, the ad reads like a
first
or too
Leonardo's letter to Ludovico Sforza:
is
have plans for bridges very
defeat the enemy.
Also
kmd
mortars,
and light ordnana
shapes.
lay,
Also
humor, ridicule or
may
be necessary to pass
can maki cannons,
and useful
very beautiful
oj
Ipturt in marble, bronze
and also painting
Won
undertake the work of the bronze
uld
and eternal honor
swiveling wind thai blows
of the projects listed in the
all
ad are only mildly disguised characterizations
works
of
Morris had already done, proposed, or would have
And
less,
always
us anticipated course
Leonardo was the
MENTS"
"<
W't -mer
mk
hi
wlm
von Braun of his day.
ottering to function and, through the exaggerated
politic Kins
a narrative
AI.
mi
risis,
<
Kan up through
IRMS "i
ii
win
"EARTHWORKS" might be
the context
Leonardo
oi
but "DEMONSTRATIONS"
VAGI n
in'isaniu
111
VAGI
the neatly expanding
h
ion
IB
appropriati
ill
'
ins
si
nni\ ing in
i
MASSI
ill
ei
Ij
MS" (an
and
or political?)
scientifii
transition to "pri stigious objects
<
ither
cai
ulai
ill-
in nil
os
thi
This leads
laims to en
botl
tn
.i
ham
UNS
IN
ol
IQl ID
metal" (that's oni better than Versailles), highway
an orairlini an ("ensembles oi
rioi sOBjEt is ro
w
ai
hi si
mi
RAVI
ING
HIGH
SPI
DS"),
N
<
IA1
in|
diverting
alitn liniai
Id 'lO
thi
til
HI
and With
hi.
kivi ks," n turning
in In-
AND HANGING GARDENS"
PARKS
Y, Mi.
om
again
to proceci
Italy
Isonzo), befori
oflft
Mill
ol n,.
"
(evol
DIVI RSII IN
eonardo
from
thi
to the artist
'
lix
in trust to
dollars an hour
help finance
was
a m. ry
1SF0, ecjiiivalem then to lees lor
in
raftsmen. But the
mam
II
(this cimi
[url
others the
their
ot his or
diffit ulty
dreams The
her labor, for
ol
some
artists
others weeks, and
tor
alt
ulating the duration
on future
artist tax
sales ol
had been proposed
in complt ii seriousness im conventional an objet ts
like paintings or sculptures, and perhaps Morris was
In ing si nous here But K is hard not to see the tone
was not a
projects
mate
"aid
containing an element
Irony
is a
w mk.
diffii
till
also
soi
'
iii
.i
no longi
[i
like
thing
(
difft
i.i s
oi
Knoli
oi tin
chemical
dubiousness and absurdity
figun to
e
oni
rol, pi
rhaps
located in an artist's
is
us
bl
'
deep
ansi
ol
doubt
n in in
it
ovi
any
representation the artist makes
i
m plow
simplt dog ownt
n rard de Nerval
finishing with a comically
is
threatens to appear everywhert within
it
and every assertion
1
ol
casting the possibility
it.
It
political systems" as
Onct us present
impossibli
novelty
an ad chat offered amon;' us projei
Mini
RAI PRI >U< Is."
pan
would mean mil roseconds,
tor yet
oi
verify
ulated as
alt
tins
\\i>
"1 PI<
Twenty
ts
swamps" and
publii
ati
both
oi
ESTATE, O!
more purely
"
up
sets
that are offered for
,
nunc
the pay
ol
computable wage labor, something difficult
and compute it the artist's thinking time
activity as
chesi
political or both (was the 19 15 blasi ai
ir
Alamagordo
.i
touch
obvious, though
nicelj equivocal
is
the handling
in
good working wage
is
a little
however seriously thej
art transactions,
be put forward. The ke\ elements involve
to
the owner-sponsor to be held
ot
to
can luggesi fortifications,
ii
funding these
the
tot
thrust ot the proposal was to characterize the artists
otters biotech disasters in
KM PHENOMENA
some question about
ironit tone also raises
skilled professionals or master
in
(Leonardo again?) After which the modern
in
and
lethal,
waj we are to take the advertisement's proposal
other projet
of the
SYSTEMS," or wash away
Leonardo prophetically
here.
perhaps
the owner-sponsor," and the fifty-percent taxation
response CO environmental
h the artist otters Snail) to
III
his dangerous,
materials, construction and other msts to be paid by
which we could
to "SPEECHES,"
"AMI K\AII POLITH
AGRIC1
to cast
artist
from sales or tees, which the ad explicitly rejects, to a
"$25.00 per working hour wage plus all travel.
In
swamps'' to
ai.
SEASONS," reads like
standard
seems
It
which the
ot the arena in
grandeur of his ambitions, claims, Mid doubtful
the slutt
reasonably characterize as "OUTDcmik SOI NDS FOB
s
ofl
doubt on the nature
appear
comedy and
the ad both the
in
are contemporary. "EXPLOSIONS"?
The passage from
VARIoi
discourse now this way.
though sometimes more and sometimes
The
INI
it
artist as well.
But, at the same time,
not.'
[ere
occasionally quite trivial projects, on the role oi the
illustrious
house of Sforza
liked to do.
mode
is
that, and.
competences and
the auspicious
of
now
is
embue
horse, n hich fhall
memory of the Prince your father and of the
commentary
sarcasm which adopts
light
of speech, the intended implication of which
not
is
it
a sort
the opposite ol the literal sense ot the words
can ex
with immortal glory
that Webster's defines as
appears as an intermittent and variable force,
river.
too small
lar.
have ways of arriving at a
noise even though it
underneath trenches or a
and strong and suitable
to pursue and at times
which
in
is
and secnt winding passages,
certain fixed spot by caverns
made without
light
with which
easily,
project
the figure ot irony hovers over this text,
It
the simple
for carrying very
No
qualified to engage
is
assures us chat
.u\
but a partial listing ot projects
owning
walking
doesn't hark
iii
r,
Ins
,i
different way
he mt ans
dog
a lobstt
pi
i
rhaps
on the rue de
and knows the
set rets
The one
of irony has
artist
most
clearly
committed
to the figute
been Duchamp, and, consequently, he
is
the artist about the significance of whose works critics
have found
it
Duchamp
that
Nothing
nearly impossible to agree.
made
ever
him with
The
others and
text of the 1970s stands
is
Morris
tries to
connect with
All of the theorizing takes place in the
The
rest
is
Nauman."
first
four
experiences with
them and
their work,
Plague Year (1722), with which
and
None
artists,
Dayton
is
the most colorful
and he receives the most elaborate
personal description:
Dayton himself is a fairly unnerving personality. He keeps
his
head shaved, which seems
to
accentuate the deep scars
and neck. He also wears a
monocle around his
He seems
to
enjoy playing up
abundance
thick glass of his monocle
to see
When
was with him he frequently squinted at me through
the
and would leeringly compare
When he
the
venting systems of Buchenwald and Belsen.
of contingent detail.
far
of the three
certain sinister ambience that surrounds his work.
A Journal of the
shares an
it
alter psychic states.
detail or read a gauge.
has
it
Sacramento." After
neck which he occasionally peers through if he needs
a first-person journalistic
the plausibility of Daniel Defoe's
in a studio "outside
with liquid crystals and highly corrosive acids,
on his face
account of Morris's meeting with the artists and his
all
26
he has turned to working with gases in order to
Michael
artists like
Asher, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and Bruce
paragraphs.
lower.
nearly blinding himself working to achieve visual
effects
crucial in this regard.
"The Art of Existence. Three Extra- Visual Artists:
Works in Process" seems like a straightforward account
of the work of Marvin Blaine, Jason Taub, and
Robert Dayton, three unknown environmental artists
who
was much
to
in one's ears
text culminates in the visit to Dayton's gas
chambers
sufficient reason to connect
Duchamp. One
all his
seemed similar
It
what one experiences when one hears ringing
or did, from the readymades
irony beyond his continued assertion of his
relation to
out from
is
which seemed to be inside my head.
except the experienced sound
to his dining habits, could ever escape its effects.
In Morris's case, there
one of the circular spaces 1 felt rather than heard a sound
was so
of the projects of these three artists
removed from the work of other well-known
artists
showed me
first
the inside of the rooms he
shower heads as gas
inlets
would be
asked if I thought
unsightly.
of the period, or even from that of Morris himself.
Blaine was constructing a hillside
chamber observatory
Taub was
He
offers to give Morris a "retrospective gassing,"
to record the sunrise of the vernal equinox;
which proceeds from
designing experiments in extra-audial perception
iodine clouds, moves on to his "middle period fart
of radio waves; and
chambers
Dayton was making a
for altering sensory states.
Any
work with bromine and
his early
composed of various mixtures of butyl
series of gas
palette,"
of these
acetates, nitrobenzene,
and butyl mercaptan,
finally
projects could have been proposed to the Los Angeles
passing on to a set of gases that to Morris "presented
County Museum of Art for their 1967 Art and
Technology show. But the unusual position of Morris
the most interesting and unfamiliar experiences." 2.
as
audience and sole art-world witness of these works,
and
his uncharacteristic detailing of his responses
not only to the works but to
all sorts
of surrounding
contingencies, soon began to arouse suspicion:
Finally
had moved to a
side plank in order not to interfere with
the rectangle of light
now expanding down
the wall to
within about six feet of the center plank. I was feeling the
dampness and even a
thermos
light
and as
noticed that the top edge of the
was shrinking downward.
On
the
way
to the
airport the following day the extremely taciturn Blaine
revealed that he
had notions for several
might realize next summer.
other works that he
19
is
embarking on
Willy Reich's Orgone Box" because
"lincier than
up with
loads Morris
pack of scientific
and
effects of negative ions,
calls after
it
him
articles
as Morris drives off
in his Dr. Strangelove persona,
"Screw the MOMA, but see what you can do for
me at
Auschwitz." 25
We all had coffee from a
slight chill.
looked up
reveals that he
"Negative Ion Chamber" that would be
promises to get rid of "brain 5-hydroxytryptamine,"
on the
/
Dayton
a project for a
So
it's
a fiction, a kind of parabolic fiction strongly
The question is, What
The aims of artists like
or James Turrell? Or of Morris himself?
marked by the
is
figure of irony.
the target of the irony?
Asher, Irwin,
The
"dematerialization of art," a discourse that figured
so largely
among
the artists of the 1970s?
Or
all of
the above, which appears likely enough now, and was,
This
is
the rhetoric of what the French would call
classic fiction.
artists"
And
the
work of the next two "unknown
becomes more and more
fantastic, leading to
increasingly trivial or disagreeable responses:
always thought, readable at the time'
Though
of Anforum denounced
unknown
/
did not know what
this
"shaping of the perceiver" was
about until Taub turned on the equipment
to
enter the framed up enclosure.
As
and invited me
soon as
stepped into
not to everyone. Because two months after
Morris's essay appeared, a letter in the
artists
Morns
tor
by presenting them
taking possession of their work
had created and given a name
March
ripping
in a
to.
by a Mark N. Edwards of Madison,
issue
ofl his
three
in his article
and
context that he
The
(
letter,
written
onnecticut, in a
DAVID ANTIV
and produced
moment
its
works
Morris's
scandal (no. 125)
ot local
the 1970s didn't invoke ironic
of
Given the nature of most of Ins exhibitions,
seemed little reason why they should.
readings.
there
But
1980s Morris's work took
in the
turn.
tunereal installation at
York
in
1980 called P
series ot proposals tor
stranger
Sonnabend
New
in
ttured a
cenotaphs crowned by death's-
heads. This was followed by an installation at Leo
astelli
\<-w Y>rk. later the same year, called V
\
no. 101
Night)
Museum m Washington,
Mm rte
name
(the
Preludes (For
1979-80.
A. B.),
Italian
onyx, silkscreened text,
electric light, metal, plastic, paint. Collection of the artist.
inmate
hit h
D.<
L981 at the
1980,
Hirshhorn
called Jornada del
.,
the desert valley south of Los
of
Alamos, where the
of
and an installation
I,
A-bomb
tirsr
a massively
st
both
tests took place),
aled and oln iously
emblematic meditation on death, the atomic bomb,
and planetary extinction. low to take these works was
I
who had
not very clear to anyone
tone somewhat similar to Smith's review
of the
on
oi a
retrospective, goes
accuse the .irust
to
<>t
np-ott going back to the Castelh Warehouse show.
in
which
him
Ins curatorial presence also assured
authorial credit tor ideas generated by younger artists.
The
intent oi the
dwards
letter
is
figure out, but the inflated, garrulous,
obscuring rhetoric
which
in
Was
was
letter written
Edwards
tin
omposed
from
tool
1980s, ilu physical .uk\ mate
subordinated to an overriding and graphically
sell
by Morris'
so,
It
.1
town
hi
denuni iational style
argument appear
the
in
mouth
ir
was
metaphorical sp.uc
oi
might appear to be
a fairly
Madison The
ailed
ulated to
al<
<
European modi
far as
Morris's answer?
mode
inauthenticity
ot
would
Edwards
\\i
distn
ii
evidently interested in rescuing damsels /
ate
r<
urn
Possibly,
but to what
trily
thai
Morris wroci
had
-..
such an
to construct
tnaj nOI have
:
havi
effect
gam
eli
had the im lin.Kion
ii
foi
truth
thi
ii.
ii
|
and
..i
in
of
is
way in which suspicion
Ai
1,
no
it
tv
and
is closi
hi
to
New
thi
and two unusual
and
thi
\
I,
inhibition
ii
kind
\ pi
ol
prii
ts,
S&M
It
us
oi
and a
rat
from
hi exiguous
dealei world starved for
ts
rushed to
German
painting taste
Both deployed
In
junkyard
si
by
n. tins
ol
styli
menu ol
an expressionist
i
and
And
in thi
muddy
chematics
rman and Ami rii an
Neo
painting had become
i
"
1980, under the nam<
kind
iii
financially
rewarding.
was widely exhibited and written about
journals
more
assist the
American punk painting, which was
revived expressionism
ot
ss n a
the earlier 1" 'Os had
lil
urban decay, and,
I
art oi
crude and emblematii drawing
i.iw n
worth
win
ml in
paletti ovei
1
mode
And, of course, one was
eptual
U marketable objei
appetites of tht few collectors willing
immensely populai and
no 88)
uriously
the
context setting that
employ ing
sufficiently successful to bi
quickly assimilated to a
continues to spread
(19
leai
al pi
om
in
problem
thi
developmem
Or
graduati
importanci than
IL.n:
nied the
4 2
oi
of]
126),
xpi
plus K
dw.udss n.ium
(Madison
ol irony
id. xhibicions
'
him,
less
of buffoonery
pieci
to pay ai
ii
the
ol
noi Molii n
literary skill oi
tin
lioolediicatioii.uV.il'
Haven) But
he absurdii
is
And
cleat
juiti
I
Morris
ii
onstru ted
is
follow from
h<
exhausted
some
nt
<
or ripping of]
availabli
si
change
radical
to raise the
requires
It
primary
meaning making
hi
adapt
I'm not.
n.
more than
takes
It
mam
to position the
discourse
meaning making
ot
how
is
ask. the Roberta .Smith problem''
we might
\ni quit<
Western
traditional
and meaning making. The
interpretation here
in
tins,
Is
within the art -work context of its circulation.
Bui Ih.w mux h further does the ironj extend? As
ol art
artist in relation to this
hieve this
a<
to be read OUt oi
going
diffil ulty
the letter and us incoherent
oi
perft ctly
Any meaning that
them has to pass through the
some dominant emblem, which
is
an apparent
ot
properties are entirely
rial
presented metaphorical discourse
Or
to reveal the absurdity oi at in ulai
it
the 1970s share
ol
easy enough to
there really a Mr. Edwards?
Sol lo slander by plai ing
the 1960s and the anti-
of
a mode oi meaning
making derived from our response to the materiality
of the objects and the working procedures used
to fabric ate or arrange them. In the work oi the
lorm work
and
was written might
it
arouse suspicion.
The Minimalist work
Morris
pattern
followed Morris's
career through the 1960s and 1970s.
artistic
pn
isi
ol
Di mail
in all the
Kuspii
most
its
prolific
American
publicist,
was seen
it
as an
urgent philosophical engagement with the forces of
'"
destruction and death.
In 1980, Morris does Preludes, his proposals for
cenotaphs, at Castelli and at Sonnabend he exhibits his
Second Study for a View from a Corner of Orion (Night),
an extraterrestrial view of disaster with twisted mirrors
No
near the ceiling.
on the market
in
one could say he was closing
Neo-Expressionist painting. But
for
the shows could be seen as establishing a claim
on the discourse with death. Then,
Hydrocal
come
in 1982,
the
282-87), deeply embedded
reliefs (pp.
decorative molds prolific in body parts and skeletal
come
fragments, which, by 1983,
to act as elaborate
frames for Turneresque pastel, watercolor, and
oil
images of brushy and swirling color whose undulating
movements the frames echo and repeat in threedimensional form. By 1986, these works are presented
in an exhibition at the Newport Harbor Art
Museum, in Newport Beach, California, accompanied
Preludes (For
A. B.): Roller
Public Figure, 1979-80
Disco Cenotaph
34
electric light, metal, plastic, paint,
35
86.4
artist.
17.8 cm). Collection of the
for a
onyx, silkscreened text,
(detail). Italian
x 7
inches (88.9
by a catalogue containing an extensive essay by Kuspit,
"The Ars Moriendi According
to
Such developments might seem
Robert Morris.'"'
But the context has
be drawn a
to
By the 1970s almost
Modernist paradigm as
it
wider than
little
generation of Abstract Expressionists
in the art
of the special and trivialized Greenbergian version
Modernism generally accepted within the
world, and partly
it
maturity by the end of
artistic
they had finally
confidence in the
all
was understood
world had collapsed. Partly this was a consequence
of
first
were adults before the war, but they
Smith reading.
that.
The
to validate the full
was a consequence of Modernism's
came
is
and Surrealism
to their
to say that
themselves from
to free
the particular forms of Modernist painting
that had haunted their
Cubism
work
through the 1930s and early 1940s, though Cubist
and Surrealist
art
managed
all
Which
it.
art
had long since
lost critical force
and
acquired the deadly status of connoisseur objects. 29
successes and the inflated estimation of their
And
significance. In any event, by the mid-1970s, the entire
paid handsomely by the successful and increasingly
project of post- World
art
by which
mean
War
II
American Modernist
to include all the
work of
if
the Abstract Expressionists were eventually
materialistic society that they were so critical of,
they were the
last
group of artists
Modernism
still
in the long
and the work
Abstract Expressionism, through Hard-edge painting
career of
and Pop
they made, as resolutely outside of and against the
the Minimalist sculpture of the
art, to
1960s and
continuations in the anti-form sculpture
its
dominant
its
own
terms, had
come
narrow museological space, walled
and power,
in
which
it
was unable
to
in
to
the generation of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg,
occupy
by money
engage
significantly with the rest of the intellectual
and
social
was
War
largely
work,
The
to this pass
different sense of its career
of World
Larry Rivers, and the Pop artists
to the culture. If there
environment.
Modernism had come
II left
from
a very-
and mission. The end
the United States, which
undamaged by the
conflict,
culture.
Their successors within the Modernist tradition
and systematic Conceptualism of the 1970s
successful in
to see themselves,
with a great
it
were
firmly married
was cultural criticism
in their
took the same form as cultural promotion.
advertising image, the commercial photograph,
the film
still,
and the
TV
with paint. For a brief
image cheerfully mingled
moment
during the early 1960s
there was the illusion that art could enter into
significant
communication
in tine
public sphere and
reservoir of savings, great productive assets,
that such a public space existed. For many, this illusion
large foreign markets, a near-total absence of serious
was fostered by the Kennedy presidency, with
economic competitors, and
image
a great sense
of confidence resulting from
its
victory over
what
looked, to most Americans, like the pure forces of evil.
If serious artists
had no direct relation to
this
growing affluence, they were powerful participants
in
the milieu of cultural confidence that resulted
from
it.
of a
("the best
government presided over by
intelli
and the brightest") and the promise
its
i
tuals
<>i
,i
(JFK was supposed to have writt< n
a book, ami Ja< kie had dreamed of me< ting the dan< e
impressario Diaghilev), And die Minimalist .md the
hip, high culture
systemic ami
painters,
tei
hnologii
al s
and the Pop and
ulptors, tin
posi
Popust
<>i
lard
edge
figuration
ID A
NT IN
4 3
m
Jornada del Muerto 1981.
reproduction, mirrors, steel,
Hirshhorn
Museum and
Nylon,
felt,
human
photomechanical
skeletons. Installation at the
Sculpture Garden, Washington,
DC,
December 1981-February 1982
seemed, with
few notable exceptions, co parallel,
glamorize, and glorify the
re<
intellectuals
omnium,
scum
who exen
who opposed
Hi a so. ial tain
civil-rights
lie
ii
tearing
i.
movement
All
tins
<>l
Martin
Valerie Solanis
In 1973,
ft*
thi
o
spei
splinti n
>l
uthi
Let
King, Rob<
tai
It
by
Harvej
rt
Watergate unfolded
testimony
t.u
lor long
hams
ol
that could only be supported by
equally ot evt n more dubious memories
respei cablt
looking
men w ho had been
ret
i
ited bj
aught
in
theorists had been teat hing in the
academy
power ol language disintegrates
where the unspoken sot ial treaties
that the referential
hom<
ol
supposed
a soi ial
movement dominated
tin-
unrespectable circumstances, learned what the speech
when
was pun. mated by
watc hers, the fundamental
nam test Anyone who watched
at
even shot And) Warhol
the point
The
was intensified
a p. in
John Kennedy,
iequenci of assassinations
Oswald, Malcolm X
If
no rational
disintegrated into
New Left
ims seceded from
ommissars
Kennedy
i.ir
Pbwec movt ment, and urban
Blai k
thi
nd as the
1
revealing
it,
power and the
ised
TV
hours, hearing dubious memories produi
a gap
ation could take plac< between them.
paratisms,
4 4
before millions of
separation between language and action became
tive
War gradually opened
the intellei tuals
..
prodiu
hniqui
hut the Vietnam
iety's
s<><
setting
underwriting
its
uses are broken
It
wouldn't be
mm
in
of an exaggeration to say that Richard Nixon gave
birth to
American postmodernism.
h didn't take lour
understanding to
inn onlj
politil
all
was there no
then was no
loi artists to
signification
generalize tins
and to conclude
common ground
umw
rsall\
in the
niiimnii
that
body
ground
in
the
phenomenology of the human body
critical theory was coming to see
much
The
socially constructed represention.
either,
which
essential failure
London
in 1971, while at least in part
museum
stuffiness of the English
due
supported by fragments
Salle, largely
of late-Modernist French theory. Both the performative
new
of Morris's interactive show at the Tate Gallery
in
Sherry Levine, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and
even David
as also a
narrative
and the appropriations mode flanked
Neo-Expressionism, which had
to the
new
tradition,
common
in
with the
narrative intermittent attempts at representation
was also the consequence of the show's Minimalist
and, at least in
phenomenology, undertaken in a
and limited competence before whatever imagined
where an invitation
grounded
social context
to a conception of the
body
unified
seen by participants as an invitation to a
fun
most of the punk painting, bad painting,
graffiti painting,
While Morris intermittently returned
fair/"
confronted them. Because the one thing that
reality
mechanics was predictably
in its physical
to his
its
beginnings, a sense of a contingent
its
and Neo-Expressionist painting was
rudimentary technique, the near childishness
means, and the pathos thus evoked before the
phenomenological concerns throughout the 1970s,
of
they were simply extensions of his 1960s work and
apparent cultural and psychic disasters
found continually declining resonance in the art world,
weak instrument of painting
its
in
vantage point, the contest of texts presented
this
Hearing and Voice seem more
like
wished the
But Morris had abandoned performance by the
while he was already pursuing other interests. Seen
from
it
to confront.
1970s, his only experiment with narrative was
"The Art of Existence," and he generally avoided
attempts to
respond to those aspects of the breakdown of the
autobiography until the publication of "Three
modernist paradigm that nearly everyone in the
Folds in the Fabric and Four Autobiographical Asides,"
world would soon come to
art
post-Modernism, while
call
Labyrinth (1974, no. 119) appears to have had
origins in Morris's older Modernist concerns with
the physical
Modernism
body
world was a performative
in the art
that expanded to
fill
significance of the
the gap
left
extent, with their real
11
mode
new
and
November 1989."
in
In 1980,
a hugely amplified address
obvious property
suppose that
and, to that
is
on
in giant installations
whose most
magniloquence. Are we to
for a sophisticated artist like Morris
an
installation like Preludes constitutes straightforward
and implied performances,
discourse? Each focal point of the installation
both the Tate show and Labyrinth articulate a response
to the
America
in
commonplace theme,
by the fading
autonomous object
Art
vast scale,
But the mark of post-
in space.
in
however, he turned to metaphoric representation, a
its
is
a proposal for a cenotaph. So consider the text
silkscreened beneath the skull presiding over
situation in spite of their institutionally
neutral settings.
Still,
what the new situation of the 1970s seemed
was an abdication from universalist claims.
to require
As the master
and
narratives of history
to replace
them. So the
earliest
The individual's favorite possessions
art history
collapsed, local and contingent narratives
and most
came
shoes, the tie pin, the Ferrari, the
effective
new
work invoked the most particularly contingent
and
local in the
Roller Disco:
Cenotaph for a Public Figure
collection, etc.
are carefully
cross-sections of the objects
twin Modernist taboos of narrative and representation.
the cross-sections face
circular floor
in pieces like
Eleanor Antin's epistolary photonovel The Adventures
100 Boots (1971 73), Jonathan Borofsky's dream
texts
and images, Yvonne Rainer's performance This
woman who
(1973),
and virtually
Somewhat
later, for a
have spent most of
its
ball, the
half.
The
art
edges of
which are then embedded in a
is
and a
poured as a finish
upward. The matrix forms a vast
top layer of smooth, transparent plastic
surface.
over this floor, the building
is
all
of
Laurie Anderson's early 1970s performance and text
works.
sawed in
transparent plastic matrix. The objects are arranged so that
These concerns were most evident
the story of a
the golf clubs, the
the cuts are filed or otherwise cleaned to reveal the precise
form of a floating and equivocal
autobiography and unique approaches to the
of
bowling
generation that seems to
childhood watching television or
wooden
elaborate
floor.
trusses.
is
large building
is
erected
held up with a maze of
No pole
or column intersects the
The appropriate decor and sound system are
installed.
campaign
suitable
is
initiated.
name
is
found.
discreet advertising
Only the highest quality
roller skates
an
allowed.-
"
shuffling the pages of Cosmopolitan, Gentleman's
Quarterly, Playboy, and Seventeen, the master narratives
The
encoded
the Ferrari"
in literature
were replaced by a master image
reservoir located in the
the sense of an
mass media, which produced
immense
surfeit of
images having
no reference points beyond the manipulated desires
generating them. This led to the
appropriations
deployed by
mode
that was
much
most
artists as different as
overdiscussed
effectively
Barbara Kruger,
recitation of "the golf clubs, the shoes, the tie pin,
is
broad parody of the contents of
rov.il
The
texts
burials like the Viking ship at Sutton
are broad
and sardonic and displace the
loo
installation's
purported solemnity, just as the skeletons
climbing the twisted
steel clouds, in
Second Stua
View from a Corner of Orion (Night), created
disaster movie as they evoked the imag< oi
a S( i-h
tin drifting
DAVID ANT1N 48
ruins of a wrecked space ship. "\\
were they
li.it
looking tor out there. Scotty?" In Jornada
helmeted black skeletons
we
ride
Jet
absurd phallic bombs.
are looking at atomic disaster, we're looking
-it
expressed through nearly comic-book imagery.
works seek
to
engage with social
So they seem
more
these
It
propose
arises, thej
engage through the most obvious
to
cliches.
It
it
representational
of
themselves
to position
significantly in relation to the problematics
of representation tor
public art than they attempt
produce
mum
The
to represent anything in particular.
an exasperated ineffectualit)
of
thej
ot
communication carried over to the rest of Morris's
work of the 1980s through to the decorative Hydrocal
become
rehets that
de
tin
frames tor the
siecle
sweetly colored Burning Planet paintings, which don't
Untitled
63
1984. Painted Hydrocal and pastel on paper.
73
Sonnabend
15 inches (161.3
Gallery,
New
186.7
much
function so
38.1 cm). Courtesy
York.
as paintings than as
Sublime' reduced to the status
ot tlte
mere
the nearh ine\ itable fate ot this kind
exprt ssmn.
of
earned out here with the strong possibility
Hut what do thej parody? There- are
Suue
possible readings.
much
so
as tin
ami
works on whatever
poodle
number ot gentlefolk walking
own ambitions for a grandl)
bin Morris's
s.
even
d. representational public art are
,il>
Self-parody, then,
mb<
n mi
most probable, espei
is
Ins 197
is
urn Minis
S&M
Untitled
95
1983. Painted Hydrocal and pastel on paper,
9(
11 inches (229.9 x 241.3 x 27.9 cm). Private collection.
ho
produced
Smith review
thi
difTerem
ntirelj
In
one-
the combination
1990
are,
orcoran
<
however, in
encaustic paintings are
huge, often ten to twelve
rally
it
parody both.
t,i
iat
lose
iallj
The work, perhaps,
poster.
The- paintings and drawings in the
show
a possible
closes) to
it's
lobster on the rue de Kivoh shared
sidewalk with any
s<
becomes
essential!) banal paintings,
Nerval walking
a
expansive
in its more-
Ansel m Kiefers large, decorative,
as in
target. Parod)
German
sie< le.
Neo-J xpressionism, particularly
moments,
parody,
ot
think two
the frames suggest nothing
h rm.m tm de
signifiers
decoration
of
fe<
high or long, but
images and texts of which they 'n
of
that discounts
composed produces a rebuslikt tie
their size and makes them operatt like oversize
diaw mi's
Because
on lang<
.i
image bank
the
:<
<
is
works bj Morris himself, even when
obvious
lear; tins
emblemati) significance
its
mo
iiiinMs.
products
1
bj
is
no means
live
in
an often enigmatit
relation
the Hydrocal framed paim ings wert public,
these paintings an
is
and older
source
thi
further complicated bj th< elliptical texts
is
with which they
[f
draw n from
history, populai magazines,
ot .ot
noi
nt
["hey
d( IiIh ratelj
ol a privati
mm
on
tcln
vi ii.
us metaphoi for
seem hermetit
puzzling
emblem book,
1
hi
n mi
ii
dream
ill
oi
'i
is
like
in theii
the
analogues
I
u ud
structure, analogues
1.
f<
moils
n
die. mi
Tin
Untitled
al
and pasl
'
Hi
pi. i\
(1990, pp
hi
"''
of Witi
meaning
in
the Investigations drawings
95) seems somewhat
i
nil
in
sp aks hke
(
freer,
.in in. i.
Ii
where the
among
mix of media images
floating
Jackson
Pollock, Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg, Marian Anderson, Bernard
Baruch(?)
meditating on
"to
go so
its
expression," or "But the exclamation
in a different sense
us
use language to get between
far as to try to
The
pain."'
from the report:
it is
significance of the language
so
is
not hard to
track, but the images are harder to read because their
more or
allusions,
less
obscured by time,
roles they play in a personal
may count
we have only limited
We may
have a
image reservoir
access.
fair
Or should we
to learn
is
"We
by heart,"
only learn
so on, through as long
and reasonably
clear for an audience
relation of the texts to the
images
as the pieces of text to each other,
work with a
Latin.
little
is
But the
at least as variable
and
this leaves the
clear if indeterminate discourse.
so with Time
and Loss and Grief and the Body
(1990), a bipartite painting in which the image of a
spyglass in hand, his feet anchored in the
rigging of his ship and his body miraculously
of
Pollock would count for in Morris's imagination. But
what does Anderson count
we hunger," and
are fairly simple
sailor,
what the image
idea of
if
Not
which
to
hunger
hunger,"
is
sequence as we are disposed to imagine. So the parts
than their ambiguous appearance or the
for less
learn by heart
that can check a source and read a
to
is
we
"All
multiple associations: "To learn
for
to hunger," "To
is
by heart
is
forced from
related to the experience as a cry
it is
hunger" allows
by heart
the difficult relations
between language and feeling and action: "For how can
pain and
of connectives between "to learn by heart" and
cantilevered out over the water, scans the horizon for
ask what the image of the black, open-mouthed singer
some distant sight on the right half of the painting,
which is repeated on the left half in a more blurred
with the closed eyes counts for? Passion? Expressive
image
in
head.
The
And
powers
which
is
really
the pictorial position of this image,
literally situated
is
for?
above three others
one
of
which the
has become a death's-
sailor's face
center of the painting bears the repeated
words of the
painted over and under and
title
an earthwork, a second of a social grouping of people,
overlapping each other within an illusionistic space.
over a third of a group struggling in what looks like a
Sultan identifies the image and interprets
swamp
one of transcendance or distance?
And what
it
in a
reasonable way, writing that "the intensely athletic
relation does this have to Wittgenstein's ironic line
gesture of the leveraged figure of Buster Keaton, an
on the nonlogical power of experience: "Nothing could
image taken from the film The Love Nest (1923),
represents an expression of searching and loss, a leap
induce
me
after all
put
to
it is
my hand
in the flame
only in the past that
although
have burnt
into the void that
myself?"
The
is
also an act of physical prowess; to
those familiar with the source,
paintings seem more simply structured,
employing clear binary contrasts and mirror imaging,
source of this image,
and sometimes they are much more obvious, as in the
simply in humor.
comic diptych Enthusiastic for
the Ratio (1989), in
which
on the right
a great beast in a panel
quietly reading a very small
book across from a
on the left. Some,
Memory
Hunger (1990),
Is
The
film
earlier as
sits
"rationally" divided, colored panel
like the quadripartite
in
Yvonne Rainer
originally published in the issue of
and poet Jill Johnston." Rainer's essay
Feast (1964)
and the four
figures,
The Colossus
(ca. 1812), a
somewhat blurred image
of a Holocaust victim, a slightly dissolved version of
Morris as he appeared in his
S&M
(given the outfit he's wearing,
it
poster,
might
and
as well
a soldier
be
Hemingway in his guise as the Great White Hunter).
Then there is the title printed across all four panels,
is
and melancholy memoir of the two
women's intertwined
distributed one to a panel counterclockwise, as Goya's
resonance doesn't end here or
Les Levine's journal Culture Hero devoted to the critic
In her catalogue essay, the curator, Terrie Sultan,
quote from Ernest Hemingway's
its
of Keaton appeared eighteen years
still
nostalgic, comic,
memoir A Movable
also evokes a richly
an emblematic illustration for an essay by
spite of their simplicity, are, nevertheless, not obvious.
identifies the title as a
it
absurd humor."'' To those familiar with a second
lives, their
complex
relation
within the 1960s art and dance world, and their
eventual separation.
It's
shot through with recollections
of dancing, art making, parties, breakups and
reconciliations, accidents
them
flicker
and
relationship with Morris and
of
illnesses,
and through
fragmentary memories of Rainer's
Keaton operates
like
its
ending. So the image
an image in a dream, evoking
not only Keaton's athleticism and
its loss
through
alcoholism but, through the association with Rainer,
above which are printed, partially reversed and
the loss of a lover, the loss of a lover's body, the loss of
inverted, the Latin words EDISCERE ("to learn by heart")
one's
and ESURIRE
athleticism, creativity, and
If
("to hunger").
the relation between the white hunter and the
dissolved image of Morris suggests a loss of power, and
that between the Colossus and the Holocaust victim
a relation
between power and powerlessness, the
title
is a meditation on loss and on the grotesquerie of both
power and powerlessness. As for the text, the absence
own young
body, and the complex of youth,
life
that was the past. This
painting, though fortuitously interpretable in the
a
dream may
be,
is
other dream; and
suspect that then are
paintings and drawings like this
were exhibited
at the
So where docs
way
no more a public work than any
among
<
>r
In
the works that
Corcoran.
this leave tin quest
i<
DAVID ANTIN 47
authenticity.'' In spite of
my own
distaste
mode, the persona
work is tairlv
for the biographical recuperative
body
that emerges from Morris's
consistent
that of a restless, ironic, and intellectual
who engages
artist
of
with whatever surrounding
discourses happen to interest
him and
soon as they
him. This kind of
persona
(.ease to interest
ajudd
very different trom that of
is
them
leaves
as
or
LeWitt, or even a Christo. whose works consist of a
single stylistic gesture that
wide
allowed to unfold over
is
The recurrence
field.
within
of the gesture
their art suggests a persistence that occasionally verges
on virtuosity within
narrow range
ot choices
trom the austere to the decorative. But
not as
it's
Andre orjudd or LeWitt individually arrived
it
some
at
idea of simplicity and elementary organization.
Because
was not an idea but
it
a sculptural discourse
about simplicity and the elementary that developed
communal
the
Investigations
1990. Graphite on vellum, 18
18 inches (45.7
Gallery,
New
45.7 cm). Courtesy Sonnabend
York.
in
space ot the American art world
end
of the 1950s, a discourse that tor some
seemed exhausted by the 1970s, though not
most of those whose reputations had been
at the
tor
artists
made by
is
persona
a persistent
is
and
a nervouslj attentive
A nomad
mobile one.
why
hard to see
It's
it.
more authentic than
surely as authentic as a
homeowner.
A
Roberta Smith,
The
Net.
/."...,
<
No
Hypersensitive
Kublt
irge
Smith,
New Gustons,
In
1978), p
Hilton Kramer,
"A Mand
Tht Nn.
m America 66
,'31
York Abbevillt
neral sociological
its
Howard
distribution, set
mil
Press, 1981
Storr, Pbilip
ii, i,
win n
Decembei
Moms
in
i.i'
feel
si
in Ibid
2.40 m). Collection
paint
to
thai the
Green Galler] slum would be admitted to as
not
Notes on Sculptun
Pan
6);
Octobei 19
in
Batti
or)
and
reprinted in
ock (Nev<
">
ork
Ann
ml Note
12,
II.
'
1
,
1.
1968)
no 8
.ii.iii
69 no 10
><
mb<
<
10
Somi Notei
ivati
\|.|il
'
i4
<
'-
Beyond Objeci
Part IV
Notes on s ulpi nn
Moi
foi iln
mi"
10
p|
...
Morris
Sculptun
Mon
M'.i
-I
mark
of < tradi
Itwasonlj
of graj
M,. in-.
1981), pp 9
I"
u-.c
96
(April 1969),
1H
of
University ol
(Berkele)
rids
repeated Ins
i* rsistentl)
Critic*
Dun
I
ol the
{rtV
Becker,
inches x
1986)
Press,
Notes on Sculptun
account of th<
account of art making and the networks
ame something
bet
it
9 Roberi Mums.
hes (3.64
full
Robert Storr, Philip
se<
had so
fanuar)
a inn but
For a
<
where
uii
7 )e-'
Manypeopli saw then painted plywood objects as whin
on aluminum,
no
Be a Stumblebum,
riding to
i'
\rt
it* Histat
L02
controversy over Guston's nevi figuration,
Hunger 1990. Enc
!"
University Press,
Februarj
(Januar)
It
IT
mrki on
(New Haven Yak
Memory
II.
Ibid ,p. 33
2.
:.
the Next Thing,"
fbi
20, 1991, SO
|.UH..,rs
'In
i,
'i
Part
no
I\
Phem
14
lology of Making
(April
in
970), p. 6
rhe advertisement
WiHinulnm.
is
.in./ ii
reprinted in Maurici
\.\v York
Berger, Labyrinli
Harper and Row
Search
Time and Loss and Grief and the Body, 1990. Encaustic
11%
on aluminum, 3 feet
3.63 m). Collection
inches
Leonardo da Vinci, Codex
17.
feet 11 inches (1.22 x
1 1
of the artist.
Bramly, Leonardo: Discovering
HarperCollins, 1991),
391
Allantictis,
the Life
as cited in Serge
r.,
of Leonardo da Vinci
and development of
artist.
Mark N. Edwards
in
2833.
Process," Artforum 9, no. 5 (January 1971), pp.
diagram taken from Marvin Blaine's work
the
'
another
Works
Artists:
shown in
another piece of Morris art grafted from the thought
174.
p.
Morns, "The Art of Existence. Three Extra- Visual
18.
in the article, as
(New York:
Madison, Conn.
(Artforum 9, no. 7 [March 1971], p.
19. Ibid., p. 30.
8).
20. Ibid., pp. 31-32.
26. Ibid.
21. Ibid., p. 33.
22. Ibid.
27. See Donald Kuspit, The
23. Ibid.
Arbor, Mich.:
24.
more benign view of the work
book on Morris: "In 1971
excellent
is
[in
group of fictional
notion that this
field
a parody of
not so easy to
The
25.
The
something
29. This
The
narrative does evoke
direction and extent of the irony
however,
is,
as a hard
and
well be witnessing the twilight of Robert Morris' artistit
thru "younger" artists in your January issue seam
attempt
to
put
He
of) the inei liable.
By
recognizing the life-styles
reinvent bimselj once
and work
again and
to be
His
an
all-out
any of the products
create
of thru unknown
a prototype
He
which he can survive another decade.
attempts
kind of literary
to
deception allou
u itb ih, essencx u
Morris
lie
untamed by
Ha
intentions
ban
instead to see
him as a
m.
decepi
public can no longer take
a particularly
htm
tensitivi
bii
effet t
on
Morris has
t
mporary
onti
The publh
is
sworn
1990),
bi
bos helped, as
Press, 1989).
and Four Autobiographical
(November 1989), pp. 142-51.
DC:
to
Smithsonian Institution, 1982),
Endure
or
Deny
the
p. 58.
World, ed. Terric Sultan,
DC: Corcoran M
\rt.
p. 50.
35. Sultan, "Inability to
Endure or Deny the World."
in ibid.,
36. Ibid., p. 18.
Rt printed in
ol
I974),p
significant artist
Object
recent critical
illustrated in the catalogue (or the exhibition at the
exhibition catalogue (Washington,
Yl
off further contact
is
catalogue (Washington,
College
credibility; time is his worst enen,
weather nine
The proposal
tin
pp. 17-18.
now
figure fad
Sayre, The Object of Performance: The American
32. Morris, "Three Folds in the Fabric
34. Robert Morris: Inability
u orId's chief iconoclast, we choose
at face value, neither as
the Castelli warehouse show, have
these artists together in
tin art
yet pathetic,
His past work has insured his
nor as
and com
his present artistic activity.
Hirshhorn Museum. See Metaphor, ed. Howard Fox, exhibition
who, as
the system.
a situation
been disguised to the present.
on to him: rather than teeing him as
Henry
more
1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago
33-
remained a rather amorphous figure who has had a great
tsthetit
since
Praeger, 1973). For a
Asides," Art in America 77, no. 8
resurrection of bis worn-out
to enter into
The Dematerialization of the Art
Years:
19661972 (New York:
from
interpretation, see
leaving tin donors u ith nothing. His desperate need for
/>,/,
recognition can barely
Lucy Lippard, Six
of relevant activity through
and outside
remain anonymous
his maturity.
see Berger, Labyrinths, p. 121.
self through the unconventional nature presented by the three artists
explained by Morris, wish
it,
Avant -Garde
himself.
he attempts to
artists,
when he entered
Press, 1961], p. 217).
object, see
lift
seems intent on assuring his place in
the art of the '70s. perhaps unbuilt contributing
painter
very
is
of a late Cubist as well
For contemporary documentation of the declining fortunes ol
31
<"i
fast easel
much
(Greenberg, "'American-Type' Painting," Art and Culture [Boston
reactions to
articlt
3-21.
30. For a discussion of Morris's Tate retrospective and the variety of
in full:
Sirs:
We ma)
pp.
Until 1946 he stayed within an unmistakably late Cubist framework"
Beacon
worth quoting
to Robert Morris," Robert
was even true of Jackson Pollock. Clement Greenberg
acute on this point: "Pollock was very
suggested by the gradually
is
"The Ars Moriendi According
Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1986),
fix.
is
1980s (Ann
28. Kuspit,
of 'biographical' information about a
letter is so curious that it
in the
Morris: Works of the Eighties, exhibition catalogue (Newport, Calif.:
mounting exaggeration of the accounts, and the
the figure of irony.
Art
"The Art of Existence") Morns
artists" (Berger, Labyrinths, p. 103, note 10).
is
New Subjectivism:
Research Press, 1988).
taken by Berger in his otherwise
parodied the critical fixation on creative and personal expression
by devising an elaborated
UMI
Yvonne Rainer, Work 1963 73
Art and Design and
New
York:
New
(Halifax
N(
York University
I'riss.
)17.
He got
with him.
a formalized space summed them all up. and put
it
all
forth in a personalized form. Hardly responsible for that which he himself
produced afterwards, his sense of politics
and gift
at manipulation, perpetuated
this design.
He
has again done this through bis involvement with the thru
DAVID ANT1N 49
FRAMEWORKS
Annette Michelson
Mirror. screen, frame. Here are rhree structural
elements that appear and reappear, circulating through
Robert Morris's practice To chart that circulation,
locating and
denning the function
undertaken and
work
fulfilled,
would, that
It
impression
There
of a
is.
gray-painted
of
steadiness
false
recurring figure that
paradoxically, to unite the three
the labyrinth
as in the
lozenge-shaped
yrintb (1973, no. 123)
circular Labyrinth
Mask
work,
in Morris's
mofani
Auguste Rodin.
its
discontinuous enterprise.
somewhat
elements
to explicate the
and reveal
providing countertesrimonj to the
of course,
appears,
components
a task that.
is
would serve
trace
is.
of these
modes,
in their principal signifying
1974, no
and the
119), eight feel high, of
wood and Masonite. Neither
mirror.
Hanako. 1908. executed 1911.
screen, nor frame, the labyrinth, nonetheless, performs
Pate de verre, 8
inches (21.9
48.3
mimetic synthesis
of their functions,
movement
screening
in
8.9 cm). The Rodin Museum,
symmetry
Philadelphia. Gift of Jules E.
well, the intimation of dark
of a
Mastbaum.
And
these works otter, as
works
to
come,
tor the
as
Roland Barthes once remarked,
form
of
the nightmare."
however, through consideration
is.
It
mirror image.
is.
labyrinth
t\pic.il
framing and
space while offering the
proper, of
its
changing
of
"the
the frame
within continuity, that
role
one maj thread ones way through Morris's production.
To follow
it,
one begins
and forth
in
time
In 1977,
an account
ofa winters da\.
Id using
works
!),
largely,
VLasl
of a \isit, in the-
the
fading
to that sue in Philadelphia
though not
,md
mid-course, shifting back
Morns published "Fragments from
Rodin Museum,
light
08)
li
nonetheless, to re-mark, in
on three
ext lusively,
Hell (1880-191
he pauses.
long footnote, on the
Untitled (Labyrinth). 1974. Plywood and Masonite. painted.
8 feet (2.44 m) high, 30 feet (9.14 m) diameter.
Solomon
BO
lllllll
R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza
Collection.
problem generated by the incompleteness of major
projects, surrounded, as
were, by part objects of a
it
sculptural desire.
When,
Morris wants to know,
unattached component a part
when
a bust
is
fragment? (He notes,
is it
is
an unfinished or
body part
and
example, that
for
such a part, and not a fragment.) Considering
the plaster model of the Balzac within the compass
of this question,
he remarks on the absence of a
fist
and asks of a hypothetical, proximate model of such a
fist if it
would have had the status of a "fragment."
Hypothesizing further, postulating arms
in the
vicinity of an armless body, he concludes that "they
too would have been addressed as fragments of
the body
had the body not been nearby, we would
simply have 'arm fragments.
"
The meditation
continues with a question posed through the striking
image of
"a
once-whole body equally divided
though
as
by a sword from crown to crotch." Does this division,
he asks, "yield two fragments? More than likely
two halves have been produced. At what point
progressive removal of parts do
in a
we encounter
we no
the threshold, the dividing line, beyond which
longer have a figure and
its
fragment(s) >
"
Although Morris acknowledges the fragment
"a
kind
sense,
of part,"
from
may be
he sees that
which they
are, as it
as
differs, in a crucial
from a mask. The
a bust or
said, present
it
latter two,
it
an expressive autonomy through
were, framed. Fragments, on
And
the other hand, appear stripped of frame.
Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell. 1880-1917. Bronze,
20
Morris
remarks of a mask (presumably that of Hanako):
feet 10 '4 inches x 13 feet 2 inches x 2 feet 9
(6.37
4.01
.85 m). The Rodin
Museum.
Gift of Jules E.
Mastbaum.
Auguste Rodin,
Naked Balzac, 1892.
inches
Philadelphia,
"As though trying for those contours, those planes,
those eccentricities of shape and line, which in
themselves tread dangerously near the lump, but taken
all
together (and
how
else
can a face be taken?) catch
Plaster,
the look of the subject."
In his
own
29
Museum,
essay on Rodin, Leo Steinberg had
3
.1
in.
(75.6 cm) high. The Rodin
Philadelphia, Given by Mr. and
Mrs. Sheldon M. Gordon. Mr. Gerson Bakar
anticipated these questions. Or, rather, he had
and Mr. and Mrs. Norman Perlmutter.
approached them inversely:
// is
because of the comparative primacy given
dispensable,
explained
"because a
to
to
movement.
unmoved part of the body become
Rodin himself said as much when he
Degas why his Walking Man had no arms
gi rturt or act.
that any
man walks
on his
legs. "
This principle of
dispensability determines the limits offragmentation.
anatomy can
gesture.
But
be stripped down so long as
the dispensability rule also
criterion of judgment.
in obedience to the
Rodin tends
yields
it
An
a clear
hands us a
to spoil
a u orb when,
anatomical norm, he makes a partial
figure "complete."
Morris had begun his account of the
speaking
of his
own
visit
by
sense of entering into a "world of
ANNET1
congealment" and by evoking an insistent and ironic
The
auditory rhythm, an imaginary sound score (a
the framed framing space ot the
performing musical band), that accompanied
impression of 77
his
first
Hell In a paratactically
ordered series of notations, driven, perhaps, by
the imagined
thump and
beat of brass, he
an iconographic inventory,
its
St.
framing
cannot,
in tact,
melancholv, sorrow, despair, desire
and
as
float
and plunge within
lh//,
opening upon
view of Hell, are presented as dosed and
be opened To this matter of opening
shall return.
Experienced, however, by Morris "not as animated
clay,
but as
population melting
these figures produce in
Christ.
John, Mar) Magdalen, Bacchus, Psyche,
Orpheus. Ariadne, Ugolino, Aphrodite
roll
which, although conceived
dramatis personae with
Eill),
swim and
and closure we
offi rs
repertory of attributes, physical and moral.
Thus: "Adam, Eve (before and after the
figures
ot att.nrs existing in the
[and] sin,
[and]
down
And
molecular process has gone awry."'
in
into
..."
him the impression ot "a
first moments after sonic
another explicative footnote, to locate
state
basic
Morris pauses,
descriptive
slitherings, pulsing, throbbing, sagging, tumescent,
problem. Into what substance would this "population"
bulging, hacked, slicked, gouged, polished, ripped,
dissolve, transmute: shit, syrup, grease'
probed, kneaded, torn."
these, really
if
None
ot
figures that he will, in another text,
see as the inhabitants ot a mental space, that ot
Such are the figures that Steinberg had seen as
"coasting and rolling" as
The
"on air currents," deployed
..s
"operator,"
are. in
am
case, neither
as if "under gravitational pressures.' their
frozen nor distorted but. rather, in the process
weightlessness and "native invertibility" enabling their
melting.
and redeployment, a turn and
what Steinberg terms Rodin's "Noah's
"The
Ark." To think of these as fragments will not quite do;
rather,
we might
s.i\,
they are components
whole, elements of a vocabulary,
body,
(hiris ot
si
of a
ot a larger
discourse on the
ulptural speech, subject, perhaps, to
syntactical sanation, by turns subtle and spei
The Astronomer, 1984 Painted Hydrocal, 9
15 feet 10 inches
Virginia
nit
Museum
hob
feet 6'
2 feet 7 inches (2.91 x 4.83
of Fine Arts,
Richmond.
tat ular.
inches
.79 m).
he concludes that his
'Population melting
successive variation
return," in
And
English
e
e
ssive
Dh
down
tionar) as a
heat, or
into
is
indeed. Defined
clinker,
euic ot
linker, additionally
mass
ot
v isii
in
the
linker."
the Oxford
brk ks fused by
lava, the
and colloquially, denotes
to the
ot
verv phrase.
hardened volcanic
.1
Woukl
not. then.
Roelm Museum, and the
clinching statement or argument,
have been the
own
it
Enterprise, 1984. Painted Hydrocal,
oil
on canvas, and steel,
11 feet 9 inches x 12 feet 4 inches x 5 feet (3.58 x 3.76 x
1.52 m). Collection of the
ensuing meditation on the fragment, that produced
eschatological vision. These frames, of painted, cast
Hydrocal, are composed of
the argument or program for the works that
culminated
in
1984
in the series of paintings
artist.
known
as
swimming
or floating
forms, assembled in decorative configurations. Swarms,
nexuses of body parts, genitalia, hands,
The Burning Planet? Considering them, however, and
effluvia,
framing an answer to Morris's question, one begins
tendons, bones, skulls, cast in multiple, placed and
with a query
"Paintings?"
of another question
One
and
a reply in the
"Yes, of a sort, but of
of large dimension, to begin with.
Hydrocal,
oil
Enterprise, to
15 feet 10
on canvas, and
steel,
name two, measure 9
sort?"
Of painted
The Astronomer and
feet 6'/ ; inches
inches by 2 feet 7 inches and
9 inches by 12 feet 4 inches by 5
form
what
11
by
feet
feet, respectively.
Images of conflagration, swirls of smoke and
fire,
displaced, inverted, repeated, rotated, form the
grandiose and symmetrically designed frame that
stands in ironic tension to the pictorial representation.
The
horrific
elements
impact of the huge, heavy frames, of their
these are fragments wholly disarticulated
from any given body
in
manner
Hydrocal minimally
to the intimation of
impending global catastrophe.
This sort of painting gives, above
all,
the sense
of a displacement of the locus of signification from the
center outward, centripetally, for
it is
the startling
underlined by the manner
The frames
destruction.""
observation that a return to the Baroque seems timed
is
of what Walter Benjamin termed "an emblematics of
flaming vortices, they are seen head on, framed in a
that implies a direct articulation of Morris's
which they are recomposed into the symmetry
are dark, the painted
reflective.
were the point of departure
It is
as if the
image
for the grisly obscenity of
body fragments that have been "propelled, discharLi \\
into space," as Steinberg remarked of Rodin's
figures, and "congealed," as Morris put it, into the new
"gates" of Enterprise.
And, indeed, the
tall,
massive
frames that confer meaning upon the images within,
gates of the frames open onto the pictorial space
making of them the representations of an
catastrophe that they nominate
in a
oi
disturbance
oi
ANNETTE MICHELSON 83
ground
figure
framed
relation and, consequently, of frame
and
as an Inferno.
To understand the place
Morris's enterprise, the
such
of
manner
in
work within
which an apocalyptic
vision appears to have elicited tins radical disturbance
-fct
framing conventions, we must think
ot
within
One
is.
account
tact, led to take
and function
status
frame
of the
enabling context, historical and theoretical.
its
change
o! tile
upon the picture frames substance, dimension,
and ornamentation began
movement from Seurat
the
toward
trend toward
substantial frame
ot the
the readymade, ot the Earthwork, and.
suggested,
work such
of
fabric ot
Daniel Buren,
strategy
We
will call
it
or.
Mondrian
to
internalization. The intervention
its
color.
end within (he Modernist
to
regime. Simplification set in motion
as
the
For a tradition that had focused
the Modernist context
an evident sublation
in
frame within and beyond
of the
to Stella,
of
has been
it
as the unstretched Lengths ot
articulates another
"disframing,"
process that
eventually produces the questioning and disturbance
sp.ue and institution
ot the
was
nineteenth
proposed
freedom from convention
(he horde n of
m.K
In a
pre
re
se
<
is
is
learly
the
inserted
framing, that
of
painting
of
ment
che
ol
the pictorial mil rocosm
macrocosm within which
was
It
ol
he di fined the frame's (ask as stressing
natural
tin
a\]^\
of
laiming that the enhani
<
merel) asecondarj result
is
n> it)
rogi
ii
photograph) on
illuminated by consideration
ma
int
pn urn frame
Ik
of
elebrated text. Andre? Bazin distinguished
that of
the
relief
tr.iine
of composition
assumed,
impact
de tine (he
between these two modes
and
rail)
ntadon. that would
consequently, one's notion of the
picture frame
1
the
is
It
replacement through new conceptions
and powerful lj
to stress the
replaced In (hose which
In-
framing, and not, as gent
painting.
warns
of pictorial
both snapshot and tilm shot
In
effect ni tins
one'
the latter dee ades ot the
in
ntur\. to
displa) die wide-ranging
from
exhibition.
which traditional notions
in
composition began,
of
ol
moment, however,
For the
this that generated thi
th<
picture
Baroque
complexit) of th< traditional frame, which was
1
;ned co establish a geometrical! ) indefinable gap
between
w-
and
pii
tun and wall, chat
is.
between "painting
realit)
>
icing (In
<
an
as
ii
'prevail n<
maximal K
everyw
hi
ch<
ol
gildt d
reflective, its gilt pro\ iding "that
and of light having ol itsell no form,
pun formless colour, Bazin maintains
pi.
ok 1. mi establishes the spact of
qualit) of coloi
1
i.i
dial
i
onti
to sa)
is
si
is
te
B4
iIk
mplation
as oni
limiti d to chat within, pii corial
to bi characterized as centripetal
Rodin
The Gatet
of Hell
1880-1917
he spa<
(detail).
>i
the cinematic image
is,
on the other hand, centrifugal.
For the frame of the cinematic image can be
understood, contrary to the
a mask, excising
presumed
to
presumption, as
extend in an infinite continuum beyond
the image on screen.
and
common
from view the phenomenal world
The
spectator
as a function of the
thus positioned,
is
moving camera
repositioned in an awareness of off-screen space, of
beyond the image.
"the world"
15
This reading of the screen image was, of course,
intended to support Bazin's validation of cinema's
vocation as an instrument of representation in the
phenomenal
service of an epiphanic revelation of the
world. 16
present interest for us, however,
Its
in Bazin's intimation of the picture
heterogeneity and as gap, and the
intimation takes
lies
frame as marker of
way
which
in
this
place in a theorization of the frame
its
that culminates in Jacques Derrida's reading of Kant's
Critique of Aesthetic Judgment.
'"
For Kant views the
frame as an instance of the parergon, secondary to the
ground or
ergon, the primary, central locus, the core
or field of artistic practice and of signification. This
distinction
between parergon and ergon
is
seen to
inform the tradition of art history and of aesthetics in
we ask about
work of art. And it is these
the West, shaping the very questions that
the nature and origin of the
questions, moreover, renewed through the centuries,
that have given credence to hierarchy
to the establishment of
what Derrida
and
12 inches (243.8
teleology,
calls "a series
Untitled (Pine Portal), 1961. Laminated
x
121.9
fir,
96
48
30.5 cm).
of
oppositions (meaning/form; interior/exterior;
content/container; signified/signifier
which
art not only functions as a
ground
)" ls
.
through
system but helps to
a larger cultural semiotic.
It is for
this reason that "the philosopher
repeats this question without transforming
destroying
it
in its form, in its
who
it,
without
form of question,
its
onto-interrogative structure, has already submitted
all
19
space in the discursive arts to the voice of the logos."
And
our response to "this permanent request"
mounted by aesthetics to distinguish between a core of
meaning and context "organises all philosophical
discourse on art, on the meaning of art and on
meaning itelf from Plato to Hegel, Husserl and
Heidegger.
It
presupposes a discourse on the limit or
boundary between the inside and outside of the
object, in this case
discourse on the frame."
art
2"
The problematic nature of the border appears
not
only at the inner edge, between frame and picture,
but also at the outer edge, between frame and world.
The
surface of the parergon separates
Kant would have
it,
it
not only, as
from the body proper of the
ergon,
but also from outside, from the wall on which the
painting
is
hung.
When
seen from this perspective,
the presentation of Rodin's The Gates of Hell as closed
redirects the parergonal function of these frames toward
that of the ergon: the container
the extrinsic
made
is
thus contained,
intrinsic.
ANNETTE MICHELSON 55
One
could
then, with Bazin, that the border
say.
presents a problematic ambivalence corresponding to
what he termed "the geometrically indefinable space"
between picture and wall such that our notion of
the extrinsic and intrinsic, of what
frame and what
is
framed, can be thereby questioned.
is
this
It is
questioning, sustained over three decades in Morris's
"frameworks," that here concerns us.
have elsewhere claimed that Morris's work of the
1960s was driven by a willed transgression
Untitled (Williams Mirrors). 1977
mirrors, each
84
Williams College
96 inches (213.4
Museum
Twelve
x
243.8 cm).
of Art. Wllliamstown.
decorum imposed by
ol the
the doxa of Modernist sculpture's
shall now go on co sav that it initiated
and disturbance of presuppositions
"opticality."
a questioning
frame) that eventually
(in this case, regarding the
generated the "clinkers" or Tbt Burning Planet
series.
the continuity of this questioning that confirms
It is
manner
one's earlier view of the
assumed
Marcel
from
which Morns
in
the beginning, under the aegis of
Duchamp and
with
a special
resolution
the
philosophical task that, in a culture not committed,
on the whole,
to speculative thought, devolves with a
upon
particular stringency
occasion to observe that
And
An
in this
the question that arises
Untitled (Fiberglass Frame), 1968. Translucent
fiberglass,
243.8
New
72
96
18
47 cm). Solomon
inches (182.9
R.
Guggenheim Museum,
York, Panza Collection.
Pine Portal
1961
as an instance of Morris's
what drives
is:
this trend'
ol Morris's
This work
correctly
is
ulpturaJ concern w
st
human body
the proportions of the
has
to include the following:
no. 8).
One
he was not quite alone.
account, by no means complete,
frameworks would have
- '
its artists.
course,
>t
ited
ith
it
also
functions as frame.
-Barrier
-A
1966
works made
L968
to
among other works ol
(no. 15),
class ol
(for
1962.
in the- pivotal years
example, Quarter-Round Mesb
1966, no. 89]) presents structures that otter
visibility,
DO
with
maximal
pans, surfaces, and joinings open
all
lew.
Fiberglass Prami
1968, no. 16),
fiberglass, with us
opening up
work
ol
translucent
the frame's inner
ol
edge
- Two works
aluminum
in
(nos
6),
both untitled,
that, by virtue ol their height (respet lively,
and 60 inches)
and frame
surt.u is
maximum visibility
ofrei
ol
66
parts and
floor spat
- Mirrored Cubt r (1965,
no. 66), the startling
work
was
initiating a scrus of catoptrit ventures Morris
renevi frequently, as in
\\
tllianu \iirron
Mirrored Cubes absorbs and
Barrier, 1962. Painted plywood, 79
ties
(200.7
228.6
30.5 cm)
90
the exhibition spat
us
id
rt
e for
shifts,
'"*"7
,
to
no. 134)
frames and reframes,
the mobile spec tator, even as
tive suit.u is obst ure
ontour, edge, or border.
h was with Pirn Portal chat the problematization
ol
che frame was initiated
object thai
the
/)
inn
don
lere
sculpture or frame
model provided
Ban
I
is
l>\
Ins
si
in
11
o 111-
111
Mur
begins by noting
Bridt Stripped
23) for the framing
on- in us environing space (as
other works bj Morris and chose
56
freestanding
One
Duchamp's Tin
Het Bachelors, Etvn(1915
ni
is a
ol
other .mists
in
ol Ins
One
generation).
of the work's
notes, as well, the proleptic character
title,
which, in this early variation on the
gate, solicits the spectator's passage through
it
Pine Portal
is
first
work
to
be considered
must be understood in relation
counterstatement composed within
in isolation. Rather,
to Barrier, a
it
same mode of address to the spectator, but articulated
through a structure designed to impede passage.
the
These two
objects,
variations,
couched
made
In Atlantic (1967),
Snow made
work of special
interest in relation to this discussion of Morris's
rethinking of the frame. In this piece, thirty
position.
not, however, a
and
transformation.
from
position of observer, to that of object framed, before
the eventual return to
angle, effects of fragmentation, disorientation,
a year apart,
in the dialectic of
photographs of the sea are
deep
set, in
recess, within a
thirty-unit grid, a primary structure of highly polished
sheet metal, so that the images are reflected in the four
compose the obtruding frame of each
surfaces that
photograph. The result
is
the superimposition of one
form a pair of
continuous, flooding image that
approach and
framing function of the grid. Here, the ergonal status
upon the frame as freestanding sculptural
They challenge, respectively, by solicitation
image
of the
object.
size, scale, surface reflectiveness,
and obstruction, conventions of Modernist sculpture
but annuls the
challenged by a frame dynamized by
avoidance,
is
all
Snow's project
and tridimensionality.
invoked as a major instance of
is
regarding spectatorial and sculptural space.
work upon the frame, which
Additionally and crucially, their collapse of ergon and
under the dual influence of Duchamp and John
Cage, both of whom developed models for formal and
parergon within the single freestanding object
represents, in
its
simplicity, a radical intervention in
The
work in Hydrocal, picture frames such as
those of Enterprise and The Astronomer, will require
extremity of scale and baroque sculptural complexity
to produce their very different effects of shock and
irony in relation to the pictorial field. These effects,
however, are indissociable from the force and clarity
with which the parergonal problematic is thereby
made manifest.
that is, through scale and complexity
They extend the work begun by Pine Portal and
Barrier, the interrogation of "the discourse upon the
frame" that marks Morris's enterprise as philosophical
later
That Morris was not alone
is
in his problematization of
strongly evident
of contemporaries;
it is,
to
particularly interesting case
Snow,
also
who
we look
if
in fact,
work upon the frame seems
at the
work
during the 1960s that
expand and
is
own
to Morris's
installations, Earthworks, drawings,
and written
texts,
as well as to his sustained production of sculpture
and the painting
is
which he returns,
to
insistently transgressive in
or boundaries of the single
We
its
movement
that
disregard of the limits
medium.
will want, accordingly, to inquire as to the
impulse behind
this
movement and,
as a first step in
that direction, to consider what, in particular, drives
work on the frame. In so doing we return to
way of a detour through filmtheory issues and definitions, for recent developments
have complemented the foregoing theorization of
Morris's
under the aegis of Duchamp, a related project,
mediums
inscription
its
of desire."
first
question regarding a subjectivity-effect of
has been asked, should the use of
Why,
uncommon
it
framings
more
or angles be held, as indeed they are, to be
strongly expressive of subjectivity than the
film,
photography, sculpture, installation works, musical
Snow's project, which continues to develop, begins
with Window (1961), Portrait (1967), and Blind (1967).
epitomized in two epoch-making films, Wavelength
La
the cinematic frame with an account of
cinematic technique can set us on our path.
performance.
It is
relates as well, in its shuttling
involvement in performance and film, to his acoustical
to intensify.
that of Michael
undertook, in the early years of the decade,
elaborated across the various
(1967) and
it
between forms of articulation,
the work of the 1980s by
in its thrust.
the frame
modes of framing, disframing,
institutional
and reframing. But
the field of sculptural practice.
intensified in the 1960s
Region centrale (1974), in which the
more commonly employed angles, those closer
horizontal plane and, one might add, closer to
traditional pictorial conventions?
uncommon
We
to the
do know that the
angle sharpens the spectator's awareness
of what has tended to be overlooked, the identification
with the camera, with the author's viewpoint. For
Bazinian polarities of spatiality (pictorial centripetality
ordinary framings are not experienced as such, while
and
"the uncommon angle reawakens me
me what already know.' Through
filmic centrifugality) are explored through radical
deployment of the optical tracking shot
instance and computerized camera
second. 25
8x70
in the first
movement
in the
(1969), described as "an essay on the
multitude of ambiguities that can be generated by
one framing device in a grid pattern,"'
eighty
still
is
composed of
photographs of a frame subjected to the
displacement of a camera that produces, through
framing and through lighting and variation of
its
and
teaches
change
of angle,
then, the spectator becomes directly aware of his or
her
own place as spectator within the mi marie
One could, therefore, claim that the typii
(
event.
fetishistic position of the
("I
know
all
the same
disavowing spe<
very well [that this
.
,"
.
is
is
qualified,
tati
ally
only a film) but
undermined,
ii
only
momentarily.
ANNETTE MICHELSON 57
To Bazin's insight
(grounded as
as to die (unction of the
Frame
phenomenological method), more
in
it is
recent film scholarship has thus brought the
psychoanalytically informed sense
upon the edges
plays
censorship
the inherent!)
of
cinemas framing device. Film
erotic valence of the
of the frame,
invoh ing
the placing and displacing of a boundary
that bars the look, that puts an end to the
thus, produces an e\c nation of desire
that, despite
seen."
It,
sense
in this
is
It
austerity with respect to narrative
its
and. most generally, to
human
presence. Snow's film
work may be
said to be essentially erotic.
cinema, with
its
"The waj
wandering framings wandering
the
like
the look, like the caress), finds the means to reveal
something
space has
do with
to
kind
undressing, a generalised strip-tease,
perfected strip-tease, since
makes
also
it
remove from
to dress space again, to
ot
permanent
a less
lew
but more
possible
it
what
it
has
previously shown, to take back as well as to retain.
1
then,
re.
[(
is
rethinking
the
of
inematic
frame that acknowledges the intensit)
accommodation, through
formal development,
looking.
of film's
technical potential and
its
of "scoptophilia," or
pleasure in
thereby, sets in motion an analysis of the
It,
frame that complements both the phcnomcnologu
based inquiry
moreover, help to
will,
It
work on
of Morris's
or the cast
arm
symboli<
example
(In
tram
Morris's
Others
the-
<
ntral role
moves from the
it
corj
Enh
[ydrocaJ of
while the
of
>
las in
to that of
inema, as
in
represents one- privileged
to
problemati/ation within
to entertain a
is
rprisi
work on the frame,
ot its
expressive of
full)
lantv
Snows work,
meaning
(insider the
illation. For
of
among
instance
(
the frame as
and material representation
register of formal
Pan Portal
alls
Bazin and Derridian interrogation.
ot
ieu ol film as
general, sustained, and
multidirectional transgression, Fueled b) thescopii
drive, of the boundaries, the
Michael Snow, 8 x 10, 1969. Three
llll.l \ \
of eighty. Private collection.
subjei
is,
ike
its
instance of the symbolii pU
i
it
is the ant u
.nit
In
express thei
i
In
jo)
muc
simple
soon be abli to go to
which have hitherto been
who
revealed
i.i
bj w.i\
ft
l"
i>i
in iosii\
hildn
everything
set
to
us source, he
oi
uriosity, whit
was no doubt originall)
li
is
sexual desire
din cted towards sexual happenings and
K on
waj going to
joj
pleasure in looking,
In
in this
to look
espet
analysis of tins
In
girls.
thai the) will
prohibited and will be allowed to
i
minded
reputed often to
ngagt d
theatre, to all the plays
I'uistmir
As an
looking, Freud
in
pa (ion von id b\
oming
is
to the
counterpart exhibitionism,
H stru turn and transformation
to
rami work, that which
li
Scoptophilia
black and white photographs from a sequence
which was once forbidden
oil limits, that
ii
i>>
thi
the girls'
.illusion ioi
is,
as Freud
toward
p. units
in tins
ihr.un became an obvious substitute,
thi
it
being married
Tins
pointed out, regularl) directed
parents' sexual
life;
il
is
an
l>\
infantile curiosity and, so far as
persists later, an
it still
instinctual impulse with roots reaching far back.
Despite the general repression and sublimation
know about
later exacted (and the child's desire to
the
sexual organs and processes, not just to see them,
is
an indication of restraint already imposed),
evident, as Karl
of scoptophilia,
phenomena owe
it is
Abraham proposed in his own study
that many important psychological
their origin in part to this process.
Among them would
be the impulse toward
investigation, observation of nature, pleasure in travel.
To these he adds "the impulse towards
artistic-
treatment of things perceived by the eye" and "the
desire for knowledge."'
It is
the conjunction of these latter two aspects
of scoptophilia that forms the core of Freud's study of
Leonardo da Vinci," his inquiry into the dynamics
of the incessant, lifelong, gnostic pursuit across
mediums, techniques, and
disciplines
the artist in his Notebooks.
It is,
form
documented by
in fact, this
sublimated
of desire, the "epistemophilia," or desire for
knowledge, which
is
indissociable from scoptophilia,
that
we may understand
field
within which Morris's recurrent meditation
upon the frame
as generating the semiotic
his material, textual,
and symbolic
re-enactment of disframing and reframing
place.
It is
takes
the field within which Morris's textual
production, his theoretical work, singular within his
artistic
generation for
its
acuteness and steadiness,
is
produced. Morris's view of Rodin's The Gates of Hell,
in sharp contrast with Steinberg's, extends the line of
Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, 1941.
black-and-white 35
mm
Still
from
film. Private collection.
analytic manifestos produced in the 1960s, the
period of his Minimalist work.
The
discussion in his
essay "Notes on Sculpture" of strong gestalt or unitary-
type forms, for example, was directed at the logic of
Carl Dreyer,
35
mm
Joan
of Arc, 1928.
Still
from black-and-white
film. Private collection.
.59
related parts that characterized "retardataire Cubist
kind
aestheti
infini:.
1962 (the year
In
Pnn
after
made
Portal), Morris
of
open
frame his photograph,
to
in all
length, "naked and
lull
relation,
work
irris's
n does not.
grounded production that concerns me here. Such
consideration would take account ot the precedents
in
nude, in Francis Picabia's
performance
Si
among
Belle Haleine,"
The
set,
and
to
claim that
pt of
it is
irttn
tntaneousm
and sculpture
ernist
defeat theatre.
censoriousness of this assault signals that the
a transgressive
symbolic articulation
ot desire.
channel and as
And
'
both his practice and
theonzation,
its
and
level
the individual work.
in relation to
The contusion
is
such was
undoubtedly the case both on the most general
others
necessary condition of Morris's enterprise, the
feasibility of
u ant
indeed perceived as
in
Rrose Selavy and
of
The
of
introduction of temporality into spectatorship was
(in the
photography, through the personae
to be for.
u irth noting that the concept
it is
of their pn
painting
awaits fuller study in relation to the voyeuristically
once again by Duchamp,
<..
attention directed a:
dimension
performance and photography that
in
rt
implies temporality in the form of con tint
one manifestation,
is
ot that exhibitionist
to see
H-.
it
single, infinitely br:.
andfullness,
depth
its
convinced by
grinning. "" This work, which plays upon the
among many,
.icute.
would be long enough
l-B x (no. 25), whose letter-shaped door swings
om
instantaneousness: as though if only
realms," driven by the impulse
of
between Supposedl)
inscribed, from the beginning, in the openings
to dissolve the limits
effected within artistic production and
autonomous mediums such as sculpture and theater,
was promulgated within the single sculptural object by
reception by
its
the powerful challenge, issued in the 1960s, to the
Modernist doxa
agonistic ethos (the either/or of
its
Abstract Expressionism) and
Cage,
by
impelled, by the sound
the dictate
movement analogous
in a
tradition had
of his heart,
Duchamp's, broken
to
and the strong
through
scale, neutrality ol surface,
gestalt ol his Minimalist structures
framed the Sculptural work.
was
It
musical tradition to embrace and frame,
sponsoring that "co-presence" within
in a spirit ol
These
radical ecumenicity, thai \.im found object, the
in
which
ace
[aimed and
field
iii
operations,
In tins latitudinarian
Modernist
limati
to a
'I
performance
nfusion of realms, th< emei
art
and of Minimalist sculptun wen linked Fbrnotonlj
were mirror, frame, and
|<
in-
differing
the
ould understand the
onfigurations
laum
issauli
tin
rformam
in sui h
forms
!-3)oi Stadiun
main
is
'
ni a
desperate
apparatus
il
ol a
studies,
Mod(
rnist
a
i
fi
ns<
movem<
ishization ol
nt
bj
ided artistii
oi
in de< line,
in its
tnes
prai ttct
hus, th<
inn d as
in In
is
in
ralized
ol
an
interrelated gestures,
construed, not
acknowledgment of a
onsummatt Ij
thus requires the
rot
izai ion, in a
ii
ol
<
an entire bod)
ol
work.
harai
Rosenstiehl
ch<
["he
DodA
sd< dali
In Prtiscof Heuristi
Robert Morris,
Fragments from
thi
Rodin Museum, "..'>. no
Symbolist
to deal with
newal of ti mporally
pol
system
di
installations,
theatrii ality" thus
orthodox] unequipped
olj morphii
and other
this held
ot tins projei
mi.
ol that project
performance, film, acoustical
as constitutive ot a field that
sublimated form,
ritit aJ
have postulated as
symptomatica!!) but semioticall) The hermeneutk
as
no
recognize tins
and positions generated by the epistemophilic
dim And
works
196
installation, mirror
i-e
dism and
asp
works,
<
in
li>
mails mir understanding
be coherentlj read as
(inn
ill
d by
h<
stablishn
had
p(
nt
ol th(
/
lllptural pi ffoi
s(
ami
i
see as sustaining that
the frame that
ot
us multiple forms
earthworks
n enlisted as material
rei
ins within Morris's iilms
but one
as
si
of sculptural produ< tion, textually
nee essaril)
in
theorized
ol
central to Morris's project,
promisi uous
"),
united spaa
and transgressions, sustained and
onfirmed we maj now
whi< h app< an
establishment as
riti< a]
nee
problematizing
wider
infinitely
more subtle and complex.
a logi<
pra<
ent< rprise
Modernism an
tenet oi high
intr.n tions
extended through three decades
leared a space
and method, newly
task, discipline, material,
hi artistii
(a basic
ti
riz<
Ibid
Rodin,
"i
objt ct
bj
,,,
rM (New York:
in
htfbrd
u. .in Hi.
Rodin Musi
urn,
'in
continuous andentin
the perpetual creation
80 loo
pn
tentni
oj itself,
ts,
this
spectator and sculptural object (the latter understood
as not less important but as "less u//-important
infraction that was to guarantee the "co-presence" ol
through the formal and institutional constraints of
World. In so doing,
and
of that barrier of virtual space within which critical
in the
Harvard University's anachok chamber,
silence of
had,
epiphany granted him
response to the
in
Morris's violation
proscriptive aesthetic.
its
disc rete
amounting,
that on
./>
//
/.
from
./
\i
...
i.
inn
.1
il"
cot oniidi
i
Rodin
nil
Mum
urn,'
in
"Thru
Folds in the Fabric and Four Autobiographical Asides as Allegories
(or Interruptions),"
in
America 11 (November 1989), pp. 142-51.
"Fragments from the Rodin Museum,"
10. Morris,
11.
Art
and Objecthood," Artforum (June
1967), reprinted in Battcock, p. 146.
The metaphysical presuppositions
that inform this view are analyzed in Michelson, "Robert Morris
p. 3-
thorough reading of these works, of the manner
theatre," see Michael Fried, "Art
in
which they
manifest a return to the Baroque as response to the threat of catastrophe
and
suggests, indeed, their function as Trauerwerke, for which the
Creuzer's "Mythologie," in The Origin of German Tragic Drama,
of analysis
century
Tragic
is
provided by Walter Benjamin
German drama.
Drama,
trans.
12. Buren's place
me
13.
New
John Osborne (London:
Left Books, 1977).
helpful critical
Hugh Gray
whom am
with Rosalind Krauss, to
indebted for
What
in
Is
its
claim to "presentness," see Benjamin's discussion of Friedrich
pp. 163-67.
38.
There
exists a philosophical tradition, that of
Lacanian extension, within which time
is
Hegelianism and
its
linked to desire. For
explication of the Hegelian source, see Alexandre Kojeve, Introduction
the
Reading of Hegel: Lectures on
the
to
Phenomenology of Spirit, assembled by
Raymond Queneau, ed. Allan Bloom, trans. James H. Nichols, Jr.
NY.: Cornell University Press, 1969), especially "A Note on
comment.
Andre Bazin, "Painting and Cinema,"
trans.
study of sixteenth-
in his
See Walter Benjamin, The Origin of German
within this development has been pointed out to
in conversation
more than one
model
An
Aesthetics of Transgression," pp. 19-23. For an analysis of the symbol
Cinema?,
(Ithaca,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967),
Eternity,
pp. 164-69.
Time, and the Concept: Complete Text of the
First
Two
Lectures of the Academic Year 1938-1939," pp. 100-49.
14. Ibid., p. 128.
39- Sources for the concept of sculptural "virtual" space include Chapter
15. Ibid.
6 of Suzanne Langer's Feeling and Form
16. For an analysis of this aspect of Bazin's ontology of cinema, see
1953); Bruno
Annette Michelson, "What
and Adolf Hildebrand's The Problem of Form
Is
Cinema?" Artforum
10 (summer
6, no.
1968), pp. 67-71.
trans,
17. Jacques Derrida,
"The Parergon,"
m Painting,
The Truth
in
trans.
Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod (Chicago: University of Chicago
and
rev.
Adnam's
(New York: Macmillan, 1977;
(New York, 1943);
Problem of the Sculptor
in Painting
with the author's cooperation by
and Sculpture,
Max Meyer and
Robert Morris Ogden (New York, 1907).
40. See Morris, "Notes on Sculpture," p. 234.
16-147.
Press, 1987), pp.
18. Ibid., p. 22.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., p. 45. Italics are in the original.
21. Bazin, "Painting and Cinema," p. 165.
22. See Annette Michelson, "Robert Morris
An
Aesthetics of
Transgression," in Robert Morris, exhibition catalogue (Washington,
D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of An, 1969), p. 39.
23. Ibid., p. 7.
24. Maurice Berger, Labyrinths: Robert Morris, Minimalism,
(New York: Harper and Row,
25.
have discussed these films
Snow," Artforum
9, no.
in
some
detail in Michelson,
"Toward
10 (June 1971), pp. 2442; and "About Snow,"
1-25.
October, no.
8 (spring 1979), pp.
26. Dennis
Young, "Origins and Recent Work,"
and the 1960s
1989), p. 49.
1 1
in Michael Snow:
Survey, exhibition catalogue (Toronto: Gallery of Ontario
and the
Isaacs Gallery, 1970), unpaginated.
27. Recent psychoanalytically informed film theory
pioneering study by Christian Metz, The Imaginary
Britton, et
al.
is
indebted to the
Signifier, trans.
Celia
(Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1982). In the
following discussion of the framing process,
have drawn,
in particular,
on pp. 54-55 and 75-77.
28. Ibid., p. 55.
29- This statement of disavowal
is
formulated by Octave Mannoni in
Clefs pour I'imaginaire ou I'autre scene ([Paris: Editions
du
Seuil, 1969],
pp. 933) as epitomizing the fetishist's position defined on the basis
of
Sigmund
Freud's 1927 essay "Fetishism." This latter essay
published in Sigmund Freud, Collected Papers, vol.
(New York:
5, ed.
is
James Strachey
Basic Books, 1959), pp. 198-204. This formulation,
although not uncontested, has gained fundamental status and
widespread currency
in the theorization of
cinematic spectatorship.
30. Metz, The Imaginary Signifier, p. 77.
31.
Sigmund Freud,
Library, vol.
1,
ed.
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Pelican
James Strachey and Angela Richards,
trans.
Freud
James
Strachey (London: Penguin Books, 1978), p. 258.
32. Ibid.
33- Karl
in
Abraham, "Restrictions and Transformations of Scoptophilia
Psycho-Neurotics; with Remarks on Analogous Phenomena in Folk-
Psychology," in Selected Papers, trans. Douglas Ryan and Alix Strachey
(New York:
Brunner, Mazel, 1979), pp. 169-234.
34. Freud, Leonardo da Vinci
and a Memory
Strachey, trans. Alan Tyson
(New York: Norton,
35. Morris,
of His Childhood, ed.
James
1964).
"Notes on Sculpture," Artforum 4, no. 6 (February 1966),
reprinted in Minimal Art:
(New York: Dutton,
Critical Anthology, ed.
Gregory Battcock
1968), pp. 222-28.
36. Berger, Labyrinths, p. 36.
37. For this passage, followed by a statement of "the need to defeat
ANNETTE MICHELSON
WALL LABELS: WORD, IMAGE,
AND OBJECT IN THE
WORK OF ROBERT MORRIS
The appearance of Robert Morris's work in a major
Guggenheim retrospective ought, one would think, to
settle the question of his status. The label "Major
Artist" may now be safely inscribed over the entrance
to the exhibition, and the works may be safely labeled
no matter how unprepossessing they
as masterpieces,
may
look. All that remains
work
in a
is
the packaging of Morris's
him
canonical history that will position
of his objects
provided by post-Strut ruralist theories of
aluminum) could hardly have been predicted from
his pre\ ions work. Those who had defined Morns
as a practitioner within specific mediums had grown
used to labeling him as a sculptor, and (.more
my
wall label disturbed
entwined
eyes.
was
It
Have
in
my
dreams begin
words
in
my
my
by bringing out his early exercises in
On
the negative side, he wax
The
merely being an eclectic
(as so otte-n before) of
of
prevailing fashion.
large encaustic paintings, with their enigmatic
lie
were seen as belated attempts to
xts,
te
capitalize
on
fashion tor image u\i composites
the-
pioneered by younger American artists in the
get up edgy.'
reaction ot critics to this
experimentalist and imitator
ste in
as the insomniac poet said.
responsibility,
of warning?
over
itself
as
was predictable. There was. on
to painting
Abstract Expressionism. 4
art.
wrapped
The
to those- of painting."
a painter
to threatening proportions,
ear,
medium
saw his
not only distinct but hostile
the positive side, a rush to certit\ his credentials as
the terms
a tangled, suffocating shroud of seething
in
had a dream
grew
It
around me, babbled
itself
dream. But
sleep.
who
importantly) as a sculptor
expressing concerns
accused
The
Mitchell
T.
slutt
Modernism and post-Modernism,
in the context-, of
and unpack the meanings
W.J.
late
1980s
a tribute to
It is
both the intransigence of the
viewing public and the
Mornss
resilience- of
art-
My own insomnia
art
that the packaging, labeling, and securing ot both
Work and
the
the works
not likely to pn>< eed
is
untroubled. More than any American artist
generation.
Morns
oeuvre) has
managed
and
classify,
had
(considered as the
hardly do better than Morris
about Ins work,
working across
artistic
all
it
is
too
mirror to the
a in
yet,
it
one
mi.
work both
Morris's
Ii
nding
toany
itself to
singli
Ii
and
invites
Modern
si
j'Jr
visual
t
hi
.hi.
rhere
look
ot
\.i
work
in-,
made
in v<
labels
si
that look like
Holocaust paintings [nos
drawings [nos
drawings; the
a
.'
UK KOMI
i.
in
II
147
\n\
Mill
>
18];
ttigaliom
obje<
ii
an-.
ii.
verbal
se
image
or
program
|iist
as a
n>
will look
it
of
the
Moms
with the
behind" the
lor the objet is.
language,
ot art itself as
omplex interset
and tin- palpable
.ii
..ii.
wuli
ike
ha
tion
a settled
causi
anxiety, -^^l disruption
a site "i play,
do not know what
W(
i.i
In
and consequence
lain ling, ilu
problem
of
ol
Mums
v
isual style,
is
the difficulty
mustering an adequate,
Ins
language
foi
work
.vall
label disturbed
my
sleep.
raises
It
i
i
and
no consistent
offers
late
>1]
te list
inn. h less authoritative, des< riptive
149
set
har.u
that lies
alloldmg or prop
without
paintings on
whole
writing and Ins an this intersection
in Ins
Inn as
is.
la.
luoks
monumental paint ings
145
16] and Firestorm
drawings [nos
In
Morris
the third series of Blind
boundary between words and images, wools and
of
room, no way
His turn in the
an unusually large
has consistently been staged, not as
artistit
nis to appeal
ot a
art. as a theoretic al
Accordingly,
'a
want to
such an apt representative
he- is
ot the- seeable, the sayable,
nuns
identify
toss a
which
ot the- objet
lii
with any certainty what his new work
1981
thi
at
e>t
Mornss work and
but also with the exploration
lab
individual
no way to
appearand from
inviting ready
ill'
is
internal to
elaboration
ulpture,
01 si\le
resists
is,
reflects a
it
has consistently been engaged not
thegenerii labels endemii topost Modernism, whili
refusing th< overall label of th<
Rather,
era tor
nition in
ii
management
the-
art ot its
onceptual
Morns
labeling
of
the slutting relation of art and language
imposites, Pro ess works) without
use-It
concerned with
ot issues
art, land art, scattei pieces, felt
Ah, there's the
of supplements.
and diverse oeuvre
artist
works, painting, drawing, photography, readymades,
committing
excrescence, a
institutional
mere supplement 7
representative,
the genres of post
(Minimalist
prai tie*
performance
that
rat t, is
merely holds up
it
An
suggest, not merely a pragmatic orcuraton.il issue
)ne of the complaints
Beware
The problem
to
period of the 1960s to the 1990s, one could
lor the
tunc-,
rub.
terminology of
American
"representative"
<
What have previously ignored, not wished
wall label?
of a total
movements, and periods And
to produi
that
of Ins
name
begins.
A mere
blurt of public relations jargon, a
remain unpredictable, hard
to
difficult to label in the
styles, artistic
to think about?
essed status
annoyance
slithers
ai
and
linguistii
blurb
coils in the
Mi
tin-
Insomniac's cold
ambiguous ducat, refusing
litis institutional,
shadows.
It
tautological
begins to grow larger
"
than the works proper
in
my dream
Dadaism, Surrealism, and
galleries; a snarling, looming,
From
This difficulty with labeling
Modern
consistently been labeled as the exploration of a
new
between art and language. Modernism
Clement Greenberg's classic formulation
its
art, especially abstract
Museum
at
of
Modern
Art.
and textuality from the
of art, which has, after
the visual arts.
field of
not surprisingly, has been defined as
the negation of this negation, "an eruption of language
into the aesthetic field."
From
Krauss
calls a "will to silence,
moved
goes)
what Rosalind
we have
history.
foil for his
would have
depurification
and
elite
dethroning of the notion of the
moment
artist as the creator
of an original image, a novel visual gestalt that bursts
and
and original image, post-Modernism
has offered pastiche, appropriation, ironic allusion,
an art addressed to spectators
who
are
more
be puzzled than dazzled, and whose thirst
Like
is
all art-historical
is
to
master narratives,
whose
actor, writer
and
who want
pictorialist
and expressive tendencies of
formal abstraction, there
is
no doubt that
and
this tradition in its search for purity
Duchamp,
it
its
Minimalist visual
continued
aesthetic
art,
Minimalism
of Steve
artist.
'
of art.
It is,
not the mass media, provides the model for
the hybrid visual/verbal character of his objects:
It
"One
foot in images, the other in language, this
is
the least immediate and most discursive form of
in
must be
reckoned with, even by those who want to resist them,
or
United
However much Minimalism may have departed
the appropriate musical setting for Morris. Marcel
this
which Morris himself has contributed,
both as narrator and
after the
in the
Reich or Philip Glass. John Cage's "silence" provides
frame the production and reception
short, a story
Modernist abstraction
decorative, patterned musical
myth, a compound of half-truths and
a story to
we
II,
between mass
especially sculpture, seems quite antithetical to the
likely to
for visual
oversimplifications that, nevertheless, has a certain
power
to
purist avant-garde at
and times, both before and
of high
elitism. In this respect,
pleasure often seems deliberately thwarted.
one
States.
from the
artistic "seer"
fixate the spectator. In the place of this
art of the purified
of
culture takes on a variety of other forms
in other places
formed from the mind of the
most
for
moment around World War
to notice that this dialectic
of artistic opticality has been accompanied by a
to dazzle
been impure
broadly considered. If Greenberg's kitsch became the
impure negative
and
that either couple the visual and the verbal or erase the
fully
all,
more nuanced view, finally, would have
address the ways in which the cults of both visual
its
a certain cultural
The
im.
like the restoration of a basic condition
speechifying, characterized by impure, hybrid forms
difference between image and text.
language
of
less transgress
transformations in visual and textual culture more
(so the story
to an art of noise, discourse,
The "eruption
purity and visual/verbal hybridity intersect with
a gridlike art of
"purity" and opticality, expressing
painting, from
might seem
into the aesthetic field"
and look more
art,
and
temporary
like a
European context into the purified spaces of the
sought to evacuate language, literature, narrative,
Post-Modern
more
aberration, an interlude associated with the removal of
reflects a central
obsession of post-Modernism, which has itself
least in
work of the various
this standpoint, the cult of visual purity
the will to silence might look
moreover, not
is,
simply a problem with Morris but
relation
in the
other historical avant-gardes)."
hypnagogic presence.
art-making."
historical effects
to situate this story in relation to
more nuanced histories. A
frame, for instance, would ask us
Now am awake,
yet the label refuses to shrink. Here beneath the dim
lamp
its
rectangulanty
larger, longer, or
larger
threatens. This blot of
historical
to consider
to a
menacing
seems
to pulsate,
its
language groans and
words screeches and sobs and
tell-tale tick
of
mumbling under the
finally
recedes
floor boards.
the relation of this (mainly American) story of art to
The
the fortunes of American culture in the era of the
War and the nuclear nightmare, a period that, at
very moment of this retrospective, seems now to
Cold
the
be clearly "behind"
us, replaced
by the quite different
concerns of a post-nuclear, post-Cold
War "New
World Order," and the
capitalism as
world system.
final victory of
is
sculpture.
seem
post-Modernism was not already
basic forms in early European
0C<
urring in
about
the one hand, one
is
and
label,
Minimalist
of
confronted
deliberately
What can
What
or Box say to us?
them.-'
The
labels
ts
inexpressive," "deadpan,"
seem
objei
i
is
labeled Slab,
an w< possibly
to say
it
all, to
s.i\
exhaust
the object and the visual experienci ofth< obj
its
Modernism (notably
On
and "inarticulate."
longer view would ask whether
the changing relation of art and language central in
and language. obje<
by simple, spare, elemental, usually "untitled" obje<
that
relation of art
one of the principal paradoxes
in
The whole
situation ol
Minimalism seems designed
.1
to
MITCHKI.I. 63
defeat the notion ot the "readable" work
of art,
understood as an intelligible allegory, an expressive
symbol, or
On
coherent narrative.
Minimalism
the other hand.
often characterized as an unprecedented
is
intrusion by language
theoretical language
especially anneal
and
into the traditionally silent
space of the aesthetic object. As Harold Rosenberg put
it:
"No mode
to
it
has ever had more labels affixed
in art
by eager literary collaborators.
No
has
art
mure dependent on words than these works
ever been
pledged to
to see, the
silent materiality.
more there
The
there
less
is
Even worse than the
to saj
is
and the chatter of the ever-
"literary collaborators'
helpful intus. according to Rosenberg,
the fact that
is
became
the Minimalist artists themselves
writers. All
the traditional divisions ot labor in the art language
game were confused. The mute, inarticulate
sculptor, who was supposed to make infinitely
Card
file
File
1962. Metal and plastic wall
mounted on wood, containing
four index cards,
(68.6
d'Art
26.7
27
x 5.1
10'
cm).
<
forty-
2 inches
Musee
expressive images tor the delectation ol the infinitely
receptive (and articulate) aesthete, has been replaced
by the articulate sculptor
who makes mute
objects
National
puzzled beholder.
tor a
Moderne. Centre Georges
Pompidou. Pans.
Then with a certain trembling
"mere
me, there
strikes
it
no such thing as a
is
my
The phrase ratchets through
wall label."
feverish brain.
This label, this mutter of slurred information has a secret ambition.
doubt about
there on the wall.
from
aim
its
it,
is
hysteria begins to erode the encaustic
Its linguistic
my
panels.
In
one sense, (his paradox has now been
prematurely resolved by institutional
canonization
Minimalism, the
oi
the succession
in
these mute obje<
seem
tull ci
those
lor
The
art history.
fixing ol
Libel
its
twentieth century styles, has now
ol
made
ts.
once so strange and
silent,
memorable asso<. tation and anecdote
he know Tin writings and conversation
mOSI
.inisis.
ol th<
No
my images
nothing less than dominating
"the must
Morris
tlOtablj ol
subtle ol the Minimalist dialecticians," according to
Rosenberg
w
i.i
now become inseparable from
know ledue.ihle beholder but
havt
the experieiu
the
e ot
who walks
about the ignorant beholder, the on<
Minimalism
as
,i
disappointment
tins shoi k
is
museum
shot k ol
and experiences
deprivation and
\\i
even
into the gallery or
an'i
something
cold,
<
onsoli oursi
thai
Ivt s
Like that ol the original
puzzled beholdei (for example, Rosenberg) in the
Knott. 1963. Painted wood and hemp
rope,
40
'
lies
(13.7 x
8.9 cm) The Detroit Institute
1960s, because thi context now
jurj
nt
is
canonical labeling
It
s.iv
in
on you, not on
UK
to th
availabilit)
nd
The wall
label
or at least
in
.ii
ii
hi
z.i
ion in
has disturbed
on the
label.
viewei now
nt
,i
my
What
works
thi
these works?
>>i
authoritj
thi
you don't gel the point,
of A-'
judgmi
Do
sleep.
must squeeze
hai
is
i\n
ol labels
must get a
it
back
to
it!
it
is
.1
w<
present
In
they havi anj
system
The
quite different
no longer out Th< works hav<
is
fati
m\A myths?
grip
on mj
true ignoble
"
Untitled, 1984. Painted Hydrocal and pastel on paper,
84
65V2
8 inches (166.4 x 215.3 x 20.3 cm). Collection Sherry
Fabricant.
proportions. But
like
it
is
atmospherics of
elusive as
it
gleams there
in
the dark with
its
Poe-
but in the depth of his intervention
in
Morris himself seems unsure on this point, noting
already in 1981 that
Minimalism had run out of steam:
"As the dialectical edge of Minimalism grew dull, as
it
had to
in time,
and
contexts or processes
dwindled
was only
its
most
as the radicality of
its
imagery,
became routine, its options
more space. n But Morris
to a formula: use
a drop-in
Minimalist
in the first place, albeit
articulate spokesman. His interest from the
beginning was
much more complex and
general than a
desire to create a "look" within a style or
He had been
many
concerned, like
generation, with nothing
task of art, the
less
as a hybrid grafting of
movement.
artists of his
than the philosophical
of sculpture
object
the vehicle for a reflection on art." This
unpopular and impolitic.
He
is
an
what Krauss
as
makes Morris
"artist's artist,"
not
aptly calls
its
"expanded"
field.
Morris makes philosophical objects that need not have
any visual family resemblance, no "look" that can be
labeled.
What
they have
visible, not representable,
in
common
and
strictly not
is
difficult to label
is
except perhaps as something like "philosophy."
body of questions and
decisions,
some
It
is
rational, others
arbitrary; a series of concerns, experiments, concepts,
procedures, attitudes
grid, like a card
file,
in short, a discursive field or
a catalogue of the considerations
and topics that might come up
object labeled
understood
word, image, and
employment
the basic issues
in
of aesthetics, particularly in the history of sculpture,
and verbal iconoclasm.
linguistic threat
his
work
is
Card File (1962,
hard to consume,
level of visual pleasure.
The
in
making ot an
This means
the
much
less digest, at the
objects don't even do us
the courtesy of "illustrating" Morris's discourse
Straightforward way.
less as
art
no. 26).
One might
in
think of his objei
examples or illustrations than as
in the usual sense of technical, stylistic virtuosity
be opened, pondered, and (sometimes) closed,
word/image object assemblages
when
ts
cases to
(despite his reputation as a perfectionist craftsman),
that,
anj
spe< itn
successful,
Mil
80
the work "proper," not as a mere
exceed and explode (or incorporate) the labels thac
an equal partner
accompany them.
supplement or neutral setting
in
The
tor the picture.
Hydrocal frames, with their imprinted body parts and
Show
yourself
the
in
Come
light, wall label.
leadenness of
institutional
its
post holocaust detritus, stand as the training
out of the shadows
of the works, trophies or relics encrusted
monster hides behind the
of the gallery. But this protean linguistic
past event, the catastrophe that
prose.
fossils
one actually has to do some hard
In short,
some
thinking,
serious talking to oneselt or a friend in
One
the presence of this work.
The
are.
oi
much more
objects take time,
is
past
Or
listened for three
reported that Cage
it is
and
And
no. 11]).
time
this
On
not a
is
apparent order to a labyrinth
ot knots,
an
emblem
Morris's Knots
1963, no.
<
with knots that displays
51
object as the "support" lor a
various
measurement
U)
pieces (pp. 1st
<
ouples the
the abstrat
ot
to
produce
a "rational,
,"
art that
aims
"systematii
formalist
a relation
art history
documents
mention
oi
the scatter piei
ol
on
in
paint
a dialei
..nd "label,
and
on
annihilation in
Wo
1980s,
si
is
alt
isual
charnel house
pn>|e
present
in the
1981, not
oi
ted future:
1980s
thi
>>v<
v il
the objei
adi
thi
di
thi
final
with
mass
"/.'
rtain disgusting motion
<i r<
and
deadthin^
Hi.
"i
ath and
>\<
gn
very structun
turned out to
"editoi
whosi
Ins pi
d, Stai
t<
\iiii
..i
mi
un
i
ii
iii
.i
this
in is
tin
an an
ti
an
critit al
essay
[*h<
is
structured
pn
Morris's
s ( iii
iii
kson Folkx ks Abstrai
(Jai
Hopper's mimetii realism, and Joseph
atastrophi ". slow
al
grid,'
mi majoi figures and tendencies
ssionism, Duchamp's metasystems,
transition from
hoax (the
Morris himseli lepitomi
Minimalist imagi of a table,
flagrantly
thi
ol
bt
procedun
typical Morris
glorious days ol
thi
ai
li
ol
movement
and
tort
roi<
./<
Morris's
around
ritical interpretation
warming and half-buried
impart both
'.
transformation
nd Holoi mst
ntalization
elicit extensivt
seething words which, hii thi
at the level of "look
is,
mpin
.id. n nui
tin
which
dtural carcasses,
ol,
haoti<
sup
monumi
thi
and Reagonomics
triumph
death and destruction. Drawing
oi
between the words and images, the
even inciti perpetual reinterpretation,
regn ssion to expressionist painting.
It je ,1-.
litation
"label," but rigorously
"t
tii s
thi
Irawin
in th<
idi
it
1.
an incompatible within
and
look
ol
mine' ted within
tin
in
some
thost
si
barbarism
ol
"baroque" phase of J
And
ii
in
images,"
ivilization that insist on I" ing
simultaneously as doi uments
ghoulishness and
ot
meditations on the aesthetic
in Ins
asks us to
h<
'dialectical
gray formalism ol th< polyhi drons and
writer
to
"American
might be nightmares from whii h w<
>
contemplati his objects as
the short
essay,
the- artist
it.
destruc tion as an
comment appended
editorial
about the
lu< iditj
(not to
awake. Like Walter Benjamin,
ami form
act usee
tirst
Benjamin put
own
its
monuments and n tic a commentary in Morris's
own essay, the editors polemic located the artist's
or at least
at perfe<
and history
possibility that art
order
gloom
he (and
scene
time beyond monuments.
to a
aesthetic pleasure ol the
Quartet,"
such
anybody else's art.
which art would not
h, as
hara< ter
tradition with the relentless, corrosive ironj ol
Duchamp
monuments
monumentalizing
punsm
ot
possible future in
Morris's 1981 Art in
of rational measurement.
\l irris
art tor a
An anonymous
thai display
the constructed, conventional, and arbitrary
realizes that this
They ( ritique a world in w hit
e.m experience
"mankind
mac hine-tooled
haotit tangle, or his
when one
arises
to survive a nuclear holocaust, but
notched wooden bar
),
a rational,
image as
to
is
remote future.
have- little interest in his or
is
exist,
As
es.
movement, one might consider
ot this
would
Tins
unsolved
problems, conundrums, and disagreeable absent
frame
we) are well aware that survivors
movement from
it),
to a less
is
as
to
it
meant
were
process of interpretation and description that leads to
the hidden truth or meaning, but
about
to 1h literal
is
would be one in which these paintings could
never exist Morris makes them look as
they
Making 1961,
hermeneutK duration,
oj Its
image
future
hours to the entire tape
a halt
loop of Box with the Sound
to
is
to the destructive element, as present
The "knot
and
sat
behind the
Frame
Someday, the works suggest, the past will be enframed
in a present that makes these works look natural.
time than a label allows, certainly more time than
got (though
lctt
enframed.
is
it
remote possible future
has to understand
the dialogue provoked by the objects in situ as part
what the works
body
whieh
present
around the
Edward
ornell's
environmi
ornami
ntal di strui tion
nts suitabli
foi
ol
Neo
III!
onfronts
thi
th<
I(
hi
lool
how< w
(pressionism framed within
painti
In thi
i
in
ti
s<
works,
ing
on
thi
decorativi surrealism)
onsidered as a totality, the
model suggested hen has three
boudoii
"i this p< riod,
sculptural counterquotations
.
>arth Vadi
ions
juotations
No
uppi
thi
liki
and orientations;
whii
cht
frann as
grid,
id
.hi
.i
vi
form
in.
thi
foi
it
table top,
distinct
which
l<
vi
locates positions
paradigmatii lines
foui
k<
m\'\
boundaries as well as
dm H
is
ii
hi
it
(oi
nduring traditions;
"
and
we
at the roots of these traditions
pass into a
Even
Morris evokes the
theoretical realm."
tradition of the tavola
most patently unalterable property
its
not remain constant. For
and Condorcet's notion
of the
shape
does
in u er who changes the
it is the
shape constantly by his change in position relatix
t to
the
known
historical/conceptual tableau, the classic rationalist
work. Oddly,
device for spatializing a discursive totality, treating his
shape, the gestalt, that allows this awareness to become so
mimic
"polygon" as a stage for art-critical gestures that
the characteristic gestures of
own
or "lodestones." Thus, his
editorial
its
prose (as the outraged
commentary complains) "wanderfs] around
great deal," like the tracks of Pollock;
stuffs the virtual "box" of its
it
is
strength of the constant,
conceptual
six-foot cube.
mind but which
different from every side. So
The constant shape of the cube held in the
Modern art
manner of Cornell. Then it turns, in the manner
of Duchamp, and deconstructs the entire structure as
is
the viewer never literally experiences, is
the literal changing, perspective
known
views are related. There are two distinct terms: the
and the
constant
grid with fragments of the entire history of
works than previous sculpture.
in these
Baroque figurative bronze
an actuality against which
space of alienation" in the style of
artist in the "sealed
Hopper;
portrays the
it
much more emphatic
four "key points"
it is the
experienced variable. Such a division does
not occur in the experience of the bronze.
in the
"the ghoulish image of critics
their
dead
mumbling and chewing
on the table of commentary." 2
artifacts
The terms
here go back at least as far as Plato's
division between the "intelligible" and the "visible,"
and the question raised
is
how one
Are you innocence, sincerity? Are you but a few simple guiding words,
provocative of thought"
a soothing "orientation" 7 Ah, but
Plato's
catch your sneer, your
thus provocations to dialogue.
agendas are always hidden.
object,
adequacy
Morris's ambivalence about the
visible form, then, does not
of the
can't
to the labels or narratives
"American Quartet"
it
run from the objects
provided by Morris'
is
own
it
images, and objects
to resist:
is
exactly
is
Morris's
work
image or a
tries
autobiographical."
Minimalism
The rude
beams of
of
cultural totalities nor figures of Platonic perceptual
foundations-; they are better seen as something like
Mouse
hurls at Krazy Kat
its
must be taken
into account.
specific
Above
offers
all, its
norm of the human
confounded but
and small, not thus
as distinct entities."
is
In Morris's
to explore the delicate intermediate
realm "between the
monument and
the ornament,"
space that Morris consistently associates with a "public
mode" of perception.
Another way to define the delicate intermediate
zone opened up by this sort of object is to ask exactly
how valuable or important the object is, what sort
of claims it puts on the beholder. It's clear, for
instance, that Morris's polyhedrons are not unique
whenever K. K. utters some profound moral truism.
why
object itself
'
are, in Morris's usage, neither allegories
the bricks that Ignatz
The
and the private sphere of intimacy, an in-between
every delight
blocks and
obviously,
is,
between the gigantic proportions of mass perception
and oppression offered by that gulag called the
B
provocation to dialogue.
terms, the goal
one which has
style, as well as
staging of the
a necessary but not sufficient condition for the
in Plato's words, "the great
to
refused every identity conferred by an institution, a
discourse, an
impinge
body) invites "the intelligence ... to contemplate,
among words,
what
"The only authenticity
and an institutional
scale (especially in relation to the
image nor
would be better
say that the stabilizing of relations
The
insertion into a space
factors that
the word nor the object can be relied on to stabilize
experience or meaning. Perhaps
materials, facture, lighting, color, orientation
a self-devouring
eats itself alive. Neither the
its
context that invites aesthetic reflection,
imply either complacency
or certainty about the place of philosophical language
\bu
"'
triumph once again (endlessly and forever) over the imagistic. Your
image/text;
that "provocative things
strategies disguised beneath your platitudes. You wish to
writings.
is
"things that are
things that are not.
That
upon the senses together with their opposites.
that is, occasions
is what makes them dialectical
for the experience of difference and contradiction, and
twitching suspect words, your double meanings, your dominating
or critical discourse.
answer
from
to distinguish a
is
"provocative" or "dialectical" object
objects, but material realizations of three-dimensional
concepts, open to indefinite reproduction
Main
reward an analysis that looks for phenomenological
Minimalist objects of the 1960s have been
lost or
That
is
Morris's Minimalist objects don't really
of his
foundations as opposed to phenomenological process
destroyed, and have since been refabricated in other
and contradiction. The choice of extraordinarily clear
(often
elementary polyhedrons, executed
in specific
original plywood.
at a precise scale in relation to the
human
aimed
materials
body,
is
at revealing the disjunctions in the perceptual
more expensive and durable) materials than the
The
many
Guggenheim
decision to recreate
these objects in plywood for the
retrospective, rather than to borrow the refabrications
process, not at establishing elemental foundations.
from the collections where they now
As the viewer moves
the peculiar chameleon quality of the pieces.
or the object
in relation to
moves into new
the object,
situations,
its
neutral" shape undergoes infinite variation:
"open and
of
hand, this choice would seem to
reside, illustrates
reflei
On
nam
historicist nostalgia tor the "original" materials
.IT
one
and
ti
on another,
feel of tlu- objects;
cult
cheerfully flouts the
it
the original by substituting mete copies that
<>t
be fabricated by the hand of the
will certainly not
negating
artist,
tin-
world with his Skilsaw. The
and autographic identity
materiality, visual presence,
works
oi Morris's
everything
is
not unimportant, but
equal importance
c )i
reproducibility,
and textual
is
it
pictorial legal identity in
drawings, specifications, and considerations
The
"intellectual property
put
it
Notes on
of
Morns
itself, as
object
ulpture," "has not
S<
not
their mobility,
is
become
ss
l<
'
important.
become
has merelj
It
^/'-important
less
than traditional objets dart are considered to be.
An
c
and
early
larify these
presentsat
is
simple example may help to
relatively
work
Tin
issues
a literal object, a
an imagt
is
182.9
72
72 inches (25.4
solidity, not
hollowness; (3)
182.9 cm).
provenance,
title, a
and twelve inches Inch;
label suggests gray, stony
is
ii
work
a set of labels
ement, opt n
to
am number
emotional assm iation; the game
and
historit al labeling; the
meditation on the relation
words
v.
game
artspeak
philosophy
of
yet, k
al
images, and
of obje"< ts.
public in the sense that
is
form, beauty,
to
of
is
it
language games (and others as well).
si
open
Or
to all
better
liL a door into a publit sphere, on<
is
an be
refabrications anil
of
.w\A
that
with
of art
and descriptive terms
language games: traditional responses
tin
it
matin. tls. dimensions, construction, ami
tor its
pla<
1962, no. Is)
hollow, painted
ol a slab, a
simulacrum whose look and
Cloud, 1962. Painted plywood. 10
V'..
hollow square plywood box painted
gray, eight by eight feet wide
(_' it
ailed
three disjunctive identities (1)
least
Ii It
M\A labeled with
losed
look (like
room* or opened into a philosophical gaze and
a rest
maj have no determinate outcome, no
inquiry thai
systematii payoff
Read as a
slab
than as a label,
text rather
the kej thai opens the obj(
is
philosophical provocation
Slab
1962. Painted plywood, 12
243.8
243 8 cm).
96
96 inches (30.5
word
th<
as a
In particular,
it
ase ol
opens the
object to reflection
on
on<
most ancient and
ol th<
durable theories of the relation between languagt and
objects,
theory thai Ian
In
ill
is
a system
of
labels, thai
iinlu iJn.il words in languagt
combinations
.ml
thai
San it
to bi
u hi J'
a publii
howevi
publii
\i
i.
is
iIh
ii
ord
<</
ntt
;/,
languagt
oi
1>
tO
vv
is
hum
m>
am
won/has
is
Wittgenstein
(oi
attributes
it
What Slab does,
in materialize tins
Morris
It is
and pervasive
ni
ii
of
\\ ittgl nsli in
commonplaci
reflection
an
languagt
<r,i'
pii
tun
to stagi
it
lor
following Wittgenstein's
instructions to 'imagini a languagi for
description given bj August ini
I.H
tt
following uU.r. Ever)
hardly needs thi authority,
.
lated with tht word.
tun
pii
ii
objt
In this picturt
n/'/,(i for
Tins
nana
such nan,
tin roots "/ tin
a meaning
r/'t
is
which
right,"
thi
ascenario
>
that
might be likened
to
employing Minimalist
sculptures as props in a performance piece.
In Wittgenstein's language
imagined
are
artist's
"
ego, his autobiography, or even his objects, but
a decrypting of the hidden "creative process" that
game, the simple objects
parodies the cult of secrecy associated with Romantic
expressive creation and the associated production of
as functional elements in a practical
cult objects.
activity:
Morris's Slab (as word, image, or object) does
The language
is
meant
to serve for
communication between
A and an assistant B. A
a builder
is
stones; there are blocks, pillars, slabs
pass the stones,
to
and that
building with build-
and beams. B
in the order in which
out;
calls
call.
primitive language.*
us what to do:
its
grammatical mood
It
unambiguous
to a straightforwardly
label, the
them
and things, language and the world. This work can
be
Conceive this as a complete
is
slightest hesitation exposes
Wittgenstein then proceeds to demonstrate that the
expression in a language game, should
Augustinian model of the word as name or label
as "this
an object
is
radically incomplete,
and that even
in
a primitive scene like the one he has imagined,
the words do a great deal more than
objects.
in
They function
in a
name
or label the
are not given by the
in
what Wittgenstein called
me
"bring
a
"a
It is
it
it is
game
(specifically, the social division
of
skill,
composed?
really
the simple constituent parts of which reality
What
The
molecules, or the
of a
are the simple constituent parts of a
of wood of which
bits
atoms?
in
is:
to
it is
made? Or the
"Simple" means: not composite.
what
sense "composite"? It
speak absolutely of the simple parts
chair.*''
The "work,"
and
The
intellectual
rejection of "composite" objects, the
construction of a sculpture without syntax, that
form of public
is,
with no internal relations of parts, in favor of simple
elementary forms
an invitation to transform a curatorial
label into a perceptual
work.
But what are
is
turns "slab" from a
labor between a master builder and his workers).
is
what names
'
"work"
Morris's Slab
(whether type or token)
are "simples"
an imperative declaration in a form of life we
call
and
makes no sense at all
if a
surely not the elliptical sentence: 'Slab!'
Wittgenstein's language
label into
refers
it
unique individual work or a
this object
And here the point
has not the same meaning as the like-
of our language."
might
word,
If a
sounding word of our ordinary language. But
sentence,
Is
really "simple,"
chair?
social relationship: "Is
the call 'Slab!' ... a sentence or a word?
surely
it
Slab a proper
Is
the object
Is
an
form of life." Slab
a token in a system of exchange,
command, an index of a
Slab"?
is
translate
designate? 45
not just the object but something like
a slab."
is
we
concept to be replicated in an indefinite series of
objects?
objects they designate but by their practical use
signifies, then,
or a generic label?
to a type or a token, a
language game, one
which the meanings of words
name
a slab" or as "this
is
is
the label, perfectly coordinated,
end of story. But the
and reassuring: there
invisible, effortless,
the object, there
the beholder to a labyrinth of knots. If Slab
for
is
invites the
Augustinian model of the relation between words
brings the stone which he has learnt to bring
at such-and-such a
tell
interrogative, not imperative.
contemplation of a simple, primitive object in relation
has
needs
them. For this purpose they use a language consisting of
the words "block," "pillar," "slab," "beam".
not
is
generally taken to be the central
program of Minimalism. The
program, however,
is
of this
real point
not to reify a notion of the
absolutely simple but to explore the complexity and
therefore, does not encrypt its
time, and effort in the traditional model of the
compositeness of the simple, to crack the atomic
common
whose inside/outside structure unites the
"work of art" with the commodity fetish as a container
of hidden value and meaning
what Marx called
"congealed labor power" and Freud diagnosed as the
structure of both
fetishism of objects concealing the labor of the
yourself," or as a series of Wittgensteinian questions:
unconscious."
"How do you see this object? What do you see
What does the name have to do with what you
"case,"
It is
better described in the terms of
Freud's "uncanny," that
is,
as a "case" that
simultaneously strange and familiar."
is
We do
not stand
in fixated
admiration of Morris's "work" (either his
object, or
its
find ourselves placed in relation to the
object as a coworker, a potential collaborator.
work (both the object and
made
its
making)
is
The
case, the
work
is
Own
disseminated,
Making. In
"
sense and rational
Perhaps, then,
we should
translate the
simple word "slab" as a Wittgensteinian imperative
like "look at this slab
and say the word aloud or
In either case, the "translation" of the label
or allegory.
game
the
exoteric and public, even "broadcast," as, for
example, Box with the Sound of Its
is
to
it
as}
see?"
clearly
not the end of the process, not the solution to a puzzle
significance as a trace of his skill, time,
and labor) but
positivism.
this
not aiming at self-reference to the
It
is
only the opening
move
in a
language
that has no determinate outcome. (Cage
show where Slab was
first
went
to
exhibited and reported
that he didn't see any works of art in the gallery, just a
slab on the floor.) Wittgenstein urges us not to be
troubled by the simple, primitive, and incompli
character of this kind of ,i;ame:
WJT
MITCH KM 89
want
shows thtru
say that this
to
ask yourself whether our I
pedestal
incompi
to bt
"iplett:
andthi notation
.holism of chemistry
which
ptak. suburbs
our
of
\ndhow
lai
man) bou
ins to
an am..
as
old and
>f
and of
bou
from
surrounded by a multitude
houses
game
the language
ol
as primitive building blocks deployed in
its
from
and boredom
(at least
with scandal, fraud,
relation to traditional notions
and aesthetic
propriety, authenticity,
interest). Insofar as the label
"Minimalism'' provides a
way
enframe
to stabilize the object, to
deny boredom and demand
to
oldest
skepticism and compel conviction,
about
radical renunciation
.m>.\
flirtation
its
of art, or
districts, provocatives to rhe ancient questions
eloquence, wit, and
to, its
rational purity
Its
are inseparable
of artistic
An- Morris's Minimalist objects better seen as the
post-Modern suburbs
Odyssey
machine
whose shuttling aspects can now be switched on.
Its simplicity, blankness, and muteness are inseparable
complexity.
and this
arious periods;
Perhaps, like the monolith in
A Spaa
an extraterrestrial teaching
is
from, yet antithetical
hot
neu boroughs with straight
oj
and uniform
new
sculptures equivalent of a frame
Stanley Kubrick's 2001:
Morris's slab
Of th:
is
put on display.
itself
is
ideologically,
it
interest, to defeat
dulls the edge of
it
the dialectical image presented bj tin object, and
words, images, and objects posed by Plato and
bmk
[gnatz's
misses
mark.
its
Augustine' Such questions might also be thought of
what
a translation ol
.is
means
it
to sav "slab?" in
attempts to divide the
by using categories like "literalness" and
of art
and "objecthood" versus
"figurality"
more
to look
the new
and the
same terms, with
in exai tly the
Both the indictment
ed
by defenders
arc expressed
valences of value
hi
Minimalism
of
Art and Objecthood
In Fried in
new
and
its
with the past, an undialci
"tradition." This
u a
but that
111
lie
In a
merely
newness might best be
and are not
Modernism
in .u tin
iim
aning as
thi
<>i
provocativeness today cannot be what
1960s, though
11
ii
annot
'
ion oi
rical situation
of
I"
mi
(hat
in. il bloi ks
would
si
rh
uh
on
ie
in. i.le ob|<
c.
inns
Anothi
70
ii
it
mil In
.ind the
kind
wi
'In
.how. w
'
o, burst various
ol
11
importan
ol
Inn'
thi
1
ilptun
il
1.
finds the
at
Has
ol
al
"<
is,
in
appropriation
1960s to bandage
of tht
stylt
the Vietnam
in
YYM
so offensive, for tin
ol
wound
ould there ever be
been
political criminality evet
In
will ol the critical? lias there ever
\ilii
Minimal mask placed
mon
wound
been
ovei governmental
ulpabilit)
H.mss own
duns
both
work
has, in general,
been devoted
unmasking, which means
ol
onstrut
(hat
and n rnovt various kinds
oi
10
has 10
11
masks
the labels affixed to objects, tht fetishistii charactei "
ami
substituting private grief tor
mask
si
1.1
oi tht
pleasure,
"objei
10
-nil
itself," tht
I
lis
veterans of World
lii
and (most fundamentally)
irreducibly elemental thing
notion
proposed
Wat
II
ol tht
si
ulptural
was a piece
of ready madt Minimalism, the casings of thi atomii
il
ol
bombs droppt
and hand
in tht
bast
hospital
lool
indled to a formula: use
the
kinds
languagi garni
in. 1.
nor
dw
win Morris
repressed than In (Ins weeping
tivelj
ii
ither.
their position within thi history
bit
In
from
w.i\
Me
is
Minimalist vernacular
of a
bin guilt?
th
i"
nod
from
blo
.1
0111 inui
pi
1
Ins
imagery, contexts or processes
options
would better be kepi open
ill. 11
was in the
it
.dl iln
.1
ioiind.il
In
its
view, a one sided, nondialei
Ills
produi tion and reception
its first
ill
p.
.1
played with Slab and Us bn
hi
reflect
<
parati d
i(
\!,ii
dnhitioii
will
11
oi
word
that
it
ion
1. ti is
1 1
somewhen
themselves
of its
routine,
more ingenious
to
historicist recapitulation of
awa
became
the vanguard
Tin objects themselves an now in a new
of history
nj
h us
to uii|inr\.
a certain
Minimalism came, in his view, when
now here to go but up and out "As
of
the radicality
Yi
the 1960s and the so-i ailed "vcrdu
lies ol
ion,
whn
open
re still
re lied
Minimalism,
iui
on
his insistence
is
to have
employment
break
.1
seemed
more spact
was nothing
not to say thai there
is
n tins
tin
ol
gation
n<
new. original, or
am
(chieflj
canonization
are condui ted in the language ol an absolute
exhaustion
ii
American 1960s avant-garde
of the
the shuttle in motion,
to
keep
trine, to
work, the intimate and the monumental. The
the old, ami both
of
refusal of the
of Morris's desirt
Minimalist dot
Ins objects tree of
intermediate scale between the private and the public
the history of art.
in
defined as a negation
is
ptanci
tt
to appear luminous with the innocence of your cogent facts.
Perhaps the best indication
keep
begin
"artifice"
temporary rhctorn.il Strategies than
like
durable categories. As so often
You wish
in
your crisp paragraphs.
in
Morris and the Minimalists from traditional
of
forms
small there on the wall and straightforward
your brief rectangulanty and nearly prim
In retrospect, then, the
work
seem so
the light you
In
the presence of this object.
In
-H
hi
the plinth
01
plaza "i
evocatii
1.1
mon
In
1
d on
.'
|.i|
Ion.
tan,
I.i
\i
w
ii
in
1,
ins
wi n in be installed
Administration
pioposal was dollblv di
tradition
01011s in
Us
and populist American ideolo
appropriate wat
memorial than the weapons
Scvlptukit
Urns 8* Wit
Proposal
t^-rew/s
JommstwicW
HOSfxTM
3*r Rms, Floriim
*>->.<
>
fc
31
_^
Ol
**Wf*4*
J^
Sculpture Proposal
Veterans
Administration
Hospital Bay Pines, Florida, 1981.
42 inches (96.5
of the last war
lawn)?
(cf,
What more
the cannon on the courthouse
ask,
appropriate image for a veterans
American
lives" in
World War
II?
There
fit
is
object as
what
example or
mask
revealing the merry
too easily,
memorials to erase guilt and
Sculpture Proposal
Bay
historical
bomb
just waiting to
Morris's early Minimalist pieces
the space of a retrospective,
gone
off,
remains in the archive of
rejected proposals, a time
bombs
may now
go
off.
be, in
or that have been defused by the labels of
"gets the concept" of Slab or
Beam
(1962),
the
it?
learn by actually
Own Alakmg
Sound of Its
We
its
label
can certainly understand this
parodying of the expressionist Action Painting
aesthetic without ever actually seeing
The occasion of a
Once one
we must
know
that
and what might
retrospective
is,
a thoroughly experimental event, for
that have already
canonization and art-historical explanation.
What might we
already contained in
be inferred from
memory.
on
Why do
to look at these constructions to test or confirm
that knowledge?
object's
its
Veterans Administration Hospital
Pines, Florida (1981)
different appearances from different angles?
isn't
wink and the death's-head grin
beneath to representatives of a public that wants
made
as a staple of everyday
sense, that simple polyhedrons take
beholding Box with
But these cases/casings
all
common
we have
habit of treating the
that can slip off
there actually to look at the pieces?
them? Don't we already know,
even a
of these hollow
have called a "case" rather than as an
illustration.
offer the sort of
own
is
on Mylar, 38 x
of the artist.
superfluous by the welter of discourse that surrounds
casings with the traditional hollowness of Minimalist
sculpture, and Morris's
what need
Ink
106.7 cm). Collection
Hasn't their material and visual presence been
hospital than the objects that (we are told) "saved
certain ironic aptness in the perfect
it.
in Morris's case,
we cannot
the answers to these questions beforehand.
Insofar as the blockbuster
show has become
a mass-
cultural spectacle in recent pears, an occasion tor rapid
consumption of vast quantities of visual pleasure,
these objects will not
feel
comfortable, either with
themselves or their beholders. What's to mi
.1
'
\\ hat's
r<>
MITCHKLL 71
dialectical image/text that
materialized in a specific
is
human
constructed thing, with a relation to specific
bodies in a particular situation. This delicate situation
something
like a public sphere, in the sense
is
also
ot
an open, relatively uncoerced speech situation. The
know
only way
openness
is
of conveying this sense ot Morris's
to dwell
on
few
perhaps typical
specific,
common
objects in a relatively
language.
(I've
suggested that Wittgensteins vocabulary and his
willingness to pause over the obvious
an appropriate,
is
though by no means exclusive, model.)
I-Box
1962, no. 25), for instance, activates an
among
infinite, labyrinthine circuit
What
questions:
What
an
is
world, and
its
assemblage: a
/,
image
The
door.''
without
is
pipe
plywood cabinet covered
view). Painted
with Sculptmetal, containing photograph, 19 x 12
'
inches
(48.3 x 32.4 x 3.5 cm). Collection Leo Castelli.
maker
simpler.
It
of the short circuit,
opening
pi/u (1928),
The audience has
do
CO
work can
And what
it
expe< red to do, trooping through in busloads, listening
Libels like so
many
simply serve as
di\ ides
lite
us
of the auslerc elitism that
an Irom mass
ertain kinds ot
As
feel repro.u In d, tin
nt
>o()s that
of gentleness as
you
tell
You
totalizing.
linguistic
them what
grenade. You footnoteless,
iconoclastic epitome of generic advertising.
to think.
You
I-Box as a case
elements
fatal
the WOrd
nh
LIhisIit
I'll"
hi
fetishes
image
You babbling triumph
and washed and
show
is
in Illation
thai
is,
supposed
thai
beholdi
intimae
1
>
01
Ha. in
through then
.,1
mass
consistently steers betwi
ih.
78
delicati
IIOBI
thi
monumi
ill-
n tin
quite
gulag of thi
autobiography (the soun
.11
<
111
artist's
ol fetishistii
realization as the
Minus's work
11
alti
nurse,
that there
is
willing to invest
is
situation of thi philosophical object,
ol
lost
in a
that
"I
bo\
name?
is
then' not
as min.li
one takes
It
It
it
the
ol
sell
relirem e
tin
it
to
someone'
body
to the
in
whu
is a
11
it
tins little
Hi (he
i|iii\iii al
photograplni
image
to whit h tin
scr\es as a door and
label, to
what does
the reference of the "I."
assemblage Construct?
I
beam
does to the box
It
is
BMC,
image, to the box)
The
01 to
ie\e.ilc d as
ol
hai.li tel ul its rctereiu
"I" has
he invisible "self " 01 visible
it
apply?
it
between words, images,
lation
in the artist, i" the artist's
is
makes sense used in this way?
make 111 tins ase' Does ,k (uallv
straightforwardly illustrates tin impossibility
than
one
"),
What
labyrinth ot questions.
might begin by interrogating the
noting that
il
it
Morns, or
model
\\i
in
rnatives, seeking
also like
is
meditation on the fundamental
something, or
propei
>
aura"
Everything
is
isolates tor attention (not tncrclv as
and objects does
to provide
an be inserted
oli|ei is that
through theii incarceration in
hi
tor
liters, or to the
a
club of "education" to the head.
and totems
ol
sense does
to
\\ hat
artistii
it
being
\\ hat
illustrationless,
of the information byte. You, labelless label, starched
swinging that swift and
answer,
as an observer
mote
an example to be labeled "artistn
proto and pre-cntical patch of writing. You totalitarian text of
but I-Box
concealed."
is
You don't
it,
before
something more?
risks
You are the paragon
know
didn't
Magritte's pipe in insinuating a hesitation:
The
<leteiisi\i
11
revealed
is
many
Pop ami Op. The audience
the
of
bedazzled In
ssi .1.
culture.
defined by the label ot Minimalism,
he represents an aspec
may
may
is
Word and
"1."
are apparently redundant, capturing the sell in a
know anything you
that
the wall
preservers' Morris's work
reminder
historii al" figure
ot
swimming toward
taped commentaries,
to
image
even
between the words and
himself naked
ot
double cipher." As David Antin puts
be
Magritte's
is
doesn't even offer a paradoxical gesture
like Magritte's "contradiction"
the work.
all
mvites us to
it
move on
unequivocally labeled by the word
like?
solved
is
Like Rene
a door.
or "so what.''" and
the image. Morris's image
sore ol perceptual or intellectual
box naked
ot the
only an image, not an object. I-Box
is
its
gesture ot the opened
um
Magritte's Ceci n'estpai
1962 (open
weaves
too obvious, the puzzle that
effort, as easy as
say, "of course,"
I-Box,
ot the
first
impasse
to flaunt the
is
the joke that
word?
is
sort ot creature
model for itself, out of this specific
box with a door shaped like the letter
a photographic
behind the
box
What
object.''
the elementary
What
an image'
is
no
body
ol
nt fixing
firmei relation
the artist
the material shape
what linguists Call a
ol
an
"shifter,"
What
an indexical sign whose referent can only be
determined
(thus, the
in the context of a specific
speech situation
person designates the speaker,
first
its
meaning
with
shifts
The word
"I," in short, is like a door,
swinging on the hinge of dialogue, now open to use by
now
anyone,
it
its
reference
open,
When
herself.
the door of I-Box
when
open, unfixed;
is
the door
closed,
is
that this inner surface
would
is
manhood and wearing
its
can only be described as
change the meaning of I-Box
it
revealed a naked female body?
if
consideration
full
of these questions would take us into a whole
new
on the language games of gender
essay
intersection of body, image,
and
as an
label in Morris's art.
begin such an inquiry by noting that
most of Morris's works seem designed
and personal
to neutralize all
identity, to
body of both the
treat the sexually labeled
and
artist
the beholder as a theatrical role or a site of
of the artist.
Is
mean
traces of autobiography
is
reference closes in on and frames the image
its
How
One might
closed by someone's appropriation of
him- or
to
"cocky"?
it
time and the flow of discourse, the give and take of
conversation.
it
a facial expression that
u
the second person the listener or addressee). Like the
words "here" and "now,"
does
naked male body, displaying
I-Box merely an example or illustration of a
And
experimentation.
work could hardly be
yet his
commonplace then.' Or does its materiality
and visual presence make it a case of self-reference, a
kind of metapicture of a whole language game?"
A better question might be: what kinds of mindlanguage-perception games can be played with this
object? I would suggest four: (1) a fort-da game
described as gender neutral, insofar as the contingent
of concealment and revelation of a
phallic
linguistic
game
as
peek-a-boo
simple as the opening and shutting of an
"I/Eye," a shuttling
secret
"self," a
show
to
the historical gendering
of the artistic role are irreducible material and cultural
givens, like the materials of wood, photographic paper,
and Sculptmetal.^ Certainly Morris's "cockiness"
in
I-Box can be read as a parodic mockery of the
male genius that had become institutionalized
by Abstract Expressionism,
between privacy and publicity, the
and the disclosure; one that seems
own gender and
fact of his
mocks the
just as Slab
subordination of the sculptural support to the phallic
verticality of the statue.
(Compare,
S&M getup
in this regard,
everything (the naked photographic truth) and nothing
Morris in fascistic
empty verbal sign) in rapid succession; (2) a
game of allusions to genres and prototypes within the
mediums of painting, sculpture, and photography
[no. 125] for his
and
the linkages of this object with self-portraiture,
Morris playing the role of Minimalist stagehand.)
(the
pornography, and scandal; with surveillance
like a police photo);
and
looks
(it
with the encrypting of sacred icons
fetishes in protective niches, arks, tabernacles, or
casements
in this case,
wood encased
in gray metal;
with the calligraphic tradition of the letter as work
of art, the historiated
initial,
what hides
verbal sign of
that can say "I," inside a
character
/;
(3) a
way we think
game
fusing the body with the
inside the
body
body enframed
and of the body,
as
outside structure, with the senses (especially the
eye) conceived as apertures or thresholds like
and doors; the
relation of visual
and verbal
showing and speaking, seeing and reading,
self that
itself
whole
(4) a
game
set of pieties
the selves of artists) are
is
desecrated. I-Box
we
mocks
is
self
(and
a wall,
hidden inside
Wittgenstein argued that "the
picture of the
human
nightmare about a
counterpoint to
my own
work without relying on
dream
as the
attempt
to write
labels.
don't offer the text of
unique key
to Morris's
about his
meanings or
fact,
dream.
It
I'm very skeptical about the authority of
strikes
me
as flagrantly literary,
with
its
echoes of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" and the scene of Eve's
temptation in Milton's Paradise Lost
ear").
babbled
("it
my
in
the sort of dream one makes up (perhaps
It is
The simultaneously
unconsciously) for one's analyst.
phalln and labial images associated with the label
which
entwines"
itself, "slithers
and
(it
shadows,"
coils in the
and "seems
to pulsate" like an uncontrollable ere< tion
that Morris
must
"get a grip on"; yet
it
devouring,
is
hollow case or body.
locquacious, 'prim," and "chaste") suggest
human body
conscious fantasy about a Medusa like phalli) female
is
the best
soul."" Morris hteralizes this
whose "aim
is
nothing
show us that inside there is
nothing but another outside. The label on the surface
refers to in this
conceals nothing but another surface to trap the look.
panels
claim, opening the case to
as
the occasion for any psychoanalytic decoding of his
divine
talk of the self as an invisible presence concealed
behind
had
wall label. His account of this nightmare has been a
the
its
opened and
a form of life in
bodies, images, and discourses. 58
this
mocked and parodied:
laid bare, the tabernacle
categories as labels that circulate in the exchanges of
work. In
fetishism of the art object as an effluence of
creator
of a foundational identity in gender, and to treat sexual
to a
of "signifying," in
which
Along with Cage, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg,
signs,
about art and the
Site [1964, no. 63],
and the emergent American avant-garde of the 1960s,
Morris seems consistently to undermine the notion
this
windows
speaks and writes versus the self that displays
and looks back;
which
performance piece
In the fall of 1990, Morris
an inside-
scandalous poster
1974 Leo Castelli Gallery exhibition,
staged Carolee Schneemann as Manet's Olympia, with
a self
as the written
of metaphors, analogies for the
of the self,
his
in the
less
than dominating
highl)
my
images
The panic ular images thai Morris
dream are the em austii on aluminum
there on the wall."
lie
e\ci uled in the Spring
and summer
.1
Mn
ol
I""
'
:i
and
exhibited
tirst
the
at
Washington, D.C.,
orcoran Gallery of Art. in
December of
in
that year. Morris
suspects that the labels "linguistic hysteria" will "erode
my
the encaustic from
It
Guggenheim
the
panels."
regrettable that this series does not appear in
is
retrospective,
only because these
it
paintings, produced under the foreshadowing prospect
major retrospective,
oi a
own
not only oi Morris's
themselves
art-
retrospective
but of the
artistic career
fortunes of art and language, the look and the label, in
w hat Arthur Danto has
(.ailed this "Post-I listorical
The paintings
Period of Art."
much
are very
with the Gothic phantasmagoria
of a piece
nightmare,
of Morris's
employing gloomy, kind colors and an iconography
that evoke a range of art-historical references
trom Mantegna'sDfto/<
anamorphic skull
1974 (poster
Offset lithograph. 36
60.6 cm). Collection
-'
for Voice).
x
23
(93.3
of the artist.
Most notable, however, are the texts that have
1816)
Untitled
iled
wall labels
of
onto the surface
been stent
Morris's
in
oi linguistic
threat
command
swim
letters
in the light, wall
been heeded, even
label" has not
"elusive as [they]
Roe-like atmospherics
its
and verba] iconoclasm." Morris's
show yourself
to
the images. Like the
of
dream, (luy are
the dark with
gleam there
The
brist (after 1466) to Holbein's
1533) to Goya's Black Paint
<
and out
in
own
in his
paintings
of legible fb( us.
refusing either to disappear or to
ome
into the light
to explain the images.
We
can.
of
nurse, label the labels on these
paintings as references (along with the encaustic
medium)
e\i
paintings, insi as
image
r\
employment of stenciled lettering
we can label virtually
the paintings as an allusion to some
to Johns's
in Ins early
in
art- historical or
popular source.
Morns about these pieces
production, however,
it
be<
In
onversations with
the time
at
ame
ol their
lear to
me
was
that hi
indifferent to the identify ation ol sources as keys to
Site
meaning,
1964. Morris and Carolee
Schneemann
73. Surplus
in
performance
at
Stage
Dance Theater, New York
had forgotten main
that, in t.ui. he
The immediate subjei
himself
an ism retrospection
process of
memorj
mam
that
is
rhe
lusivt
rbal
\i
.I
labels as
pii
rt
<
ii
.i
Kmii
ognition
'i ii
iln
\\ linn
1
1.
.issoi iative
It's
label in
The
lu
second
labels
do
is
that
not
language that
flu ket
in
(like
and out
impossible even to label the
;eneri<
typ< of verbal expression:
proverbial sayings reminiscent
n with
) n\
ii
the
onlj look like labels, font tioning
allusions)
inn ism,'
<
Nietzschean echoes
and
is
specifically
the
ol
of Goya's enigmatit Caprichosoi 1797 98
titles
iii
si
thej on lode
bus
like sira\
an almost unreadable;
label the images; tht
the
them
thing one notes about Morris's labels
first
thej .in almost uninterpretable
mon
more
itself,
the relation between image, obje<
ol
the paintings
ol
ii
Slavt
his ol states ol
World
i;
and
hi oi
tht
f.
I;
Mi morj
Is
Moralitj
>.
lungi
fragmentarj
being ("Inabilitj to Endun
assoi iativt
puns
("]
lorde
oi
loard
una sin verbal collages hk< the
transcript ol
Dutch
Schultz's death
ravings with phrases from Jacques Derrida, appended
74
as the "text" to a recognizable rendering of Mantegna's
Dead Christ.
These text/image composites may be
we do
unreadable, but, of course,
their obscurity invites interpretation,
doubt that future scholars
and
will
nearly
them;
finally read
and
have no
drag both the images
their labels into the light of art-historical
When
analysis.
that
is
done, however,
my
hunch
that
is
everything revealed will remain concealed (not that
this devalues the process of revelation).
instance one of the
Take as an
more transparent compositions
in
this series, the magnificent tribute to Pollock entitled
Monument Dead Monument/Rush
This painting
is
Life
Rush (1990).
based on the famous Hans
photograph of Pollock
at work. Morris has
Namuth image and assembled
Namuth
doubled the
as a vertical diptych,
it
the upper and lower panels appearing as inverted,
mirror images of one another. The lower (upside-down)
panel
is
more
clearly delineated, the
upper having been
subjected to heat, which caused the encaustic to melt
on the aluminum support, blurring the contours
The mirrorlike, vertical (a)symmetry of
matched laterally by the labels that
run up and down its margins: on the left, "Monument
Dead Monument" ascends; on the right "Rush Life
ot the
image.
the images
is
Rush" descends.
What tribute does this painting pay to Pollock,
man who has been called "the greatest American
painter of the twentieth century," the painter
work had
a decisive influence
on Morris's
the
whose
Improvident, Determined .... 1990. Encaustic on
earliest
work, and the epitome of the expressionist aesthetic
against which early
Minimalism
highly equivocal tribute,
us back to
even
set its face?
should
re-enacts
say,
one that
like a hall of verbal/visual mirrors in
reflected object
is
the genesis, production,
reproduction, and consumption of art
The asymmetry
to "advance"
tendency
by processes of devolution and negation,
remembering, forgetting, and disremembering,
"original,"
in
the object.
If
Pollock showed us that the primary
is
that
it
pours, Morris shows
us that the primary material fact about
(encaustic)
is
that
it
melts.
What we
wax
are left with
nor a sardonic commentary on his subsequent
monumentalization, but a vision of the birth and
death
of a
monument,
its vital
origin,
its
and
its
melting
down
in forgetfulness
radically
from most of the sculptural productions that
will enjoy pride of place in the
But
retrospective.
Guggenheim
their deepest concerns are all of a
piece with the earlier work.
They share the same
of the work of art
concern for investigating the identity
as a
nexus of vision, language, and objecthood.
to occupy the same precarious threshold
between form and anti-form, between the private
fetish
and the public totem. Above
ot philosophical
Morris's
wrong
all,
they play the
provocation and
for
debate on
issues,
first. We would not be far
them "conversation puns, occasions
work from the
in calling
a
whole
fixing as a
and nonartistii
series ol artistu
from the nature
objects, to tin historn
is
neither merely a tribute to Pollock's rushing
life,
icon,
psychopoetk experimentation thai has characterized
more focused
and materially by the processes enacted
material fact about paint
different
same game
is
articulated verbally by the labels, visually by the
dissolving reflection that surmounts the
They seek
itself.
of this artistic life cycle, its
inches (3.64
'-*
artist.
These retrospective paintings look
which the
memorable
his art, his life rushing out in
same time as it refers us back to the
monumentalizing of this process into an artistic dead
end
the myth of the macho expressionist creator
whose private fetishes become public totems.
is
feet ll'/ 2 inches x 7 feet 10
and chaotic oblivion.
paint, at the
Morris's picture
1 1
2.41 m). Collection of the
refers
the original pouring
process of Action Painting, the figure of the artist
merging with
aluminum,
looking
ot
al
at
ami labeling
harai ter of artistii
production, to the institutional histor\ and disioursi
that
makes these onversations
(
of the day. " whatever they
1994, these works will
unreadable,
lil
U
j
will
possible.
be
in
On
the "issues
the winter
ol
almost inaudible and
paintings Morris executed in
.1
f>
V
LASt MAK
AND FURIOUS YOU GET AHEAD WITH THE DOT AND OASH SYSTEM OH MAMMA
CANT GO THROUCH \YIIH
WILL CHECK ANO BE DOUBLE-CHECKED AND PLEASE PULL FOR ME
EASE
HAO NOTHING WITH HIM HE WAS A COWBOY IN ON
VEN DAYS A WEEK FIGHT YEAH OKAY NOTHING TO BE SAIO AGAINST THE LAWS WHICH GOVERN THIS PROBLEMATIC NO FRIENDS N
1ST WHAT YOU PICK UP ANO WHAT YOU NEED OH GO AHEAD THAT HAPPENS FOR CRYING
WANT HARMONY
DON T WANT HARMONY
IMMA MAMMA NO THERE WERE ONLY TEN OF US AND THERE ARE TEN MILLION FIGHTING SOMEWHERE IN FRONT Of YOU
"OUR
ttONS UP AND WF WILL THROW UP THE TRUCE FLAG
SAY TO THEM AND TO YOU. MY BELOVED THIS IS MY BODY AT WORK OH PI
T ME UP LEO LEO' OH YEAH
SURE IT IS NO USE TO STAGE A RIOT THE SIDEWALK WAS IN TROUBLE ANO THE BEARS WERE IN 1ROUBLE
BROKE IT UP LOVE ME ANALYZE THE CORPUS THAT
10
TENDER TO YOU THAT EXTEND ON THIS BED OF METAL PLEASE OH MAMMA
AT IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULON T BE SPOKE ABOUT PLEASE
MAY TAKE ALL EVENTS INTO CONSIDERATION NO NO ANO IT lb NO IT IS
NFU-tO AND IT SAYS NO A BOY HAS NEVER WEPT NOR DASHED A THOUSAND KIM SORT OUT THE QUOTATION MARKS FROM THt HAIRS
OM HEAO TO TOE THANK YOU SAM YOU ARE A BOILED MAN 00 IT BECAUSE YOU ASKED ME TO PLEASE LOOK OUT IT WAS DESPER
THEY WON T LET ME UP THEY DYED MY SHOES AND IF YOU LOVE ME ENOUGH YOU WILL SEND MF SON
E AMBROSE A LITTLE KIO
KNOW WHAT AM OOING HERE WITH MY COLLECTION OF PAPERS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD IT ISN T WORTH A NICKLl TO TWO
tS
CANT DO ANOTHER THING
AM ALL THROUGH
Kl YOU OR ME BUT TO A COLLECTOR IT IS WORTH A FORTUNE OK OK
VMMA MAMMA THEN YOU WILL BURY ME IN OROER TO SLEEP PEACEFULLY COME ON MAX OPEN THE SOAP DUCKETS TALK TO \b
'ORD LET THEM LEAVE ME ALONE YOU WILL FORGET ME ME AND MY NAME
I
Prohibition* End or the Death ot Dutch Schultz
inches (248.6
Collection ol the
7B KOI
irl
1989
x
182.2 cm).
1963 on newspapers covered with headlines about the
Cuban
what
Missile Crisis.
art
On
the fundamental questions of
what it might attempt, and what our
might be, they may be bombs refused by
is for,
relation to
it
popular disrespect, bricks flying in the night toward an
unknown
destination.
Robert Morris, entry from unpublished Dream Journal, October 28,
set in sans serif type are
1990. All further extracts
One
2.
flat
gray paint on the Minimalist objects of the 1960s. As David Antin
notes, this gray
became
signature and to that extent, perhaps,
"a
somewhat independent of any individual work,
(
from the same source.
notable exception to this generalization might be Morris's use of
"Art
&
Information,
[April 1966], p. 56).
Grey
like
Newman's
stripes"
News 63,
Paint, Robert Morris," Art
no. 8
At the same time, the paradoxical implications of
using a neutral color like gray as a signature of a personal style can
hardly be ignored.
mask
for
The noncommittal
any personal identity,
character of grayness
more
is
like
kind of coloristic "John Doe"
signature that signals Morris's refusal to underwrite his works with
claims to authentic or personal self-revelation.
Morris, "Notes on Sculpture," Artforum 4, no. 6 (February 1966),
3.
reprinted in Minimal Art:
(New York: Dutton,
4. See
Critical Anthology, ed.
Barbara Rose, "The Odyssey of Robert Morris," and Terrie
Deny
Sultan, "Inability to Endure or
Deny
or
the World," in Inability
6-10 and
Endure
1-23, respectively.
See Roberta Smith, "A Hypersensitive
Thing," The
New
Nose
for the
York Times, January 20, 1991,
See Clement Greenberg, "Towards a
6.
to
World, exhibition catalogue (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran
the
Gallery of Art, 1990), pp.
5.
Gregory Battcock
1968), p. 223.
Next
H,
sec.
Newer Laocoon"
New
p. 33-
(1940), in
The Collected Essays and Criticism, ed. John O'Brian (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986), pp. 23-37.
7.
Craig Owens, "Earthwords," October, no. 10
8.
Rosalind E. Krauss, "Grids," in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and
Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge, Mass.:
9.
See Morris's essay
Postmodernism,"
"Words and Images
(fall
MIT
in
1979), pp. 125-26.
Monument Dead Monument/Rush
Press, 1985), p. 8.
Encaustic on aluminum,
Modernism and
337^47;
Critical Inquiry 15, no. 2 (winter 1989), pp.
(3.64
feet
1 1
Life Rush, 1990.
1 1 '/z
2.41 m). Collection of the
inches
10
x 7 feet
/8
inches
artist.
and W.J.T. Mitchell, "Ut Pictura Theoria: Abstract Painting and the
Repression of Language," Critical Inquiry 15, no. 2 (winter 1989),
pp. 348-71, for a discussion of this history.
Key on Hook (1963, no. 28), a cabinet with lock and key and the
10. See Morris's discussion of writer/artists like
Gabo, Kandinsky,
Malevich, and Mondrian, who, he writes, "contributed to a growing
body of theoretical
texts,
some
in the
form of manifestos, which grew
up alongside the material production of the images.
Images
1
1.
in
Modernism and Postmodernism,"
Morris, "American Quartet," Art
."
.
("Words and
10 (December
1981), p. 104.
Modern Sculpture (Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT
Press,
be closed
Harold Rosenberg, "Defining Art," The
1967, reprinted
forever.
19- I'm thinking here of the "case" as the concept
sociological "case," see Charles C.
in Battcock, p.
New
Yorker, February 25,
306. See also, Michael Fried's
literal
hidden inside a
position, "one that can be formulated in words,
formulated by some of
its
and
in fact has
been
leading practitioners" ("Art and Objecthood,"
Artforum [June 1967], reprinted in Battcock, pp. 116-17).
Rosenberg, "Defining Art,"
p.
"American Quartet,"
p.
An
serious treatment of Morris as a philosophical sculptor.
Expanded
Field," in The Originality of the
Avant-Carde, pp. 276-90.
18.
We
may
that the Minimalist pieces of the 1960s are hollow, but the
impossibility of looking inside
for
them
is
case),
is
also relevant here. I'm grateful ro
Is
its
James
bringing the sociological analysis of the case to
20. Fried accurately gauged,
my
think, the peculiar temporality involved
viewing of Minimalist sculpture, contrasting
it
to the sense of
part of the point
Morris's Leave
144-46.
21. Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of Histor.
illuminations, ed.
22.
owe
this
Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken,
1969),
23- Morris's inscriptions to these works
move u
frame to image Thus
ot
U ntitled (1984): "None
down. Yet we have
seen
it
gathering
was nothing that could be done"
24. Benjamin,
p.
256.
analogy to Janice Misurell Mitchell.
dimensions suggested by the relation
inscription for
Sometimes, of course, Morris's "cases" cannot be opened.
know
What
The
hollow container, and
sculpture. See Fried, "Art and Objecthood," pp.
96.
Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1969), pp. 7-79, for the
17. Krauss, "Sculpture in the
Becker,
"instantaneousness" he associates with Modernist painting and
Aesthetics of Transgression," in Robert Morris, exhibition catalogue
first
as a
S.
Press, 1992), p. 9.
attention.
in the
305.
Annette Michelson's important essay, "Robert Morris
DC:
Ragin and Howard
and material figure of the "case"
Chandler
(Washington,
and the
figurative extension to hermeneutics (the secret or solution to a mystery
hypostasization of objecthood) and dependent upon an "ideological"
16. See
used in sociology
is
histories),
concomitant ambiguity about the theoretical/empirical status of the
characterization of the Minimalist object as "literalist" (understood as a
15. Morris,
and only one time and then would
a Case? (Cambridge: Cambridge University
1977), pp. 236, 199.
14.
inside," suggests another situation
elementary units of research. For an outline of the basic concept of the
12. Krauss, Passages in
13-
on hook
and psychology ("case" studies and "case"
p. 341).
m America 69, no.
inscription "Leave key
case that could be "looked into" one
"The
Work
all
toss the
will bt ready
these years.
(italics
of Art in the
temporal
when it touches
You laid that there
added).
Age
of
Mechutm
WJT
al
Mil
7 7
Reproduction
1936), in
III:.
American Quarter, p 105.
tis.
26. Ibid, p
27. Ibid
Roger Denson (Oi U That
Morris, "Robert Morris Replies to
M)
in
/'
Mil
ss
Pi
pp 287-315.
S
below, however,
tor
PUtonu concept
the
model
d an application ol a dialectical
phenomena
form, object, label, and
ol
Mums.
Morns
Robert
oi the
to the
in
Replies to Roger Denson,"
artist recapitulates his entire career as
which the
Kraz) Kat dialoj
series ol
with Minimalist objects as Ignatzian brinks
5
Morns. 'Notes
ulpture," p
Book Vll
Plato, Republic,
$2
Harvard University
Paul Shore) (Cambridge, Mass
8, trans
IV).
Press
159.
Morris,
question
remain hxed on the notion that
Museum
am
especial!)
.1
work
problem.nu
ol art
nothing
is
it
who
not
is
it
to
title
for critics
.1
Guggenheim
sting in this sort of paper currenc)
Mori
$7
nothing mor<
as
Richardson's attack on thi
tin
|i
nheim.
1
Art and
in
blueprints or certificates that confer
makes them
conceptual items,
material obj
human body
lumerous Minimalist works
documents,
oi
on the
also, Pried
relation to the
Objecthood," pp
35. Tlu
than folders
Sculpture,"
oi stale
The
New Ya
s
'.
19
1.
ulpture," p
usmj; the term
made
public sphere" in the sense
with Jiirgen
tlu critical tradition associated
familiar by
labermas, particularly his
historical stud) oi pub!
ni.is
rm
c<
Hans Namuth, Jackson Pollock
1950. Black and white
8x10
inches (20.3
25.4 cm).
Press,
\\ J
Mitt
\\ ittgenstt in,
I!
hi
II
(<
I'
of
hii
trans <
I!
rhe analysis of the importanct of Wittgenstein's philosoph)
in
Morns
would require a
s .in
would probabl)
a
Plnliiuijihu.il
t.iki
us key from
remarkabk
own
separate stud) In its
series
/-
thi
right,
to
and
connected with texts from the
Inn
Wittgenstein, Philosophical
il
in
mdtbt
vi rsirj
an
'public
Foi mor onthissubji
Anscomtx (New York Blackwell,
I
Mil
Burger (Cambridge, Mass
not to be confused with the notion oi
legal or bureaucratic smsi
its
photograph.
is
In
s
till
dis, iissioii o| tin
p.ir.illi
bi tWI
work of an and Marx's concept
oi tin
of tht
commodit)
fetish in
'
\\
Miti
Chapter
literalist
work
111
as
useful
though the work
I"
ts is,
in
("his
II
it
111 1)
lii, 1.1I
In
view, an index of their
'nothing to hide
they an hidinj
lasaninnei
in
my
ol
hollowness of mosi
th<
think insnlh.
insistence thai the) havi
said) thai
remarks on
Fried
.1
II,..
I,,,
niw isu\
>
hi 11,1
.<A (as
<
agi
might havi
antihermeneutii openness about
L.I. hi
inn
tii
rt
to
.'s,
is
thi
1I1,
pp
that havi thi abilit) toactivatt apublii sphen
rhe 'Uncani
Minii
7M
vol. 17, ed.
Wollheim's
classic essay,
e VI ollhi
im
Jami
Minimal Art,
Strai l"
.isih,'
Minimal Vn
\\
\\
p||
.111,1
llli
lliusl
Untitled. 1962. Painted newspaper page, 15 x 21
'
inches
(38.1 x 54.6 cm). Collection of the artist.
simple" associated with both his
Logico-philosophicus
own
Ego," Critical Inquiry 19, no. 4
atomic concept of the
also be understood as attempts to shatter the
earlier
work
in the Tractatus
59.
(1921) and the work of Bertrand Russell and the
Giroux, 1992),
Burnham, Beyond Modern
1967), Chapter
also Morris,
hope
it is
clear,
however, that
regard any
premature.
48. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, p. 8.
50. Morris,
p. 10.
(summer 1993), pp. 62855.
Box (New York: Farrar, Straus,
Brillo
notion of the present as having gone "beyond history" as quite
logical positivists.
49. See Jack
Arthur Danto, Beyond the
1, for a
Sculpture
(New
York: Braziller,
discussion of the foregrounding of the base.
"American Quartet,"
p. 96.
On
the question of scale, see
"Notes on Sculpture"; Fried. "Art and Ob]ecthood"; and
note 20 above.
51. Morris, "Robert Morris Replies to
Roger Denson,"
52. See Michel Foucault, This
Pipe, trans.
Is
Not a
302.
p.
James Harkness
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), Chapter 2, on the
"calligram" as "double cipher."
53. Antin, "Art
54.
The word
"Deictics," in
&
Information,"
"shifter"
is
p. 56.
Roman Jakobson's
term. See the entry on
Oswald Ducrot and Tzvetan Todorov,
Encyclopedic
Dictionary of the Sciences of Language, trans. Catherine Porter (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University
55. For
more on
Press, 1979), p. 252.
this concept, see
W.J.T. Mitchell, "Metapictures,"
Picture Theory (Chicago: University of
56 Wittgenstein, Philosophical
57. In this context,
'the
Investigations, p.
must disagree with Hal
("The Crux
ol
Minimalism,"
Angeles: Los Angeles
museum
is
is
somehow
essay,
macho
is
not a
exhibition catalogue [Los
of Contemporary Art, 1986], p. 172).
58. See Caroline Jones's discussion oi the reaction by the
generation against the
before oi
that the perceiver
not an ideological apparatus"
in Individuals,
Museum
178
Foster's suggestion that
minimalist delineation of perception ...
outside history, language, sexuality power
sexed body, that the gallery or
in
Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 3582.
<
cult of Abstract Expressionism in her
finishing School: John Cage and the Abstrai
Expressionist
M IT
!)
ON ROBERT MORRIS AND
THE ISSUE OF WRITING:
A NOTE FULL OF HOLES
There
In
my
to
deny that
to
draw
point.
an open
neither pleasure nor utility tn playing with
is
beginning
my
is
end, so to speak,
what follows
in
being hard
it
have only managed
might even be that
Balrasar Gracian, L647
from
simple error on his part, or whether
any event, an incredible irony
moments
at certain
deck.
result of a typo matters little in the end.
tew circles around an imperceptible
It
Jean-Pierre Criqui
is
subjecting these very lines to caution. Nonetheless,
would underscore the
from Donald Davidson's
and explores the implications
the philosopher had earlier
own de
his
made on
remarks
of the
these works
the third person
Morris"), redoubling as
in
works
moment when,
them, necessarily deferred
him
way
the
is
other spec
which
in
as transparent as
is
it
Morns
ii
the mirror
manifests
lly
explicit
aciri ularity
At
program
points
m.i n
i
.mi
Ii
it
is ,i\i
would normal 1)
onlj
I
om
Inn d
and
won
i.i
under
it*
havi
tli.u
who had
was madi
HO
b(
flu
r. tli.u
it
mi.
i\
is
most
raise
i<
in .in
bj
hi
thi
its
mi
ipli
rt
ader
omplete
In
19
gavi
hat
in
to
Mori
is
himself
1977 n movi
thi
pa siion
ti.
authot on purposi
win
tin
it
an
(for
tin
wj
oj
<
lapsed time,
taJ> quadrant mark
Tht last tun \entenct
and old
an
put
appropriate
In
>.
and mirrors
some
that
"Writing with Davidson" suggests
which the concept of tin essaj
tin author and tin readet In
both
In a
theoretii
tin
signed by an artist"
1
'"
al
is
extravagant
Iv
ess.a. after referring to the
systems" elaborated In
r\llowaj
lans
names
Sunt hson as
In-
more "informal' manner, pursued similar
Yet, leaving aside
ol
whom,
Newman
-m^\
Smithson
particular^, the second, doesn't
go without saying), could wt coda) affirm
reconsidering Morris's writings via the retrospei
lens ot
itablish
<>t
pagt thus
/ /At
for tht timi
bj a play ol echoes
mention
(thi
in
ij
Thi quadrants
nut.
metaphor
baroque,
in a
ts
projei
reallj
a sort ot
har:
second series of Blind
is
in tins
drawing,
tin-
duce on temporary American .mists who had. even
an)
way respond
tivi
that these texts in
"Writing with Davidson"
to the will to construct a "theoretii al
system"?
I
falsitj oi
"text
markabli thing about
is
,i
Hofmann and Josef A lints. Lawn net
Morns, Harnett Newman, and Robl m
doul
of
th-
I.
call
de< onstrui ted
The
"I" the
lift..
muted
though
It
o]
textual space in
wi
idson's Prim
more,
lower-left corner,
its
blindfolded and estimating
designated
n blind sin< e birth to
my direction, thi
i
is
ti
shred
Win
).i\
1.
"in interpreting
following senteni
last
.n
1<
the right
that in th<
V
tins assi
oi
laid
/>
>/.///./ ./> ./
xtimated area
would
Davidsons writing we would
onus
tw
tin
rn
tli.u
'I
What is
own program tor
purpose."
as
the- artist
that tinn
turn
in
the constant use ol
holism and rationality
nt\
to
e of a
In this there
to ke< p in nun.
in tins text,
Morris's reasons lor using
d b)
former)
(th<
Ids to a hardly less pet uliar
\ i<
win n
the consequi
.is
would be well
ii
which
of the latter,
(the latter)
inscribed in
ross
'ng
m tin
r<
prim iple
ot thi
itself
not uninteresting for the
parallel
clockwise, childhood, adolescence, maturity,
sets up an analog al
lationship between the
ommentar) and the work, establishes the lormer as
/ :> \l
through which
tive,
ffei
is
divided
this redoubling, this ruse that
,
is
until
One might
tator.
for either
example, Morris's
portrait ot
regaining his sight, he suddenly
in the place ol an)
happens
this
between making
metaphor and telling a lie is emphasized by the tact
that the same sentence can be used, with meaning
which
witness of his ow n finished drawing, puis
lie-
we are making: "The
latter
carried out blindfolded, so thai the
artists experience of
in
engaged
texts, are equally
de-centering or subjec tive distant ing that
of
the works under discussion themselves put in
the
the Blind
another drawing as well, with the philosopher
unchanged,
does
it
in
point
but be struck by the author's reference to himselt
place
all
between metaphor and falsehood;
relation
specifying something that
them. From
facto enrollment within
the opening sentence of Morris's text, the reader cannot
the type
"false.''
however, that
Davidson quotation that has been chosen concerns the
Davidson) (1991, nos. 152-56), onto
u ith
h are inscribed citations
and
tact,
with the problem of falsehood. In one drawing, the
turns to his series of drawings called Blind Timi IV
writings,
articulated within the context of the
both Morris's and Davidson's
most recent publication, Robert Morris
(Drawing
in the fact that the
Time IX drawings, judging trom the illustrations
begin.
In his
in
is,
only "I" here referring directly back to Morris himselt
the
imperceptible coincides with the improbable,
let's
the
is
it
There
ven more fundamentally,
on side
tin
is
it
legitimate to
essays published In various magazines
undei Morris's nami as a group separati from the
rest
Blind
Time
paper, 38
IV
(Drawing with Davidson), 1991. Graphite on
50 inches (96.5
127 cm). Collection
of the artist.
Time
Blind
ol Ins
(Drawing with Davidson),
IV
detail.
homogem
work, sufficiently autonomous and
nstitute
rpus?
what the
Si, mi
thing that
.is
manner of the
in thi
ous
raditionall) qualify
where Morris's imagt
ol
is
framed
the
.is
"I
by virtut
that letter being a constructed element, the almost
form of which figured in
identical
olum n (p 90),
'
wandering
orpse stagi
Han
Troubli witi
<l
by Alfred Hitchcock in
(1955) persists
to identifii ation
mi
in
which, even before
Morris's visual
zn
sci
itsi
langu
will mil
thi
its
om
<
><i
thi
sam<
n. inn
ol
I),
in
viewer/usei
h ch
hii
(1963
no
-a,
!1),
as Hi.
l!
.i.l
li
hum
with ns
wit
Withdrawal (V)65, no
22), in
inpaj
MK
., ili.
\. n Vbrk
.l.uli' s
l-B
c (
the
As
of
proposes
1962 no
II
196
i.
inisi
Box, tins imbrication
verbal in 21
ol thi
according to which the
from thi start as a u rittt u u
km. ol reflexiveness that
itself
In
In hi\
.i
.is
kuul
.i
ol
su< h,
ol
what
banner (the
among
othi
is.
is
when
chi
written notes assembled
author assumi a function comparabli to thai
its
the noises insidi
in urn
.1
(1962, no 26), a perfectly
Fi/i
tautological object
ol
.inn
itsell .is art's subji
of Card
casi
no
n<s ol
seems the parodii (and nightmarish) double
Yori
and 21
wind the requiremt
thi
often goes along with
1961, no
would
way
whethei
bi
thi
11
Box with
willing to bet
hai a
thai ilmsi
in .mill her, havi
in thi
thi
Sound of Its
Own
would show
iii\inini\
New
intelligibility necessary to the ritual ol
objei
th<
rforman<
in
and
Makir,
r,
p<
visual
In
C\
f
i
i
,.|
itanh
for the worl
piei
which Moi
from
and
mi
lei
medium
artist
I960
.i
rationalitj
Modi
raved with a word, and Statemt
/,
Marcel Duchamp's texts through
.,
..I
ulpture,"
sign
th<
&
in
which scatters to
the
Performance Switch
direct address to a
drawing Litai
appropriated
waj
recall th<
range of this relationship,
thi
following
ill-
I960), and
up undi
It
order to sketch
In
Notes on
1966
thi
[aiming us right
we must
reply to this question,
.1
in
used
mi
ci(
u lous
works bj Morris that,
to
langua
form of writing or of speech (wi might
think of pieces with taped accompaniment, such as
//
Hearing [1972, no. 88] and Voice [1974, no. 126], where
indoor art object can do no
the
amount of text involved
vastly exceeds that of
any of his publications), are by
From which
"writings"
it
follows that
and
we have
its
ambiguity
radical
with
from the one we turn to the contributions
by Albers or
Newman
in this area: so
itself necessarily
something
transpiring in
artistic
is
relate to writing alone, in
Not
that this latter form
stranger to Morris.
It's
for
a hard
and
fast theoretician
this brief period,
has stuck to him. ' During
which corresponds
object
(its
his art
from the constructed
witness:
first
and
whom
Phenomenology
which
of,
but what?
"The
His ambition
as the philosopher
"making" (where,
is
among
cavity to
"forms" can
Morris reconnects
name
when
June).
Making," theater and dance,
to act such that "the
is
is
not behind the
that
we recognize
in
many
and projects from the opening years
the next of Morris's essays. "The Art of Existence.
Three Extra-Visual
published
proposes
in
Artists:
Works
itself as
author
is
at length
then
tells
and
in the
simply developing his ideas on the need
al
autonomy. This essay begins with the declaration:
most serious
how, the previous
(a fantastical
end
of
funi
date since, as
solstice,
What
it's
the
of course, that occurs at the end of
follows
becomes more and more curious.
Turrell, Blaim
have heard of him;
yet the
<
moment
March and of September,
ghost
[aims m
of
1970) hover for an instant over tin
volunteered the information that
to
Joseph Kosuth and
\\
Morris
is left
to
ai ul
good friend had
them had decided
from now on they were going to do 'pig art.
at
Kent and the
You know, pig art as art as
the next link on the chain initiated
break with the work of art's traditional physii
He
Asked about James
that
at first
by "Notes on Sculpture," and leads one to believe that
its
narrow
indicates, the equinox designates the
been killed
in Process,"
Artforum in January 1971,
recounts: "A friend of Blaine's riding in the car
then resurfaces, and in the most extraordinary manner,
in
which one gains entry through
the shadow of Smithson's Partially Buried
the very substance of the work.""
The burlesque element
of the pieces
as well
for their ability
making process
Marvin Blaine, excavated
first artist,
night and day are of equal length;
Phenomenology
scenes but
The
in the year, at the
summer
of
consists of the description
by the "sunrise equinox"
its
half of the 1960s, beginning with the dances and
and music, are mentioned
the direct
he attended the progressive invasion of this chamber
performances. At the end of "Some Notes on the
as film
itself in
into the side of a hill in Ohio, a sort of uterine
possible tone.
with the underlying spirit of his work from the
first
room
which Morris reports
many
the precise function of critical
other ornamented objects, paintings and
the
in Morris's view, as
he-
generally thought of as the original aesthetic
interest,
in the final products),
know
passage and about the travails of the construction of
"techniques of the body," implied in the activity of
be found as
Marcel Mauss would
say, in
be to describe their work as
will
which places
Making."" By means of his
1
of
artists
are devoted to
calls "existence art"; "so far as
sculptures.
who
these artists are unaware of each other's work,"
are cited, both the
work of three young
he knows personally and
of an opposition (arrange/build) so can the present
in
Nauman
After this preamble, Morris announces that his
essay will attend to the
arrange. Just as that solution can be framed in terms
be framed dialectically: don't build
henceforth be
Michael Asher, Larry Bell,
commentary and which
"The Minimal
Drop, hang, lean, in short act," we read
1,
will
it
participates in the
descent from the Greek literary genre of ekphrasis,
presented a powerful solution: construct instead of
shift
defined as
being illustrated as well.
last
activity after all,
Paralleling this voyage in the direction of process, the
its
who
Robert Irwin, and Bruce
faithfully as possible
this his experience)
to its bursting apart into the notion of "anti-form."
writings constitute
experience of this art."
writes. "
bond with the space that houses
and the spectator that makes
loot
has a better idea.
manner that,
downstream (from,
the artist to the viewer),
is,
what he
to the respite
from a recourse to language in his visual work,
traverses the full span leading
that
in
within this category that the label of
fall
deco with
there follow reflections on the interest
located within the one
the very fact that, between 1966
the six articles
the
to <trt
treat the issue of process in such a
is
of
so obviously
it
or
the text as a tool in the
portable,
"environmental," that, being "literally objectless,"
Sculpture" to
on the
Fordprobably
number of recent works,
of a certain
"Some Notes
from "Notes on
Making: The Search
Phenomenology
published
Motivated"
Artforum
and 1970
applied liquitex references
transferred from upstream to
and dissemination of ideas
static,
than carry a decorative
about as much anticipation as one reserves for the
From which
writing
suggests that
what seems to
the sense of commentary
of theory building.
registration of
much
won
next season's polished metal boxes, stretched tie dyes
thi
next year's Oldsmobile
different eye
within the art object
truism at this point that the
.i
and elegantly
to look at his
already the term can scarcely be used
without signaling
ms
load that becomes increasingly uninteresting. One waits for
most numerous.
far the
tet
to Blaine,
demands
who
at this
art.'"
fiercely
<
Th< summing up
funis not to be an art ist
that, lest his efforts b( perceived as art,
no photographs be made
The
five of
of
them.
slightly credulous (or distrai ted) reader,
point
still
thinks the article to be report..
who
Notes on the Phenomenology
on the
certainly begins to have doubts with the entry
Making already
of
scene of Jason Taub, a Californian artist whose artistic
alluded to the "totally physically paralyzed conclusions
medium
of Conceptual art"
for he,
we
are told, unlike Blaine, considers
himself absolutely an
artist
"The Art
constituted by
is
radio frequencies, specifically in their extra-auditor)
dimension. Taub (the word means "deaf"
who admires Michael Asher
his
in
work too "aestheticized," shows himself
Taub spun out lengthy
which
of
the author confesses
more or
certain
Netherlands, two years after the publication of
the essay in question). This implies that the imaginary
theoretical
But with the third character
whom we
to
composite characters,
who
Robert Dayton,
the satirical tradition dear to Swift or Voltaire, but,
are
The word "heteronym"
by the anesthetics used while he was hospitalized,
compliant
the effects of various diffusions.
projects
One
the physics of which, as
eloquent of
Orgone Box
Reich's
me
for
guest takes his
MbMA,
.Strew the
but see what
morality long ago postulated by Samuel Butler
memorable phrase
in the
hate inaccuracy," the author supplies
ompanimi
drawing
ol the
a skit' h
and
also
finally, a
drawing by Dayton
shown
ol
photograph
in a
uments seeming to
hand)
A'
the
havi
equipment
<e.u
episode with Dayton
com
ctivt
19
in
h<
ek
'
J,
ol
then
bits
century
A./
changt .iinl
opt ning
as
itselt
thii u ori
((
that functions on
oj //-/I
plam
Taub and Dayton) allou
tpecially that of
hi inh rat tion
tu een the wort
In
a new
oj
level.
xpi >/ nee,
qualitatively diffi n nt from
multiple
on
a sea of
Ebb
the
in
of tierasa
its
could also
self
words
It
bt
thus
is
an intensely
Tide,
text,
which Morris published
own
ob|ei
and thi
which
to
me
n
family n
u in
/;/
establishment
It is thi
thi possible
perceive*
teems
tamem
\/i
rnal
tin
r<
Art's vagui
oj
shattering
the \ami turn delineating their
in
"/
causal, hi reditary, genealogical
,i
claim
maintenance
tequena
./> ./
.it
mblanci
tin niJirnlti.il
holding in suspension
ts:
last half-
mint. mi
and rationalizi
in
./
mythical status n
tlm contradiction,
i/</<
But
urious
first
prodm
tions in tin
inula
bit
tet
/>/
relation does t/>n discoursi stand to thi art facts
i
\ponsi to
what
thosi
with
thi
appearand tobi already halfway suspended into
language?
objects, that teems significant.
art
fai
t<
m m to contain thi
dualpou
<
yond
its satirii al
1
hi
harai
ti
itatus ol thi
hitherto published in Artforum
thrown
Ii
in. iii
li
.11
1.
various prat titiom
ili/. n
'.hi M
inn ol
Mill
In
r,
whit h
bnaks with
Morris texts
yond
bt
rs ol
thi
arth an
barbs
01
object (a passagi from
the
Somt
to
and destroy i/>m/'. For as they call speech
out from tt\ own domain it teems mi approach / melt and
mergi with art facts, tobecomt hallucinated and entangled,
losing //> ability to surround and separate. On the othi r
both vtini.it,
hi
in
t;
major task of art's discount over thi
been to mediah
identity of art /.//>
nothing ttartlingly neu about environmental
is
man
ol tins
Splashes
disjunctions whili
(The famous "My name
Mark, would provide Morns with
maxim
takes
./\/"//i
\'.
after the delirious
resumes the detat hed and
ol thi
self.
com< from a different
articles conclusion
dryly obji
historj ol at least
notion of the divided, polymorphous,
metaphoric, rhetorical
is
an
of his work, both visual and textual,
ol art are afloat
Some
that
whi< h
these graphic
of
ording to the same tongue
tin
Ii
in
oming emblem
But the
"Works
of
ol
Gospel
rather bet
Morns;
bj
not
himself
Robert Morris, the eighteenth-
Legion." spoken by the possessed
in the
Blaine, a
underground chamber, made
hamber," pan
documentary
foj
much
Morris exploits
is
notebook page, both from the hand
and,
ib;
Ins "ga
three reviews:
for Ins
homonym
changing, and "diabolical"
do not mind Lying but
of tailing
century English architect and theoretician. At any
rate, in
accordance with the narrative
In
leav<
While Morns does
one." the burden of originality has. perhaps, been
one perfect
Auschwitz," he cries as his
at
"No
lightened by the existence
tint he promises will be "ten times jui< ier than Willy
you can do
names; Scul.
last
enjoy the privilege, as Pessoa did,
described
Negative Ion Chamber"
is
life
them given the most
Anon. Sean h. and so on.
authors, certain of
he wrote their works as well.
of Dayton's
it is
suggests the example of
Pessoa not only wrote the biographies of these men,
between Frankenstein and Erich
for us, suggests a cross
Von Stroheim
peculiarly
invited to enter in order to experience
is
many
invented
at
heteronyms.
of aliases, or
Fernando Pessoa, who oxer the course of his
and inspired
constructs "gas chambers," which Morris
group
least in part, a
two-thirds of his sight as the
lost
is
settling scores with certain of his betes noircs, as in
presented, the text descends into a level of pure farce.
result of an accident with sulfuric acid,
"The Art of
we should say, are not only)
bj means of which the author
their appearance in
Existence" are not (or
agreeable perceptual experiments.
less
making
artists
remembered nor understood,"
and submits his visitor to
neither
Art in Washington. D.C., tor example.
of
or Observatory [no. 109] . constructed in 1971 in the
frequency
of radio
think, the affinity the
1969 outside the Corcoran
[no. 102], installed in
be more
to
is.
describes have with several of Morris's (Steam
it
Gallery
scientific research
explanations for the perception
most
German),
but, nonetheless, finds
concerned with technology and
("In conversation,
projects
the most striking feature of
).
of Existence"
band, tpeech teems a/most toftou from art which
languagi
./>
much
as
'
liy,lit
reflects
Ft
8/7/62, 8:45 pm
Discovered in black brief case:
blank cards, 6
cards with the following categories: Considerations,
Future, Locations, Changes, Responses - Actual,
Responses - Predicted, on one card the scribbled
note: "Role of ideas - make the work not self-contained, refer to, stand for,
sign" and further
down on card the notation: "Sign
Form"
(See Loses)
over its
A card from Card
In these words, one
might hear the echo of a very
File,
1962
(no. 26).
pursuit of the contradictory, be
being as an effect of saying. Shamed from the time
making,
of
its
saw
condemnation by Plato and Aristotle (who
in
it
the empire of pseudos,
kingdom of the
reality."
false
and of falsehood), sophism has, nevertheless, been
The
intermittently resurgent.
discourse of sophistry
refuses to be submitted to the law of noncontradiction;
it is
the
latter's
for the
part of
connected to play,
it is
in
capacity to produce reality. Morris's taste
profoundly sophistic
artist,
an oxymoron
"fiction," in
He
which there
is
is
zfictor, as in the
sculpture), pretense,
and
In Morris's 1978 essay
word
(as in
the history of art
"I"
"The Present Tense of
here
is
"art
within
its
seen as a kind of latent
material, something like the words in a dictionary,
awaiting a narrator to propel
a narrative.
of his love of rhetorical
Morris's unhesitant reliance here
is
on an
understood
in a sense exactly opposite to that proposed by Michael
on Minimalism." So much
and
for the
for
America
art by
for the clarity of the
comprehension of future
"American Quartet," published
in 1981,
it
debate
scholars.
Art
in
in
presents itself as an essay on the
American contemporary
in
Joseph Cornell, Duchamp, Edward Hopper, and
Morris's text
is
editorial "we"
followed by
five
"Commentary,"
presumes
long paragraphs
in
in
winch an
to dissociate itself
from the
foregoing analysis:
and an aesthetic of the "me,"
meaning
history," not the discipline
"Make
themselves
italics, entitled
novelistic invention.
Space," which tries to establish the difference between
an aesthetic of the
symptom
Jackson Pollock. In an uncustomary manner,
an etymological
superimposition of the notions of modeling
typical
founding roles played
reminiscent of Ravel's description of himself
as "artificial by nature."
and of arguments that turn against
entirely theatrical notion of "presentness"
As
palimpsest, the mask, and the palinode
make him
reversals
sword-
in art or in
rhe only basis for perceiving dialectical
is
2 ''
it
Fried in "Art and Objecthood," his famous attack
not sustained by truth, but by contingency
and appearance.
"The
"contradictions"; or, as the essay concludes:
ancient principle, that of the Sophists, which posits
Claim
them
into motion:
development
in retrospect.
Invent history," without worrying about the inevitable
We always
enjoy reading Morris's articles. But
said that, like
reat deal.
his art. tin}
Wt cannot
havt tended
let this
to
it
mu
wander around
one pass without noting
certain gaps, stretches of muddy prose,
wmt
extremely
questionable assumptions, constructs which jn rhaps exist
mostly in Morris's mind,
etc.
85
Some time
the Editor appeared
later, a letter to
Robert Morris,
I .
n:
Some Afterthoughts after
Doing Blind Tr
Commentary.
that protested this "unsigned editor's
.t:.m 19,
(summer 1993), pp 61727 A
To which came the rip
Davidson's test.
ised version of
originally published in the catalogue tor the exhibition ol these
id no oni u uuld ask
an
although most
drawings (Allencown. Pa
appears in the
fine Duchampian
hand behind the unsigned Commentary. And
Writing with Davidsoi
iris,
1976
4.
that
.'
The Third Man.
initial double
Mori
ert
Frank Martin Gallery, Muhlenberg Colli
.:
sai
is
the date given, tor example, in the exhibition cataloj
it u
ot Art.
complex essay published by Morris
Robert Mori
Jonathan Fineberg,
Sepi
Without question, the most important and most
ol the
in recent years is
(oil.
unpaginated
)SJi.
Williams
(Williamstown, Mass
Museum
published interview specifies that
An
Back
pp 11415
'80),
it
Interview,'
end
note ai the
took place
1977 Ivkti
in
an audieni
"Three Folds
the Fabric and Four Autobiographical
in
dates From 1989.
Its
epigraph places
who
authority of Michel Foucault,
This occurs
6.
Asides as Allegories (or Interruptions)," which
in a
commandment,
made of Da'
there enjoins one
Morris intercuts his reflections on the
state of current art with reminiscences
The opening meditation attempts
three contemporary types
Modernist abstract, with
on Ins past.
linarli.nl. ;:.
to distinguish
ol aesthetic
footnoti
discourse
articulated;
insistence on purity and
its
\\
rii mil'
it
arlimlati
ith
transcendence; sotiopolitK.il. with us desire lor
truth and rationality; and Anally a third, char.it terized
oth pervasive and submerged"
negative discourse
much
h< lias
under the
it
of oneself." In order to reply to this
get tree
oi
note relating to questions raised b) Morris
concerning the use
a part of
"It's a
proposal
some ways. Negations are
The second
in
The form of self-accusation, and
kind
It
as
oncerns his childhood
beginnings as an
and
artist,
time (with the work
of
in
Kansas
Ins
icy,
makes the
flag
whole catalogues about the way
those
"art stones'
of art
take shape.
that
we end up
in
ol
open
>
and then
to inn rpretation,
While Morns makes
commentary
writes
II
numbi
ubiquitous and questionable unanswered question) none sends up
at
whi< h
quicker than this oni
["h<
threatens to topple onto
art
telling than
kings
follow ing
by Morris in Ins desire to
A little farther on Morns
human behavior, an as wi
ol
questionable assertions throughout this text (not CO mention the
Reinhardc): the accounts arc funny, intense, or both
moral thai are
ot
self-mockery, that floods this
borrowed
ol voices
our search to make sense
murder
as rlu
Ins encounters at thai
Duchamp, Newman, Ad
-apologues without
"m
ol
whose importance should not be underestimated
highlights the plurality
that
meditation
a tro|x
is
escape an) fixed position, anj thesis
as assertions."
it
Davidson," p
a fed
suggestion of wanting to 'makt sms,
him
the wi ighl ol a vasl
rilual
nn
,.i
rpiisi
thai dismisses such an urge as not only naivi but impossibli
calling the histor)
Lawrence Alio way,
Artists as \\ riters,
Inside Information
Notes on
Morris's early texts an
Arboi
Mil h
Ml
oi;
l
Dana
Mi,l
/>
art
and evil?
>od
It
can
and does
worst moral climates. Perhaps because
tlval
with
<ilI
manner
whose naturt invites
oj
tht
it
wcial extn mi
investigation
i.
oj
[Ti\
...
flourish in tht
n amoral it can
It is
an
extremt
Mi.
Notes on Sculpt
six essays are (1)
!)
entt rprist
n printed
\rt
\.
no 6
m Sculptun
Noti
Vork Dutton, 1968
;;/..;/
Ami
i
|
and ust
ontain
ontrary
most
it
finds
ithout
and
has alu
it
and im
vitably
uches the
>
\,,n
sustains the contradit tor)
..
ili
aim tit
Form
pp
onthi
hi
its
<//>,/(//)
modernism
constantly
onci
it
became a
I
ilt /i t
mil
i/r
nl
am
not avt rlooking the
ii
from
mi ihi
pan
in thi
ipai
li
iln
vi i\
Noti
thai
on
&
|
win.
li
ii
ul|
vii
an evocation of thi Minimalist volumes then
ili>
its
bloi ks float in tin
si
mon
hi
Mans,
Fact thai
It
.a
\rt
little dij
in
i
fai
thi
hi
tlity
(pharaoh, pope, nobility, capitalism).
///i
upon and tervedone
ith littlt
Motivated
to relj
lished rules that rationalized a procedure, a
a
196
B [April I9i
is
in
momeni
whi
I
ii
In.
li
he had lead
a/way propaganda
i
Iranslati d
HI,
from
chi
Pr< n<
h by Rosalind
Km
...I.
l\
idi
nniii
.1
III
Morns, "Some Notes on the Phenomenology
10.
of
Making,"
makes most suggestive reading. For dissimulation (and
p. 66.
"The Art of Existence. Three Extra-Visual
12. Morris,
Works
Artists:
in
lineage of Strauss,
13. Ibid.
L'Eiuperetir Julien
interesting to recall that one of the
the turn of the second century A.D.,
is
by
raised
famous collection of ekphraseis edited
Philostratus's Eikones, the
in
main problems
reflect
on the
fact that the ekpbrasis
founder of the genre
considered as the absolute
the description in Homer's Iliad of the torging of
Achilles's shield by Hephaistos
the
is
work of an author known
in the
is
t!
the short and fascinating text by Alexandre Kojeve,
ton art J'ecrire (Paris:
dose of sprezzatnra, has something in
Fourbis, 1990).
Morns, "The Art of Existence,"
it
is
accompanied by
most bizarre and perverse examples
Age
One
French by M. Blanc-Sanchez
De
as
I'honnete dissimulation (Lagrasse:
Verdier, 1990). In his prologue, Accetto explains the shortness of his
as follows:
in disguise has
18. Ibid., p. 33.
what
"But
my work
17. Ibid.
wrote
Moms,
should be pardoned
for
having been made to
in its present, partly bloodless state,
meant that
at the outset
because to write
dissimulate and that, to this end,
had
to
much
"Three Folds in the Fabric and Four Autobiographical
19. Ibid.
30.
Asides as Allegories (Or Interruptions)," Art in America 77, no. 9
"Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making,"
p. 63-
22. Concerning Pessoa and the dizzying proliferation of his literary
personae,
refer to the collection
Malle pleine de gens
of essays by Antonio Tabucchi, Une
Para [Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1992;
(trans. J. -B.
(November 1989),
31.
"No
art
of
be amputated."
20. Ibid.
21. Morris,
of the
the treatise by Torquato
Accetto, Delia dissimulazione onesta (1641), recently translated into
publish
p. 30.
is
a large
of that of the secretaries,
from Machiavelli to Baltasar Gracian by way of Castiglione.
work
classical tradirion as blind.
16.
often urgent
counselors, and courtesans of the Renaissance and the Classical
at
whether the paintings described
such minute detail actually existed. In the same line of thinking, one
might
its
Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of
Morris's form of dissimulation, which
14. Ibid., p. 29.
is
is
Writing (London: Free Press, 1952). Less known, but in the direct
Process," Artferum 9, no. 5 (January 1971), p. 28.
15. It
work
necessity), the classic
LI. Ibid.
p. 148.
comes without
prescriptive text
its stories.
which imposes
rules
An
art story
by which
its
is
once a
at
participants learn to
play a certain kind of game; a genealogy of certain events and of
1990]), which contains in an appendix the astonishing "Letter to Adolfo
certain sets of enduring, often conflicting desires; and a concatenation
Casais Monteiro on the genesis of the heteronyms," written by Pessoa
of traits, tropes, obsessions and historicized accounts by apologists
in
my
1935: "The origin of
hysterical tendencies.
found
in
my
Mark
23.
heteronyms
The mental
is
located in
origin of
my
my
profoundly
heteronyms
to be
is
organic and continual tendency toward depersonalization
and dissimulation"
on
1-20. Jean Starobinski provides a remarkable commentary
5,
story
is a
seek to legitimize an ideological position. In short, an art
discourse particular to an enterprise which pretends to
revolve around the producrion of a certain unstable class of
individually produced
(p. 145).
this passage in "Le
who would
Combat
avec Legion," in Trois Fureurs (Paris:
32. Morris, "Notes
handmade
on Art
as /and
more
or less
artifacts" (ibid, p. 143)
Land Reclamation,"
October, no.
12
(spring 1980), pp. 101-02.
Gallimard, 1974), pp. 73-126.
"Some Splashes
24. Morris,
in the
Ebb Tide," Artforum
no.
(February 1973), p. 43.
25.
On
the
first
(thar of Protagoras, Gorgias,
and others, which was
denounced by Plato) and second phases of Sophistry (which crystalized
in the oratorical art
Rome
of second-century
and played a
role in the
contiguous development of ekpbrasis and the novel), see the two volumes
of anthologies
assembled under the direction of Barbara Cassin,
and Le
de la sophist ique (Paris: Vrin, 1986);
Positions
Plaisir de parler (Paris:
Minuit, 1986).
"The Simulacrum and Ancient Philosophy," Gilles Deleuze's text
on the "reversal of Platonism" and
acceptance of the power of the
continuation in the modern
its
false, first
and foremosr
in the
work
of Nietzsche, remains a fundamenral reference for thinking about these
issues in relation to recent art practice (The Logic of Sense, trans.
Mark
[New York: Columbia
Lester
Universiry Press, 1990; 1969],
pp. 25379). In addition, Clement Rosset's
L Anti-nature
(Paris:
PUF,
1973) usefully summarizes the principal oscillations between natural
and
Not
artificial
thinking within the development of Western philosophy.
surprisingly, one notes Morris's recent quote, in "Writing with
Davidson" (pp. 622-23), from the seminars of Jacques Lacan, one of the
great contemporary sophists: "I
make
a distinction
between language
and being. That implies that there could be word-fiction
starting from the
word"
(Encore,
Seminar
XX
[Paris:
mean
Le Seuil, 1975]
p. 107).
26.
Morns, "The Present Tense of Space," Art
in America 66, no.
(January-February 1978), pp. 70, 80.
27
Mi< hael Fried,
Art and Objecthood," Artforum (June 1967),
reprinted in Battcock, pp.
28. Morris,
1981),
p.
1647.
"American Quartet," Art
in
America 69, no. 10 (December
104.
29- See the letter, signed "Donald Hoffmann," in Art in America 70,
no. 2 (February 1982), p. 5.
There
is
considering Morris and his writings
material in this letter for
in the light
of the history of the
counterfeit and of literary dissimulation. For the former, the book by
Anthony Grafton,
Forgers
and Critics:
Creativity
and Duplicity
in Western
Scholarship (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. L990)
JEAN-PIER
!<
'
87
CATALOGUE
COLUMNS,
nning
in 1954,
1961
Robert Morris, a young San
own
began their own workshop
the hollow
what we
pioneering work
San Francisco
in
Halprin repressed.'
felt
use
games
to structure
tor
own development
Morris's
of
New
Morris visited
York City
the spring
in
column during
occupied
ot his
unbuffered
using an offstage string
of
Morris
the group of dancers, choreographers.
composers, and visual artists associated with the
Judson Dance Theater, which included, among others,
Beam
/.
1965, nos. 2-
by Merce Cunningham, the dancers brought certain
time, drew
conventions with them, such as partnering or turning
Forti's
own body
as if "on poini
of
>,
the positioning of bodies
its
of one's
this
first
1961
all of
ot his
no.
in
>
allude to the
hit h
emphasis on
lust as
space
developing
and the
the anti-
cxpressivc reduction ot the column-as-perfbrmer, with
that the spectator
onventions were critiqued trom the poini
the years
in
original Living Theater performance's
Rainer, and Robert Raust hcnbcrg. Previously trained
made
Columns
In
Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Sieve Paxton, Yvonne
around the tenter
marked
that
"abstract" sculpture continued to characterize the
<>!
Minimalism:
These
a result
the final performance.
in
The anthropomorphism
objects that Morris
(it
the piece.
ot
led to the necessary expedient
tall
I960, returning to California tor another of Halprin's
part
the performance and,
during the rehearsal
it
summer workshops. He moved permanently to
New York with Forti early that tall Soon after,
became
of its
The subsequent head injurj Morns received as
and sculptor.
as both dancer
move
to
accord. He, therefore, had planned to be inside
in tact,
her improvisational development
sequences, and her
props and
movement was formative
of voice narrative
rule
order to
in
Forti's
seem
"expression." the object should
of Ann Halprin's dance workshops; soon, the two
"explore
body was reinforced by
the dancer's
of
Morris's intention that, although stripped of all
dancer and choreographer, attended a number
Forti, a
surrogate
Francisco Absrract Expressionist painter, and Simone
naked relation to gravity and us requirement
submit
Morns
to the conditions ol real
closer to the ideas that were to
Dana Theaters
and the Judson
mark
task-oriented
dance vocabulary; that vocabulary was to reverberate
withm
evoh ing
Morris's
st
ulpture, with
body-
its
John Cages musical ideas, understood as
examples ol how to break with traditional composition
related stale
The
olumm synchronousl) restage
column in
the Living Theater performam e, but the self-const ious
doubling ol the column set ins as well an embrace
view
ot
was the development
result
ordinary, in whit h "the objei
and
lived time, repetition,
abulary ot the
of a vo<
ation of
tint
movement,"
task- or play-driven
gestures prevailed. Forti's ideas, again, set the ag< nda
most
tor
what was developed
of
and
as
\oi< e as text
movement
<
sound
the Judson Dance
at
games with
contact, improvisation,
rheatei
dam
in
Jan,
issisik
and
based on prolessHni.il training. All
d singlehandt
Forti invt nt<
importanct
Voko
.n
It
ol
In
ot
hambers
first
ing
i\
In ati
in
In.
h cimi
and
ii
hall
11
foi
toppli
hi
maim
'
l<
concentrated into
[j
<
and
it
'I
prom
'I
the
chre<
p<
.1
["hen
minuti
s,
afti
sn ing from
anothei three and
rformi
vo po itions
chei
st
F01
painted
graj
no rol
with
foi
a
a hall
b)
as
1
11
mptj
BO
ralizi
tin"
It")
'I
tin
waj
leu tin
tni
which was developed
book //'< Sbapt
in his influential
is
an autonomous
the luminous strut tun
ol
ondut
it
ol
anj given
Thus, for example, he saw the
landscape as
ol
d In the mural painters
ot
[ere
ul.uu uni and
Boscoreale, then In seventeenth centur] artists, and,
Clzanne as successive stages
problem, ont whosi internal
parti)
the
it
apit ulatc.l
ol a single
must be grasped,
logie
wishing to
b\ ,nn artist
Tins notion ot
form-class furthei
morphological sequence played an important
Morris
(
in Ins
lunti
onstantin Bram usi
1
1-,
role foi
ollege master's thesis on
<
In
keeping with Kubler's
logii
subs, ribes to the notion, interchangeable with
formal sequence, thai "the entitj composed In
ofTsti
chi
olumn
anding am
olumn was undi
the "form-t lass,"
historn.il context.
Mm
l\
the multitudi ofpossibli danci gestures
liti
ot
For Kubler, a form-< lass
'.<
ing
l
down
George Kubler
develop
Ni Vbrk
event, he positioned an unadorned
olumn
the non 01
ol
and even
ulptural obji
in
onlj does Twoi,
finally, bj
1961
in
lofi
si
Not
stud)
these chinj
then adapted as
whi< h h<
ili.
stood erect
ol tin ks
Morris emphasizes the
<\\\
Street
ainting and built Ins
it
bag
I960 thai Morris rejected the enterprise
entitled Column,
ih'
time
the two positions successivelj taken by the
formal problem that txisis independent
ai
the ideas lorn developed in hei concert
ol
)nos
was
aimed
real
whie h pen eprion unfolds.
task gene rating
"in short, those strategies
rushing the nan
rules,
and us emphasis on the
to
till
ochi rwist
rstood as
Two Columns, 1973
iust
ii"
num. two
1243.8
1961
61
b\
ml
tinted
leheran
plywood.
n of a
units,
1961
each 96
Museum
ot
original
24
24
1973
in
Contemporary am,
<i
problem and
its
and that
Form-class develops through the "gradually
tin-
solutions constitutes
altered repetition ol
system
thesam<
ol l<>rm-i lasses
formal sequent es
Brant usi
work, espe<
also provides an entry into Ins
It
ially
tin
<>t
the
(Iteration ol tht
nomii
al
means
"l
is
by
th<
Ktn melj
While
for
ntitled
Morris had initially
planm
ipofnint L-beams,hi soon realized, in
ii
probli in
.it
n various positions
I
(hi
on
hand, thai
>>tn
both .inns forming an
its sidi
id in
IV!
tr.ut
repositioning
lying
own
developed serially through
same
muni
would
.1
set "t thi
seated
inv<
rr<
>l
upright,
\
February 19
M.iss
th< artist,
om
and ont
cablish tht form-class
Haven Yale University
.v
Decembei
thesis,
lust
WorkofConsrantin Brancusi,
Hunt.
from Kubler's when, as he puts
to the abhorred
p.
Mon
Kul
ideas
196
Press,
Classes in thi
unpublished master
work,
vhen
form
a prii
artist,
/'
Press
ovoid
ol the
Kr.iu-.s.
Communication from
This
akIi the horizontal and vertical positioning
for
Ins analysis
in
Rosalind
Ml
edents, and theii
t<>
Communication from the
ts.
slight alteration
reasoning w.is applied by Morris
ol
lass.
overall
admits prime obje<
and development by
development
form-<
The
tr.ut
which there are m
replii at ion
.1
metaphoi
ol
careful to distinguish his
it,
Kubler comi
rousl)
own
facing page: 2. Untitled (Two L-Beams), 1966 refabrication
a
1965
original. Painted
24 inches (243.8
3. Untitled
plywood, two
243.8
units,
each 96
(243.8 x 243.8
plywood, three
x
96
of
61 cm).
(Three L-Beams), 1969 refabrication
original. Painted
units,
each 96
of a
96
1965
24 inches
61 cm).
PASSAGEWAY,
196
newly conceived medium. Morris was able,
While in California in I960, Morris was introduced to
the composer La Monte Young by John Cage. After
his subsequent move to New York, Morris was invited
by Young to participate in a series of concerts and
of a
performances that he had organized. These included
the performing
Henry
Simone lord, a
performance byjackson MacLow, and a work by Young
lectures by
Flynt, a concert by
An
himself. For Morris's event, guests were invited to
Environment"
Chambers
3- 7
to be
common
orridor that
urved
passageways
feet thai
but
ly
guests found
of the
The
dan. er
Yvonne Rainer took
pent
her pocket book and scrawled "FUCK Vol
a<
one
ross
BOB MORRIS"
Indeed, the work's interior was
the walls.
of
besmirched with
depanun Imiu
substantia
th<
as
Pop
art
common
Two years
Roy
ol
"New
Lie htenste in,
were given
her essay "A H
later, in
vocabulary, was the
haos
'
>
ause.
fabric ol
Minimalisms nonimagistit and
end of ai h day
While the extreme simplicity of Passageway
demonstrates
known
Realism" (now
Rose
Art.
neo-Dada,
arguing that what linked the two phenomena, despite
autographs, and Morris recalls toui hing up the walls
at the
Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Whitman,
wove Minimalism into the
and
a variety ol graffiti, insults,
Jim Dine. Allan
Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselman
Irom
il
of
Robert Rauschenberg, and the sleek-surfaced
as pleasurably
it
such formally
In this way,
Happenings
the paintings and combines of Jasper Johns and
the entire event.
unpalatable, wink others experienced
ironic
a reverse
of (age-,
artistic practice.
objects to produce an imagery of "the
American Dream."
diverse art as the
work's laconic gesture
th<
contemporary
in
ommonplace
tailed
converting the experience into
comprised
Some
Morns away from
Implicit in this neo-Dada. she wrote, was the use
of
it
kind
own
1963, a new and insurgent Dada, or
in
it
had taken hold
exerted a brute control over their bodies and their
expectations
Passageway seems to move
It
"neo-Dada," based in large part on the ideas
realized that the
ompression, ami the
its
the example of Cage, Fluxus, and Happenings to a
to artit ulate
narrowing slow
feet,
for fifty
They quickly
steadily to a point.
body and concentrate within
prismatic form that body's gestural energy.
Minimalism may be understood as forming a bridge
between these phenomena As Barbara Rose began
plywood-lined
prop that would simultaneously confront
sculptural
position as a nascent Minimalist, the early reception of
several hours
to Fluxus. viewers entered the
only to find themselves in
loft,
is
articulated in dance to create an interactive shape, a
open
1961.
in all
it
Yoko Ono's studio on
doubt anticipating the kind of Merz
environment
artist
which was
each day from June
No
Fluxus
at the
Street,
these works, to use the specificity of gesture as
deployment
Pop's figurative
literal, cool,
unexaggeratc d
.i\\>.\
the ready mad.
of
haped Happenings, which had begun to appear
it.
New York
by
1959,
ine\ itably
it
Yet Morris
insistent aggr. ssiceness
and
upon an
hanged the
well as to draw
episodic,
their desire
rei alls
Morris
inipulati
had
CX(
theatrical form, with
..
re< ills
thai
><
lapjx nings
ini ludi
hi
was
th< onlj
linn
si
>in<
implications, and thi expressivi textun of the Fluxus
>
petson
."
Kaprow
.an ndance
Bail
I.
us
60),
Building i\959), All.m
narrative
its
times
.a
!fl
Red
//...'
lldenb
Dads rhen and Now,
\rt
IntmuUmul,
I.
.mm
which may be seen as deliberate!) continuous
wit
sionism
Of IMi|
work
ing the
si.
ai
spatial
would
audi,
ni
b.
twi
work prod
l
\.
>l'
in. al
in:'
th(
.,'.
in
Alll An.
e p.
is
L961
.
i,
ai
.
in.
ly
no
lai
thi
Now
<u\
Gregorj Battcock
.\,u \,k Dmtoi
I960
n
lat<
ulptun
S'. Portals 1961
its
...U
90)
ch<
body advancing
li
li
nih.it Anthology, ed
ould
and horizontal, the
veci
l<
Morris
i
When
body's position to
thi
ich ol Mori
94
Roai
In ilns sense,
'
..i
had reduced
r<
b<
<
nvelopi that
marriage of dance and built structun
dill.
ipating body to us task
p. .up
was
us
"t
and
that of entry
gesture
that tins gi stun
into
'
mold
/',
om
mi mb<
.him d bj eai h
madi
ontrai tion
oncentrating on
'
foi a radii al
.!
no
in
s,
9), or
this undi rstanding
Passageway 1961
(2.44
Painted plywood, 8 x
50
ing inside
feel
Passageway.
BOX FOR STANDING, 1961
photograph taken
Church
in Morris's
Street studio in
1961 shows the artist standing, arms at his sides, inside
a
Made
pine box
measurements, the
to his precise
work engulfs him
His downward gaze and
like a coffin.
expressionless face convey
the images sense of
little;
purpose and overall intensity seem, therefore,
from the
to derive
upright posture alone.
artist's
That the photograph shows Morris "performing"
work to Passagi u a) L961
his sculpture links this
n and the
HO.
Passageway,
it
Column (I960,
earlier
can be seen to have certain
Happenings and, through them,
early
being constructed
Europe between
in
Like
p. 90).
the
ties to
to the bridge
Surrealism
late
and early Nouveau Realisme. From Merer Oppenheim's
made
Banquet,
the 1959 International Exhibition
tor
Jim Dines Car Crash (I960) or Robert
Whitmans E.G. (I960), the prone, entombed body
of Surrealism, to
had played
the imaginative space being
a central role in
explored by both European
American
.i\^\
artists.
Hut unlike these episodic perform. nut pieces, Morris's
I
'Box for Standing)
'ntitled
Passageway
concentrates
1961
no. 6)
impact
its
had
as
in a single
gesture, that of the upright coffin, in which the body,
movement
held in a vertical position, p< rforms one
rlic resist. in-
it\
moves B
that
time and Space,
this gesture, cii.k ted in real
is
It
to gra\
waj
from a sculpture
presentation. Several rounded tombstonelike works
pine (for example, no.
in
.11
ising the physii al objet
and
also fashioned in 1961,
5),
litmus ol represr11t.1tmn.il
within
a veil "I illusion
Rejecting
thereby, into virtual space
proji
still
ulpture,
si
the notion of representation, Box for Standing
mstrates that what had be< n largel) unthinkable
within Modern
protoi ol
thi
nted subji
51
sculpture and
and
is
ledge fn
mi
s.
th<
v< rj
made
shows the
1.
mill d
.1
ore
to the
at
to ch<
experience
its
ironmi
thi
ii
shortl) after finishing
d in plaj
artist
is
with the
ulpture,
s<
iron wheels, four feet in
si
diameter, joined
take
ith its en\
images, Morris interai
p. mi ol
measure
in turn, to
photographs,
no
In th<
mi
medium According
offers us
shown,
l.iinu
s.
ol th<
these works, the body, although no Ion
c,t
pi'
r<
ulpture had
si
conception
Morris's
nt< rs bj
.1
mi
tal
bat
si
veral
and moving as he assumes
various postures, remains in IK in vii w
he mow ments
h< lifts On w lni Is b) tin bar, as
long
feet
h>
artist, shifting
it
urling
11
"i w<
nds on
11
eai
Ii
whei
Morris
di
bodil) affiliation with his objects
M,
thi
arms
bar,
iously poised with
monstrati
.1
.1
foot
di
on
facing page, top: Morns
in
Box
for Standing.
facing page, bottom: 5. Untitled (Rough Tombstone), 1961.
Fir,
60 inches (152.4 cm)
6. Untitled
high.
(Box for Standing). 1961.
10'' 2 inches (188 x 63.5 x 26.7 cm).
Fir,
74
25
Wheels 1963 Laminated
fir
and painted cast
nches (121.3 cm) diameter The
I
the Volunteer
Committee Fund, Toronto.
Facing page: Morns with Wheels.
II
iron,
Art Gallery ot Ontario,
PORTALS
196
Modern sculpture, many notions
way to work materials have been
an abstracted ideal space
In the history of
or
of the proper
sculpture, on
entertained, direct carving, modeling, casting,
relies, dissolves, a
among them.
welding, polishing, and burnishing
result of their insistence
it is
to experience
this century's sculpture
dislocation best underscored by
the elimination ot the base. These objects
It
the Minimalists, especially Morris and Carl Andre,
cannot be aligned with any of these methods,
which
in
which much of
columns, and the
like
rest
uncanny immediacy from the
on the basics of building and
and on which we walk. For
doorways,
on and draw their
it
on which they
floor
cannot be said that
sit
made unnecessary more conventional
means of sculptural manipulation. The elementary
portal
methods, industrial materials, and standardized
organizing core underwent significant modulation and
arranging, which
embraced and, indeed, brought
units that these artists
to
prominence
to
fundamental building techniques, manifestly
1960s bear distinct
in the late
life
(that
is,
system or the rows
an work into everyday
Clement Greenberg lamented, the
so that, as
work
"readable as art, as almost anything
is
including a door, a table, or a blank sheet of paper."
Two
frames
of Morris's earliest works were, quite
lintel structures.
Untitled (Pint Portal)
1961
the
same time
tombstones
as his
and Columm (pp. 90-92);
1961
<
ly-painted work, w
something
columns
made
issues
no
the Portali heighten
on
viewi
upon
to
in
mirrored lining
ith
sense
ol di
;ed
posn
/'.
1961
nsivi
'Ipll S
with
hiti
100
space,
to make-
using simple-
and commonly available materials, manipulated
terms
ot explicitly
straightforward procedures.
a priori
Clement Greenberg,
Recentness of Sculpture,"
at
Must
um
ol
Art,
in
Los Angeles Los Angeles
"
;
mmunication from the
artist.
February
Ibid
more
coming
no,
added
n hi
/
In thai
10).
'n titled
bod)
work,
vis a \is
through the doorwaj
ol on<
(Pint
It
s<
is
the
to
as a
Morris's Portals, and, similarly,
tnding
as< orollai
it
the
ity in
1961
no
6),
and
the
loubly as architectural
it
to thi
bj virtui of its
spa,
movi
ol ch(
t
or
pres sun ol chi
si
body,
how
fundamentally
nsi
ol
mi caphoi and
Untitled (Pine Portal). 1961. Laminated dr. 96
12 inches (243.8
121.9
30.5 cm).
48
Jpiun
ount]
sp
ler thi
an
wh<
portal in
and doubled imagi
own
environment,
reflexh
ring ol ch<
to pass
oi traci
directly, in us
suggested bj
year,
wooden
Columns, establish then
app<
trom Morris's
cangular
re(
like that
oi sell
same
the
nti
though
as
kind
issue
them, an experience that Morns
to the
Wtrro\
And
\)
passage involvi
frame
between
viewer; spatial
the issues raised by these works are
lr(196l,
,-,
works
ofiht Sixties, exhibition catalogue
'
stan between entering and exiting,
'1
its
them the notion of passage
through them or that standing
connected to mai
indi
stable relationship
vithin
that one should pass
is
no. 8),
no. 9),
h looked
an h on two
like a straight
and going
hi<
iewing as
decisions and basic construction methods."
was then
this portal
developed into Untitled (Portal)
that sculpture's
"These procedures,'' he has written, "involved
example, no. 5)
(for
one. Another
literally.
an elemental, unpainted wooden frame, was
In short, these early
doors in the form of simple post-and-
for
is
involvement with the "capacity of the body
tools
today
is
simply
and temporal events were destabilized and decentered.
something
used in Egyptian
architecture, they integrated
life,
it
new grounding was
extension. For one thing, the new sculpture disrupted
nonart). Privileging
of bricks
ot this
a centralized sculptural object and
such ancient structural combinations as the post-andlintel
a portal;
the practice of
ties
architectural problems, and the spatial and temporal
matrices of everyday
is likt
consequence
*j
f^B
"*
<
1
i
i
facing page: 9. Untitled (Portal). 1961. Painted plywood. 96
48
12 inches (243.8
121.9
10. Untitled (Pine Portal with Mirrors)
a
1961
original.
30.5 cm)
1978
refabrication of
Laminated pine and mirrors, 84 inches (213.4 cm)
high. Collection of the artist.
PORTALS 103
BOX WITH THE SOUND OF ITS OWN MAKING, 1961
One of Morris's
earliest sculptural objects,
undoflti Ou
understood
terms of the
in
Duchamp.
Marcel
to
Making
'.
1961
no.
artist's
11
Box with
Making
can be
become
s
self-apprenticeship
work evokes Duchamp's
ball Hi twine sandwiched
is
often cited as an early example of
a large
me
body
of
what would
process-saturated work.
Minimalism
writing on
of the early critical
drew a parallel between the minimal imagery
':<
Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist
Morris's
a
(,
between metal plates that contains within
work
it
art
involved in Duchamp's gesture
making
of
something unidentifiable that makes noise when the
object is shaken. Contrary to Duchamp's intentions,
simply
however, the sound emanating from Box with the
greeted not only as an allusion to With Hiddt
Sound
Making
is
meant
Morris's Box u itb tbt
to dispel the idea oi
secrecy, substituting instead the experience of
an intelligible process and
CWU962,
1963, no.
Framt
no. 12).
Gordon Gallery in New York,
group show (February 27 March 2 I. 1963) that
included the work
Japanese artists to
oi several
in
plasm
demands: issuing from the depths
tape recording
is
it
Ai\d inside, of past
ma
the
of rc<
ri
I"
no.
of as a
he began
own
ol
early
less ion sin
i
an
physii
that
al
ami
prop
would
81
ha)
formi
between
In hi
Ins
isa)
the way thi
foi
work remains
li
roll
in.
li
in\ol\i
With Hidden Noise
the
i
.hap.
fl
Museum
profound
of both materials and tools in
Morris
thi
and
ih<
fori
rties of materials
givi
nth to
irj
to his process-oriented
Ij
Metal
led Morris to a rejection
to signal foi
Form,
10 4
tion painting Ja< kson Folloi ks
ai
thinking of thi
i
and $00 05) B) April
il
he states Ins admiration
ii
exhibition cataloj
1968,
hi
making
Marcia Tucker, R
undo/
io|x
//>
works to
Ou
of Art,
.>r
to Minimalist!
produc tion
of
,s
(January 1965), reprinted in
lapse of OUtsidl
and Minimalism, which
in favot ol thi
Ann Form
il
name
it.
ol
oi Blii
work ha
lam
the
its
(In-
246
1973 (pp
'|
would lend
An
sawing,
Felti (pp. 2\.'
in
'
Battcock (New
extreme
its
insidi ration of the ideologii al nit
rai
later,
Battcock, p|
rience of he objei
or inst ription
Richard Wolfheim developed this parallel
and present, the making and
and the sen.
A Critical Ami
theessaj that,
pp
Morris's later anti-form, or Process, work,
example
tor
took Morris io build
ordmg
October 1965), reprinted
produced during
iflated in
This kind
hand< raited
sounds
oi all tin
what ion Id be thought
In
Minimal Art:
Art.
Dutton, 1968), pp
5.
the obj<
c of
of this
inering, measuring, sanding
the three hours
in
"A B
ruptured internally by the
is
auditory encounter that the cxpcricin
box
o.
Barbara Rose,
Thus,
arts.
the visual experience of the cube's form
Making was
Whitnej Museum of American Art, I970),p 13
separation of the genres by using sound to open up
closed silence oi the traditional
geometrical simplicity
Wollheim, "Minimal
Modernist
thi
Ann
in
between sculpture and theater. Box with
Sound of Its Oi
the
Morris,
in
whom
Morns had been introduced by Arakawa.
Just as Morris's Column (I960, p. 90) operated
a space
Ou
1962, no. In. U beeli
exhibited at the
first
/.'
1955), a monochromatic painting with
music box behind us surface
and some smaller pieces, the work was
7),
Sound oj
art
In this context
objects.
but also to such Duchamp-inspired work as Jasper
Johns's Tango
duration. Together with
its
readymade
bj signing
ol
and the minimal
im hes (12.8 x
13
l'U6
11.4 cm)
Philadi
Louise and Walter Arensberg Col
N ..rk
11.
Box with the Sound
of Its
Own Making,
1961. Walnut
box. speaker, and three-and-one-half-hour recorded tape, 9
9%
Gift of
/4
inches (24.8
24.8
24.8 cm). Seattle
Art
'
Museum,
Bagley and Virginia Wright.
BOX WITH THE SOUND OF
ITS
103
EARLY MINIMALISM
When
Donald Judd first encountered Morris's earliest
Minimal works, exhibited at New 'York's Green Gallery
he described them as
in spring 1963,
standing open
"a
square, a gate, a pair ot wheels, a suspended slab."
While the spareness of the works was
then
interesting,"
The
"potentially
much
attcr all,
'isn't,
why
works
effect of the
to
one
language games
put
in the
Judd saw him
view,'
seriously,
the most
to
reductive possible aesthetic statement, namely that
something could identity
"It sets a
lowest
common
denominator." This lowest denominator, he went on
was not that of the readymade whose
to argue,
claim to be
seemed
it
that
[art] is
work he found himself admiring,
the
off
and
monumi
sculptural and
public nature
and "the
In the
(1962,
winter
"<
something
into
whii h was pro.
on
flat
1963 64,
of
<
onfronted with
'ntitled
Nova So
'imposition out
of
ol a
I.
.1
fudd had work*
Mi
mi idle
"loi
as
n u. n\ forms,
i
ing thai
hind
oi broki
In
pun
shapi
on
.'
196
itali
oi
togi thi
down
ti
work.
or
into
si
.1
Ins
p. 1
irts
Me
3,
Barbara Ros<
thai
In
6 (March 1964), n
'
printed
in
..././/:.././,
on
&
(New York:
wa)
ban
no. 5 (Februarj
\'
(>..ll. ries,
ill.
"A
ulptun
Fi
>;//..;/
'
Amk
.1
bruan,
Gregorj Battcock
K.'m
I*
\"
<
m.
..ii
October Now mix
li
'I
s.
ulptun
Octobei
Pai
k, pp.
2 28
is
d. illuminated.
called results,
an'i
l><
rgj
analyzed
to
facing page top: 12
parts
onm
with the question
no.
17
with only on<
gnitiveem
parati
(Halifax
Bui in reducing
ies
what he
in a w.c\
'
s,
making them op< rati as
Morris was abl< todelivei
provi
cl
form
i.
proper)
ol
pun displacement of spaci
...\
exl. ndl d,
I
t ..ill. rii
din M
to bring into
impossible thing
visual detail of his works,
them
the
ol
[aitford
printi ! in
isually, hut
impossible sinci anything wi perceive
singularly unitarj
Minimalist work
logical!)
given t0 us as
"In ch<
ih.
short, as
and
but one
meaning." determined by
"public
what Morris asserted was the
ol Ins earl)
rh.
is
lis
pieces an minimal
exist- in
object
DmuUJmU: Compltti Writings,
f An and Design,
huU J nit,
ant he read
just a rec tangle or a triangle"
is
n\e
In.
ii
)rder, in the old sense,
ambition
it-,
ot
|udd,
the hanging version ot Slab,
12),
that
an experienci
pi op.
The
else ot Morris's early
Donald Judd,
reprinted in
replaced by
is
ot space, light,
the newer aesthetic. Clearly, the desire
in
an idea
much
by so
ntal upright positions of the
iwerful spatiall)
to
composition
function
arc- "a
and the
exist
the body." Because
refusal ot the Abstract Expressionist aesthetic signaled
feet,
this position
to see the value ol pressing
the work
ol
which they
in
use rather than private intention, was part
Judd was
Space
demands placed upon
terms
of the
to lorge
pie< es
1962, no.
the relationship between the objects
ot
literal
relationships that
ud)
addressed
more interesting than the vaguely
the floor are
other three
is
ulpture,"
relationships between aspects that are
the viewer's held ot vision.'"
expanse
its
it.
you are displaced from sixty-four square
which you look down upon
one
supported a lew
"The space below
floor:
Si
clear that a large, "public" scale for
ot this, the old notion ot
"only
'ntitled (S
no. 13), an eight-foot-square plinth
inches
of the
making
stop
kinesthetic
being exhibited." Rather
it is
emerge from the features
to
meaning by the public one
of
internal to a given form and. instead, focus on the
simply by being
itselt as art
"purposefully built," saying:
or his or
sculpture, such as that ot Slab, will torcc the viewer
Hat, unevaluating
made
as having
of the
in this text,
second of Morris's "Notes on
where he makes
nothing to tak
is
Indeed
).
first
by publicly executed use.
in place
conception
Identifying Morris with tins
)^ s
This question of displacing the private, interior
ot
Rauschenberg's quip: "If you don't take
there
one of the
games fashioned to reduce
linguistic statements radically enough to separate the
idea of privately established meanings ot words
Robert Rauschenberg's white canvases, quoting
it
is
her individual memories or feelings) from meanings
anyone would build something only barely present,"
and he compared the
pointing to the shape"
(maintained by an individuals "intention,
to look at."
following year Judd continued to "wonder
in his Philosophical Ini estigatiom
ol
cted this
how
Untitled (Cloud)
"3
to
idi a
..i
182.9
I'M..'
Painted plywood,
182 9 cm).
.,
poini i"
ch(
tome thing raised b) Ludwig Wittgenstein
13. Untitled (Slab)
(30.5
243 8
1962 Painted plywood, 12
243.8 cm).
96
96
Ini
hes
14
Untitled (Frame)
vood.
1962
I
OH
<
30.5 cm).
15. Barrier,
(200.7
1962 Painted plywood, 79
228.6
90
12 inches
30.5 cm).
EARLY MINIMAI ISM 109
Untitled (Fiberglass Frame). 1968
16
72
96
18'? inches (182.9
243 8
Guggenheim Museum. New York, Panza
lio
Translucent fiberglass,
47 cm). Solomon R
Collection.
17. Untitled (Fiberglass Cloud), 1967
and nylon threads, 18
96
Translucent fiberglass
96 inches (45.7
244
244 cm).
Tate Gallery, London.
EARLY MINIMALISM 111
THE DUCHAMP CONNECTION
Duchamp in the
Morns encountered the art
means or Robert Motherwell's book
early 1960s by
Duchamp
Robert Lebel's
monograph (the first to appear), and the two
Duchamp-inspired members of the
rk avantind Jasper Johns. Duchamp's
v
program
his notion of art as strategic operation, the
declared symbiosis between theory and practice
clearly affected the
development
own
of Morris's
modes
linked theoretical and artistic
closely
of production.
Accordingly, in her catalogue essay for Mori
1969 exhibition
Corcoran Gallery
at the
of
Art in
lington, D.C., Annette Michelson associated a
body of
his
Duchamp's
work with
practice:
six
themes drawn from
transparency, translucency,
found object
reflection"; "the reconstructed, revised
";
"subversion of measure"; "framing'" (and unframi'
money and ecology as order and or char
The theme of reflection appears in Morris's second
mirror piece Pharmacy (1962, no. 19), named after
in
Duchamps assisted readymade Pharma,
art as
which Duchamp had merely added
and
a red
green
dot and his signature to a kitsch print of a winter
landscape. Morris's work consists
two circular
of
mirrors on posts facing each other. Stationed between
them
on one side
a square of glass,
is
painted a
of
which Morris
the other a green one. These
re<!
and mirrors constitute an enclosed system
resulting in an infinite
work also contains
.-retire
serii
a reference to
ions, the
the original
sit'
Marcel
Duchamp's work, the French pharmacy, in the window
inch one traditionally finds two large glass
d liquid, the other green.
The readymade, which Duchamp
the
VI
Bottle Rack,
used the found
mock, from within the
increasing
ni
the
it
acstlu
Kathenne
S. Dreiet
ol
commodity and
status of art as
(272 5
initiated with
m, both the
Duchamp The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors.
Oil and lead wire on glass. 107 x 69 inches
x 175.8 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
1915-23
Even
straining, as he
limits on
ions ol Modernist ideas about form
l.u
ith
would through other t< hniques,
omposition, and autht tit u it\
i
tore.
prior
<
Due lumps
//,
'
Hut
through
Dm h.imp
wIik h
tlso
himself had dec lared his ow n break
with painting (dismissing
it
as retinal obsessivem
ii.
the
of
ol
J notions
ontingem
thinkii
ol
ol
'
ompositioi
model
lu<
tion
fot
and
onsumption,
Morris
ai a
jun
)'i'
had before him, he modified found obje<
und and
n
il
ts
lump
through
lived tim
varii
<
18),
movement
Ii
explored me< hani(
/(no
it
\A),
and
Fountain
obje<
which the internal
datin
ol
al oi
ts. all
relations of th<
work convey onanism often coupled with disappointed
valuable
and
citive
(no
n as th<
mind, Morris onsidered the notion
the luc helor apparatus
only did
Modernisn
l>r
it
23), in
Ivl'i
know
desire
r/ir is
>
h\ virtue of
its title
openly hails
l>u<
a steel-ribbed trash can
den armatun
al
pump
noisily
and neo Dada
lumps nun
ol
Fountain
Independeni Artists exhibition
<
ri
inside
ulates wat<
sensibility, th<
nded urinal submitted as an entry
nonrelational
and permutation
Morn
suspended from a pail
ket a mi hanii
in
<
1917), a
sigm
d,
to th< Society
New
York
work
Bui
beyond
that, Morris's reinterpretation of the earlier
object through the concept of circulation lends
itself to a
discussion of the transmission of artistic,
and commodity forms, and the ways in
which signs are pressed into the service of systems
linguistic,
of meaning and exchange.'
The
dialogical relation
between these fountains was reasserted
Hans
in
Haacke's Baudrichard's Ecstasy (1988), in which a
gold-painted urinal
(as
Duchamp
is
displayed on an ironing board
once recommended be done with a
Rembrandt), from which
housing a
pump
the urinal.
The
suspended a bucket,
is
forcing water
up
into the
bowl of
circulatory action in Morris's version,
as well as in Haacke's rendition (portraying the
readymade
as
humorous
critique of structural-systems
theory), recalls the cause-and-effect narrative
elaborately posited and thwarted in the Large Glass,
where the circulation of erotic gas
is
held forever in
check, fulfilling neither Bride nor Bachelors.
The deadpan
eroticism and the affectless
treatment of the body evident in Duchamp's Large
Glass, and his later cast
body parts (Pnere de toucher
[1947], Female Fig Leaf'[1950]. Objet
EW
[1951],
Wedge of Chastity [1954], With My Tongue in My Cheek
[1959]), as well as his Etant Donne'es (1946-66),
distinguish
reliefs
and
numerous works by Morris
as well: lead
enframe embedded imprints of vulva, hands,
feet; cast brains are overlaid
with dollar
Hans Haacke, Baudrichard's Ecstasy. 1988. Mixed media,
45
14 inches (114.3
Gallery,
New
137.2
35.6 cm). Courtesy John
York.
bills
and 42); ruler and yardstick pieces,
which, while signaling the "subversion of measure"
and
54
Weber
silver (nos. 41
third work, Litanies (1963, no. 21),
of which
is
a lead-
enacted in Duchamp's Trois Stoppages etalons (1913),
covered box, on the
include matter-of-factly crude sexual allusions
twenty-seven keys, each inscribed with a word from
(for
example, no. 34). Likewise, Morris portrayed
the
Duchamp
lid
The work,
text.
exhibited at the Green
the alienated body in performances such as Site (1964,
Gallery in Morris's
and Waterman Switch (1965, no. 69). The
Large Glass also informed several works by Morris that
was acquired by Philip Johnson.
no. 63)
derive their titles and
momentum
from linguistic
elements in Duchamp's work. In 1961, Morris executed
Litanies, a
drawing that combines delicate scrawling
with the words of "Litanies of the Chariot," terms
elaborated in the Green Box (1934), a group of
Duchamp's notes
notes,
for the
a bachelor machine,
symbolic circuit as
LIFE,"
Large Glass. In one of these
Duchamp remarked
was
it
that the Chariot, itself
to glide
back and forth in a
recited the litanies:
"slow
"VICIOUS CIRCLE," "ONANISM," "HORIZONTAL,''
"ROUND
late in
paying
first
for the
follow another
a key ring holding
is
New York,
When Johnson was
solo exhibition in
work, Morris decided to
Duchampian
strategy, the majesterial
conveying of aesthetic significance, by withdrawing his
aesthetic seal from Litanies in a
work called Statement
Withdrawal (1963, no. 22), an act of
reversibility that Michelson reads as "unframing."
of Esthetic
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh has discussed this rev< real
terms of legalistic language and administrative snl<
calling
it
Duchamp-inspired
shift
toward authorship
effected through legal contract and institutional
discourse.
The right-hand
snl< of
Statement
side views of the disputed work, delicately
WHEEL," "BEER PROFESSOR." Morris's lead Untitled
being claimed.
(Slow Life Plaque) (1963, no. 20) bears the litanies
typed, notarized "Statement
emblematically on
its
front.
</f
Esthetit
Withdrawal, labeled "exhibit a," shows frontal and
THE BUFFER," "JUNK OF LIFE,"
"( HEAP CONSTRUCTION," "TIN CORDS
IRON WIRI ,"
"ECCENTRIC WOODEN PI ILLEYS," "\K >\OTONOUS FLY
TRIP," "FOR
in
.
to yield a
shadow\ present
The
<
embossed
evo< ative ot the
left-hand
snl<
oi Esthetit
In 1969, Morris created a
absem
en< loses the
work
Withdrawal
entitled
Woney
THE DUCHAMP CONNECTION
facing page: 18. Fountain, 1963. Painted wood, galvanized
steel bucket, hook, circulating
14-
inches (91
Frankfurt
am
32
pump, and water, 35
37 cm). Museum
fur
'
12
5/
19.
x
Pharmacy, 1962.
36 inches (45.7
29.2
Painted
x
wood and
mirrors,
91.4 cm). Collection
18x11
of the artist
Moderne Kunst,
Main,
THE DUCHAMP CONNECTION
15
tor Anti-Illusion: Procedurt
Matt
an exhibition
rials,
of contemporary art organized by Marcia Tucker and
James Monte
Art in
show,
New
it
Whitney Museum
at the
\ork. Like
many
American
of
of the other objects
The
involved a lope of process.
in
the
piece initially
consisted ot a contractual agreement and related
correspondence between Morns and the trustees of
bank check.
the Whitney, as well as a canceled
documents
sum,
invest a small
prices
profit.
it
on the European market
to
by the museum,
to be provided
blue-chip art and then to turn
It
which was
Morris's original proposal,
around
in
at inflated
museum's
tor the
Because the trustees refused the proposal unless
the project could be guaranteed as risk tree, Morris
was limited
to
performing modest and sheltered bond
investments on Wall Street, these carried out under
the supervision of the trustee Howard Lipman. The
no. 24) contains
expanded version ol Mom
additional documentation of these financial
transactions
Morris's strategy of
making
procedures of investment clearly relates
production ot bonds
from the
art
Duchamp's
to
system
tor investing in a
to
win
at
Monte Carlo Casino anil to Ins I tanck
an art work that Due lump issued as
roulette at the
Check (1919),
payment
tor a
dental
bill.
Money also
category of Duchamp-influenced usi
under the
tails
legality
ol
in art
as discussed by Buchloh.
Robert Motherwell, The
fork
Wittenbom,
imp, trans
2.
Dtii/ti
''
I
rris
An
..'lit
rially
umption
product
ilogui
thai
we
\\
ashington,
timl in the
in m.c:
produ
M
Ill) Bui
hloh,
'
oncepcual
An
rsion ol thi
iii,
Press,
Aesthei
ii
ol
An An:
L
Hamilton (New York: Grove
ird
Am
Paintcri jiiJ Poets:
Schuitz, 1981; 1951); Robert
20. Untitled (Slow Life Plaque), 1963. Lead over wood
panel painted with metallic powder
8 x
/4
inches (25.4
20.3
in
synthetic polymer, 10 x
1.9 cm). Collection of the
artist.
THE DUCHAMP CONN
117
21
Litanip-.
.-ad
over wood, steel key ring, twenty seven
inches (30.5
6 4 cm) The Museum
ROBBR1
Ml '
ol
Modern
Art,
New
18
York, Gitt ol Philip
22. Statement of Esthetic Withdrawal. 1963. Typed
and notarized statement on paper and sheet of lead over wood,
mounted
(44.8
New
in
imitation leather mat,
60.4 cm)
overall.
''-
The Museum
>
of
23
inches
Modern
Art,
York, Gift of Philip Johnson.
THE DUCHAMP CONN
119
23 Proposal
to
"Re-do Chicago Fire of 1871," 1968
Telegram. October 21, 1968, 5
Collection Ella Venet,
ao k
New
York.
riches (14 x 21.6 cm).
4UM
IN
UNM
**
HIM1 MURIUM
Of
AMtlAU Mf
^r
~*~
24. Money, 1973 (expanded from 1969 version). Fifteen
sheets of typed office stationery and two certificates, 36 x
96 inches (91.4
New
243.8 cm). Courtesy Leo
Castelli Gallery,
York.
THE DUCHAMP CONNECTION 121
I-BOX
1962
Green Gallery
In 1963 at the
New
in
among them
objects,
York, Morris
made small
exhibited a selection of recently
own
of gray-painted bottles containing his
(EEG) (1963, no
fluids; Self-Portrait
sculptural
Portrait (1963, no. 43), a set
bodily
work
14), a
based on his electroencephalogram; and the related
and enigmatic l-Box 1962,
no. 25).
perhaps because
most
irony, that attracted
many
itself to
It
was the
lasc.
unassuming
of its impressively
critical attention.
registers of interpretation,
Offering
is
it
an
whose simply articulated format gives way
object
to
an unexpected complexity
Through the external form
door
shape
in the
the "I" of
the letter
of
maker,
its
chalky pink
of a
the work literalizes
/,
door opens
tor this
to reveal a
photograph of the naked Morris, another, more
personal"
posed
self,
in front of a wall,
standing
with his head tilted back somewhat derisively, with
and a
a twinkle in his eye
However
partial erection.
nontraditional and surprising, the l-Box was,
on
therefore, thematically consistent with the tot us
works
self-portraiture of the other
marked by
Indelibly
the exhibition.
in
selt-consuous disavowal
the artistic conventions associated with Abstr.u
moment
ressionism, the
prodm nl was
in large part
in
of
which the l-Box was
oiuhtioned by the work of
<
Jasper Johns During the 1950s, Johns had developed
devices and strategies lor undermining Abstr.u
Kpressionism's
onni
th(
to be
of
ital
isii.i
being
disinterestedness, whi<
cii
promoted
In abstrai tion
brushwork and
new banality
Modernist aesthetit
of
immcdi.K
was thought possibli
it
tion to the
onflueni e of
those
us. partii ularly
through which
direi
ontinuation
of
li
to
\.
obtain
the maker, and
was understood
By slutting the
onograph) toward
the expressively individual "stroke"
applied now to mass produced objects such as targets
or
maps
DOdj as
as well as rellgurillg th(
work
of interest, Ins
momeni
formalisi
century an
in ch<
reception of twentieth-
Tat tt with Plaster Casts
Johns juxtaposes a painted targi with a row
woodboxes with doors thai wh< n opi ni d, rt vi al
For ins tan
1955),
of
ii
plaster body fragments;
and voyeurism,
disino
i.
of
1 1
r 1
to "|
<
w.e.
a a
t"i
<
i.i.
ii
iln
tin
arrangl
wing
v'u
ironj
rati
V\ hi n
\i.n\
in
lh>
it
a site
ontradii ted tenets linked to the
reft
rring to peepholes
ment
jusi as
ii
(lies in tin
demonstrated
i'
"Ii
fori
ol
/-Bw was
desigm d
baj
at
'I
th<
I
dn am
in
against thi grain "t Abstrai
la
la.
also holds thi
d an alena
.
also
xpn ssionism
pressionists thi
in
undi rstood as
ln<
Ii
thi
Co
siti
.<
anvas
.\iu\
of thi
25. l-Box. 1962 (closed view). Painted plywood cabinet covered
with Sc ui|>tmrt.il.
Is
iiiit.iiimi>x
photograph,
19x12
5 cm). Collection Leo CastHii
(]
inches
BOX
23
inscription, the 1-B".\. in an inversion ot terms, openly
such heroics, at once refigunng the
trivializes
making
associated with art
terms
in
self
mechanical
ot a
process (photography) and subverting the notion of
experiencing an
an intentional
.is
totality, the action
painters heroism here transcoded in raw sexual terms.
In the case ot I-Box, the physical self is
encoded
through the camera; and, from the vantage point of
we might argue
today,
that the self
both hidden
is
and revealed through the convention of the box
manner
in a
that invokes a history ot hidden and disclosed
pornographic pictures. In any case, the work entails
moment
contusion
momentary
of recognition as well as a
the subject ot masculine artistic mastery,
namely the Abstract Expressionist,
unveiled, undone,
is
made comical.
Such a reading would imply that
this
same
"I"
and thus anticipates and internets
signals the eye,
viewer seeing and apprehending the object, the
implication at
being that the work
first
of a peephole. Through the
movement
a variation
is
of ellipsis,
however, this reading breaks into two alternate and
noncoincidental meanings, doubly centered on
the image, yet invertible and shitting
Jasper Johns. Target with Plaster Casts. 1955
and collage with plaster casts, 51
(129.5
111.8
44
Encaustic
reference
the
lere.
not to the viewer, but rather to the
is
inches
8.9 cm). Collection Leo Castelh
unaverted
the artist, grinning knowingly at
>:a/c- ot
the camera, with his penis partially erect. These
facing page: l-Box (open view).
features insinuate that the pleasure in the image
least in part. Morris's
pleasure
own Thus
the voyeuristic experience
ot
confused: whose pleasure
this picture'
at
and
split
is
being reproduced through
is
The work seems
to bear witness to the
notion that the pleasure in the
once Morris's
"I," at
and playful disruption
nari issistn
is.
the (abjecting)
viewing and,
ot
at
the same time, the viewer's uneasy pleasure in looking
at
on
relics
it,
the
fere,
I -Box
operates as
double capture
emerges as
Ik
Strui
ure
it
ided and
issues ol genre addressed
reference
te>
through
eil
tine
power on the other
subject's constitution
tin-
utterani
the-
e>t
interrelated ihsc ourscs ot subjet tivitj
around language on the
el
the sexual bases
sell
the-
dh
work, Meirns undertakes the interposition
omplex and
i
insofar as
a
between sculpture
in the interstices
and photography, Beyond
am
hinge between tonus as
dividing pleasure,
in this
same image
the
ol
signifit
also unitary, whit h join
<
te>
<>t
che
combines
le
eit
and
signal
hand, and
unified
to the phallus,
notions
the-
oneness
e>t
and on. iht
..!..,
!
1
list
uuion
strategy of ellipsis referred to hen
IK,
ma
1
1. .|il
in
(Minneapolii
publish) d in French as
di
It
1]
inn
h,
lohns and his importana to Morris's
<
\thloni
Pn
is
described by Gilles Deleuzi
[ugh
md
1986) p
Barbara
162 original!)
(Pari
Edii
/
I
HON 185
CARD
The
FILE, 1962
game
locus of the "Caucus-race," an absurdist
described in Lewis Carroll's Alict in Wonderland
which the players start and stop as they wish, move
more slowly when trying to move more quickly, and
mysteriously end up where they began, is that of
in
systematized senselessness.
this held that Morris
It is
entered from time to time in order to disrupt, or
make
movement and
self-conscious, the
An example
generating a work of art.
Dada Card File (1962,
no. 26), a
is
process of
the early neo-
wall-mounted, vertical
containing a group of alphabetically indexed
flat file
cards that record the steps the artist followed in
conceiving of and making
work
is
Like Carroll's players, the
it.
guided by an absurd logic of disclosure
that,
supposedly hidden progression
in explicating the
that leads from "creative" intention, to the act of
composition, to the
work
final art
itself,
comments
on and rethinks that process.
shown
first
in
Dwan
Gallery in
New
1963 at the Green Gallery in
York, and subsequently in Language, a
New
York,
show
at the
Card File operates
according to an internal system of cross-referencing
that drives a step-by-step procedure for the viewer to
mapped by
follow. Traveling the circuitous route
Is,
one moves,
ironically,
the
through the intentions
and process by which the work was elaborated.
Archival orderliness
or so
it
seems
notices the "mistakes" and lost cards
work assumes
that this
in
The
;s
forty-four
tal
"<
>,"
among diem
the
in
ards, gathered
<
"At
onsiderations and
its
lii
the
lit
<i\<
red
them,
at
2<i
of
es thai
that
[sic],
ussed the work
New
thi
York
mistakes, was interrupted by
made
Ad
and so on
following three pages: 26. Card File
obsessive autorefi rentiality,
to anj
thi
umstani
Daniels Stationary
ihs<
notion
ol
at ive
burlesquing the traditional idea
i
typed remarks
oi
in
works making, Thus we read
Library,
K< mil. it-It
under
idents," "( ategories,"
with a friend, conceived the work in
Publii
is
)wners," "Signature," and "Stores,"
Morris purchased thi cards
lost tin in
one
the disguise
and irreducibly complex
bear an assortment
thai indii at<
figured
until
"Forms," "Interruptions," "Losses,"
isions,"
Mi
file
headings
is
order to perform what
a fragmentary, non-narrative,
various subjei
intent ions
am
at
ard //A gives
spontaneity,
ol thi
nous
ol
an work
he
art ist
cards)
Metal and plastic wall
fort) lour
.is
the
5.1
index cards, 27
cm) Musee National
Pompidou,
Paris.
tile
10'
d'Art
1962
(lull
view and
six
mounted on wood, containing
x
2 inches (68.6 x 26.7 x
Moderne, Centre Georges
CARD F
12 7
7/17/82, 5i30 pa
That
ever.)
7/1 o/ 62, 2
MS
thing
r el
Toot will not be recorded.
eutlofar
'i
.>n
pa
Ob trip to find file act Ad Kluh*rdt oa corner of 8tk
Street and flroadw.j.
which tlao it
ni
Talked with
bU
until Qi30 by
too Into to continue trip.
Neaee)
latermptleni
(See
- -_~ u
uu
LI
7/14/62, 7:80 pn
Discover small pack of 3 x 5 cards missing: unable
to remember what was written on them.
losses
-'
'
LJ LI
111
LJ
'
7/12 - 14/62
Lost small packuge of cards.
(See Losses).
1- (at 12/ .1/62)
Total number of typing errors:
H/- 7 / C2
6:35 P"
Third entry on Working 11/27/62, 6:45
"Stationery" misspelled.
T'ie
cird out of order.
Discovered by Dick Bellamy,
(See Names).
11/18/62, 2:55 pm.
12/17/62,
;>m
inclusion of tin Category,
"Completion".
Mistakes
un
-'[Jill]
Accideu.s:
Cards:
IS
u n
Recoveries:
Stores
t/
\\J
,.
Trips: 5
Decisions: 12
Working Periods:
Deleted Ea tries: 5
(iieo
Decisions -
Interruptions:
losses:
ri
Purchases
U/62)
Changes:
Delays:
Owners:
(at 1-/
Categories:
Dates:
'
})
Mistakes:
Things Numbered: II
Vunbrr
17
CABINETS, 1963
In their
mocking focus on concealment and
both Untitled
Kt
(Le.r.
Hook)
inferiority,
Photo Cabinet (1963, no. 27) locate Morris's relation to
Duchamp
Marcel
in
museum
no.
11
Grey
Paint, Robert
Moms,
The term
ich literally
means put
two mutually
structun
into the
reflecting mirrors
art stored
themselves
The
1916),
HamUt
is
an esample
Sound of Its Ou n
the
their titles suggest, these
may
with doors that
like real cabinets,
be opened and closed. Yet each frustrates viewer
expectations.
As David Antin has observed of Morris's
main interest of any box is on the
cabinets, "The
cannot follow
ON HOOK
is
of
embossed on
tive
INSIDE CABIN1
its
But one
because the door, perversely, has been
it,
padlocked shut. Inside the cabinet,
key, there
made
Leavi Key on Hoot,
inside (see Pandora)."
patinated bronze, bears the dire(
front, "LEAVE ki Y
addition to the
in
word stamped on the back wall that
Morris claims to have since forgotten. Flaying with the
structure of secrecy,
that
it
logic of the sealed cabinet
tine
forecloses the very desires that
is
motion.
sets in
it
Furthermore, the inaccessible interior takes on the
double aspect of curiosity and sexuality, aspet
Learly
enhance the viewer's experience
made
inet,
nor on the
to reveal a se<
a
present
101
and
it
is
it
the
first
,ui
smaller
icai
rai
in si/e
simili
white edges funi tion
to serve as
.1
oi th<
than
to frami
Free hcian de>
ii
ly is
the mi'
ior
ol reduplii
inet
abinn
representation maj
even apture
image
the infinite
ation put into plai
works to question the
the
frustrates the im lination to believe that the
th.it
is
it
its
allowing
en affixed
In
ond?) with an open door, The
se<
abinet's interior
ibinet,
opens but only
nother cabinet (or
perhaps, the
gray, plays
ontainer but, instead,
of tin- door. Its portal
photograj
1
that
is
the object.
ot
wood painted
sealed
ond door, on whit h has
photograph
or,
oi
se< rec> ot the-
on the mystery
bj
possibility chat
referent
its
In
27 Photo Cabinet, 1963 Painted wood cabinet containing
photograph, 15
'
inches (38.1
27.3 cm) Collection
the artist.
us tonn.it, Photo
/
/.
abinet invokes asso< iations with
.
ii
a photograph 11
in ih.it
ISO
.1
11
1:
miniature representation of all or part of the larger whole
play within a play in
in a specifically post-Abstract
moment. As
rwo works look
1,
\...
Duchamp's
of
which had also informed Box with
ressionist
and Information.
d to -peak ol those visual or literary work', that contain within
an attache case, and With Hidden Noise
Waking ( 1961
"An
\
refers to j
Box
relevant here are
(1941), the miniature
in
lXnid Antin,
1963, no. 28) and
hit
h similarlj
pun on the inn
Morris himsi
if
il
on tains within
11
it
J
ol its
facing page: 28
Untitled (Leave
Key on Hook)
Key, lock, and patinated bronze box, 13 x
(33
19.1
8.9 cm). Private collection.
1963.
nches
of
:\
METERED BULB AND LOCATION,
which what
in
If
self-reference
is
the very structure or terms of
support
has been one of the
Modernism,
mocking
work represents"
own medium
its
has also provided the means tor a
it
machine
Duchamp's conception
literalizes the logic
thereby parodying
it
of autoreferentialiry,
"The bachelor," he was famous
enclosure.
grinds his chocolate himself."
self-
for has ing
Various works by Morns from 1962 and L963
explore this notion of self-reference-as-autism, but
Metered Bu/b (1963, no. 29). Consisting
work seems
to invoke the bachelor
Ban
apparatus of The Bridt Snipped
known
also
Suspended,
from
like the Bride,
IL
by
as the Large Glass
Bachelors,
191523
armature of white-painted plywood, the bulb,
in
porcelain pull-chain socket, hovers ovet an electric
its
meter mounted on the back face
Wired
armature.
ot the
to the bulb, the meter, in the position ot
a<
though
lear (hat the
it
is
And
partner."
tivity oi its
mordant expression
Duchamp,
li
energy source powering this
fashioned
lost
red
irtiStil
Johns s & ulptmi
thi
1.
in
.m arrangi
*l
on n
<
had
wen
;<
bronzi trompi
hrough
lati
["hi
thi
early
cangular slabs,
recently
Jaspi
double
layen
~\
<
ord that has In
n twisti
anting
to
past terms which had. u itbout
round duality
tl
Johns took the background out of painting
a} representation.
and
What was previously
ackgroum
I.
"../Hon
which
in
1963, no. JO)
self-reference
which
,1
pictorial
Modernist discourse would have
as the
ly,
the work establishes that
autoretereiiti.il,
bound
object, for
flat
onsist of four little adjustable counters that, set
middle
into the
each edge, indicate the distance
ot
tlat.
to indicate
an actual
ot tin
-us 1h.1t
alphabet
pi(
mn
In tins
>.<
with an ironii
in ady
would
ms
s\sn
[ohns
a*
product
liki
"ml
ol
once the
tlu
corruption
high Modernism.
ot
\1.1i.
Mich
ed
in.
ii.,i
tiilli
linn
.m^l
Pei
Hi
Mori
Noti
<
"ii Si
iilptun
Pwi
Beyond
.it.
68
t
Ibji
<
li
in.
111
.11
',!
:.
rnin
I'.uin
1961),
[rts 1
't>i
Batci
ock (New
>
>r
Due ton,
cht
01 tin
n ady madi
l>\
Metered Bulb. 1963.
facing page, top: 29
socket with
and
pull chain,
x
8'
elei
trii Ity
inches (45
Light bull
meter, mounted on painted
20.3
21 cm). Collection
ps) to play ai
(tat
Jasper Johns.
Modi
rn
mt
of
painting
dimi nsional
30 Location
Notes on Sculpture, Part
wuli chest n in. 11
mi [ohns
Morris opens his
1n
isa
<
)li|<
cs
1.-,
ot
>l
ount of self referenci
object
work
the disembodied and atemporal
placelessness
wood. 17'.
flat
ontingent
and
ot
Thus,
wo
ounting
tint
stresses at
irj
found thro dimensional object to includi
dimi nsional
-relict object.
works position and sue,
viewing
empties
pictorial convention,
ocation, undersc oring the
tun
ot self-reference
them the material conditions
three-dimensional, low
tlu
certifies the pi<
it
site in real spat c
out the tormal conditions
tin
as
bending
tins strategic
ot
given wall's Boor,
and corners Yet even
ceiling,
piei e
notion
so ndi
elements
and
>l
Du ham]
a wall-
is
it
"representational
its
it,
Manifestly
Hamilton (New York: Oxford University Pre
beyond
n ady madi
Johnsian machine,
explode the
to
conventions of painting instead of resecuring them
of thi
such
is
used
is
irregularly shorn ,u both ends. Johns's read in
thi
.ill.
neutral becamt actual, wbili uh.it
an imagt
u.i' previously
bulbs
I'oeil
1960s,
their S0< kets or with the SO( ket and, perhaps,
ot
nt.
ither without
<
so
possibility nt infinite redefinition
nurse, ones with a perspi, uoiisU
ilis(
impossible relation to energy
from
Metered Bulb
In tins, thi
ther light bulbs that
I ...
tudult
exception, operated within
sin h as
resoun es
all tin-
readymade
.1
dtp:.
substituting tor
in uitry
represeiit.itK.ii, Morris's
l<
.1
Glass, had elaborately
mai him In using
'
of illusionists
may
work n
ol
tin
ridiculou
surt.ue as
even
bachelor machine comes from elsewhere, the result
is
tin
depictions as copit
the rectilinear surface from
lamp's Bachelors, measures, records, and signals
the electrical
anyom
this
non-
"into their area of competence
'
inverted /.-shaped
.111
much
:.
and painting had not done
paint:
tuiik
depiction than
the self-
of
absorbed dialogue between an electrical meter and
a light bulb, the
Johns
[Johns 'sj
case.
's
Duchamp
none are as specifically connected to
as
than in Pollock
'...;'.
bachelor
of the
masturbatory, autistic
as
looked at rather than into
great tormal resources
critique of high Modernist ambition. In this
sense, Marcel
said,
or
1963
1.
1963
''.id
over composite board, aluminum
-.21x21x1
lettei
.",
ml
inches
CKILIMG
-'EET
WALL
FEET
LOCATIO
lOH
^1
METERED BULB AND LOCATION 133
MEASUREMENT,
Looking
1963
"machine that would make
for a
divested of expressiveness and. therefore,
meaning,
who had become
artists
mark
and reducing
intrinsic
sheathed
of"
by his work was
Among
many
the
precedents offered
L913 1
Troii Stop}
assemblage that attacks the idea
measurement. Using chance
of a
measure from something that has
unit of
images
shrunken
three of the artist's
a reusable
through one
peered at through the other end, a reducing lens
standard unit of
transformed the
each end. houses a
at
wires. Peered at
opening, a magnifying glass projects an enlarged ruler;
produce wildly
to
Duchamp
disparate "metersticks.
an
1),
suspended from
ruler
small plywood box,
modeled, extremely textural
Sculptmetal, with an opening
self-consciousl)
anti-Abstract Expressionist turned to the example of
Marcel Duchamp.
measure.
a basic
in loosely
ruler. In Tbret Rulers
approximately three
R/er(1963, no
homage
were
in
feet, are
suspended
to
and
set
tirst
1963
in New York
d Ruler with
exhibited at the Green Gallery
In
another work,
ruler appears to projec
edition,
28.2
1964, number 7
50
of 8.
dimensionally
11x9
inches
At
first,
anomalous w
Katharine Ordway Fund.
wooden
being
a unit thai signifies
into
empty
sigi
context
an
While,
what the
"inch." for example,
the
same thing
'
and Out
';
assume
every
used on the idea
dysfuni tional ruler, whi< h, reused as
smearing paint, became
spatula
ham
foi
seamless,
ommi
lown
scali
from
standard mi asim
some
h in
thai th(
I.
tins
COCK
the back
oil he
like
itself
threads onto a canvas from a height of oni meter, gluing
random shape
in iln
lates
Each
ii
li
assumed
(oi
were used to draw
ni linguistii
.i^
il
Its")
fell,
thi
empt) sign
sign called a
and then
ul
them down
I
from thea disparate
both
lines in
mi. iiimIim notion of th<
in relation
neci ssarj to a
and
ni.H linn
oi
rclii fliki
pronouns
profiles
In
is
used in relation to
hit h,
"si
words
oi
like
k.
nl) in relation to their specifii
isth
M.iiiiK intimate in
iim in
In
manj variations
on the n
im.
rsii
'
"i
Mi. inn
lit)
i,
of enunciation
r.ms
I'ii
\|.in
I
"
',
on
Sec
lixabi
1 1
Emili
Mi
pp
chesi
im
thai Morris
ification indii ati
.i
.nu
quantify phi nomi na, ma)
B) provid
CUNTand
embrace
the work, stamped
of
pervades us measured and pre< im framework.
both cases, detached
in
ai ih
ases largi
'-I
name
of problems thai build on
rangi
Duchamp's exampli
to I" ai
dr\ and arithmetic,
it
in ai tual ruli
estimated from memory, but,
thou
hinged
engagements with deadpan erotic ism. in
work, too, a ool and removed, \e raw sexualit)
ii. il
i,l
ot
Morris's later
mi
seems
1)
side bj side,
lie
nut immediatel) obvious in theobjeci
the k in
oi the interval
no
rulers, insinuates a copulatorj discourse
wooden templates
nsui
and arrangi d in disparati frameworks
bears dividing marks,
1')('\
ohercnt group
was produced by dropping threi metei long
produi ed in im
"mounted"
produi
Ins guided th< L963
iremem as an
works he made using manipulated ot assisted ruler-
identified objects
ise
Morns was
the painterl) mark.
making
oi a
contextual machini
a purelj
interested in the idea of
is,
The patent!) vulgar
later call
Window Number
tht
foi
unt)
nfe/l
together along their top edges; closed, the rulers
paintings (for
irclt
that trails at an angle across
otherw
itlnn an
on the base-
1962]), Jasper Johns had
or devici for
in
would
strut turalists
in his various Devict
/'
li
Tun
an
shadow (rendered three-
a large
works. Open, two rulers
ruler
and consistent meaning
shadows and
pla\ ot
surfac e of the support.
ntitled
wood)
in
wooden
the squared
New Haven,
22.7 cm). Yale University Art Gallery,
an
Duchamp's King and Queen Surrounded
NI2) engraved in has-rehet above it.
Morns drew on the
Schwartz
from
which bears us name
$2),
of
vertically
perception; lure, a gray-painted, small
(129.2
rulers.
painted gray and measuring unequal lengths
small metal hooks. This tripartite
Marcel Duchamp. Trois Stoppages etalons, 1913-14.
(1963, no. 3D,
custom-made wooden
with us endless
bi
las
halli n
i
id
tern for enl
d teed
31
Three Rulers, 1963
>
>d
and metal hooks,
rry
N Aiirams.
r
:
\,\/
7
[,J/
\
L
Lr_ri
i t
J_LlUH
'i!
facing page, top: 32. Swift Night Ruler. 1963. Sliding
and wood, painted, 10
28-2
inches (25.4
72.4
5-89
34. Untitled (Cock/Cunt). 1963 (closed and open views).
ruler
2.5 cm).
Collection Leo Castelli.
Two painted
ru'ers hinged together and
base, 5
16 5
'?
x 1
'/j
Inches (14
mounted on painted wood
42.2
3.8 cm). Collection of
the artist.
facing page, bottom: 33. Untitled (Breakage Rejected
Accepted), 1963-64. Glass case on wood base painted with
metallic
powder
glass case on
rulers, 3
New
in
synthetic polymer, containing cracked
wood base, stamped
lead, mirror,
inches (9.5 cm) high. The
Museum
of
and two metal
Modern
Art,
York, Gift of Philip Johnson.
MEASUREMENT 137
35 Untitled
1964
Lead over wood and cast lead
'
rale University Art
!
IK
Brown Baker, B A
Ga
36. Untitled. 1964. Lead over wood,
and wire, 33
/2
North Carolina
6 3 /ie
x 2
Museum
hook,
ruler, spring,
inches (85.1
15.7
6.4 cm).
of Art, Raleigh, Gift of Rhett
and
Robert Delford Brown.
MEASUREMENT
39
1()
'
facing page, top: 37. Untitled, 1964. Lead over wood and
cast-lead ruler, 21 x 15 u x 1 'a inches (53.3 x 38.7 x 3.2 cm).
;
Private collection,
New
York.
facing page, bottom: 38. Enlarged and Reduced Inches,
1963. Ruler hanging inside wood box covered with Sculptmetal,
two openings with lenses, one magnifying, one reducing,
5x8x6
inches (12.7 x 20.3
15.2 cm). Collection of the
39. Untitled, 1964. Lead over wood and cast-lead
12
34
2 inches (30.5
M. Benjamin,
New
86.4
x 5.1
artist.
ruler,
cm). Collection Mrs. Robert
York.
MEASUREMENT
141
SELF-PORTRAITS, 1963
Duchamp
In IV 10, Marcel
Andre
humour
wasted energies such
as:
that
noir, a proposal
I'
designed to utilize the
for "a transformer
and of the
the
nails,
dropping of tears.
laughter,
tor
->
no
composed
13), a "self-portrait"
of bottled body fluids, operates somewhat differently
it,
small, gray-painted milk-bottle-shaped containers
and feces are
machine could be
196
framework
of blood, sweat, sperm, saliva, phlegm, tears, urine,
Like everything
."
Duchamp, such
to construct a
self.
from the more technologically oriented pieces. In
movements of fear, astonishment, boredom, anger
conceived by
was possible
Portra it
urine and excrement.
tall of
it
representing the
slight,
the exhalation of tobacco
the growth of a head of hair, of other body
smoke,
hair
contributed a project to
Breton's Anthologie dt
set into the
compartments of a horizontal
display box. Unlike Joseph Cornells use
similar
of
considered a mechanism, however unconventional, for
receptacles (as in his Pharmacy [1943]). in
producing works
containers reinforce the idea of inferiority, subjectivity,
Duchamp's
ot art
machines
ironic
production
tor the
of
which the
and memory. Morris's insistence on the definition
some ways
the art-mark outside the conventional channels of
of
aesthetic feeling were formative
straightforward commentary on the complicated issue
Duchamp's machines
from the
the
idea that the
first
from the brute physicality
Abstra<
Expressionism,
produced by the painter was thought
New Dance
the
machines
The
to
<
The
ireumvent
produi
any
to be, before
registration
task-relat< d gestures of
expressionism
this
Morns produced
in
1963
problem
of
how
to
stand the idea
of
"self-
relation to tins
ill
mark
wool,
il>. ii
expression on us head, materializing and met hanizii
S
went
(EB
rtrait
w rark
to N(
44),
i.
Mt di
niversitj
Morns
Center
al
to have
the activity of his brain waves recorded, concentrating
on himself
tor the
length
halograph to
He
height
mv
ond
si
<
ct
was
time when then was
of
differ* nt
to
an
.mas
mi asurt
1
nli
tin
n\
of
Bj
m
l
EEG developed
ing
the skull
as wavi
i,
,i
in
Morns used
iln
involved, as well as
in .ul. hi
tivit)
In
is
tht
plaint)
al
cht
')
apat
>ught
brain,
normal
ould
fi
would appear
mat hint
\
ol
itj
patit nt
ti
ruditj nt tin
to underscort
mt asuring
av
absurd
technologj
at
ah/anon
hnolo
tet
and
hnological
i.
nt
lot
trades on
elei
.ii .1
the
in
medical
at
it
Hearing (1972,
the possibilit)
n
ive analysis;
an work, but
as an
strong belief
electrit al
an. mm.
I4fl
um d
mi lua (usually "pathologii
m. null
that
ver
latet piect
brain luin tions and
.
mparat
hnolog) of tht
lines equal to Ins
ording of the brain waves
was mentioned in the
no 88) The
took for the
it
ribi
alsoobtaii
presumablj
this
time
of
iinglt
reductivi
Marcel Duchan
in
a verj
function of consumption and
rj
minded and
notion
x-
(New York Oxford
mark
explored In Morris were conceived as
ironic self-portraits
wen
emotional turmoil, his heroism
artist's self, his
in the face of anxiety.
is
'
r,
cd.
Michel Sanouillei and Elmer Peterson, trans George Heard Hamilton
forged in the context of
other representational consideration,
of the
re-mental"
can be differentiated
whi< h every
in
sell as "exc
expenditure.
the second. Morris's
of
Duchamp was
connection to
body, thereby
artist's
the
of subjectivity as
often relocate the gesture's site
artist's self to
mocking the
tor Morris;
examples
niversii
191
40.
Wax
10
/8
Brain, 1963.
Wax over
x 9'/ 8 inches (20.3 x
27
plaster cast,
x
in
glass case,
23.2 cm). Saatchi Collection,
London.
SELF-PORTRAITS 143
41
Brain, 1963. Eightandone half one-dollar
plaster cast,
in
glass case, 7 /?
x 5
'
bills
over
inches (19
16 5
14,6 cm). Collection Leo Castelli
facing page: 42. Untitled (Silver Brain), 1963.
over plaster cast,
1
in
glass case, 6
x 7 x
7.8 x 14 cm). Saatchi Collection, London
144
Silver leaf
inches (15.2
43. Portrait, 1963. Painted bottles containing body
fluids,
and painted wood frame, V't x 18 J'4 x V'i inches (8.9
47.6
Art,
4.8 cm). The University of Arizona
Tucson,
Edward
Museum purchase
G. Gallagher, Jr.,
Museum
of
with funds provided by the
Memorial Fund.
facing page: 44. Self-Portrait (EEG), 1963.
Electroencephalogram and lead labels, framed with metal
and glass, 70
the art
iii.
>/*
17 inches (179.7
43.2 cm). Collection
of
KT RAITS 147
MEMORY DRAWINGS,
1963
Memory Drawings, executed in September
(nos. 45- 19), were accomplished
Morris's five
and October 1963
context of his interest in the physiological states
in the
(EEG) (1963,
he had recorded in Self-Portrait
(EEG) shows
Just as Self-Portrait
of memory, exploring variations of physiological
Memoi
that consists of a
primary text
ing, a
summary
(or
"drawing"
>
and "those which seek
ol the brain cells"
explanation
changes
in
to the
ways a "cultural memory
models, pictures, maps,
sequential
Jungian notion
that has to do with a
kind
specifii
ultures
an hive would
of a larger
//
197
ri)
which
to reprodui
of niacin in lone lines.
knowledge.
major
role in
wj was
91416
from memory
ilcse
In
Somi
a
ribing
it,
Morris
form and
the
vhich mati bed
<la\s
bgai ithmii
following five pages:
Drawing
i
until tour
-.1
i:
m.
from
mi mory, and
Ins
drawings had been
on.l.m,
formed by the
narrative trail
evi nts of
45.
20
drawings
is
aughi up
in
ing into
establishmi
formal
hi
w 'l\
"i
of
r<
pro
ess of
ni of a
petition and
t<
.i
kind
of
entro|
ij
-mil
47
Ink
mi .mine,
in,
Thi
smoothing
Mi "
ptual hasis
IM
and
ovei
>'
ol
Moi
indi
ed
i
i
i
si
irtii
gi
13 inches (52.1
p.m.)
1963.
33 cm). Collection
(52.1 x
p.m.|
33 cm).
1963.
Colli
48. Third
Memory Drawing (9/16/63. 3:30
m hes (52.1 x 33
gray paper, 2c
p.m.).
1963.
cm). Collection
ual nuani es.
In
11
ralization
again to the
rodui tion
of u
iu.nk. as
effa
atti
ol the artist
thi
ii
witness
making
on gray paper,
Second Memory Drawing (9/8/63. 12:00
sm.il meanii
ontains within
hii h
"i
of
Ink
33 cm). Collection
on gray paper, 20
ol the
mi an
in
Memory Drawing (9/4/63, 9:00
on gray paper, 20'
to
13 inches (52.1
term
ship between
lai
46. First
these
memory,
rosion of
produi tion
mi moi
r<
of shot
hai of lot
ind an
Ii
undoing
in a
the probli matii
Memory Drawing. 1963
Initial
.
'
ompli ted
Ink
as
number of drawings
pro
.i
and energ] wave-, figured
memorj
of
had been established
later (the nuj
in tin
recentl)
series "t lead reliefs
as a run< tion
substanci of the initial pagi oftexi
mi moi
electrical circuitry, batteries,
.1
Morns was
several days alter the generative text
theories of i
In
Morns had
making
to indicate a
reates
later play a
no 88
'
Drawn
29) and was
hive of historical
arc
indh idual memory
of tin
.i
worked
At the time Iwiul Memory Drawing was done.
made \h:,nJ Bulb 1963. no
is
Clearly,
memory"
from whi< h n learns and
rial,
made
effects
shared transtemporal unconsi ions.
of a
but rather a historically
ri
and congealing
mind.
audial recordings, and
means
recently electronic
idi
in
temporally through
etc., or
in print,
ords
rei
not using the term "cultural
marc
entropy
of
either spatially through preservations of
established:
(The
can, Morris suggests in this text, be loosely
compared
more
"aesthetic
compositional elements. Also in 19<
in patterns ot electrical
currents between cells." These models for indh idual
memory
is
composition
reductive, the effect of
of his findings, and in
those which seek explanation in changes in
lasses
it is
details are subsumed by a
Thus memory itself like the
brain waves of the EEG work
becomes a "machine"
bent toward art production, but one used somewhat
which he divides theories of memory into two
(
.(or
Insofar as
derisively, with the closing clown
operation. Next, he constructed
its
Drau
mark.
of
broad, general outline,
works, he began by researching contemporary theories
interpretations of
despite the examples
memory
his interest in
a page of writing to be
a "drawing," or the line ot script a cursive
concrete poetry)
no. 44).
the theory of brain waves, so, in preparation tor these
Initial
would have considered
artists
I963i
49 Fourth Memory Drawing (10/2/63, 9:00
13
fi
Ii
ichi
(52
p.m.)
1963.
33 cm) Collection
f^*
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MEMORY DRAWINOS 149
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MEMORY DRAWINGS
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MEMORY DRAWINGS 153
ROPE AND KNOTS, 1962-64
The
idea of Modernist art as a progression ot formal
problems
be successfully solved
to
on the reduction
their logically derived essences
was
Previous Knots
less accessible,
mediums
of the various aesthetic
Remember
to
turning
Golden
More conflicted and
establishes a division
'
between attraction and repulsion, creating a tension
between the small, upturned, metal hook on one
to
part of the
inheritance of Morris's generation, one under which
end
they increasingly bridled. To counter this proposition
touch, and the sott. sensuous appeal ot the small
quote Marcel Duchamp's taunt, "There
artists liked to
is
no solution because there
no problem
is
";
gilded knot at the other end.
such as numerical or alphabetical progressions
which
reflect a
boyhood
ot
may be said to enact
Modernism's strictures. The Gon.li.ui
knot, one so difficult to untie that
Morris's Untitled (Kt
<
L963,
51
rio.
own
Clement Gtcenberg's Art jnJ Culiun (1961
inner artistic logic, which
h.is
us
Knmei
Minimalism, Hilton
art or
Modernism
disaffection with
1:
"In
own immutable
and to which works of art must conform
idiomatic significance to describe an insoluble problem.
figures
other Fop
mi
il
thej
in
.1
to uw
Mr Greenberg
criticism, the impersonal process ol history appeals in the
has taken on
it
Hudl)
nonethi
interest in the art ot eying knots,
a critique ot
gray-painted wood rectangle, which repels
they
also reveled in the manipulations of logical systems,
Morris's rope pieces,
of the
muse
ol
an
laws ol development
.iri
not to
end up on
the historn.il ash heap
I.
Morris's piece begins with a neatly geometrical relief
structure divided into five compartments. Each
contains the knotted end ot a rope that descends into
the hopelessly chaotic tangle of something like the
"Gordian problem." The interest here
(rather than resolving, or "solving
polarities
hard and
and
soft, rigid
in
maintaining
physical
a set ol
')
elastii
well-built
-would
and unmanipulated, formed and unformed
tinue in Morris's work, driving the relationship
between
Minimal and subsequent anti-form
made in ">J and
his
The
works.
objects of tins kind,
demonstrate Morris's desire to articulate abstract
arrangements that emphasize material and formal
among
disparities
components, an intention
their
underscored by the combination
the "logii
ol
square or n
In Untitled (Rope
of
flai
rope with
id
cangulai forms.
<
(1964, no
Pi<
54),
a thick pieo
ighteen feet long emerges from a hole
drilled
cerof a wooden triangular
iii
to the wall
Imps
on the
and the wood
many
wh< n
to the floor,
ling into
sitting
Yielding to the
an
snakes
it
cop
in thi
o|
an
bio. ks
f<
foi
of gravity, th<
forct
.iroiiinl b<
of a
wood
Ion
ube
from the wall Th< rope
p. out.
ni.it
.1
gray, as were
the artist's early works
of
Mom
fasi
nation with knots led
their further applii ations
and
.issoi
him
tations
nsidei
su< h as
knotting a string to remind oneself to do something
and
n
l.
ultimately wove
In
in,
to
memoi
fiv<
thi
into the bod) of
drawings (no
on memory, whit h Morris
mull .1 Co/den Met
k<
uti
work
50. Untitled (Box with Water). 1963
of a
box, covered with encaustic, on
d from mi morj
(19'
ri
')
'
and
text
powder
26
14 6 cm). The
Museum
8
ol
Knotted rope and
wood base,
x
10
'
<
Modern
'
Art,
<
inches (20.3
New
knotted
win,
!!
at
>
via
tin
horizontal wall pieci with
is a
intervals, strung
i
at
ross us front
nigmatii instrui mom
ropi
facing page: 51
abovt
l
si
Untitled (Knott). 1963
Painted
Knots
The Detroit
Instil
York, Gilt ol
Johnson.
curious worl entitled W"i monii
tin
painted with metallll
40
wood
x
8.9
HOPE AND KNOTS 135
52.
Mnemonic Device. 1962 Wood,
inscription,
96 inches (243.8 cm)
rope, and paper with
long. Collection of the artist.
facing page: 54. Untitled (Rope Piece)
boxes and rope, painted, rope length: 18
The Museum
53 Golden Memories
[963 Glided
hook
ropl
.old leal,
rH
1.9 cm).
Andy Wait
Vt
')
of
Modern
Art,
New
1964 Two wood
feet (5
49
m).
York, Gift of Philip Johnson.
ARIZONA, 1963
55), the
nt/.
dance Morns
first
developing context
Although
Sitt
196
<
no
4,
to the
it
declared with Modern dance was located in
performers, through which spe<
be
and
language,''
the rhetoric
the
of
Drawing
two traditions
what she called "virtual space"
of
sculptures and ballet's presupposition thai the spaa
which their representations untold
the
space
literal
viewers
of their
Michelson
the "real time" of task perform. m<
and the
upied by the fledgling Minimalist
in
linked
real spa<
ulpture as two
si
would be Aaih
it
sm
crs
h as Simoni
Deborah Hay, Stev< Paxton,
and Yvonne Rainer who would develop tins \e
omposition the furthest and with lu most
in of
Morn-.
[ike
who were untrained had
his
only loin
this
medium.
strin tu red
liiu
pain.
foi
mark within
its
both
Ins
By the fourth
outer edge
this d(
eno
ring
from Ins body
in lassolike eircles
that
L(
in.
grow larger and
(his
(he-
luminous
heads
lights
of the-
and
his
in les
audience
accompanied by the whistling
sound ot Us ow n spin, (he pertonnaiue span goes
il.in>
tO
performer
lion .irust Robert
I.
which wis
preceded b) U
than a rule-driven
less i
which Morris "jousted
perti
with
II
V|.
II
\i,
\,
Ii.
,,
ol
exhibition catalogui (Washington,
Gallery of Ai
1
i
li.u
\
ulpiun
awas
larger.
mill
ii
dam
made
is
spins (wo blue
vt
mfli Cted
us
fix
to
segment,
work was consistent!)
by tensions between neutrality and
si
(elisions
and nonsense
,i
In the third
in. inn.
>
a dancer
ul. ir
it.
m\ ever-
un, with the
rc
attention progressively slutting
is
made
Morris's
arolei
easier access to th<
who remained
Morris,
ntional
01
bla< k. utterly obsi taring the
disnnc lion, those
-shaped object, Stepping away from the fixed
oi
over
lorn. All- llr.
displaced from
measurements
the audience to hurl a javelin into a blue target, the
As
paired reactions against tins tradition.
Although
is
as he takes
unmistakable as the performer
from
different
is
own body
this projectile underscores
between
a parallel
a 7
widening
the aesthetic hierarchies imposed In traditional
or classical balletic tonus
so
the
transfer ot energj from himself to
onventions,
second segment, this axis
measured adjustments he makes on
Judson dancers' "common aim was the establishment
a radically new economy of movement. This required
of
segment had
Segment, as the performer suddcnlv wheels away from
Annette Michelson explained that the
systematic critique
first
axis bj a distance in inverse proportion to the
task performance" or the "dance of ordinary
as
on
movements could
ifi(
involves a successively greater distancing of
tin performer's
new gestural strategy
isolated. Identifying this
not unconnected
notices that each
bodily axis around which he rotated.
its
In the
of obje< is
is
forcefully established as his center of grav iry
syntactical structure was
articulated through the interposition
text
the performer from what the
its
stripped-down emotional and symbolic texture;
somewhat bare and
each section,
One soon
specific gestures
opening
movement
and Waterman Switch (1965, no 69), its strategies
tor generating movement were influential. The break
of
begins to become dear that the progression of the
it
works tour
chejudson Dance Theater
of
tame was eclipsed by
its
number
fingers to indicate the
choreographed and executed, was conceived within the
vi.
hod
180
ns, as
had Column (I960 p 90), with a
Dn sed in blu< work clothes
prolonged motionlessness
Ii
us
s.
pi iii. inn
stands alont on
waist until his upp<
I
duration
In
torso
stun
of tins g<
sideways to
is
is
th(
rmim d
det<
and,
itagi
wnli impcrceptibli slowness, rotates Ins body
thi
at
audieno
bj the
'.'
led n ading ol his
itfoi
55 Arizona
thod forSortin
\l.
ward and iragmai
.ii
w hit h two on n
ii
s<
19t>.}
ludson Memorial
993
of inst rut cio
CO
Ii
toi
net
i
.n
an
Hon
in iln
.
|
it..
ii
In
Inn
New
kyard hold
inn
.1
:.
stun
at
in.
Huntei College,
the
is at
lacing page, inset, below
unfold,
'i
annount ed
reconstruction of Arizona
ho holds up Ins
56 War
iiiui.iiii.M
hi h.
New
lorrls in
with Robert Huol al
costume
ludson
'
I
1964
2 1.3,
February 196
In
before
New
in
Morns performed
21.3 (no.
was pan
York
Clad
neat gray suit and
in a
opening
of the
own
reading
Erwin Panofsky's well-known
of
essay "Iconography and Iconolog)
But
if
by means
When
Panofsky
isual
information, moving from brutishly nonsignifying
visual shape through stages of conventional gesture.
torminj; part
identity, as
performance was intended
word
is
at
D
Press,
the street by removing his
from
sec
im
within
view
ol
is
configuration
the general pattern ol color, lines and volumes which
ol vision
However,
In
weni on,
"\\
automatically do, this configuration as an
ol detail as
hen
abjtct
an even (hat-removing),
have
already overstepped the limns oi purel) format perception and entered a
sphen
Erwin Panofsky,
M..r\ I'leMlcr
Lectures
on the Humanities (Nev,
^ ork
Harper and Row,
l
l
>o.'
As
as a subversion of the very notion of this logic.
a single
ol certain details
(gentleman), and the change
first
happens when
til
utes my world
I
me on
what
found
to the illustration of ideas to be
in cultural texts, Morris's
Banes,
Sail)
Durham: Duke University
an acquaintance greets
Panotsk\ hail explained,
hat.'
nothing but the change
of a careful separation of layers of
and from there
approaches the question of "meaning" in the visual
arts
organized by Steve Paxton and performed
The
187
.'
twenty minutes, as he lip-synched his
series
he stood
tie,
behind a podium, masquerading as an art historian
for
ni
Surplus Dance
small audience ac the Surplus Dance Theater
repeated until nothing
remains but a shell of pure sound,
21.
produces the
form engulfing meaning, thereby closing
of
between form and content on
off the very distinction
which Panofsky's demonstration had depended.
During the performance,
Morris's facial expressions
and reductive gestures, which included looking up
at the ceiling,
and pouring
s<
arms,
his glasses, folding his
were meticulously
ripted to misi oin< ide with the tape of the lecture.
The
of
removing
a glass of water,
belatedness
sounds
in
of sp<
e<
h,
>
ombined with the deferral
unhooked the verj
the performance,
operations and
onventioiis
of
perception and
signification that Panofsky had sought, at each level, to
The method used in the performance recalls Box
-"'
tht Sound oj lt< Ou n Making
no. II , where
1
with
<
ii
nis signifj a
temporal gap,
dam
as well as
where hi xplored
gesture, fun< tional movements, and intervals of
n h spat e At
in H when performance an was
Morris
ngagemi
ni
.!
ith
e,
lopi d, Morris's 21.
,i
sell
no
1.
hniqui
mm kingl)
an
Huntei
di
monstrati d
he
olli
it l<
foi
models
the
pi
of analysis
rformani
selected from thi catalogue
his tor) survej
(
and
listing
ourse thai he had taught
57
ai
21.3
1964
Moms
in
performance
at
Stage 73, Surplus
Dance Theater, New York. Top and bottom: Michael
1993 reconstruction
New
simultaneously marking
his opposition to conventional
artisn.
was
conscious theoretical involvemem with the
disi ipline of art history,
of .hi
York.
ol
21.3
at
Stella
in
Television Studio, Hunter College,
IMPRINTS AND BODY CASTS, 1963-64
By 1964, the phenomenological logic of early
Minimalism began to intersect with Morris's Duchamp-
across a bed of plaster or from dropping the
mrlected concern to construct an impersonal
sheets ot lead, the resultant deformations then
"machine" with which to
The
was a type
result
make
the aesthetic mark.
marking chat was both
ot
precipitate or the body, a pure register oi
45-49],
[nos.
all
43-44] and che
.\l.
atop the vitrine, hidden from
ie\\
in a
lead box.
Drawings
1963), and an experience of the
body inhabiting and displacing space
(as in the early
Once
Slabs [nos. 12-13] and Columns [pp. 90-92]).
again, Morris used the strategy of task performance to
Duchamp
bridge these two possibilities As Mart
el
had done with Femali Figl
Morris,
such as Untitled (Hand and
and Untitled
passage,
its
Morns
/
Line/
works
in
no. 61)
i,
ana
nowhere, bears the
conveys an
II Ids
the lead surface; likewisi
intention to exert
its
hand and
active sense of the artist's
to
l>
denoted the both
also
resistance,
its
and to continue.
force
Id
II
(Stairs) (1964, no. 60), registered tin-
bodily imprint; but
weight,
0),
'
toes clinging to
three-step stain ase
Morris's footsteps as
tr.n es oi
hi
climbed" the work.
two separate though related pints. Morns had
In
made
commentary on
ironic
with the
artist's
authenti
/.
plaster
whose
ii
(1963, no 62)
t)
been
that has
fist
Modi mist concern
thi
"hand'' as prool oi aesthi
ed atop
plai
composed
wooden bo*
is
- no
single drawer contains a folded glove
can be luted onto tins hand.
is
two-tiered glass
is
itrine,
ntitled (Glove)
on the top
hand, palm-si<le up, wearing
ast
is
ill
glov<
1963)
shell oi
hi<
worker's glove
plaster slab that bears an impression
same hand Rather than positing the proti an.
am. is with
lira! hand thai links marks on the
oi that
I.
)ther objei
fantasy
as so
oi
we
Morns
offi
ni
oi torsion,
up
ring
as a reified, nono. 40]
v.
ni mil. in
bod)
chi
d valui
nlii
n\i rlaid
hand
Ik
OI
..I
lli<
in lost
,*
clear in
two
tiered
Ii.ua
Hook
with
ihi
r.nl.ih
obj(
is
di tai hi
d as the
(19'
was madi
I),
u ni
in silvt
mprinting
bod) pari and
le
I;
Marcel Duchamp.
nches (9
Untitled (Silver Brain) [1963, no
In certain othei
mus<
:ensi
inti Hi
in
U])oi sheathed
dollar hills (Brain [1963, no
hum
>>i
ad
-tw^, alti rnati
i.
in
nge
hall<
insti
mov< mi
find
a tool
heroism
to painterly
related to
ts
and
nothing bui
as
it
ralize
liti
awl
mi
in
works
.i
opposed
many
lins,
thai hand, rendering
a strategy plainly
tin
ol eli
hosi
ts
\ ii
thai
im
Female
14
Fig Leaf
1950. Bronze,
12.2 cm). Private collection.
itself
closed
EEG
products (as had been the body-fluid and the
Self-Portraits [nos.
sits
hook onto
The hook
stabilized by being cast in plaster.
by-
its
resulted either from dragging a heavy metal hook
J,
58. Hook, 1963. Lead box with mirrors and steel hook,
glass case with plaster casts on shelves, 16
(40.6
121.9
31.8 cm). Collection
48
of the artist.
12
'
following two pages:
?
inches
59. Untitled (Footprints and Rulers), 1964. Lead over wood
and two cast-lead rulers, 39
23
10.2 cm). Collection Anne and William
x 4 inches
J.
60. Untitled (Stairs), 1975 refabrication
Lead over wood, cast-lead footprints
(914
91.4
94 cm). The
(100.3
60.3
Hokin, Chicago.
of a
inside.
36
1964
x
36
original.
x
37 inches
Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of the
Society for Contemporary Art.
IMPRINTS AND BODY CASTS 163
&
3i
61. Untitled (Hand and Toe Holds). 1964
Lead and
48 x 2' inches 110.2 x 121.9
Courtesy Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles.
two
it
units. 4 x
pi
6.4 cm) eai
li
62. Untitled
wood
(Fist).
box, and glove,
1963. Plaster cast covered with Sculptmetal,
6x12x7
inches (15.2
30.5
17.8 cm).
Collection Leo Castelli.
IMPRINTS AND BODY CASTS 167
SITE. 1964
Morns, accompanied by Caroler Schneemann.
peribrme.:
an event
dan.
>
at Stage
rk,
The program, which ran
for
L_. r^- C~..z< Pjsrimt
in
Dance
partnering, and
''
of Judson's approach to
was
oise
Further, Morris choreographed the piece as a set
a brute equivalence
box on the stage from which the
IS
drilling noise issued.
the masked worker in white, the white-washed
planes of the boards manipulated throughout, and the
r-.-r.
ir.z
soil,
white body of Olympia. As with his Minimal
at the Kunsthalle. in Dusseldorf in October. For the
sculpture. Morris
European venues, another performer was substituted
tor Schneemann The next year, the piece
that
made
certain, in construct
no part would domir..
:* York Theater Rally, a set of
seventeen minutes of the performance. His choi.
him
work through a
performances organized by Raxton and Alan Solomon,
objects enabled
former director of the Jewish Museum: at the
understood not as formal propositions to be
Royal Academy
penhagen;
Once
.:
..-id
Festival, in
Malmo University,
Unncrsiq of Buffalo: and
the
Ann
the stage revealed
tie. like
The action opened with Morris beginning
.ice
r.
lessry
Her arresting
Judd would argue
reception of Manet's painting. Instead, Otymptas
clement
was here intended to underscore a desired and-7
:. in the context
7^r-:
f the New Dance
me end. Moms wore a mask, taken from
made by Jasper Johns, so that the
a mold v
plywood panel
reover, the literal
Yet. as
Donald
in his essay "Specific Objects,"
is
it itself
like Morris's plywood panels
becomes the occupant of a third dimension, and with
the collapse of the distinction between two and
three dimensions comes the collapse or the distinction
between illusionist and real spa
fiuidfy lifting, balancing.
examining, and moving the
would appear
)* 8 (196)1.
DoaaldJ-.
reprinted
affectless. his facial
p unmoved by any physical efl n Then
oth the sense of a workman going about a
construction kxx moving from one sequence of tasks
to
another with no wasted motion, bracketed by the
absurdity of the task. At the end of the performance.
63
r4ocked the audience's view of
Schneemann with the board and resumed
.on
downstage
left,
*i
Site
1964
his original
the stage going to black.
rd
once
conceived of as a real material
>: -r-
Moms or
of
picture plane staged in this
pallor
ng, dropping,
.:
surface-bound forms, disdaining any illusion of a third
the picture plane
'
of visual
dimension "behind the plane.
figure, while
associations with prostitution that had surrounded the
labor he performed
at
painting,
-remed insulated from the
hinting at pre:.'
1962.
and critiqued formalist reac
A >dermst
which privilege the picture plane and its
to
on a couch, her body painted
pun on Modernist
beneath the surface of the images "support," referred
black ribbon around her neck, in a recreation
>
I -Box
dance, coinciding with the revelation of the figure
to relocate
boards to another area of the stage, and
-.:.
pictorial conventions
dismemberment of the
revealing the naked figure of Schneemann,
-
that of
Moms
^ht-toor sheers of plywood painted white.
problems,
involving space, time, and objects.
dressed in white workman's overalls, facing three fbur-
the bean
set of
inquiry into and an expansion of a structural syntax
chigan.
lit,
to
progressively resoked, but. rathet. as constituting
in
at the
darkness pierced by the noise of a
hackhammer. Once
emphasized
by his rejection of absolute pauses throughout the
>
done at th
actural part of the work.
tt:
of relations between objc cts
the Racket Theater in March and the
Judson Memorial Church in April; in Europ
..7- -_ ':.::>t >;<r . .r v ::::~
red with the
qualitM
through the leveling use of the color white: the white
continued to be performed throughout
rk, at
al
(the drill )
the lighring tor the events.
:
in
raham and otherof an expressive musical accompaniment, which
_rd
and ordinary movements
Modern danc;
The^.:
two evenings, included
which Morris peri rmed
one night. Robert Rauschenberg the other). Alex
Deborah
and Yvonne
tlauscher.--
^petition,
order to erode and even burlesque the r
organized by the
r^axton rbr the Surplus
ph\
part of
roc
''
Carotee Schneemann
udke and Sarah Tomimson
hi
1993
.*o. Hunter CoHege.
-stroctior
:
-<3
Schneemann
hi
Ne
GREEN GALLERY SHOW, 1964-65
The Green Gallery, located on West s ~th Street in
\ n York, was directed by Richard Bellamy from 19V)
through the summer of 1965. One of New Yorks
most innovative
art operations
during the early 1960s,
emerging figures
Donald Judd, Morns, Claes
stable of artists included such
its
Mark
di Suvero,
as
Oldenburg, Larry Foons, James Rosenquist, and
George Segal, and
attracted such major collectors as
it
Richard Baker, Philip Johnson. Howard Lipman,
Scull. Bellamy, who had codirected the
Hansa Gallery with Kan Karp. was willing to show
and Robert
novel, nonestablished art
gallery
and was often prophetic
The cooperative
his choices.
Bellamy provided
his artists with stipends
commensurate with the market standard
however, contribute to
did not.
financial success, and, as the
its
market became increasingly competitive,
to
in
orientation of the
was forced
it
64. Untitled (Corner Piece)
108 inches (198.1
cli
In late
1964. Painted plywood. 78
274.3 cm).
October 1964, having returned from
where he had spent nearlj two months
Diisseldorf,
fabricating
Li
show
for a
Galerie Alfred
ai
Schmela, Morns was united by Bellamy
to exhibit at
the Green Gallery, During November, he fabricated
seven pieces tor the exhibition, whi< h ran from
ember 16, 1964 through January 9, 1965.
A departure from the neo-Dada lead and Sculptmetal
1
)'
that he had exhibited
fs
would show
at the
Green
at
linn las gall<
Si
and
rj
later in 1965, these
rallerj
<
human in scale, geometrii
Mcrkm Pilgrim gray, were o lated
involvement with the New Dance, evoking
seven plywood objects,
in
form, and painted
to Morris's
Ins earlier stage props
ini
in
large Untitled (Boiler); Untitled
(Cloud), a slab suspi nd< d from the
from us
raised
bi
eiling at ey<
!_']>.
am spanning
orm
'
tetrahedron
Piei
acoi
(no 6
level
ni
aspect
length of thi
cheapness
floor;
cangulai
ntitled (TabU
I,
ind U\
nil
s/.
the flooi and
an angulai
wedged
its
led
Wall
broad slab leaning against
wall
hiti
cural
siti
and
cho
Minimal pi
f pi
thi
important
man
foi
ial
lu
that the
partaking
ot iginal
thi
foi
ii
oiu
pi urn
he largt ness ol theit scale,
ol their materials,
outset to b<
anothi
view
Morris's
n fabricated
bjei ts wei
oth with the an
Painted plywood,
30.5 cm).
and
east ol fabrication
works wen nevet regarded
as pret ious
wen intended from the
fabricated, knocked down, and
as the) moved from ont installation site to
or uniqui objects; instead the)
CO allow
a di
oi
meant
into corners, or bracketi
adjai
ntitled
thi
min
248.9
ol
rounded cornet running along
Bridging, or
12 inches (248.9
with
Flooi
am
si
forming a
arlj
98
bi
galli i\
regular
I),
65. Untitled (Wall/Floor Slab). 1964
98
'ntitled
into a cornet ol thi room.
fit
B
oik
ion [no.
I,
lei
.md timi
(Morris's second solo exhibition in \< w
d th<
1c
to the task-
iii
bodies in real spai
The show
York)
ommitmi
and
mov
oriented
his
the "publii
In
wi
ol thi
re
ont
logii
ivt
"i thi
d, thus, as reprodut
nous,
multipli without an
Exhibition at the
Green Gallery, New York, December
1964-January 1965,
Left to right: Untitled (Table), Untitled
(Corner Beam), Untitled (Floor Beam). Untitled (Corner
Piece), and Untitled (Cloud).
GREEN GALLERY
SH
171
MIRRORED CUBES,
1965
Untitled < Mirrored Cubes) (1965, no. 66),
shown
at the
Green Gallery, New York, in February 1965 together
with a group of Leads from 1964, was first fabricated
in January 1965. The work, which since then has been
refabricated in dimensions varying from twenty-one
to thirty-six inches per side,
comprised of four cubes
is
mirror laminated onto wood, these placed
ot Flexiglas
floor in a grid pattern
on the gallery
based on the size
of the room.
The
CO
use of the cubic form and of regular placement
imply that each unit
an integer within a larger
is
cubic whole, a notion of cohesiveness reinforced by the
interlocking reflections cast by the mirrored surfaces,
work on
places this
would
a developmental path that
lead to the gray-painted, fiberglass Untitled
shown
(Battered Cubes) (1965, no. 67)
Dwan
at the
Gallery in Los Angeles. In the latter work, the contrast
between the canted outer walls of the cubes and
their perpendicular inner faces creates an implicit,
enveloping shape, or gestalt, that embraces, and
thereby unites, the four separate parts into a truncated
pyramid. In this cohesion, Battered Cubes
the
fulfills
ideas on the gestalt that Morris was then developing
and would publish, early
the gestalt
part
first
and
a single, immediately grasped
onstant shape
1966, in the
in
"Notes on Sculpture." For Morris, the value of
oi Ins
was
capacity to
its
subsume
other
all
qualities or properties of the object into a "unitary"
form: "If the predominant, hieratic nature
ot
the unitary form tunc turns as a constant,
particularizing relations
hereby
ale,
si
all
proportion,
these
etc
.,
are
Rather they are bound more
and indh idually together
sivel)
ii
an< riled.
ot
developing his ideas on the gestalt, Morris, in
In
the second part oi "Notes on Sculpture," points out
iistano ol certain properties
oi
mphasis on
spe<
ifit
impressively high finishes"
unitariness
shape,
ol
a fra<
h a
Ii.
in
h In
impn
inti rnal
Ins prai
ssivi
divisibility
between
hi
orporation into the
the visual experience
emphatically
and
rejects,
illusionisni,
Donald Judd, would seem
tii
e in
VLirrortd Cubi
ch<
.md fragmi ntation
with
bi
Y>
ol
understood as operating
1971 o-libn, dlion
both
this
theory and practice oi both
66 Untitled (Mirrored Cubei)
original
in<
oi
K high finishes" and guarantee
ontradii tion should
1965
intense color, say,
internal relationships"
shares with
in
its
on
to
ture
of the underlying whole thai
Sm
sensuous material or
in
ol a
Plexiglas mirrors on wood, lour units, each 21
21 inches 153.3 x 53.3
172 ROBER1 MO]
53.3
<
the
Morns
MIRRORED CUBES 173
and Judd. Like Morris's use
employment
ot mirrors, Judd's
lacquered color and of paradoxical
of
own work
strucrural relations in his
1965
ot
lolated
his principle that the experience ot the specific
object should be exactly coextensive with
That
description.
its
physical
had entered
this contradiction
Minimalist practice from almost the very beginning
was.
in fact,
as an
noted bj sonic
the early writers on this
ot
Indeed, Robert Smithson welcomed lllusionism
work.
important development within Minimalism
such that "an uncanny materiality" produced h\
the surface impression would act to "engulf the basic
structure
But perhaps the best way
understand this
to
seeming contradiction within Minimalism
Constantin Brancusi's work, which,
a reading in
terms
precedent tor that
who
to turn to
is
in its resistance to
ot
internal relations, served as a
ot
both Judd and Morns, lor Morns,
chose the Romanian
artist as the subject ot his
master's thesis, the repetition and geometrical order ot
Endhw Column
the
employed,
tor
(1937); the unitary shapes
example,
Beginning
"t tbt
World
1920); the quality of industrial finish in the polished
uX (1916); and. as a
surfaces ot works such as Princt
corollarv ot that last, the reflection ot contingent
events recorded
passing on the lustrous bronze
111
up
facades, whi< h set
Constantin Brancusi, Princess X. 1916. Polished bronze,
22 inches (55.9 cm)
high,
and limestone base,
(18.4 cm) high. Philadelphia
Museum
of Art,
'
contradk cion between
the "Platonic solid") and
idealized shape (the notion
ol
the happenstance reflection
of
the
iewer
were
all
to
inches
The Louise and Walter
have implications for his Minimalist work
Arensberg Collection
Morris,
reprinted in Mini
(New York Dutton,
!.
bruar)
Gn
ed
ot)
19<
(O tober
Morris,
Banco
in
I
tin
dimensions
illusion ism
which
is
Battcock
and
'
ridofthi problei
real spaci
art
ol literal spa<
space
in
and around m.irks and colore
riddance of oni of th< salient and most obje< tionabU
in
Halifax
(Donald Judd,
in
reprinted in
'Specific
Donald)
Nova Scotiat
Rosalind Krauss,
Objects
nd Design, 1975], p
olli
Allusion and Illusion
in
Ifl
Donald Judd,*
M
Rol ert
Smith
(Philadelphia
Dot
Jd Judd,"
7-1
Sculplon,
'
\n
,i,
loll
<
xhibition
.i
I",.
(New
~i
orli
l,r
Mi
(
I
unpublished masti
in
Institute of Contemporary
r's
th< sis.
"
lunti
..ik ol
r
Col
<
onstani in Brani
\i a
n
"i
"it.
67. Untitled (Battered Cubes), 1965. Painted plywood, four
units,
each 24
36
36 inches (61
91.4
91.4 cm).
MIRRORf
17 5
RING WITH LIGHT, 1965-66
showed
In 1966, Morris
Among them was
group of
Dwan
polyhedrons at the
break, both in temporal and spatial terms, with the
fiberglass
Gallery in Los Angeles.
principles of high
Untitled (Ring with Light) (1965-66,
moment
no. 68), a large ringlike form, eight feet in diameter,
composed of two
from the
The
between the
slits
work appeared
Museum
in the
Los
of Art's exhibition American
which appeared
Clement Greenberg
disembodied, purely cognitive receiver
A month
its
after the
which proceeded from
commitment
to the
within the other
derided as
to be
double and inextricable
Judson Dance Theater and
more than
to the
each imbricated
justified this
show's closing, Michael Fried seconded Greenberg by
characterization. Indeed, no other Minimalist had
publishing "Art and Objecthood," the most sustained
an equivalent connection to the rationalization
and focused attack on Minimalism up
the body's gesture as the basis for the development
plastic form.
For Fried, the issue of the object's "presence,"
time.
which he compared
in
until that
to the presence of another person
room with the
the
Because of
viewer, was again a central issue.
interior illumination, he singled out
its
he called Minimalism's "covert anthropomorphism":
is,
It
Transgression," faced
Clement Greenberg,
argument, Fried proposes that
his
reprinted in
On
audience.
atrii al,
quality he
.1
between
distini tion
painting and
ondemned
Recentness of Sculpture,'
two most
ol
1968),
writers
was not thai
among
has n(
.irs
Antk
waj
ol
11
In
I".
Ol
and
ontingem
is.
It
harai ter, thi
the
ilinik.
pp 116
17
in Ins
(
l
>s
any way
1
in
in
thai
1
Thus,
it
was
up.ition ol the real Spai
its b<
holder,
ol that physii al
titeralist
its
l)(
1
emphasis on
relationship
176 ROI
But
it
both sides
in
the
diffen d sharply in their estimation
legitimacy
whili
|un<
foi
P01
nding
ol
Morris and Judd, literalism
thi
prim
iples ol the avani
Greenberg and Fried
it
constituted
'
has
last
!
in /' ....../
965), reprinted
NovaS
(Judd,
the
in
ii
aCollegeof Art and Design,
including,
it, .!-
of vision
ii
rhen
seems, tin bJboUn
nothing thai
wen dtcUm
.
means
thai 'the entire situation
it
in
hi
i.ikiv noti
'I
in
>>i
ttion,
to thi experience, in question" (Fried, in Battcot k,
addi
11. 1I1. ,
worth remarking
//ofit
nothing within bit fiJJ
d on Minimalism's phi nomenological
Kt<
gardi
ountj
181)
I
exactly that
iporal conditions ol viewing, that led Fried
this .in
tistii
wlpttm
Angeles
been painting 01 v ulpture Usually
and
in
avoiding the illusionism
iated with traditional form
Minimalism's aggressivi
disputi agn
in
os
Gregorj Battcock
Ison
Robi n Mori
'ii
rj
ol
\"
I969),p|
\" Ai
is
chibition
and
ritical
Halifax
1975). p
painting
ol
.]
ulpture, as
both the
les
related, closer) or distantly, to oni 01 the other
Objects" that such objects should
Specifii
\%
Writm.
both Morns and Donald
prohfii
ai
ulpture. In this analysis. Fried drew
si
Minimalists) Indeed, Judd had argued
ill
ol
.'
pp
Mink
blurring the
tor
m< diums such as
sep.1r.1tt
on the writings
|ik!>|i[|n
ihared
"An Aesthetics
A^ Donald Judd wrote, "Hall or moreol the best work
that basis he judged the
t.
.issoi
ol
atalogui (Los Ang<
<
Art and Objecthood,
(New York Dutton.
experience of Minimalist sculpture to be irredeemably
sc
name
against Fried's accusation ol
analogous to the performance of an actor
is
it,
into the
Art, 1967),
ol
Muli
2.
crowding him
viewer's space, even to thi poini of
or
ott
from grace.
fall
oftht Sixliti, exhibition
the intrusion of the anthropomorphic objei
essay
debate around Minimalism, as Annette
critical
Museum
Continuing
ilirci tly
ol
presence
ol the body's
numerous commentators have remarked
as
inner, even secret, life."
ili'
ol
within the work ol art that became the ground of
"hterahst"
approvingly, as though the work in question has an
within
was the stake
It
Michelson's defense, in the
with Light as the quintessential example of what
that Fried
detractors, Morris's development,
rethinking of the sculptural object
a feeling of "presence" by exploiting the nonart look
of the large-scale industrial object.
Minimal sculpture came
If
theatrical" by
anti-aesthetic attempt to create
its
existing
pitted against Minimalism's mongrel "theater
in the show's catalogue,
criticized Minimalist sculpture for
what he considered
pure pictorialism
this ideal of
an instantaneous vision that defines the viewer as
Sculpture of the Sixties. In his essay "Recentness of
Sculpture,
as
divorced from real time.
was
It
as
half-circles.
following year the
Angeles County
glows
half-circles. Fluorescent light
Modernism, which they saw
postulating a visual mastery occurring in a cognitive
^iii<
atalogui
n>
"i
A\ ashington,
is
68. Untitled (Ring with Light), 1965-66. Painted wood
and fiberglass and fluorescent
light,
two
units,
each 24 inches
(61 cm) high, 14 inches (35.6 cm) deep; overall diameter
97 inches (246.4 cm). Dallas Museum
Fund and
of Art,
General Acquisitions
matching grant from the National Endowment
for
the Arts.
WITH
[.Kill T
77
WATERMAN SWITCH,
Morris's final
dance composition was Waterman Switch
performed by the
(no. 69). a trio
Childs, and Yvonne Rainer, in
Festival of the Arts
Today
performed
later that
Theater
New
in
1965
Morris's recitation ot a portion of Leonardo's notebooks
March 1965, at the
The work was
at the
where
Judson Dance
reviews.
manner reminiscent
In a
of the earlier Arizona
no. 63), the
t.
a boulder, stood with their backs to the audience,
holding
sounds of a tape recording
cart fully
Muybridge's motion studies
Eadweard
featuring a burly naked
over, lifting a rock,
and throwing
were projected. Morris himself entered the
to the out-of-sync
of rolling boulders.
empty frame, duplicating
dragged by Childs to a central position
the position
assumed by
As the lights came up, Childs repositioned the
moving them to the other side of the stage and
tracks,
extending
oft
it,
and Morns and Rainer resumed
When
onstage, whereupon, to the rhapsodic strains of an aria
their creeping journey.
from Giuseppe-
point, Morris poured a small vial of mercury
opera Simon Boccanegra, Morris
Verdi's
and Rainer. clad only
shimmering mineral
in
and
oil,
it
last
Muybridge's subject.
After a
plywood tracks
brief blackout, a set of gray-painted
to enact the last
taped description. Then the
of Morris's
man bending
As the
performance began, foam-rubber rocks were rolled on
where they bounced around
and attempted
a rope,
stage went dark and a series of slides of
seventeen-
minute piece divided neatly into distinct segments
or fields that resist narrative cohesion.
was
during which the three performers, each stationed
sequence
(1963, no. 55) and Site (196
stage,
dealing with the erosive effects of rivers on stones,
on
met with enthusiastic
it
This disquisition was succeeded, on the tape, by
Lucinda
in Buffalo
month
'fork,
artist,
they reached the halfway
down
Rainer's back, the silver liquid breaking into drops and
locked in a face-to-face embrace, began slowly and
showering the
methodically to traverse those tracks, shadowed by the
the remaining twine as she walked back and forth
mans
figure of Childs, clad in an outsized
As she moved, Childs unwound
shoulder,
waj
its
Next, Childs stood, holding
Stage
Morns, holding
pole, while
hat.
a<
beneath them. Childs unraveled
performing area, us
ross the
The
Labyrinth.
arc
seeming
form
to
trio exited.
end stretching behind her and threading
its
ofl
and
suit
of twine over her
a ball
floor
long
other end, which bore a
its
<
calces
red flag that concealed the lower half of his torso, ran
was performed is part of an event thtt also included
./.
ii
hilds's solo
<
arnatim (1964) and EUim
name (com
it-,
working
as
.i
sunn
.i
road in
<
r<rrw/(1963)
lu
piea
alifomia thai Morn', had examined
when
.'<
the circumference around her During tins segment, a
dame and its sequences,
mode of performance
tape ol his voi( e disc ussed the
oik e
at
under
n Sexive
and transforming
within
his critical discourse into an object
it:
69.
Waterman
Rainer
/
hope eventual/)
will then thou
nyone
bat
to
slides
slid,
tht
11
h,i\
dam
mi
n
i
be
<t-noli
occurring.
It
-i
A u
<
//</*
oj tin
would, of course,
imagint a largt
know later.
when
tuppose
n mon
it
ot
tht
rj
possiblt to
tlide projected against tht
tndom
ti
iln in .ill
on
stmi,
ateithei
with
almost to
>/./<
back
h l>LI
toward
it .it
tht
)"ii.
ont
wings
Run
chest height.
./
Put
long
Tht
will slowly, ever so slowly, move toward
tht ont in tht
<
nit r
would bt
lis,
usi,l
utilizing tht roundnt
In t
I Hill.
7M
tin
Let
twoatei
an J
occurring, hut this
which would depict three people,
in
"
>/<>
section whilt
possiblt to thou
is
qut
(torn
bt
tection whilt this tection
been done.
rhaps
/'<
n in the last section actually
could thou
of this
example,
iuring the timt
rhapi
tlidt
let
tection, for
oj this
rolled oil
tins
oj this
photographing nou they will
is
Minn
/'(
madt
mon
./>
ss
/ his stun,
.m aid to balance than
in
Switch, 1965. Morris, Lucinda Childs. and Yvonne
performance
at the Festival of the Arts
Today. Buffalo.
Jb-
M
w
//*
PERMUTATION, 1967
group
In a
works produced
ot
March of that year at the Leo
196", and exhibited in
in
Castelli Gallery in
Morris explored the notion
ii>rk.
which involved him
permutation,
of
modular conception
in a
sculpture based on elements that could be
ot
systematically rearranged and regrouped to form rings,
wedges, boxes, and soon. Accordingly, the units
making up
the works were reconfigured dailj (as would
be the case
in his later piece
with schemata and
mpanied
Continuoh
A hand drawn
no. L07]).
chart.
possible configurations,
lists of
the pieces. Like his earlier Minimalist
work, these large, cool-surfaced polyhedrons were
painted
The permutation
gray
a neutral
however, are
pieces,
which, because
of fiberglass,
us greatet
of
malleability and durability, allowed Morris to
make works with more complex shapes and
detailed
curves than was possible with plywood
Although the permutation works follow
the trajectory
of
Minimalism, they depart from
its
emphasis mi monadii form Instead, the segmented
pieces sn.
tin
viewer that the shapes are
an interview with David
strictly provisional. In
Morns, nevertheless, mad<
Sylvester,
the issue ot shape was
still
work, explaining thai instead
possible
'
liar that
entral to the effei
working out
of
the
of
all
configurations ot the series, he deliberate
[j
privileged continuous arrangements that would
He further remarked
puns arose, in pan,
produce rings or squares.
of
permuting
the
diltii ulties
Ins
sc
son
his
presented
xperiem ed
iisrll
mc
to
The
thai
works
oni
rilniii
situation
"i
light
is
cingi in
and the
reinfi
Ins
is
ol
ontii
both of which an
iti
ei
|uallj
nci
ch<
sui h
room
ivation thai fui thi
ol
Bui now
in
sul
is
ij
b
the
tim< and spa<
10
HO
si 21
ind the
it,
(120.7
the shapes
configuration with eight units, each
New
tors
fai
size ol the
oed by the provisional natun
si ri< s
to the establishmi ni ol a
facing page: 71. Untitled (Stadium)
.1
added)
relationship with the bodj of thi viewei
as angli
Changes During the Exhibition
Lithograph, dimensions and location
unknown.
mighi make
with the earlier plywood pieces, the
1
(tor Untitled (Stadium])
sun
in gi tting
possibli shapes" (italics
rathei
1967
tonus thai would havi nodefinitivi shapes. Inn
of
70. Floor Plan with Dates of
fi
he had
ulptures through doorways
of
thai the
Eva Hi
21 5.9
47
120.7 cm). Solomon
York. Panza Collection.
1967. Fiberglass,
'
R.
85
47
'
inches
Guggenheim Museum.
.18
below: Untitled (Stadium). 1971. permanent outdoor
installation. Oiled steel, eight units. 4 feet
22
6 inches
22
feet x
feet (1.37 x 6.71 x 6.71 m) overall. Fairmount Park
Association, Philadelphia.
facing page: Untitled (Stadium). 1967 Two configurations
with four units
SERIALITY
Working
was, perhaps, the most widely
in series
adopted practice
1960s
of
sculpture, whether in the hands
ol
The
artists, or Color-field painters.
which
painting as
art, in
was
way
But
from one work
was
it
through
and
of
composition.
seriality
Donald Judd, SpecificObji
DonaldJ
ns
s.im
the cim
c.i
fiberglass
nu. ins
oi
in Ins
cii
avoiding the need
this use ot series:
The
simply order,
one thing
is
order
than he was
of seriality
permuting
form
a singli
posi
idem
where the
Vf/'rri
stable
unpainted
s,
!,
no
16),
no 14)
and
in
complex This
196
nnels)
ai
also a
h foui
two
Untitled
omposc d
<
f<
grid, so that tin
is
is
nt ol
Fiberg/asi
of
si
oui as
between
if
on
ai
work exploits the
tin
Bui
repei ition
rial
si
as
mOV< mi
the
(Nim
high and
squan
.,i
is
also true
nine two fool
ol
inti rsi ice
fool
.all.
is
whic h
with us investigation
'3),
ir.insluc cut fiberglass
squan columns
ubt
72), in
form with
r<
ii
aluminum mesh,
1969, no
occurs
it
no
'.
die mdiv idual
steel or
xpandi d
[/-<
ol tins
(19
g( Stall ol
\uwer And
Untitled (Fib
the fiberglass version of his earlier
in
and shaped
bj a use of materials
moire patterns form and
ire
in
ii
-is
joints
have be< n
to
multiple reflections Bui
its
of
nUntiti
and
When Morns
Liven element, his use
of a
in
shattered by
us.
lunges
experienced.
lu
"compromised
intentionally
the
of nails
version that involved
that renders the basic unit optically
the
eeirscvl
plywood, and
interested in tins
less
in a
strategy seems, almost from the start
of
in
Minimalist sculptures through the
exact repetition
e\
like that of continuity,
generate
to
the way us shapi would
most
waj to achieve subtly
after another."
Morris seems to have been
type
of
not rationalistic
is
.,
shadow presences
tor the
Minimalist works Subsequently, Morris used ilu material
a slightly rawer state
but not rigidlj smoothed
underlying but
.es
s L ( a
Nov
188
forms, which had been extremely difTiculi to ctto
steel plates
As Judd explained
or his rows of hrebrii ks.
1965). reprinted
Halifax:
II
College of Art and Design, 1975), p
units, implicit!)
juxtaposed
of
and contingent.
Jiv isible
Judd's assemblages ol stacked boxes
Carl Andre's "rugs
ol
the nine
of
to the next
could be expanded without limit. Tins was true
Id
reflections of the
units render them, like Mirrored ( ubes, undeniably
was introduced into the single work, which, as the
composite of repeated, unvaried
and the muted
intangibility;
Minimalist practice thai
in
veiled passage
surroundings playing across the surfaces
automating the process
ot
The
series
element, or "found" image would he repeated, with
variations,
through the fiberglass produces an effect of
Minimalists, Pop
a single formal configuration, geometric
minor
21221
Morris's skinlikc Felt: (pp.
of light
in
despite this "order,
ofthi
sleeves,"
olor.
with their
oi
fiii
tli<
hi
.in
>
is
oxj
g<
t,
when
n wi n
texture and
hi ighti
'I
chroi
and
in its liquid stati
following three pages:
72 Untitled (U Channels)
d to thi
lui id,
12x61
graj
thi
1969
E)
crappi d
Minimalist works,
I
unpointed
Solomon
R.
inches (160
Guggenheim Museum. New
106.7
156.2 cm).
Hon
Yorl
painti d surfac es
unpainti d
73. Untitled (Nine Fiberglass Sleevesl
196
enl
i
hi.
.iir
effei
irregularly streaked
in places
ompan
of
ii
HI
ol
earliei
.m on.
bubbled
pockets
tinj
illegibli
material in a semiraw,
The fiberglass
ars
translucent fiberglass surfaces
an ambiguous
.in
ic
useofthi
Ik
thi
unqualifiabli
ii.
I.
in
mat*
iality,
to thai ol
irt.
New
York
Sonnabend
61
Collet Hon,
INDUSTRIAL FABRICATION
Two paradigms
underlie the insistence with which the
Minimalists subtracted every experience
of the "artist's
that, despite their industrial roots, often
surprisingly bodil) or energetic and
imparted
shimmering
hand" from the appearance oi their work. One of
these is the readymade. in which the manufactured
effects.
object, merely selected,
surfaces challenged assumptions regarding the visual
The
other
self-evidently divested
is
ot personal intervention
by the
artist in its fashioning.
the "work ordered by telephone," the
is
These effects
1965, no 66),
stability of the
came
This by-product
One
renders handcrafts obsolete.
fabrication
that plans
is
which
principle of
fa<
to call an
tory
drawn up by one person
might be tar
works himself, the
early Minimalist
in
the
his
.'
involved in the phenomenology
Moms. Ami form
Universit) Press. 1979
permutation
of
experiences
ording to their
ac<
committed
that they were
plai
to the
but
ment
logi(
what Morris
>>t
the well-built," by which he was referring to
called
the industrial rationalization
shape
ot
Morris and Judd crafted their earliest works from
wood, but very soon began
pis
that both required the
inti r\
work
to
materials
in
ntion ot fabri< ators and
intensified the industrial qualit) of the objl
surfaces.
However, the logk
carried with
the-
it
working from plans also
ot
only on paper, to be fabricated
the
lit lire
)ne such example
Pan/. di
nil
Biumo
ilized until
With
tin
ritical
Miiiim.il:
>
to n
1
1.
pi at
ion
plans
from
prai In
medi
ling
new method
In addition, this
was appealing
as a pr.n in al
t<>
the
Iiiiin lln less.
work
wa\
in
man
unmanageabh using handcraft methods,
nands within Minimalist
answi
foi
<
the
such as Alfn d
radii al dissoi iation
forms, allowing artists
wlnli
i|<
of th<
re able, bj
fabrii ators
dec ision
and arrangement
ill
quired
at
success
ial)
io In n Id ol
date
plans and not
Of
Although undi k oring a
hand ol tin si iilptol, this
lion
form
these mists wc
111.
is /
19
land finam
and Donald l.ippup on
Morris
l>\
in the
mid- 1960s, to consult with
rtist's
unknown
an
at
was original!)
Mi. whii h
'
"making" works
possibility ot
variation in
man
rial
and
all
;i
hi
ulptun
s<
and
<
<
ulptural produi cion to
into
.!
<
01 in
1
man
aluminum m<
lass,
HH
ih
rials sin h as
aluminum
and colorful
icpandi d
l><
5t<
ams, translui
01 rcflectivt
plastics,
and
<
of
.
was
it
its
p. 34
Robert Smithson, "Donald Judd,"
or example, projected different
toss tire of reflections.
uncanny materialism," discussing
in
(Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary
plywood polyhedrons were conceived from the outset
as multiples Tins meant that they were not only
carious/
of
opposite: entropy.
simple
large,
swallowed up
not in terms of the conservation of form but of
are executed by another at a site that
removed from the drafting room.
Although Morns, like Donald Judd, made
to be
both Morris's and Judd's use
fabrication was what Robert Smithson, by V>~
used attention
of industrial fabrication,
internally reflective
Minimalist polyhedrons, suggesting,
the Russian Construe mists had
on the nature
whose
instead, an erosion of such stability, as the forms
notorious example through which, in the mid- 1920s,
toe
recall issues raised bj
nt
mediums
An.
u
ifiibition catalogue
1967), reprinted in
New York: New
York
1967 Aluminum,
74. Untitled (Square Donut)
12 feet
12 feet (1.12
3.66
3 feet 8 inches x
3.66 m). Private collection.
INDl'
189
75. Untitled, 1967 Aluminum I-beams, 5 (eet 6 inches
12 feet (1.68
New
MM)
3.66
3.66 m). Solomon
York, Panza Collection.
R.
12 leet
Guggenheim Museum,
76. Untitled, 1968. Aluminum,
4.27 m). Collection
5x14x14
feet (1.52 x
4.27
of the artist.
INDUSTRIAL, FABRICATION 191
LEADS
Bronze has
own
its
remarks that Morris's Leads displa) main signs
ations within the
set
many
history of sculpture, carrying, tor
delayed action;
reasons, the
made permanent. That is why the
Umberto Boccioni's Futurist
sense of form
ontinuity in Spact
lsMl
).
consummate Modernist testimonial to movement and
to forms perpetually coming into bemi:. delivers
the work to a profound historical irony. Later in the
century, Jasper Johns,
meaning
a part ot the
monumental and
George Orwell's 1984 with those
Milium B (
he links them to Han
dway
to support.
medium
may
had only
ii
view, tlu\ were
ol
museum
in a
also retails the lead
tor
while she danced.
and again
196
in
i.
before and during
him
Dusseldorf, the material provided
and Open ground, on whi<
make
also furnished tin artist
which he shared with
studio,
.1
M.u k
in/
Ii
of
At the end of his approximate^ month
Morns exhibited a group ol lead it In fs at
Schmela's Dussi Idorl gallery. Among the works shown
ro.
long Stay,
Untitled (1965, no 84),
ntit/edl 1963
64,
and Untitled (Cast Glove and Imprint
irlier group ot Leads, together with Mirrored
"
at
the
in
<
rallt i\
\i w
in
Tlu
a<
and
the Leads
ill
harged
in tin
some
in
<l
ol a
Beuys
onography"
a tract
tht
othi
rs,
relativi
,r,
Id ol all
Rather,
I,
in
embedded
some
on positions,
tin
mala
om
not
it
ol
.no
.1
di la)
<u
l.i
the
lead surface has
left
contact; the imprint
penis
is
relatively eke ipherable.
(Hand and
invitation
so
rei
Holds) (1963,
Tot
hands have been
of toes aikl of
other works, rulers
In several
of fort
in tht
surrounding
in glass
/ /
In th
anv
in
cter)
Ni Yoi
hi<
l>
was
'
in
shaped forms fabricated bj Morris
In
two
artists
I"
ing
to
\<
ad's
manipulate
tangulai
a
h, as
lors,
5mithson
planned <"
pi
rform
been performed simultaneous!) In Beuys
ii
Robert Smith
Duchamp's no
/
r\
batteries
bui Mi
mill
it
as)
<
oi h
readil)
impact combines with
parallels Marcel
/
seem
in the surfaci of tht plaques, in
Ii.im
omplex dynamii ol mov< mi ni and stasis, whit
in
ntropj and Ni w
Rob< M Smithson who
Monuments
be considered
The imagery
m\ ground.
toj
tall)
notion
may
tads.
ripples of energ)
ases registt ring hue
used, in
and
the most important, for Morris,
In Morris's relativi
i
ol
grip marks
the
exhibited
ch
mi tapl
its
undi rstood as
softness, whit h
things
point
ntitled
.1
of the
pushed into
at
ulva or an eret
Isewhere,
Bui Morris was careful to deemphasiz< the
b\
the-
oi
materials possible symbolii associations
fi<
with
isualization of tht results
identifiable
iiiu-s
role in
knowledged by Morns, who
bai k into th(
ot different forces, all
"ii
coils, a ball
behind
the
t.
the statu with
of
ol toree
mm ing
have emanated from batteries, conduits, terminals,
,n<
lork
tlu
t
kuuls
from
conduct energy, which had
major, symbolically
work, was
some
is
to
abilit) of lead to
a
form
at
Smithson
root."
to prevent her breasts
impressed into Lad bars
h 1965.
played
the actions
locates
Morris had fashioned
lira
ot different
to
no 61
several small works,
mobile,
ol
no. 80),
exhibited
the'
on which tones
h he could, SO CO speak.
who
dealer Alfred Schmela.
which he
The well-balanced combination
new
nan) was underwritten bj the
tri]
Yvonne Rainer
to
isit
a relativelj
own mark.
his
Morris's
with
L963, no.
caught
and caveman are housed under one
rarel)
making
oran's
<
1958), (Lies
natural history, "where the spaceman
of
been adopted by sculptors. So, when Morris began
lead reliefs, initially with Litanies
From Smithson's point
in the extreme past and
1959).
all
future," the paradoxical juncture ol
of lead, although prior to the aggregates
(dating from 1958) ofJoseph Beuys,
and Squalor
Reason
applied to the
In
1962), Johns's Tennyson
B-movieOm
Flavin's
Oldenburg's ray guns, and Frank Stellas Tbt Mat
the objects he pressed
of
similar reading
Flesh
states or ideas
ot the
of
it
rhetorical connotations of bronze
with the total banality
mixing the time
fossilized sexuality by
own cast-bronze
of his
Morris's imprints
erections and vaginas as tending to illustrate
of
bulb and Ballantme Ale cans, contrasting the
light
it
made
control ot this irony,
in
ot
"backward
looking future," they provide a key to understanding
much contemporary work Naming
casting in bronze ot
sculptun
in their effort to disclose a
16
is
ii
nli. In
in
bitf,
which would
from the projet
A
i
ipyandNew Monumcm
(New York New York
Holt
Universit)
ins
77. Untitled, 1965. Polished Sculptmetal over Masonite,
lead, ball of twine, lock, battery!?),
11 feet 7 inches
3 inches (1.83
Collection Mrs. Victor W. Ganz,
and wire brush, 6 feet
New
3.53
.08
rn).
York.
193
'I
facing page: 78. Leonardo, 1964. Lead over wood, wax, and
wires,
1
'
inches (29.2
22.9
1.3 cm). Collection
Florence and Brooks Barron.
79. Untitled, 1964. Lead over wood and Sculptmetal, 17
20''4 x
Inches (43.2
51.4
2.5 cm). Lannan Foundation,
Los Angeles.
LEADS
95
IX,
facing page, top: 80. Untitled, 1963-64. Lead over wood
and rope, 24
36
2 inches (61
91.4
x 5.1
cm).
Location unknown.
facing page, bottom: 81. Untitled. 1964. Lead over wood and
two
19 J / 4
batteries!?),
35
inches (50.2
90.2
x 7
cm).
The Sadoff Collection.
82. Untitled, 1964. Lead over wood, plaster cast, Sculptmetal,
and two batteries!?), two panels and
(177.8
156.2
20.3 cm)
overall.
shelf,
70
61
'/
8 inches
Lannan Foundation,
Los Angeles.
'I
83 Untitled 1964. Lead over wood,
tin
,(')
[115.6 x
92.7
II
20 3 cm)
overall
Collection Sydney and Frai
84. Untitled, 1963. Lead over wood and two batteries!?), 11
35'/4 x 3'/ 8 inches (30 x 89.5 x 8 cm). Kaiser Wilhelm
Krefeld,
Germany.
85. Untitled, 1964. Lead over wood and steel spring, 9
2
Museum,
inches (22.9 x 68.6
27
5.7 cm). Collection Dr. and Mrs. Marvin
H. Grody, Philadelphia.
LEADS 199
86 Memoria (For Alan Buchsbaum), 1987. Lead over wood,
with silver leal, acids, graphite, and lacquer,
1
New
aoo
it'H
niches (193
i
166 4
76
6b
3.8 cm). Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery,
87. Malice/Doubt, 1989. Lead on wood, 91
(231.1
New
185.4
73
6 inches
15.2 cm). Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery,
York.
LEAD
a 111
HEARING, 1972
Unlike a cnal, which
designed to produce a
is
a defendant, a hearing
purports only to otter
Morr
and
memory
Congressional hearings that,
devastating and
final
in
the early 1950s, sat in
Mapping
of representation: those
acquisition,
(its
status as
its
ot stable
objects (presymbolic phases of infantile recognition,
presentation, or immediate intuition, as opposed to
judgment on the ideological
convictions of Americans
ot art.
without overtly
circles,
knowledge); those related to the perception
those
ot
Witness
embracing, various theories
concerning language
auditory reception by an audience and. in die
its
second, to the strong cultural
and works
card-tile entries to cardiographs
investigator, the
and
instance, to an investigation carried out b) voices
to the
hearing ranges from tapes
in the
In response to interpretations advanced by the
of
title
refers, in flu first
Evidence
\\ itness
The
preliminary exploration of information.
them
positions and attempting to attribute
final
determination regarding claims brought against
political ideology,
representation
the apprehension
of Morris's
expressed in references to the extension of the
Minimalist plywood pieces
Vietnam War
prerepresentational objects that exceed notions of
into
Cambodia, onto the
aesthetii
battles of the Minimalist generation, Hearing realizes
i.iIU r\
New
platform six-inches high.
discussion, recorded on
York,
ol a
dona]
fii
The
mounted
composite
the
ot
entral
harai tcr
hinted
around the work warned
rs
sand-filled trough ele< trifled the lead-< ov<
zim table, whili an immersion heater
within
haii
physii al threat
dynamii
tra
groui
he
ritii
'
ing ol th<
partii ipants in
filmmaker
Km
from
Norma
In
loll is
ice
of ai
and
tress
tot
I"
In the
is
all<
HI
out
ol this
>ll|
fii
tional h( aring, thi
supported by the quotation
is
propositions advanced by writers
ran
(
t
fa
Marquez,
laude
art
materialized
both
it
in
at
narrativi
and
tin
itness
""is.
ultural
Ull
Id in
the site of inquisition,
usatory-
relations ot
the obje<
admittedly complicit in
ts
its
power and
brutality,
on the platform
quoting
and
sell
ol "authorities" to
is
has recentlj remarked that
when
lit.
evidence, on
i<
he-
read
Text, Ideology
he
W.J. T. Mitchell's
was reminded of the overriding concerns of Hearing,
inn
and
<ii
and Ludwig Wittgenstein Prom
outset, the piect deploys the notion of authority in
w.ns that
ly,
tin
named
that involve
turgid yet playful
homsky, Marcel Due ham p. Michel
i.ihni
Strauss. Jean Piage
tin
mti rposition
struggle between
the his torj
the basis ol whii h
OK
voii
d upon to addn
from
It
(th<
of
ol
them
ulture, that
mi long ago bj
words and images,
of
<
\<
foi
dominance within
n figured opposition
Leonardo as the paragom
'
whii h qualil
I
an Investigator
oui auli
ii.
Fin land the persistent inquiries, couched in
the Witi
Noam
such as
and
an insinuating, seemingl) sincen desin to grasp
a<
language that
Mm
writ(
commentaries
of objet ts
structun and support us arguments.
interrupted In
ntlj
of
the
Frampton and
was inn rmitti
use
and the implii
hi at
hi
<
attempts to defend his OW n beleaguered
OR lustration
tin
was augmented by the
\\ itness
Stephen
upper
boiling point.
which consisted of the philosophical!)
k,
intelli
ol
<
to the observable world).
the
on and self-defense overlaid on
ol ini
I
in the
to th<
it
in a
d bed and
r<
formal relationships that
the
us surface); and empiric ism (limiting
of!
and paraphrase
hair on
.ill battt ries buri<
intention prior to
artistic
series of slutting, episodic
the
at,
listeners
against tone hing th< bed, table, and
the platform, tor six w<
an
position, the Witness des< ribes Ins enterprise in a
figure finally remains obsc urc
ns placed
mi aning
In his
And wink
is
approaching these
of
mteniionality (securing meaning
of
through privileging
can be read
shifting, impa< ted
instead tor a montagelike framework.
ways
rejects certain
among them:
an object In waj
tor
a wildly negotiable archive,
us creation); formalism (interpreting an object or text
long tape, abandoned conventional narrative, opting
Witness
tliree-and-onc -haltdiour-
is
objects,
iform tableau
ru<
that consisted ot OUtsized metal furniture
on
in
a power-encoded configuration. In clue course, the
issued from
i
which
voices.
were saturated with the recorded dialogui
speakers near a central!) positioned
history,
many
in
investigation. This episodii
considered
Hearing
the duration ot the piece's initial installation,
the rooms of the Leo Castclli
and those involving
"reduction");
system
as multiple, diffuse, a concatenation of
-
alluded to in relation to
belief
performance the idea of a personal
in
is
al
w
t
in.
\l
i
88. Hearing. 1972. Three-and-one-half-hour stereo tape, stereo
tape recorder, amplifier, two speakers; copper chair with
water and immersion heater, 48
76.2 cm); zinc table, 36
78
91.4 cm); lead-covered bed, 24
24
72
25.4 cm); and wet-cell batteries buried
trough; on
30 inches (121.9
36 inches (91.4
198
10 inches (61
in
sand
wood platform 6 inches (15.2 cm)
in a
high,
61
182.9
x
x
bronze
12 feet
cm) square sections cut from
Museum of Art. Williamstown. Mass.
(3.66 m) square, with 24 inch- (61
each corner. Williams College
ME A
HI
Mi 803
Hearitu'.
BO
Hearing,
detail.
too
MESH PIECES, 1966-68
Mesh, which Morns began
to utilize in 1966,
introduced several qualities CO his work,
among them,
surfaces that were transparent and teflective, and
shapes that were
character.
an emphatically provisional
of
These new elements were calculated
counteract a simplistic interpretation
to
Minimalism
of
that was developing in the critical literature. That
which understood
interpretation
kind
real
Morris's notion
an absolute shape,
stalt as referring to
perception
was challenged by
and apart from
of Platonic solid existing prior to
new
this
insubstantialicy and transparency (also apparent in
the artist's concurrent use
once massive and
at
obsmu
permeable, seem both to
Paradoxically,
ot fiberglass).
complex polyhedrons,
these
the
iewet physically
while allowing passage visually.
Eva Hesse, Tori, 1969. Fiberglass on wire mesh, nine
30
to
47
12'/ 2 to 17
31.8 to 43.2
Art,
28.6
to
units,
11 h, to 15 inches (76.2 to 119.4 x
38.1 cm). Philadelphia
Museum
of
Purchased with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard
Korman, Mr. and Mrs. Keith Sachs, Marion Boulton Stroud,
no 89)was
(Quarter-Round A
titled
fabricated in steel and possesses a black semipolished
surface,
wink
made
aluminum, has
of
ntitled (Slung
wi re designed by the artist
and Donald Lippincott
Mr. and Mrs. Bayard T. Storey, and various funds.
The
Mesh)
and fabricated
at
its
enter,
Ring uith
Donut
Squart
Eva
in
(19<
As Morns later explained
I)
sculpture entitled
Tori
madi
l\
nun
part
win mesh oven d
[1969], in
form
b) fibi rglass), a toroid
works.
nti red
no 68) and
(who subsei|Ucni
lesse
igbt
square-
is
and thus formally
related to the whole series of opt n
sin h as
Both
bj Alfred
their factor) in( Connecticut.
at
toronl Quarter-Round Mi
bottomed, empt)
L968, no. 90),
a bright siKc rj sheen.
"a surfat e or solid
is
generati d bj the revolution of a circle or other conit
SI
ion aboiii an) axis
is
twelve
fool
low
massive (thret b) iwi
slab,
1\ in.!'
It
assi
is
aluminum mesh placed
units
objet
opt
hi
in less ol
top
tin
mbled from
together
ol
lv<
whu
bj
h forms a
six pie< es of
two rows
in
of three
the mesh, whit h n nd<
the
rs
"transparent," rejects th< illusionism ol Mirrored
nul introdui
new rangi
nplex and sin inn:' relationships between the object's
interioi
and
ranspareni
exterior, betwi
the shifting densities
ol thi
mesh planes
and
as the viewt
shifts his or her position relativi to th< work
Moreover, the sheen and criss-cross patterning of the
mesh
i
In
lerve to prevent the eyi
rl
wholi woi
k, disi
ii
ii
in Hii,
the hypnotit rippling
ili<
diffi
A
also
i,
n in plain
l.
in. uli
in
high brack*
.-
hi.
,1
ni
win
s
I
ol th<
SS
In
from gras]
viewer both with
and
loSUn
mesh's
.n\^\
diamond
thi
with
wt ave as
overl
from 1969
aluminum m
'
<
bannels (no
ists ol
liaped units arranged in
ten
two
fivi
evenl)
foot
89. Untitled (Quarter-Round Mesh), 1966. Steel mesh.
31
109
109 inches (78.7
276.9
Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza
276.9 cm) Solomon
R.
Collection.
207
1MIN
90. Untitled (Slung Mesh), 1968. Aluminum mesh,
3x12x12
feet (.91 x
3.66
six units,
3.66 m) overall. Museum Ludwig,
Cologne.
809
(I
spaced rows of
the tows.
The
five
with a pathway
left
open between
closed side of the "brackets" are
positioned back to back, and the open sides of
the units face outward.
The
contrast between the rigid
geometry of the path through the works elements
and the disorienting visual
material of which they are
shifts
made
to the kind of experience Morris
promoted by the
looks forward
would seek
in the
Labyrinths he built in the early 1970s (pp. 250-55).
Visual disorientation, the play of light, and the
use of metal in an open-work form relate Untit/td
(Floor Grid), designed by Morris in 1968 but
not fabricated until 1979 (no. 91), to the mesh pieces.
Once
again, Morris was interested in geometric
elements yielding, paradoxically, to quasiformlessness,
expressed here by the labyrinthine meander of the vast
spread of the work. Conceived in the year he wrote
"Anti Form," Floor Grid demonstrates Morris's sense
that certain strategies of art-making as found in
the work of Jackson Pollock (both the scale of the drip
paintings and their having been executed while on
the floor) could
combat the
simplistic interpretation
of Minimalism.
1.
Quarter-Round Mesh
is
being shown
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
in
in
the retrospective at the
two
versions: the
first, in
the
position the artist had originally intended, with the squared side up;
and the second, inverted, with the rounded side up,
as the
work had
been exhibited.
2
Morris, quoted in Lucy Lippard, Eva Hesse
(New York: New York
University Press, 1976), p. 156.
J.
Morris, "Anti Form," Artferum 6, no. 8 (April 1968), p. 35.
91. Untitled (Floor Grid), 1979 fabrication of 1968 plan.
Aluminum. 10
Solomon
R.
'
inches
25
feet x
22
feet (.27 x
7.62
6.71 m).
Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza Collection
FELTS, 1967-83
92. Untitled (Stacked and Folded). 1967.
72
inches (182.9
'
182.9
Museum
variable. Williams College
Leo
Gift of
In\
ii
Fow<
'
and
Institute's Artists
hi
&
holars in Residi
with Les
Li
mi
Roj
Program,
ilorado
'
lati
summei
in thi
ompanii d
i>i< \
into
uli
-I
tin
I.
.in a
tu work,
i|um
tht
mum
.irnsis
ycd
building, wh<
who had
Ii
Ins .tin hi
and
tu
n.ii
At"
in In sir
i.i
was
It
nd Morri
-t
ii
moved
atti
si
1 1
on
whit
i.i
.iv
.hum
ii
Ii
ht
R tint
bei
ami
Wilhamstown, Mass.,
of Art.
work with
154
(pp
fi
hi
ofa
In
and
It
New
'
al
i.
1967 (pp
in
ironj
whii
mi ans
ol
mati
rial
to
d and
roll*
stai
ked
fell
pro\ isional qualit)
work since the permutation
Ins
s.nni
tin
waj oui
priori composition,
gan had both Mi mm.il isms
bi
hi
with regular,
It
bands
wink
ill,
material signaled
thi
Greenberg had called Minimalism's
had informed
pieces of earl)
mi
had
in
forms with whii
ni
from
mi
ideation
paradoxii
tin n wi ni "ii to
Ii
ni
had
em bled
and heaped, draped, tangled,
Piled
projectivi practici
.n
thai
floor, turnt
thi
h, hi
It
f<
simplit u\ ni shape .mil tin
at this timi
hildn n
with linn
only
had
pei imt nted with
all
strips cui bj
alom
Bet ause
ded
thej pi
rt
ted to suit his
ni iln
ind
and rags
ii
Imp
tht
in
area and
tin
he n
fell
196
nd
parai
si
other activities of tht Institutt
thai Morris,
ol
stipi
industrial
hung, and dropped,
Lit ht< nsti in,
Oldenburg, and Yvonni Rainer, arrived
n<
72
Castelli.
Bai k in \i u Ybrk, Morris continued to
attend the Asp. n
i"
rs
Felt pieces,
3.2 cm), overall dimensions
Ii
180
.is
Ii
83)
tin
-ii
that,
omi
gi
xtreme
trie
In
verj
<
ai
trj
haos
next group
ropi
l\
is
ol
pieces
tin
Ini ising sin its
uts produi
when suspended from hooks
wall, collapsed into wild tangles ol material.
variet) ol these rolled, folded,
felts
wen shown
at thi
Ybrk, in April L968, the
and wall
to flooi
Leo Castelli Gallery,
same month
thai Morris's
"Anti Form" essay was published in Artforum} There
form, with gravity, stress, balance, and the kinesthetic
he described the new tendency in sculpture:
sense,
Minimalism had
liked all that."" If
tried
to excise everything that constituted the fabric
Random piling,
to the
loose stacking, hanging, give
Chance
material.
is
passing form
accepted and indeterminacy
implied since replacing will result in another configuration.
is
a positive
assertion. It is
as a prescribed end.
it
the Felts
in turn, to
member
of Minimalism, this change
was revealed
attitude
new framework within which he
period, pervaded the
make
chose to
industrial construction, these phrases signal
took on entirely different associations by the
Felt
what Morris termed Jackson
his art.
time Morris began to examine issues of global warfare
Pollock's "recovery of process," which, he argued,
and catastrophe
"involved a profound re-thinking of the role of both
a View from a Corner of Orion (Night) (1980, no.
materials and tools in making.""
the light-absorbing properties of
As the
Felts
in
in a clear-sighted self-
consciousness that, reflected in his writings of the
Brushing against the grain of Minimalism's ethos of
a reconsideration of
began,
established himself, in large part, as
a founding
part of
the work's refusal to continue estheticizing form by dealing
with
and hence
question the logic behind Minimalism. For Morris,
who had
Disengagement with preconceived enduring forms and
orders for things
of Abstract Expressionism, then Process and anti-form
art
is
progressed, they
became characterized
Study for
in the late 1970s. In Second
101),
explored to
felt are
create a dense, claustrophobic environment.
by increasingly predetermined compositions. The
material
is
often arranged around single or multiple
Clement Greenberg, "Recentness of Sculpture,"
Museum
in
spanning rows, as in pieces dating from around
1973 (for example, no. 96), or folded around them, as
in the
pink and
labially
shaped House of the
with horizontal
catenary
Felts,
(no. 99),
and others with vertical
legs,
touch
The
Morris's
Vetti
(1983,
and related works. Morris also developed
no. 100)
down
to the
that sag
slits
ground
Ibid, p. 35.
Although the
composition
(nos. 94, 97). 5
want
is
to
artist,
Decembet
(New York: Dutton,
Sonnier,
Critical Anthology, ed.
1968), p. 210.
included in Eccentric Abstraction, his
While
Fells
included some of this work in Eccentric Abstraction, the
Bourgeois, Hesse. Sonnier, and Viner.
1966 exhibition she curated
7.
New
\brk, and analyzed the
8.
It
"''
vinyl-and-kapok sculptures of the early 1960s were
on these
artists,
who
work was not
and scatter pieces
clearly
lini
stated concerns. Artists included in the exhibition were
its
Phil Patton,
"The
Fire
Most
Next Time, Art News 82,
no. 10
(December
significant, at this point, are the exhibition 9 in a Warehouse,
which Morris curated
has been widely acknowledged that Oldenburg's soft
a formative influence
Gregory Battcock
Morris's
1983), p. 50.
new concern with
bodily qualities in her essay "Eros Presumptive.
because they
10, 1992.)
up with
Fischbach Gallery
is
photographs of them. (Conversation
Paul Thek, and Frank Lincoln Viner. Lucy Lippard
in
fixed shape or
Lucy Lippard, "Eros Presumptive," Hudson Review (spring 1967),
reprinted in Minimal Art:
Louise Bourgeois, Eva
at the
work against any
given piece, generally speaking, collectors have-
their Fells to look like the
6.
Nauman, Keith
logic o( the Felts
(or a
original organization. Morris has suggested that this
with the
Hesse, Yayoi Kusama, Bruce
Artforum 6, no. 8 (April 1968), pp. 33-35.
not taken advantage of this open-endedness, preferring to maintain the
limp
was being explored by other
among them
County
4. Ibid., p. 34.
erotic quality that increasingly characterized
artists as well,
"Ann Form,"
Morris,
3.
work with
felt
American Sculpture
of Art, 1967), p. 25.
2.
5.
downward
slits that, like
in
of the Sixties, exhibition catalogue (Los Angeles: Los Angeles
hanging points on the wall, either draped over them
at the
Leo Castelli Warehouse
1969, and "Anti Form," "Notes on
[Artforum '
ulpture, Part
in
t:
New York
Sear< h lor the Motivati d" {Artforum 8,
no. 8 [April 1970], pp. 62-66), significant ess
break with what they perceived as Minimalism's
in
Beyond Objects"
no 8 [April 1969], pp. 50-54), and "Some Notes on the
Phenomenology of Making: The
sought to
Si
published
between 1968 and 1970.
increasing rigidity.
The
sensuous, painterly, and multiplicitous Felts
are thus radically different
from the sharp-edged
Minimalist works of gray-painted plywood, signaling
new openness toward the process of making,
and formal disposition. More broadly, they
must also be seen as part of a larger transformation
gravity,
Following two pages:
93. Untitled (Tangle), 1967.
dimensions variable. Collection
Felt.
inch (2.5
Phil Patton,
Morns, explaining
remarked that
it
"felt
relates to the
his choice of
medium,
has anatomical associations;
body
it's
skinlike.
The way
it
takes
94. Untitled (Six Legs), 1969.
6 feet
'/j
inch x
The Museum
of
inch (4.59
Modern
Art,
New
cm)
thick, overall
Johnson.
Philip
within artistic discourse. In a 1983 interview with
Felt,
1.84
15 feet
rn x
inch x
2.5 cm) overall.
York, Gilman Foundation Fund.
FELTS
-i
:i
95 Untitled (Teepee). 1970
24
leet x
8 inches
'
Felt,
inch (7.32
seven
.20
strips,
each
cm), overall
dimensions variable. Collection Barbara Jakobson, New York.
ii
96. Untitled (Shoulder), 1973.
6.10
x .91
Felt,
20
3 feet (2.74
m) overall. Collection Sylvio Perlstein, Antwerp.
i.
97
Untitled (Inverted Shoulder)
grommets, 9
6 feet 2'
leet 3 inches x 14 leet
inches 12 82
4.56
IIS
Felt
and metal
inches
1.90 m) overall.
Boymansvan Beuningen, Rotterdam.
i.
1978.
Museum
'
98
Untitled (Butterfly), 1980. Felt and metal grommets,
9 feet
20
feet x 4 feet 6 inches (2.74 x
Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery,
New
6.10
1.37 m) overall.
York.
FELT-
99 Untitled (Catenary)
Following three pages:
100. House ol the Vetti
\Q x
101
Second Study
for a
View from
243.8
Corner
of
Orion
(Night!
'5 x
gliO
4.88 m)
overall.
i^^^^BfH^^H
/I
STEAM, 1967
The
effe<
even more
is
\\
intangible and physically tentative than the process-
works made
related
made on
tin.
in
ran Gallery ol Art in
or the ever-shifting mirrored cubes and mazes. Steam,
drawn from the
underground supply, driven
city's
through pipes, and
in a large
rock bed, offered
As one
or
some twenty
air
made by
the artist, with
for
feet up.
works ever conceived
of the least objectlike
indefinite sense of
its
physicality and permanence. Steam has on occasion
been interpreted as Conceptual
although
art,
be carefully distinguished from the
and Mirrored Cubes
no. 26)
witi
and
no. 66)
the compan)
in
should
it
Together
latter.
ot
arl
1965,
Andres 120
bricks to be arranged (1966); Mel Boi liners facsimile
quotations on negative photostats tor the exhibition
Monuments (1967); Yves
smoke,
fire,
"empty gallery" ami
Klein's
and water sculptures
Kosuths negative photostat
tionary definitions
d\i
Sol LeWitt's buried
(196
Ins
1958); Joseph
<
i Steam
cub
red by John Chandler and Lucy Lippard
as an
example
what they termed "Dematerialized
of
Art
to their
produi
art as
toward
t"
one might expe<
tied, as
imp
si
hema,
t.
to the
on
Mm una
art
.i
from
it
inextril ably
readymade and
its
refusal to be read as
contrast
and
it
significant issn
nd w here
Ived iisclt out ot the pi
us. ha
fii
hut insofat as Steam insists on the physi<
materials and
thi
ion into the ideational
an And
to the
insofar as tin
working through
ted in
iIk
I'Ik
ipi
Minimal'
us sin
fit
Id ol
<
ol
ideas on
on<
fai
<
onnei
t<
than
it<
on
thai us
own
understood
iinisi In
"in of, ratln
ptual
as
Somi Ni
thi
us
n sists
Minimalism
'
in. mil' si
alit) ol
finall)
ii
work must be seen
'noun n
ii.i.li
to
m's
where the formerly
was
heir readii
nonphysii ality and, therefore,
produi
sin
tin
art as idea
repudiation
of,
at
ashingtoo,
\\
in
1967 (where
lnlcrihitinn.il \2,
ii
the Morris retrospective at the
Washington, D.C.,
ol the
in
1969; and
present retrospective
at
the
in the
Solomon R
Virk.
no 2 (February 1968), reprinted
cloud seeping from the ground, billowing skyward,
and dissipating into the
in
197 n,
\\
John Chandler and Lucj Lippard, Tin Dematerialization
Art
Morns
an extremely antisculptural medium. The experii
ot the work is simply that ot a hot, white, amorphous
openings
pan
Guggenheim Museum
aboveground through
filtered
sculpture garden, as
Western
Hcllingham.
was [srrmancntly installed
threadwaste, and earth,
of felt,
has been
ashington University
ork
in
ot Art.
Lippard.
Dutton, 197
),
[bid
Morris
Some Notes on
the Motivated,"
An
the
Phenomenology
ol
Making: The Search
>rill970),p|
fr^,
102. Steam, 1974 refabrication
multiple
steam outlets under
overall dimensions variable.
of a
bed
1967
original.
Steam,
of stones, outlined with
wood,
Western Washington University.
Bellingham.
STEAM 225
THREADWASTE,
1968
tubing, and chunks
From within the mass
asphalt.
oi
of this material, which comprises
number
tadwaste, rise a
bulk of
the-
rectangular double-sided
of
mirrors, that, in their reflections, produce an uncanny
replication ol the scatter pieces horizontal sprawl
Such
positioning
mirrors
oi
the "landscape
in
both Robert Smithson's Mirror Displacements
and
installed in the Yucatan,
first
Art, an exhibition at the
Art,
in
Earth Art, but because he was unable
accend
ornell
person, he "telephoned instructions co the
in
for che execution ol Ins puce,
diagram of che gallery assigned
into a one-toot ^rul."
oil
museum
gave the
gallery
compose
co
isitt
should be
it
and where in the
pla< ed.
Sculpture, Pari
had begun
yond
B<
[:
argue
to
tor che im]
anthropomorphism
oi
addressed the
Minimalism
abstrai
held
isu.il
or
art," in
its<
rom
"landscape modi
figurative
hroughoui tins
seems to be describing his own
whn
h was
(no
10
mounted
in his
and exhibit! d
ii
bases
'ir.il
to
'
oi
studio Ian
mode
"conditions
in
Modernist
ol a
differentiated
hren/we
ie.
"scanning, syncretistic, or
reared bj che "purposeful
<
readings in terms oi
holistii
bound tonus" constituted,
Morris,
foi
new
aesthetii exp< tieno
ol
In
lli < ralli rj
Objects,"
id
sp<
ifii
ii
i"'i
.ii
I
isti
in
'
paralli
u>
ii
so imi. h
Morri
wroi
.i
York
che visual field
oi
borrowed from Anton
he-
oi
ntiated" vision
ii
Morri
[.
1968
in
the
i^
no 8
iIh
the
ai
-i
Threadwaste),
de-diffi
Morns
essay,
breadu
at
buc, inscead, a "d<
vision," a term
gescali
[sit
was not the diaphanous mirage
detachmem from
ondition
"i
II
experiencing
rhis concept
Tins,
to Process, or anti -form, art.
ol
hi
had already begun awaj from
slnli ili.u
he explained, meant taking on the
the
body,
oi
know (edged in the- term
"Earch Art") Whai Morris wanted from tins new way
horizoncalit) soon co be
"opticalicj
us comparison
elii
own
the perceiver s
ol
modedest ribed by
Pan
emphasizes
ulpture,
S<
(a
itsell
any coherent object, the unitj
how
-no mattet
whii h
with the unity
thinking
oi
he inevitabl(
'
ol
appeared, Morns
)bjei ts"
<
"Notes on
"Notes on
predominate horizontalitj
tin
then
he-
size
anthracite, earth, asbestos
tht piece
Significantly, che landscape
in
map,
nous about che
Carl Andre, Spill (Scatter Piece), 1966. Plastic blocks and
Moms
asking that
him be marked
co
this as a
si iii
stafl instrut
che piles oi material
ol
le
Earth
in
Andrew Dickson White
Morns was also
niversit)
oi
his influential arch
Salt
.../
included
co
By 1969, when
Museum
Museum
canvas bag, dimensions variable. Collection John Powers.
his
which was included
Trails 1969),
\iirrm
\\:>.\
recalls
1.
is
CO
.i
m<
(ibid
Donald Judd's
taphi
I)
Sp
ssa)
if
ipleti
Carl Andres Spill
Prel
(
1966) and Bai ry
Morris's
his usi oi
iii.
>
ii
Va
and
glass
(Scatt,
hi
fi
Ii
and
l)
his inten
in
;i
ol
ulpcural
transformin
form
and,
to
to perci ptual
finall)
field,
II'
from
Nova
iljfai
Fii
ol
Is
yond
writes
rhi
ruff
ing
pai
foi
tii
ulai
I-
Part
.i
ol plastii
\i
anvni
I..U-
in
New
strands
J lfl
olon d thn ad thai
ol
.i
is
.i.
its
oloi
Ided misi ellam ous
is
fell
i
varii gati
Li..
indi finabli
ppc
Morris, quoted in
(
'i
..in.
II
Moi
'..I
I.
mi. civ
ih
ied oui ol
ulptun
I'.
.
in
.il
ompo
Mai
li
ic (Ii hai a
libii
s.
mpi
..
ion
ii.
-ii
ks
I'll.,
York, while in Lo
Part 4,"
che
rh
mcains so manj
olli
which have no central contained focus nd extend
\i.
I
peripheral vision ofler a kind of landscape modi as
objcci
methods of produi
rhn adwa
industriallj usi d as lubrii
Scotia
mta
perception
tural qui scioi
fell
icgrou th ol both
breadwastt
id
i
i
19'
"i
into
103. Untitled (Tangle), 1967.
Felt,
264 pieces,
inch
(1.3 cm) thick, overall dimensions variable. National Gallery of
Canada, Ottawa.
following two pages: 104. Untitled (Threadwaste). 1968.
Threadwaste, asphalt, mirrors, copper tubing, and
dimensions variable. The Museum
Gift of Philip
of
Modern
Art,
felt,
New
overall
York,
Johnson.
THREAP.'
2 2 7
DIRT, 1968
Dwan
As pare of the
New
Gallery's Earth Sbou in
York
Other works
in tin-
exhibition included Walter de Maria
,m installation hrst
October 1968, Morns installed Vntiti
(1968, no. 106), a 2,000-pound pile of earth (winch
in
Munich
in
(it
shown
now permanently
is
New York
as
at
the Heiner-Friedrich Gallery in
installed b) the
\!
HI A
hat
sprouted a plant during the show), intermixed
with industrial
aluminum,
brass,
various metals
of
grease, peat moss, brick, and loose
felt,
and scraps
strips
and
^inc.
Morris's desire to
earth as a material was prefigured
in a
work the
rris,
i
Model 1966,
The
smoothK fashioned
consisted ot a
piece was to have
mound,
ringlike
and Threadwastt (1968,
no. HI
Such works as Dirt
art.
that
2
compromise their intrinsii physical properties.
That Dirt went "beyond obje< ts," as Morns wrote
awaj from the objecthood thai
shift
Ins formative years in
did not signal a disavowal
and other artists o]
nhworks, began
monumental
projei
ts,
both
pi
ials; tools,
ni an.
ephemeral, was
i.
Hun
hi
Indi
gone is anj sensi
is no working ol
hovel and
in
a n
Mob
ol a
iid
distal
anothei version of Di\
ij
oi
th mal
honi
I
cra< tor,
pennon
ring
work by bng
in
Ii
I'"
to
be shown
hav<
Laszl6
inj
9 M
phon
onstruction to thi mus< urn
it
oi
a nearlj olisession.il sell
work
mi ludii
handwork.
The
hara< terized their various
final
ii
then-emergent idiom
work outdoors
Morns ontinued
Mi'
.>
th articulation of a new kind
and syntax
to
in Dirt,
<
rmani
aesthi
nth
to
ale thai
sc
Minimalism,
strongly held
ndoned, w hen Morns,
ot his
Indeed, size limitations on
ern with process
Heiier,
Mortis
nlour
<
Ii
traced
'*
,s
Beyond Object
kt
Rk
urated by
wh
earthworks
ban
wen de
nnis
Maria, Jan Dibbers,
Oppenheim, Smithson,
Notes on Art as/and Land Reclamation," Oetthr, no 12
|
87-102.
Thomas
Whin Museum
Morns
articulated in his essay "Anti Form." The materials
ot whi< h Dirt was made did not aggregate into
a new form, an indication ot a refusal by the artist to
artists creating
(sprin
anti-aesthetic concerns that had led to the earlier
had underpinned
Sei
emerged from the
ems
rs (
a in.
Apnl 1969), pp. 50-54.
Among the
ans Haw ki
ion oi Ohrt
i)
icample, nos
on Sculpture, Pan
and Giinther Ue<
and, therefore, unlike Dirt, retains a formal continuity
with his well-built object-type
\i K
Anti Form," Artforum 6, no 8 (April 1968), pp
Mori
-
Airport that was never realized.
in l-'ranklin,
enter lor the Arts
DallasFort Worth
no. 105), a projected design for the
topographic map. and Robert Smithson
an aerial photograph of mines
copper,
steel,
Heizer's
ol
l.i.i\ iti
Art
in
I'
was shown
<
orn<
II
in
the exhibition
University
Andrew
arti
)i<
Art,
k son
105. Model, 1967 edition
for Dallas-Fort
1
inches (50.8
Worth
x
61
of a
Airport).
1966
1967
original (unrealized design
version: acrylic.
20
24
2.5 cm). 1966 version: plaster.
following two pages: 106. Untitled (Dirt), 1968. Earth,
grease, peat moss, brick, steel, copper, aluminum, brass, zinc,
and
felt,
overall
dimensions variable.
DIRT 23
CONTINUOUS PROJECT ALTERED DAILY,
Morris's Continuous Project Altered Daily
hovers between several states
L969, no.
sculptural project, part performance
and their
without coming
March 1-22. 1969, Morns went to
Warehouse on West lOSth Street, in
enough
project's duration,
the Leo Castelh
few years before
among them
cotton, water, grease, plastic,
muslin, electric
earth, clay, asbestos.
platforms, naked light bulbs, and amorphous piles
of dirt and
echoed with the sounds
clay,
The activities performed
Morns
bj
emphasis on
relate to the
that
da)
Continuous Pro/at in
oj the
Dumped out 2000 pounds
onto floor. \o idea what to
throwing
aimlessly
it
u.
oj
wet clay our
be
dom
with
oj
At other times he
al (ev<
thin
Morns
wrote-
Mai
Phero
ned by
ol
pla< ing
mo
an
maj
great deal
rpretivi
omething
..I
Taking as
itii
K (Ik end ot
um<
doi
ai
h da)
hi
re-an
)i
m:
ui
ihing tin
Mi- hai III
'in
Do.,
I.
sal
replai
ment
I.
chat
83 4
rt
.i
in
ui tin
ol
it
worl
ph
i.i
ii
ommi no d
work
st Ii
to Lucj
and
with
hod
.>
1'
I. ii
processes in
cht
laboi ol
al
matt
chi
rial
lemt ms.
willingness
inn
foi
his activities in the
graphii
cransitivi
ful
coward
i
kind
ol
"
played
.1
and mutability,
tt
chi
It
is
ol
also
cerms Morris applied
warehoust an similar to
us
al
it
fusal to di
own
ordi d Ins
photograph
si
vi
co
th<
list
ot
ulptun
\<
last
a
ol
Morris's
lop in a linear fashion
composition chat che
Indeed, on che
chi
ing Ins
most important aspects
In
a final
ompli
capi
\m in mi i"
is
ol
confusion even in the servict
rform
)in
pan
verbs madi bj Richard Serra to describe the
'i
all
"an activit) ol disorientation
new perceptual modi
ing
worth noting chat
in
is
dragging,
lifting,
were
rials
slntt. ui violent discontinuitj
Ik
ntl)
ippard that
pe< uliai
chat art itsell
worl
photograph has
physii
cht
M ti.ui. shoveling, hanging,
u.
'
pur|
>
"i In
inn' tion as
ii
seen that
bi
nd disat ranging
i"n "i Ins
'
maj
it
Marcel
ol
age, or bj the repetitive stripes
<
Ins
.lis,
Heizei had sited
that
maj be systematized
art
and draping mate
ui
tin
Stella),
and
"i tins pi
in' ni.ii
'69), a pieci
mi
Project Alti
photographs,
|>ui| os(
anvas,
departure this and other
a point ol
how
piling,
hanging
pist outsidi
.it
adding and subtracting from che amalgamated
I"
in all, wi
vail,
I
niuousK
Prank
whit h Morris
verj
of the- historj of
phed Continuous
.1
the
tails
regularized or "systematic"
ot
example, b) the programmed chanct
building, rather than solely on formal results.
irder to in
Is
Duchamp and John
mphasis on m< chods
up rums
interaction with the two-dimensional surfaces ol
Somi Notes on the
L970 in
iii
in.-
out
Tins image perhaps
mov< ments above
n dancelike)
with earlier mode
deliberate marks, forms, or
it
issadlj disappointed to discover
elsewhere
to
example, when he 'took wet lumps
with wet broom and hot smoothi d
is
the child described by
of
The notion of recording .u^ unsystematic path
mind Jackson Pollock's break, through Ins
painting
rubbed on squan on wall about
[of clay] aiul
aiul
form
working
ol
project. Indeed, in Morris's account there
its soeil is c-\c-r
physii
50 lb cans
around.
made
it
IK also
his relict at seeing the occasional
investigations ol
struc tures, as, tor
calls
shit, et<
reverse ex< avation, building
Began
it.
and
."
moving
verj
"a
ways chat were
tt.
nth
<
helps to understand Morris's reference to his piece as
"experimental, exploratory, non-direc ted":
First
ol dissatisfac turn .\nA
emerge during the process
to find its 'soul,'
coj
current in his writing. Sometimes he worked randomly,
playfully, using the matt rial in
times,
at
Charles Baudelaire, who. after deftlj breaking open his
and making then
particlelike substances, process,
work of the bowels,
acknowledges
rentiated
difft
mostlj
he des< ribed his feelings
something reminiscent
with their overt reference to building, moving,
and forming,
Morns
Daily relates to "viscera, muscles,
on the
building,
of
which
discomfort but also,
or structure
the space,
in
information and not
continuous written record of his
activities, in
"a
with barrels, shovels, wooden
site replete
much
primal energies, afterbirth, feces
through Saturday, the warehouse, which resembh
construction
maintained
of
One of the
clear or transparent.
to give too
is
same time."
at the
Projei
)pen to the public every afternoon from Tuesday
the signifier-signified relation
all
revulsion. In this journal he explains that
threadwaste,
felt,
and recorded sound.
lights,
not at
is
addition to photographic documentation.
In
New York, where he worked with a range of materials
much greater than would have been likely even
a
up
set
strange relation between their reality
is
artificiality,
things they do
any one of them. Each day during the
to rest in
There
sign.
part exhibition, part
1969
daj
imp
ol
artist
ol cht
deems
installation he
che space, cht n
recording b.u k as he made-
he
last
an magi ofalonetapi recorder,
i
it!
dangling
arrangement
in front of the
following two pages: 107. Continuous Project Altered Daily
of earlier
1969
photographs visible on the back wall. As in Box with
the
Own Making
Sound of Its
(1961, no.
11),
we
presented simultaneously with the space and with the
sound of
its
(six states). Earth, clay,
plastic, felt,
are
asbestos, cotton, water, grease,
wood, threadwaste,
electric lights,
tape recorder, dimensions variable. Installation
photographs, and
at the
Leo
Castelli
Warehouse, New York, March 1-22, 1969.
ordering.
Like the scatter piece Threadwaste
1968, no. 104),
Continuous Project Altered Daily was predicated on
ideas of randomness and entropy, expressed as material
in a seemingly
the
floor.
The
uncomposed
state spread laterally over
materials remained infinitely
rearrangeable and thus within Morris's trajectory
The
of anti-illusionism.
project succeeded both in
extending the nonrelational compositions of
Minimalism, and
in furthering the investigation of
materials begun in the anti-form Threadwaste and Dirt
(1968, no. 106). Through
or uncalculated,
its
processes of random,
change and through
its
exploration of
the properties of loose, soft, and nonart materials
that allow no object (let alone a "specific object
dictate formal closure, the
artistic discourse
")
to
work subverts conventional
about composition, iconicity,
and system.
1.
Excerpt from the unpublished journal
Morns kept while making
Continuous Project Altered Daily.
2. Ibid.
3.
Morris cites George Kubler's examination of Machu Picchu in The
Shape of Time: Remarks on
the History
of Things
(New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1962) as an example of this kind of analysis. See
Mottis,
"Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making: The Search
fot
the Motivated," Artforum 8, no. 8 (April 19 7 0), pp. 62-66.
4.
Morris, quoted in Lucy Lippard, "Robert Mottis," in Six Years: The
Demalertalization of the Art Object
5.
At one point
in his |ournal,
(New Yotk:
Praeger, 1973), p. 257.
Morris speaks of his anxiety and
frustration about having described his feelings to anothet person, "as
though
[I]
had revealed
my methods
of masturbation." Elsewhere,
regarding the spread pile of clay and dirt, he observes his
own
("for the brute dirt"), that "perhaps the fecal quality of the
mud
revolt [him]
"bumpy,
mote than
[he] admit[s]."
He
also
shitty, compositional decotative elements"
nausea
lumps of
mentions
emerging when he
pours latex over one of the platforms covered with material (Morris,
unpublished journal, Continuous
Project Altered Dai/)
I.
6. Ibid.
7
.
Morris, "Notes on Sculpture, Part
Beyond
)b|ci r.
Ari/on/m ~
no. 8 (April 1969), p. 54.
8.
See Gregoire Muller, The
Seventies
(New
New Avant-Gardt:
York: Praeger, 1972),
Issues for the
Art of the
p. 94. Serra's list of transitive verbs
includes: "to roll, to crease, to fold, to stote, to bend, to tear, to chip,
to splinter, to
matk, to systematize."
CONTINUOUS PROJECT ALTERED DAILY 833
r,
CONTINUOUS PROJECT ALTERED DAILY 237
OBSERVATORY, 1971-77
Morns began
In 1965.
making an outdoor
to think of
a structure, influenced
"observatory,
by Stonehenge,
whose purpose would be to track solar phenomena
the winter and summer solstices ami the tall and
spring equinoxes. Several drawings or this and related
chamber projects date from that year. However, it
was not until Sonsbeek
an international sculpture
'71,
Morns
exhibition held in the Netherlands, that
realized this "sculpture" on a grand scale, in the
first
flatlands ot [jmuiden.
The
was
resultant work. Observatory (1971, no. 109),
massive strut tore
blocks,
and
ot earth,
timber, granite
form of a pair of raised
steel in the
The
concentric rings with a total diameter of 233 feet.
inner ring was pierced by a door and three slotlike
windows and had walls of sod
wooden
lined in vertical
planks; the outer ring, also interrupted by four
openings, was
kind
ot
dyke, or
embankment,
from the inner ring by
i.ited
moatlike expanse.
triangular-shaped passageway and a channel-like
cut the dyke along
spring and
The channel
open V composed
ot
other Vs, form<
two nine-foot-square
two remaining
steel plates.
wedged
granite slabs, were
<>t
>l
mound
into the raised
projected
itseli
the work, ending in an
"i
t<
slot
east/west axis, articulating the
equinoxes.
tall
trom the perimi
Two
its
the dyke on an axis with the
ot
windows"
in
inner
marking the traje< tor) ol the summer
and winter solstices. As Edward Frj remarked,
s.uk turn, these
epitomizes two contrasting kinds
ttorj
The
ij
plair
ast
rm inn
,i
human
and
is a
iisiii^
his
pn\
rn h
hosen
tli
r<
as th<
ilei'i
torj
model
i.i
[i
.J
nun
inlili in nt
us
niip.iss
with
and
historical
kiuiw ledge
.1
"I
in
own
i.t
p. ist
si
men
historic
ulptural obj<
"t
marking
.i
for
to
sue with an
ih. it .tlsn linn linns
in his essaj
Uigned
Su
ii
,
fundi
lill.it
1
1
I
H.1H
I"
an haeology
Morris discusses the
conceptual underpinnings
human
tune.
ol
l>\
>l
asons."
si
passagi
marki
foe 0bs( rvator)
Minimalism had opened he
tin
is
.in.l
the similar strui tures devised DJ
marking the
is
tion ol physii al
conditions, Th< oth<
imisness:
Morris has
history,
above and facing page, top: 108. Observatory, 1977.
Earth,
wood, granite,
steel,
and water, 298 feet 7 inches
(91.01 m) diameter. Permanent installation, Oostelijk.
Flevoland, The Netherlands.
facing page, bottom: 109. Observatory, 1971. Earth,
wood, granite,
steel,
and water, 233 feet (71.02 m) diameter.
Installation, Ijrnuiden, Sant-poort-Velsen,
The Netherlands.
OBSERVATORY 239
RUBBINGS, 1972
"Some Notes on the Phenomenology of Making,"
Morns argues that rather than imposing torm on
In
matter, form
should emerge from the processes
itself
inherent in the manipulation
given material.
oi a
tnd Holofernei
Citing Donatello's sculptun
1
which cloth draped over the wax model was,
1456), in
encouraged
in the casting process,
an indexical
to Leave
on the finished bronze, Morris brought the
trace
way
issue of the index as a
make
to
[EECJ
example, in Self-Portrait
mark"
(as, for
[1963, no. 44]) to
bear on his considerations of anti-form.
The group
Morns executed
Rubbings that
of
Vn (for example, nos.
Ill 13) arises oui
in
oi this
renewed concern with the index. These drawings
prepare, as well, tor the
on the Blind Timi
Through
much
with
1.
Rubbin
Passageway
L96l
<
a single gesture.
Laid over
arved sunn surfai
rubbed with graphite or
technique found a place
example
ice, in, for
ink, thereby cttci ting a
The
onto the drawings
lighter fluid)
1(1959
archaeology
to invent th<
of his
ms<
"in ol th<
lv< s
mral features
>.i
in
paper
iIk
ol
bei
oming
onnei tion
.11
hi
anhandli
'I
hi ni
te<
baseboard
hnique
into
<l
Morris
rding
\<
At thos< points wl
on u ion
foi
is
i.
substituted
asidi
i"i
in- t<
woi Id
hi iln
Hid oi
r<
ol
the -'in
>i
all
has
at cisi
ter into thi
a
thi
ired in veinliki
surfai
the weight
ontrolli d
physical 1)
hose
,l\
mala
K4I)
earliei
et
1 1
bj
pped
In these
example
pi iio.l (for
it
interesting to
is
>
ol
works. Morns either
lourteen minutes)
number of strokes
himself an arbitrarj
composing
in the notion ol
hand
artists
and ex pi u
inn
itl\
n pi
ii
iih
1
re
madi
i.i
u a
task
the simple
l>\
thi
it
hallenge
also lies in the restriction
to an uninventive,
I
to appl) (for
clearlj privilegt
Ilu
monotonous,
i.uln
scheme ol
limited
the draw ings
converts the viewer's narrativt expectation into the
disp.ission.ui observation ol information
art
Lai
I.
ol
I.
deformed
Mori
foi ilu
'
(April 1970),
s,
in
Motivated
.ii,
p|
rhc rubbii
rarch for ai ulminai ing
liercfoi
ell
>\ isibli
of until led
it >
the proi ess bj whit h thej wi
\<
n hile
l>n\
troki
ikec ol
>ii
it
imposition
voids traditional
\ much
inches
ases from
ch
hand, this
the proa
.i
sti
no,
the Rubbings' strategj
example, 1,374) While these drawings
poini
>
<
during whit h he would arbitrarily mark the sheet, or
iiini
mad<
previous
thi
gress into
Combining with
control
example,
(for
in Light ol
automating composition.
"I ilu
anothei mai hin<
making a work of an
hand' homolo
relief,
lo\i
nun 1962
set
lore etui Iv that
and world
irtisi
wainscoting and
membran
a resonating
offi
\< w Y>rk
<>t
so
consider
mi
Morris's
surfai
si
Rubbing thus
for
usilt ha-. I" e
><
ill'
prim
hum
pi
r<
ol Ins
a sei tion
with electrical outlet
iIm
10'
artist.
.>
forms
work environment
wall, a corner oi a door frarrn
iplete
on brown paper, 14
Ink
(35.6 x 27.3 cm). Collection of the
h//t>>/<>
the case ol Morris, the Rubbings reproduci
of
studio on Mulberrj Street
110. 14 Minutes. 1962.
in
in his IX/utt
'
.tries or an Intec
the
i'vm.
Ernst's use of frotta
newsprint imager] Must soaked
for pulling
appear
Max
method developed by Robert Raust henberg
or in the
In
twentieth-century art
in
.
in
c-
transfer of visual information from that surface.
kind
work
of
1973.
hnique used by archaeologists,
which thin paper
is
recall
concentration on
its
campaign
and even architectural
their performative,
emphases, the Rubbings also
no
larger
which began
series,
DVCI ilu
ill
<
drawi
\l
umi (Minnrapolii
lini.iv
hi.
tram
0pilalism
nivenity of Minnesota Pn
it,
198
'
li\
Bi ion
111. Rubbing of Leonardo Book, 1972. Graphite
on fiberglass paper, 25'
a x
35
'
inches (63.8
91.1 cm)
Collection of the artist.
INMis
84
112 Untitled (Rubbing). 1972. Graphite on
31 inches (59.4
S4414
ll'illhlfl
fiberglass paper.
78.7 cm). Collection of the
arti
'
=sr*H
113. Untitled (Rubbing), 1972. Graphite on fiberglass paper,
28'/s x 36 inches (73.3 x 91.4 cm). Collection of the artist.
RUBBINGS 843
BLIND TIME DRAWINGS, 1973
Blind Time drawings, part
sec of
-is's first
ongoing
drawn with
series
that
the resulting configuration was based
oil,
but viscous
Some
medium
same page.
place within
tive, a
a system of interlocking horizons.
This notion of seeing as a kind of grasping or
meshing
on a contiguous part of the
it
gear
to
Merleau-Fonty meant to
for
reach out toward objects with an expectation that they
others turned on the task of creating a simple shape
and then duplicating
which
always and forever tied to a perspet
into equal quadrants, for example);
it
back irremediably
too would yield configured meaning, but also to be
across the surface of the paper.
of the tasks related to the physical givens of the
sheet (dividing
and
this pre-objective experience ot
It is
it.
body's
the fact that this body has a front
available to our vision
into the world,"
hands to smear the velvet)
his
it
depth that allows the perceiving subject thus
performing within an estimated time, using a certain
amount of pressure with
is
hidden from
a predesignated task that the artist set about
on
and with
density,
in
mixed
L973. Executed in dry graphite or graphite
with plate
own
primitive sense that each ot us has ot our
an
ot
was made
his eyes shut,
means
legend written in the lower-left corner
a function of the viewers intentionality
that no objects are imagined as being given to
then recorded the terms for the drawing's completion,
us neutrally, to be then modified by the distance from
as well as, in certain cases, a notation of the experience
which we see them or the angle
occasioned by
making. One such legend reads:
its
The
to take.
to the object,
With
closed,
yi
pou dend graphite along the vertical and
and estimating a lapsed time
hand begins at tin right endoj the
horizontal axis of the page,
fue tninut
bt
horizontal
left
and
upu aid while
rubs
end of the horizontal and
attempt equidistant, vertical motions
the left doe)
and
hand v.
center the left
horizontally from the vertical axis while the right
outwardfrom the axis
with
'Unhands
below.
rc>peil to the pressure
phenomenology. They are no longer neutral stimuli
processing, but they are
And
In
making
<
ailed tin- internal geometries ol
I
differential
his feet,
ither
rlu-
own
Ins
objet tive shapi thus
what
tin-
<>t
Ins
ould be
body-
the artists
head
.is
oppost
>1
ph(
nom<
in
and
ted i"
light
.in
and
i>t
In m.ikuig
s,
inn. tion
.1
th of ambient spai e
movi mm nts
tht
i\^
un
lattii
iceived as
i
.
.'.
world
ol
m
i
of]
am.
il
aspet
ol
interface
tluii
meshing
<>t
ol
In. in
,i
>rt
undt rstood as
obji
<
geomi
arisii
ith
is
it
losed eyes,
is
i\c
inner horizon"
the body's
page Perhaps the
tht external
between externa]
graphite reading
what
prOJCI lions ot this pre objet
the drawings that
medium
is
Night has no outlines;
with m<
(lit
density, a
tor
is
from us world,
Tins
The Blind Timi drawings, made w
1.1IK
w hat Merleau-
and articulate objects
clear
the night
ontai
are
y.
tables, chairs,
most eloquent about the
spat
and bodil) construt
tht
bl.uk velvet
less
as a tract
ot
ol
the
powdered
imprint
ol
the hands'
iim
tht
li
drawing
toui
hing bat k the
artist's
hands
wo
I
md
.i
Ml.,.
I.
Ill
fourth
'K available and
tht
spatial it
without things": A\ hen,
'
'\
from
transparent
.-
an also proje<
-iii.l
hidi
different
iew
passage over tht pagt than as a mirror surfaci for touch
idea ol perct ption as
with
spatialit) without things.
.i
happens
is
fundamental!) interactive, or what Maurici Merleau
\'n\iw h
but
"a spatialit)
with the horizon
of fixed, objective shapi
ot thi
on
tin
are essciit
hing thai Minimalism had dont to
ten
volves
to
-.nil (In-
xample,
usrli in
try, ol tin
own
abolished, our perceptual being, cut
i
and so on- -the Blind Timt drawings ena<
pure reflei tion on Minimalisms grounding
so
Font) called
symmt
bilateral
" gravity
fun< tion of,
.i
these meanings, ultimately tied to the "pre-
and
trees,
nds.
regular, geometric
as the meanings
thus not necessarily "thing-meanings"
dependent upon, or
now defined
objective experience" of the body's
in
reverse their roles
during the horizontal motions,
'nation error:
of sense,
from mere noise or babble.
at the start
that things present to a given point ol
the horizontal axis
\t the
tl>:
it
that enter the bodily sensorium tor point-by-point
in proportion
hum
estimated distance
argued, but inhere in the object's
the sounds that infuse the language
Perceptual data are thus recharacterized bj
whicl.
towards the tenter: the right
to it\
it is
like
separating
hand)
th
u w we are torced
we speak with an always-already-given ground
the left begins at tin
downu
rubs
of
meaning,
ol
distance and the viewpoint are not added
Smith (Nc* York Humanitii
Pti
tion,
u.ins
olin
* -
PC**- V*
x*^
V
1f *-^*rf
114. Blind Time, 1973. Powdered graphite and
35
46 inches (88.9
Virginia Wright Fund:
pencil on paper,
116.8 cm). Washington Art Consortium,
The Henry Art Gallery, University of
Washington, Seattle; Seattle Art Museum; Tacoma Art Museum;
Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham;
Whatcom Museum
of History
Museum, Spokane; Museum
and
Art,
of Art,
Bellingham; Cheney Cowles
Washington State University,
Pullman.
I.I
Nil
TIME DBA WINCH
248
115 Blind Time. 1973 Powdered
35
24 H
46 inches (88 9
graphite and pencil on paper,
16.8 cm). Collection Rosalind Krauss.
116. Blind Time, 1973. Powdered graphite and pencil on paper,
35
46 inches (88.9
16.8 cm). The Art Museum, Princeton
University, Gift of the Walter Foundation and
Anonymous Donors.
BLIND TIME DRAW!'.
247
ov
^
117 Blind Time
1973 f'owdered graphite and pencil on paper,
38 9 x 116
is
lion
Rosa id Krauss.
M^P^
J
w.
J
118. Blind Time, 1973. Powdered graphite and pencil on paper,
35
46 inches (88.9
116.8 cm). Collection
of the artist.
BLIND TIME DHAWlNliS 849
'
LABYRINTHS, 1973-74
During the u- (is. Morns completed three
l
drawings, [f the
and painted
of
series
of these, the Blind Timt drawings
rirsc
gray, this labyrinths
form
is
the floor pattern of Chartres Cathedral,
modeled on
structure
IS), investigate process, the second
two, the Labyrinths (1973. nos 120-24) and In the
associated with Medieval pilgrimage and redemption.
Realm of the Carcerai (1978, nos. 12933), meticulouslj
drawn in ink, adopt the form of the axonometric
projection. The axonometric projection is based on the
static
architectural plan ot an object; in
passage through
73, nos.
11 +
Not unlike Passageway
elevation,
its
the object's parallel sides do not converge toward a
Morris's Labyrinth, with
it is
it.
clearly legible
while, from within,
elusive.
manner
diagonal. This
drawing, which
ot
and
called "mechanical
is
about his work
narrow curvilinear
distinct
it
can only be experienced as
Never dividing
to otter choices, nor. like
strategy
is
more one
ot processing the viewer's
Ronald
he thought
nos.
in relation to industrial fabrication.
and the Labyrinths, although the angle
ral
whic h obje<
to
(noraco,
K approaches
is
always maintained. Morris's carefully penned
rinthi
i.
which
,isso(
i.
is.
the group was,
among
are centered a nun a point
I
hard
ii
ontemporaneously by sculptors /Mice
FleiSl hn<
r,
Tin
Ariadne's thread
Intei turally indui
present tense
encoded
oi
in
what Morns
ol spaCl
pattern thai
mi.
is,
In
hi
mam
nhed
si
Stark blai k
in
and
ni
labyrinth's
lias di
however, held
ilr
mi
onfini
in th<
of the unmodeled drawings produi es
flai
re
Minotaui and
ondl inns those inside n in
rli
trapped
atcgoric a
forth, as well, the
all
Patri< k Ireland,
th<
oi
ed phobia
control, symbolic ally
lly,
and
them
others, bear within
stm
labyrinths alter whi< h
modeled. The resultant
mythical narratives
tie
an
am
in part,
forms, taki n up
k, Ril
turn, layered with coils. Each evokes clear
ions with th(
it
whole, and distended; elliptical,
set tional,
and triangular
ir< ul.ir.
as
and n
nsion with
the surface network
ol
black line
ground maj be
inous
<
..
<ilptiir.il
IS
quality, and, in tins, the)
'In
WO
pl\
iimi antii ipatin
...n
I
no
In
to
in
it
on
si
..
rural
,;
'
at
the
trinthi hi
ttrui
(1974
U9), win. h was exhibited as
ii
no
1960s,
l\
ret all
of th
,\n in Philadelphia
all
In.
hasm
idistinctlj an hiti
and
th<
nsionalit] indui ed bj the
M..II, foi
the white
In
hit!
stron
a
t<
Madi
in
"i
pan
oi chi
ichibition
of Contemporarj
plywood and Masonite,
in a M in.
(May 1981
I,
19,
no "
pp 60 68
I
hi
Present Tense of Space," Art in Ktmria 66, no
3), ri
objects from above,
its
body
The Modern Maze," Art InttnutioMsl 21,
4-5 (April-M..\ 1976), pp .'1 25; and Hermann Kern,
and Concemporarj Works, \rtj ,.
Morris,
drawing, the axonomctrii viewpoint, which
(insistent
drawing
are depicted shifts from
ts
other
machine production,
tor
in the 1960s, as
Care
In the
and confining space,
through a protocol of confusion and disorientation.
often used by draftsmen
elements destined
to describe
was adopted by Morns,
its
labyrinths, expiring in cul-de-sacs, this object's
sometimes
is
which drew
from above as an elegant pattern,
point perspective) but are held instead in strict
assuming the same
1),
pathways and eight-toot-high walls, regulates one's
vanishing point (as they would according to central-
parallel, all receding walls
1961, no.
viewers into a strangely coercive choreography.
'0
Bl
119. Untitled (Labyrinth), 1974. Plywood and Masonite, painted.
8 feet (2.44 m) high, 30 feet
(9 14
m) diameter
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, Panza
Collection.
LABVRINIHs 831
120. Untitled (Circular Labyrinth), 1973.
42
60 inches (106.7
Contemporam de
HftH
lie
II
I'
II
'
I
Ink
on paper,
152.4 cm). Fonds Regional
Picardie, Amiens.
d'Art
121. Untitled (Square Labyrinth). 1973.
42
60 inches (106.7
Charles Gilman
Ink
on paper,
152.4 cm). Collection Sondra and
Jr.
LABYRINTHS 853
122. Untitled (Section of a Rectangular Labyrinth). 1973.
Ink
on paper, 42
60 inches (106.7
152.4 cm). Courtesy
Soh Gallery, Tokyo.
facing page, top: 123. Untitled (Section of an Oval
Labyrinth), 1973. Ink on paper, 42
60 inches (106.7
152.4 cm). Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery,
facing page, bottom: 124
Labyrinth)
York.
Untitled (Section of a Circular
1973, Ink on paper, 42
152.4 cm). Private collection, Venice,
itn a
New
60 inches (106
Italy.
7 x
LABI
2 55
VOICE, 1974
In 1974, two years after Morris presented his sound-
sculpture installation Hearing
showed another work
Leo Castelli Gallery,
at the
New
York, that focused even more radically on auditory
That
experience.
piece,
(no
ice
simultaneously spoken text that moved between the
eight speakers and thus spatialized the sound.
1972, no. 88), he
126), consisted
of
sound
volume near the
built in
The
demolishing a building slowly
ol a bulldozer
close of the section and
continued during the interval after
ended. Beneath
it
simple elements: eight sound tracks played through
these layers of voice and sound, the subordinate track
eight loudspeakers placed in the corners of the
played the sound
room and fourteen wooden boxes covered with white
felt, which functioned as seats, placed at random
throughout the space. As its name implies, \
third section
customary understanding
from speaker
performed
a critique of the
of the artistic experience as entirely
in
and resident
\isu.il
an object, extending even further Morris's notion
The sound
of anti-form.
of often abstract dialogue spoken by a small cast, were
structured as a set of loose narratives.
employed
rhetoric
of
in the piece
passage spoken by one of the
The kind
written by Morris, began with the sound of one
male voice moving
by line counterclockwise
line
to speaker,
wind; "He She,
concluding with the sound of
also written by Morris, played in
counterpoint to
subordinate tr.uk
water sounds,
ol
to violent surf or storm;
"Scar Records" featured two male voices on opposite
speakers simultaneously leading texts, the voices
apparent in this
is
"Cold Oracle,"
a text in three parts:
from pouring and bubbling
tracks, a concatenation
being (.rushed. The
ol ICC lines
was
moving clockwise around the room, while a list ot
\\ mlJ Records played
(
entries from the
voi
on the under track. The fourth section. "Monologue,"
v
was written by Morris and narrated by Strand
The sole visual aspect ol Voict was the poster
ret less.
Our language
our authority.
is
annouiu ing the show
Lofty.
photograph
mote.
/<i
And if incomprehensible.
A necessary insurance.
hybrid
a
Tin
Must
les
Morns
and on<
thre<
nun
ided
li\
four
together from parts
Galusha, William
nous randomlj
ol eight ir.u ks rcc
Dunham, Jai
hard
Rii
'
hour-long sound montage
hall
s<
Pritz,
splii
k Firestone,
harles Randall,
Gen<
Mark
Milium
11m
intelligible; the
was heard
.is
ond, playi d
at a
"The
whom
vi n<
nli null'
'I
was broadi
fout malt
ij
the poster
that the postet
one
Hi- nil
It.
with
si
point ol the
Mini, iln
with those on
'I
ai
Tl
tion,
than elevated,
In
r.u
malt
mi mis with
iii
nun was
n
fi
ok
-.
iiiiiln
iii
..!
subordinatt
exhibition
In
."
uti
<
Hi,
Mortis showed
1449
tivel)
'
"
thi
Si
'ii.
ii
In
Nt
.i
-ni'l
ork
following three pages:
was Morris's
thi
125. Untitled. 1974 (poster
on paper, 36
,////)
dominant
laborated by
pronouns
rring to
mi. in.
md
itsi
'
23
'
lor Voice). Offset lithograph
inches (93.3
60.6 cm). Collection
ot
the aitr.t
126. Voice
rolt
to eight
ol
voii e
malt voict and
Het
(1921)
ol
ompass
Manii Pt/",
urn female voii ealtern
I
the complex layers
in
\im es on the main
th<
In y,"
ink
disset ted, or parodied, rather
h ol
arrangement of excerpts from Emil Kraepelin's
and Paranoia
mas* ulinit)
ol s< v< ral levels ol
and authority subverted,
ol
image was intended
audio speaket from which Ins
lii
asr
In this
ir.u
subsequent viewers
Sin
tors,
from the
to
largely
Four," was written
ai
lear
unknown
is
rr.nl
the installation
and
is
it
the helmet
ot
lowei
ontinual drom
lection, called
first
si
imbued with
is
dome
Nevertheless,
and
ollar,
in
to refer u>
Strand, Cathryn Walker, and Mike Zelenko. Onlj two
ir.u ks were played ai one timi
thi first was dominant
and generall)
furthers the point
threatening,
sound narrative presented
which
orded by
m^
this persona
violent erotit ism (the phallic
The
attired in a strange
spiked
a silver
ular, sedut tive,
this representation
\ubjective.
-length portrait
a halt
I-' i),
and battle gear: dark sunglasses,
smooth curving helmet,
manai
ainst the private.
S&M
oi
(no.
the bearded
ol
it
as
ovi il.ipi'i
tl
I" <
fi
'I
boxes covered
Jeers (thi
mail and via
repi a ted,
1974
vei
.in>l
ii
ii
overed loudspeakers conn
channels and mounted on wall panels, lourteen wooden
50 square
ed
in fell
tcet (15
24
).
two fout
in
(
space approximately
hjnnrl
Castelh Gallery,
New
end
i.ipi
amplification systems outside this area. Installation
.it
Leo
York, April 1974. Collection of the artist
257
39
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127. Location, Occurrence, Text: Sets (64)
(chart lor Voice)
Pencil and ink on graph paper,
nches (74 9
facing page: 128
79.7 cm). Collection of the
They
'tl
;^-ncil
11
%v
HO
1973
29
ii
(manuscript drawing for
and typewriter
6 cm) Collection
Xk,*iOk.X^LH:>SWiu>tA,i,v
ink
ol the
on paper,
.i>
A4--rfat'iv*Ai,r
fafiUHif Ai*m
ligraphy,/ the words crossing one another in all directions./
C They hold fast what is pressed into their hand^ turn it slowly
L
about without knowing how to get rid of it.,
Memory is sometimes
"-7
extinguished.
fj
People look at him/her,^ put their heads together,
AA
clear their throats, spit in front of him!/ He/she concluded
c
from the remark, "Still waters run deep," that he/she should
*<^
j-
fe>)
It
,.Tiw/>rrr hi ms elf /herself./ Peo pie
'
whth green
hats and// black spec"
,".
J&)
tacles follow him/her in /the /street, someone has /written him/her
an obscene postcard// It is not the right town/Auite another
The clocks are wrong, the letters are as if from
n century.
strangers, /the mortgages are exchanged, the savings bank book
CIO
0/ gas
Lis not valid,/ the trees are artificial/and
2
if they had been
'
fir
i
built up specially for him/her./ He/she thought that the sun was
1
k\C
artificial electrical illumi nation /and complained about the weak-
/
c
ness of his/her eyes because he/she could not see the real sun
C/P
at night./ He/she has a dreaded disease in the fourth stage, his/
'^
her breath is
0/
poisonous./ His/her
16
head is changing shape,/ is as
large as Palestine, his/her hands and feet are no longer as they
.
*V
#/ A
//
were,/ the bones have become thicker, have slipped down,- all his/her
25
THE REALM OF THE CARCERAL, 1978
IN
The
twelve drawings to which Morris gave the series
power, rather than the prc-Enlightcnmciit systems
Spurred by an exhibition
descend directly from Morris's drawn
Internally, they
They
earlier in the 1970s.
mirror and maze projects
timber installation
tor the
exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and
the curved mirror environments
which the Carceral drawings were exhibited
New
Castelh Gallery,
March
York, in
Leo
at the
But
1979.
Morris's
ot
the French philosopher Michel Foui aull
was Foucault's demonstration
It
of power penetrate the body
control and construct
ast to Morris's
own
between
a subjec
and the
(built
or her, not in terms ot the
r<
(no. 133);
nt
him
ower."
It
through
is
..
Parades .nid
oj
maps myriad
architectural sites
an overall structure
in
ol futility,
and endlessness, Inmatt Work
Perpetual Construction
lm
and Dismantling
/'<
Labyrinth
oj thi
uses partially buih and unbuilt walls to metaphorize
bui in terms of the
one-way subjugation thai he called
artist
imprisonment. With us suggestion
repetition,
by
des< ribed
and Thi Walled Grounds
ami fragments, which combine
and Punish
itj
(no. 129); Stockadt (no. 132);
Punishment, the
diffi
spa< e external to
>
ipro
the phenomenology of]
is ut
subject, to
Prison, Foucault charts the relationship
thi
Compuls
<</
Exercise; Observation Yards; Security Walls (no. 130);
/>'
earlier projects, particularly
the Labyrinths. In his book Disciplint
execution thai reproduces the look of "clean"
ni
way systems
that gave a radically
it,
means, adopt both the panoptical viewpoint and
si\k
Separatt Walkways: Thi Warders Above, tht
ot the
human
the
ot
ol
control. In drawings such as Gardens
externally, they
ol
His own bl.uk ink
surveillance trom above
ot
drawings, articulated through an extreme economy
must be seen against the backdrop
theoretical engagement with the writings
Morris contrasted
..
points and towering vistas, with the panopticon's
vantage
the same year, with
ol
arceri
Baroque perspectives, with their low vantage
Piranesi's
Behaviour
for
Washington. D.<
\rt in
notably the mirror-and-
1978 Structures
the eighteenth-century
ot
Battista Piranesi's
etchings, which he saw in 1971 at the National Gallery
also overlap with several
.mm
Italian artist (.no\
produced
built Labyrinths (nos. 11924),
ol
public spectacles ol punishmeni and torture.
Realm oftbi Carceral L978, nos. 129have both an internal and an external source.
title In thi
and
tins subjugation, he argues,
the condition
would
winks
later
1989 and
ill
do
to
Morns
itself, as
labyrinth
thi
ol
endeavor
number
in a
drawings trom
ol
encaustit
1990
his
power both
that the various apparatuses ol state
members
them
ol
so
ol
their uniqueness by
Fou( ault's major
foum
by [en
my
.in
ommanding
aull
was
at
li
hospital war.
ighti
nth
m map
i.
Is,
mii
..
.mi.
ipatial
11
.11
ind disciplinary
physii
I.
1111
al
lories,
heli ss a vision
to
apabli ol
lance.
as<
I
w.ii. h,
nd even
teli
nun
plj
pheno
>o in
by
all ai
ol
ii
nitor, one's
e ol
the panoptical
ass
ii
it
lit,
and the looming
Roman an
dia iplim
hitei tural
axonometrii plans
<
though .inn
which
arceri,
em
twei n the beautiful ai\A
bi
to a cool
and luminous
strength) ned by the simply
ni. in
lim
that
Tins
losed in them.
theatrical disposition
thi
aught
way
rrible, gives
is
which purposely make
spaces,
tions ol those
in
in
depersonalization
ol
inflei ted,
dominates Morris's
ompositions
raced
ulptun bj
'.iv
id
Ribinow
by Romild \
itch,
..-
as in
1;
ird
in.
ilsci
nd George
..
vi,
Blind
luded
1 rakas
Maui
ith
n lation to
isiot
Piranesi's
oppression,
ii
.I...
ii
maj
i
not
modern
wrought
v.
even chough
mon
somber eminence, the
hiarosi uro,
adopted from
si
ton ol
hit
of thi
circuit
trating di
thi
urn
thi
pi ni
produce, ultimately,
<
tied to the
still
ion,
re
arceral drawings, Morris evokes technology
availabli
the
was Foucault's point thai this surveillance, while
is
vision mi 111.il to 'In subjei
11.
transformation,
nun
detail, the
that Pi rani
the
ni
mem
rangi
ol co<
order to intensify the sense
ol
IS
rums
nsions
c<
sources for the span, baldh
Other
in.
lassn
onsummate
nturj
dies are subjected to th< oversight ol
supei
.1
131),
trading the romantii
In
the prison, with us
the ring of cells surrounding
pains
lines, in short, an)
tral
the disi iplinary spa.
cral
tion
which
ol
Bi
wan htowi
bin
tmple
>
d with an erotic undertone and
iplining
>>r .lis.
displeasurable
modern so< ieties is ol
mple laid out in the
peculiar to
in
ializing
51). Thi Hot and Cold
on the other hand, is
Investigations series (nos.
Pools oj Persuasion (no
norm."
then
it
so<
reati
and deprive
as "individuals"
ietj
<
Mi.
inly
In
UanShi
In this
Power,
Panel
i,
19
Pwiilh
/>//, .in.!
Iwi
in
/'
(New Yo
I
B
ilso,
ed.
Colin
Ion
(New
Yorl
lull
IN
THE
THE
REALM OP THE CARCERAL
WARDERS ABOVE,
THE
INMATES
SEPARATE
WALKWAYS
BELOW
129. Separate Walkways: The Warders Above, the
Inmates Below, 1978.
(84.5
Ink
on paper, 33
'
44
112.1 cm). Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery,
IN
'
inches
New
York.
THE REALM OF THE CARCERAL 263
>.
(45
130 Security Walls
facing page
131
The Hot and Cold Pooli
or
inches
Penuailon
EL
Of
'-I
-AO^lKAi
Sf.Uil
m\
IN
THE
REALM OF
THE
CARCERAL
STOCKADE
THE
facing page: 132. Stockade, 1978.
45
33
inches (114.3
Ink
on paper,
85.7 cm). Australian National
133. Towers of Silence. 1978.
(114.3
Ink
on paper, 45
33
'
inches
85.7 cm). Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery, New York.
Gallery, Canberra.
IN
THE REALM OF THE CARCERAL. 267
MIRRORS INSTALLATIONS,
1977
In January 1977, as part of che Williams College
Artist-in-Residence Program, Morris, assisted by ten
students, constructed a large installation ot mirrors
At
(no. 134).
completion, the work was set in
its
the indoor courtyard of the Sterling and Francine Clark
Art Institute, opposite the entrance to the college
The mazelike system
library.
of reflections underscored
the mirrors' function not as "pictures" but as reflexive
and temporal grounds.
spatial
Four pairs
one-sided mirrors formed the corners
ol
of a vast open square, at the center of which stood
As the space
a double-sided pair.
reflected at the work's
edges seemed to multiply, so did the viewer's
reflection, receding
on the surrounding surfaces
in a
rhythmically diminishing pattern of ever-changing
gestures. This landscape of mirrors mirroring mirrors
generated an enveloping space that disrupted the
denying
viewer's perception by confusing or
Organized around duplication and
location.
on the one hand, and mirroring
reflection,
temporal event,
as a
on the other, the installation was experienced
as a
complex interplay of shifting
identifications,
recognitions, and misrecognitions.
The mirrored
surfaces had a paradoxical effect, at
once opening up an endlessly replicating space and
ting
ai
.is
boundary
back on
to turn the eye
itself.
This second reading, which emerged with the viewer's
gradual realization of the mirrors' planarity and
the artificiality
/
'ntitled
mirror
It
sw
pie< es,
and Pine
oi tins
Williams
image world,
to the
Portland Min
1965, no. 66)
'
1961, no.
also be related to the
relates
more enclosed
h as Mirrored Cubi
with Mirron
Porte//
may
recursive
\Airrot
10).
omplex Untitled
(1977, no, 135). In that work, an
installation at che Portland Center tor che Visual
Arts, lour large
Lingular mirrors
rec
tr.iu
che
gallery walls Connei ting ch< mirrors
Shaped runni
Oi
wooden beams
length and bn adi h
ill. iin
in
.i
[posed oi
tin
I"
rt
ati
in
Moms
1973 and ex<
Ferranct Gallery,
Rome;
i
to en
room was
a tin
-it'
che
illi
cunni ling into
tai
>
in .in installation
no
the
.1
in
in
19
it,
black
front of foui
spat e oi the
single lineal
following three pages:
134. Untitled (Williams Mirrors)
mitrots, each
lineal projet cion into
ed bj
eiv<
A IK tsandro
mirroi
ai
ceating che illusion
i
'i
on coi n
the
ams ontinui d into ch< n flet ced spat
plii acing diamond lattices This
oi
w
pattern
virtu. il
Inn.:'
Cl
che center of one of the mirrors,
th.it
sir.
the four
was a diamond
at h poini oi cht
room
two abutting timbers, mei
ch<
oi
modest wooden
in
of eat h oi
enter
ai
the
84
96 inches (213.4
1977 (two views) Twelve
x
243.8 cm)
Instillation
the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Wilhamstown,
January 1977. Williams College
Museum
ol Art.
Wilhamstown.
135. Untitled (Portland Mirrors), 1977. Four mirrors, each
72
(30.5
96 inches (182.9
<
in
In
243.8 cm),
with 12 inch squ,nr
timbers ol varying length'
Installation It the
Portland Center lor the Visual Arts, Oregon. March 1977.
it
Mass
MIRRORS INSTALLATIONS 269
27a
facing page and above: 136. Untitled. 1975 (two views).
Mirrors and painted steel. Installation at D'Allessandro Ferrante
Gallery,
Rome, November 1975. Collection
of the artist.
MIRRORS INSTALLATIONS 273
CURVED MIRRORS,
1978
curved or parabolic mirror works are
Morris's
to his
standard mirror pieces as Ins anti-form works are co
*-W*4
the industrialized surfaces of Minimalism.
The
distorting and unpredictable reflections generated by
the
urved mirrors produce an obvious attack
on the coherence of form
human
the
body, since
symmetry, and
particularly the form of
the viewers
is
it
stability that
is
own wholeness,
eroded by
capture within the parabolic visual web.
his or her
The
late-
1960s version of anti-form was carried out in the held
materials and repudiated the technological
of real
surt.ucs and processes
its lati
-l
of'
the Minimalist polyhedrons;
counterpart, however, occupies the
)""(>s
"image-world"
mimicking the
of reflective illusion,
shine and flitter of the products of industry: the sleek
Hanks
car tenders,
of
the fashion model
which the curved phantom of
captured, the phallic gleam
is
the
of
rocket reflecting the military hardware surrounding
more formal problems
In this sense, the
of
installations, with their generation of a set of
geometries to be experienced
dimensions
lie
the environment, begin to yield to the
ot
and
its
attendant
nightmares, concerns that would increasingly
social
become the focus
work
ol Morris's
the early 1980s.
in
This reorientation was conducted, however,
One
Stages.
the earliest of the
of
58) places a bene
heavy timbers,
137. Mirror, 1969 Two
from 16
stills
mm
hhke form, fashioned from
rudimentary wooden form
black-and-white film.
facing page: 138
Untitled
1978. Carved oak, approximately
i
72 inches (182.9 cm) long, and curved mirror, 71 inches
i
1180.3 cm) high Ludwig Forum
fur Internationale
laws, tlu
atoptrit
onsiderations
means
In
huge, reflective
Brant usi-like
of the
the mirrors internal
ulpture replays Morris's earlier
si
Brant
of
of
freestanding
before the
fall
like a
image
urtain. Multiply ing the
tough hewn obje<
usi's
permutations
ol
Kunst, Aachen,
forms and
Germany.
in
urved minor works
in front ol a single, lar^e-
parabolic mirror that seems to
Castelh-Sonnabend Videotapes and Films
tivc
contrast to the real
in
direct consideration oi technology
(no.
it.
the mirror
xploitation of
surfaces
reflec ti\c
single
In
other
examples, the reflection of architet tural elements or
"Mu
bei
Is
hold
ai
form
it ii
kind
al
distant
mat hine
oi
i
h.u.u teristit ol early
to
produce
curved mirrors
M.i. ii.
Minimal ism
1
takes a slightly different form
dialogue with Rosalind Krauss's
Expanded
Field,"
argumi
chat with
nisi
nun
.i
<
ssa\
use
Constructed
"Sculpture
in
in
the
work acknowledges the text's
Minimalism there had been
the
sweeping
.n^\.
indeed,
a strut
tural
hanj
in
the nature of art practice, resulting in an "expanded
in
I.I
..I
isolate
I'M.
.
H74
ni
ol
R K.)i I" '8, no 10), Morris's
to comment on his own earliei
In Untitled (Fo\
ol
thus
m\^\
the serial progressions
M In
.1.
1.
1
operations This expansion beyond the
autonomous
si
ulptural obji
<
ol
Modernist
involved thi inclusion of th< environment,
an Inn
tural oi natural, within the work, as u
also op(
other mediums, sue h
photography and sound. Using
group")
ally
expanded
1978. Curved mirror, plastic, and copper,
99 inches (251.5 cm)
order to indicate the parami
id
139. Untitled
.is
a structuralist
New
high.
Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery,
York.
the essay also
field,"
following three pages:
a
single artist circulates through this
mploy these various
i)
version oi
pr.u tices in turn.
Klein group,
in
the
The
R.
this
pra
artis tii
Mon
I
no
ih. u tin
ur\cd mirrors
ourse,
l|
in
Ik
in
in
ll 11
tion
10 an:
ol
the well built and
fo(
used on
'
t,
t'ia\
here
lOlo
ii
u\
disruption
it is tl
li.il
nu.
ii
human
skeletons, 15 x
Collection ol the artist.
K assumes
of a newly "nomadic"
of Fine Arts,
Houston,
strips,
69 inches (175.3 cm)
Gift of
high.
Rosalind Krauss.
1980. Steel, acrylic mirrots, aluminum tubing, and silver-leafed
tahhshed by
rip tion
1978. Concrete blocks, lead
141. First Study for a View from a Corner of Orion (Day).
large, floor-l
thi
I)
Museum
K.).
Plexiglas mirrors,
both state and varj
bloc ks that
ippositions between bla< k and white and round
and square,
140. Untitled (For R.
wood frames, and
ihi
ii
version
ol
Ml
30
13
feet (4.57 x
9.14
3.96 m)
\
*r<
%
7
./
above and facing page: First Study for a View from
Corner of Orion (Day), 1980 (two details).
.MCI
CURVED MIRRORS 281
HYDROCALS, 1982-84
In
Januan
m \
Gallery
Morns displayed
body fragments
bas-reliefs of
group of Hydrocal
ac die
Sonnabend
P<ili[>hili. a
the title of the
Yot\i.Hypm
series, refers to the //
and
and
alii
which burnt
Iten fparks
bleu
holt
celebrated fifteenth-century illustrated text by the
by pressing select forms into
and relocating
In de-centering the "work"
Florennne architect Francesco Colonna.
clay,
pouring
condition
white liquid plaster into the day ground, and
critique ol the Modernist notion ot the
casting the overlaid plaster, the resulting white
work, focused
Hydrocals
shallow melange
ol fingers,
bones, teeth,
redolent ot
is
seem
emerge from some- deep past
Pompenan ruins and death. Indeed, it
hands, and feet
an overriding sense
reliefs, a trait, also
to
the Hydrocal
ol loss that unifies
distinguishing Morris's Firestorm
drawings (pp
Instead ol the
emphasis on process that characterized the early
r
Hand and
instance.
no 61]), the Hydrocal works
Tot \1<>LI\
ot
The
tol
lydrocals
But taking the frame as his
with
two other
developed use
sonic
L982 seem to incarnate
the archaeological techniques ol retrieval
frame.
in
terms
ol a
general
"<
frames,
still
freight.
The
reliefs as ornate, richly
painted, massive
bearing their dismembered, corpselike
initial
Morris either
made
group
as a
ol
frames hold drawinj
n.iiiH
ins
two
within small
rei
tangular openings on
6 Mind
as
tli
in size
SI. iii
trom
5-
151
its
16).
hut
and complexity, such
.vcre replai
ed In
ol
World War
.'
It is
nun
at (he
to explore
In
86, no
images
push
limate
level ol structure
of content.
level
th<
such concerns in other
su< h as A\
Wartyr (1986,
I46)and77><
addressing the nightmare that advanced,
it
hnolog)
si
ms
io be
now ledges
ol
pn paring
for
fundamental^
hi
global catastrophe.
in
reached h
.'
Iii
i.
ul.irU sin.
IS
ii
miles
[hi
work
ilu
iiisin
impossibilii
listorii
philosophii
In
thi uttai k
ism
.il
-iii.i
It
a populate
.mi
ol
I
Mi
nd.
his
dim Hon
civilization, Morris, bj substituting the framt for the
>,/.
in the
works trom 1985 and 1986,
bom
Hinds wen produced, 8
to
the uncanny s generalized
unn presentabli natun
to
lion ol the
145), substituting fiberglass for Hydrocal.
ol
II
re lice
d bod)
re
imagery proclaims at
ale
unbridle d
the frames thai desi ribe the Allied firebombings
the disnie niln
ot
Rain, Rein (1985
sell
ompanied by legends inscribed on
nd
si
ami swags But
symmetry, which seems
the une an
no.
isions ol
anxiet) that thus repeats
from
drawn
I'/*) ),
swirls
doubling by mirror
out
highl)
its
nion. T> reinforce the
like
ol
brought
the ornate
Baroque imagery, Morris dragged
ot
the
is
This doubling allowed Morns
treatment
Moms
forinstan
first
exploit tin second possibility, namel)
built
irries.
what
hild or as an art student
loosely skin lied figure studies
nun.
call tor the
lun.it:
oi
issue ol the
medium
bodilj elements through the plaster.
ol the
these, in
destruction than as discrete images. Accordingly, he
fashioned the
conditions
like
ol the visual
Baroque .wd
to the
memento
the
ot
The
possibilities
producing long w hirlpool
lowing year Morris began to conceive the
more
it
work
mixing
and the verbal, now centered on the
stylistic
I9i
in a
1972, no. 88) deliberate
art
specific,
into yet another held ot operations
frames ob\ ious relation
depends on the
that here
peculiar relationship to the imprint
it,
the
own
autonomous
and on the means
itsell
which had begun
critique,
Hearing's
on
in
or "proper," to
That
internal organs, torsos, brains, skulls, genitalia,
in
it
the frame, Morris was carrying his
ot
..
Chicago P
nil
wfjtfrrjL
iu
r.T
142. Untitled. 1982. Plaster with metal frame, 51
(129.5
160 cm). Courtesy Obelisk
63 inches
Gallery, Boston.
HYDROCALS 283
143. Fathers and Sons, 1955/1983. Painted Hydrocal and
ink
on paper, 33
Collection of the artist.
8S4
mches (84.5
130.5 cm).
144. Untitled, 1984. Painted Hydrocal and pastel on
paper, 63'
x 73'/? x
15 inches (161.3
Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery,
New
186.7
38.1 cm).
York.
HYP
885
145
The Martyr
facing page
146 Reign. Rain. Rein. 1985-86
1
J.
Mil
'
livei
Hollmann
16
Colle<
Acrylic, lead,
29 inches (231
ti
294.6
HYD!
287
FIRESTORMS, 1983
w York during January
concurrently a series
and
no. \a2)
of
Morns exhibited
1983,
[ydrocal relicts (tor example,
group of Firestorm drawings
Sonnabend Gallery, and
of drawings entitU
may be
Gallery. All these works
emerged from his
it had manifested
a series
the Leo Castelli
seen as having
earlier obsession with technology, as
the Carcerali
itself in
1978, pp.
<
and with technology's link to nuclear
mjornado
annihilation, as
Muerto, from the series
cltl
1981
Shroudi 1981
and
i,
Rt
which foreboding
in
I,
were silkscreened onto sheets and pillowcases.
In the 19H2 Firestorm
and Psychomachia drawings,
Morns grappled with
the task of finding a way to
represent the almost unimaginable
wrought
World War
the end of
at
in particular, reflect his
bombings
is
the
I)
Prudentius,
n,
written
in
which the
debate for control
evil
Made
mil's.
with the
to deal
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. {Psychomachia
ot
name
bj
attempt
the devastation
These draw
II.
the
in
century
fifth
good and
figures of
humanity.)
of
by joining sheets
paper into larger units.
of
the Psychomachias and the Firestorms achieve mural
some measuring
nding the
much
as
hnique used
te<
as eight b) sixteen
Blind
in the-
fe<
t.
in which the physical pressure
drawings (pp
- hand was exerted on powden d graphite,
made with
wasl
pigments that have
mis
s
layers of pulverized
left
through rubbing
swirl
1818
di
oln
ii.
m
hi
ai
in
through the
as
level of
prion
been
ordingly,
Raft
bi
Medusa
o) thi
of
drawings and the
hi
.1
ima
rtain fragmi ntarj
with Us
ih.ui
of thi
motional obsessivi
'
manmade
natural or
of
form
h. in. Hi
Ai
onto doi unit ntary imagi
additivi
'I
inr. in
liroshima and Nagasaki
able lo
II
thai has always
Modi
ricault's
tin
to
and from other visions
1
<
Densely built up,
from Leonardos Delugt drawings
).
traces of
faintly visibli
as w<
rm
[
151")
mk
oal,
mixing of fragmentary images, they declan
ollageliki
tion to all
behind
negative spaci
in
nan
and various powdered black
hite,
Minn
I. ii
Su< h a
1
in
thai the
Insure
is
and uiuln
nir.iin.
an work
up and n
k of
mannei
motion
belli
.1
of fixation,
of
unpleasurabli
1
mutation,
I'tni
in
Bi
yond
tin
Pit
.1
to
laralli
iun
epeai thai
I
by
.111111.
is
147. Untitled (Firestorm), 1982.
powdered pigments on rag paper
114
100 inches (289.6
Ink,
charcoal, graphite, and
with Velcro, six panels,
254 cm)
overall. Private collection.
FIRESTORMS
89
148 Untitled (Firestorm). 1982
Ink,
charcoal, grai
inches
Hi.-
Museum
Uewhouse,
li
ol
Modem
An,
W(
a 9
INVESTIGATIONS, 1990
It
the form of Morris's Investigations drawings (1990,
nos. 149-51)
that of photomontage
is
additive assemblage
been culled from
their technique
wide variety
is
a loosely
media sources
which
ot
that of transfer rubbing,
Robert Rauschenberg had used
Dw
photographic images that have
<>t
photographic source
monumental
in his
195960.
no series ot
technique, the
In this
reproduced" by drawing, using
is
a process in which the photographic reproduction
newspaper or magazine
from
after
which
wet with lighter
is
graphic instrument
rubbed over
is
fluid,
it
so
that the printers ink of the reproduction stains, or
drawing paper
transfers itself stroke-by-stroke, to the
plated beneath
The
it.
transfer technique absorbs
the \.irious media images into the homogeneously
continuous surface
of the
drawing, simultaneously
restoring a sense of spontaneity to the image because of
the graphic quality of the individual strokes
but
the Investigations this "reproduction" (bj
in
drawing)
what had already been
of
photograph)
reproduction (the
reproduced. For these works were
is itsell
not produced by transfer but by the meticulous
media soun
nig of both their
indues
level
imitation
been
to
fife<
the drawn copy
1 1
many
so
whi< h there
lor
In this sense, the Invi ttigations,
"handmai
ing the
I"
no original
is
of a soc ial spai e
hnology, one
te<
in
even though thej an
up questions
entii
nun,
nine between us
rum
iimulai
thi
multiple
iple of a
copy
impossible to find our waj
is
it
to thai original-
hand
first-
had
Strang*
the simulai
of
layers of duplii ation
and the "original" that
of a
now takes on the
It
oldness and dissoi iativeness
whu
stylistic
the
repcrsonah/e the photographic elements, this
has the reverse
i
It
that of the transfer drawing
-order imitation
and the
es
the process of transfer drawing
of
in
whi< h the
has been nice hani/ed
itselt
A combination
1
1
in In.
Imi'
stran
of images drawn from an history
Moms', own work land polit H a history, the
hno spai ol th( drawings is then
I
ti
il
with
<
nations from Wittgenstein's Philosophical
In
not inn of
li
lean in:'
.1-.
si
tin
fragments
mii.iI
ti
inn
.isi
applil ation of
a previously given rule with Wittgenstein's idea of
meaning
is
timulai
as rh<
no rule)
ral
xhibition
And
the)
form
ol "a
seem
onditic
llln llln
Bui
iln
ki
I.
mi. mi
.1
Will
lln
>.
whii h
I'l
following three pages:
149. investigations
si
l]
ni
ni is
so in
ii
18
New
* .
i.
ni
1H inches
Yotk.
lislrin
puts
si
Laci
pain
iphite on vellum,
Courtesy Sonnabentl Gallery,
150. Investigations, 1990. Graphite on vellum, 18
151)
il
(45
to
mon pn
imi thing
quotation on one Invt uigation (no
(he report:
ol life" (foi
to be testing the
nsi
45.7 cm). Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery. New
IH inches
from
'It" the
151. investigations, 1990 Graphite on vellum, in
nd Gallery,
New
Yorl
AND WHAT AQbUT BELIEF
"
"M
p^jtH TO fM
:*A
NEJfHEJCkNft 8
,
- V
StotOTfc
-^3
--
INVESTICATI
IN
295
'
'
BLIND TIME
The
(DRAWING WITH DAVIDSON),
IV
1991 set of J
the Blind Timt
departs
gs
example, pp. 2
earlier ones (lor
from
many
in
imagery
(no. 15-t) that represent
plane crash, or the clusters
int
imagined
frequently
is
form
working, as always
remembered" by Morris,
two directions
straightforward description
it
philosopher Donald Davidson
own words
(see
is
doubt on the possibility thai Morris's
<
he
made
given draw
"my
characterized by
my
on\ u tion
that thought itself is essentially social,"
is
it
pie, to the
'61,
no
insult u
ling
foi
n<
of
Sound oj
tht
Its
Ou
own
bs
an
a<
most accounts
ol
ling
making
hat
Da> idson
intention
had
in
har.u
<
I.,
ii.
Oedipus, fot \omt
m on
long tht road intt
tad finding
killii
drylj addi d
uld
killed hit
>im mi/)
ill
kill
tlly
in killing tht "hi
his father,
to
in
is
r<
efficacious
nor that his reason
man's mot
him
fathi
Sucl
tu
from the
/\
bai
kground
intention behind
hor,
>Ii\ni, al
drawing
<>i
its
it,
th<
and
is
hat
do
draw
ti
pur|
itht
i<
the
to
Samuel
Iding to an obsessive
form
it
<
at ol
fensi
ver
>
Morris
like
In this
act
al
)a> idson's
asons
tit
ol
sound coo much
he
account of the
oming
tht
to an
end
.m action
situation,
tovid
if thi
And even
certain
./
it's
ibout
wa) ma)
being
an
not enough:
./
caust
that
tin cast
ti.
in my, tht
In
reasons
this
\.
s.
,.il,
Ixford
Inivi rait)
{her
result
tins positii
onl)
an act, andyet
for
tin itt ill
ting in
othei
hi
as th
ol
chi
HIiii.I I'ihk
of
was
hi
.nt in th.it u.i) u ithiuii
lid
lit
felt
o dipal blinding and
to find
with their "sightless repetitions,"
put forward
asons explain
old
fa) that in killing thi
// his
wanting
what he now saw
or
ma) h.nt certain motives
ruin
lm
in I ill
him. Inn his desin caused him
I illt, I
a range of reasons,
of
attacking the primac)
sides absolutely with
with
'/
(as hi
did Oedipus want
could not
Giving
"Sui h reasons
impossibiiitj ol
raised
whole, namely, the decision
astral ion as a superstitious
<
of
\t
old man block
\url)
./
thi
rationalizations
'
l\
visual," or a connection h< has always
it
the intention behind the
of
a line,
or tlu possibility that
of
Blind Timt
him
his eyes shut.
of
interest Ik
ett's
ii
around the problem
ason
it
task
ailed the
one he originallj offered,
new way
theories goes ba< k, lor
Box with
11). C in
r<
shows the
ist
work with
like the
a
obvious
n hv Morns would identity with this position
tion of subjet in
in
the global problem tor
to
rejection of subjectivist theories
meaning, and
rid
authorized to be the supplier
felt
Blind Timt drawings as
is
skepticism
the earlier Blind Timt drawings in
all
undertaken
"reasons,
ii
Insofar as Davidson's philosophical position
win the
reasons" tor
tin. a retro. u tive
waj the deeper meditation on giving
issttl tin
why"
documentary
its
1993 essaj "Writing with Davidson," Morns
In Ins
omments
miotic serve as necessary or sutfu ieni reasons for
the tasks as sufficient
oi
begins to infect
juxtaposed to Morris's
01), eat h quotation throw
pj
two
to join the angles lot
is
the center of the page," no
in
the basic facts of what could b(
id, in each case, a quotation from a text by the
Morris's
quality might imply. As doubt spreads even to the
which Morris had
often added.
is
apexes
lines] at their
the tasks
of
drawings look the waj thej
memory
project a specific
to
noncmotiM.
or reasons, skepticism also spills into the
accounts
an
).
account of the intention behind the task (such as the
and the emotions assm iated with
since
lit.
encourages with regard
this
as
literal truth.
longer has tin "objective' authority
the physical task he set
himself (such as bifurcating the page diagonall)
way the configuration might
Beyond the doubt
statement. "The intention
arc-
addition to the
First, in
ot
metaphor (such
any way different from a
in
purely "objective" accounts
with his eyes shut.
in this series,
work
to
Beuyss plane' could be
the purported background of psychological intentions
picture' ot Cezanne's paintings
drawing, or how
cross stand tor
both arc deviations from the
Joseph Beuyss famous
Also, the texts inscribed by Morris on the drawings
in
of
dark fingerprints
ol
Sainte-Victoire as
expanded
smoky
letting a
employed, such as the two black crosses with plumes
(no. 156) that
to touch Cezanne's cloak at Aix) could ever be
thought to enter
l\
(nos. 152-56), recognizable
"smoke
wanting
149). In
1991
how an
and sharm
Ibi
IV: Ot
152. Blind Time
IV
(Drawing with Davidson), 1991. Graphite on paper, 38
Working blindfolded while estimating the lapsed time, the hands begin
the lower right corner and
hammer upward
is
normally entail that there
approached while
simultaneously modulating from striking to rubbing, wet to dry, and hard to
soft pressure
left
as the upper margin
corner the attempt
is
made
is
sensed. Then beginning at the lower
to repeat the
mirror fashion. Time estimation error:
-2 44
process exactly, although
50 inches (96.5
127 cm). Collection
in
is
of the artist.
same
"'Jones bought a leopard, and Smith bought the
in
with the sides of the fists,
rotating inward as the estimated horizontal center line
does not
thing'
a leopard both Jones and Smith bought.
Analogously, 'Jones bought his wife a leopard and Smith did the
thing'
need not
and Jones did
not
that
made
entail that there is a single action
similar things: the character of the similarity is
explicit,
Jones bought
Recurrence
another
by the context
his wife, or did
may be no more
(did
Smith buy
same
both performed. Smith
his wife the
suggested,
if
same leopard
Smith buy Jones's wife a leopard,
etc.?)
than similar, but distinct events following one
"Donald Davidson
BL N
I
8 97
',*
153 Blind Time
IV
(Drawing with Davidson). 1991. Graphite on paper, 38
Working blindfolded and estimating the lapsed time
rub out a right angle bounding the upper
I
attempt
this for the
angle
'
^7"
the centi
attempt to
quadrant. Then
lower right. The intention
in
left
is
.'ige.
to )Oin the
50 inches (96.5
"A person
may have
ol the artist
certain motives for an act, and yet perform
either by accident or lor quite different reasons.
explain an action only
Time estimation
on,
in
And even
a certain
mg
if
the case that those
in
the
enough; a man's motives
way may cause him
to act
were
his
In
thai
reasons
it
So reasons
the reasons are efficacious
this is not
the act." Donald Davidson
HBN
127 cm). Collection
i.
for
foi
ti
without
performing
tin]
154. Blind Time
First
IV
two crosses are
(Drawing with Davidson). 1991
laid
out on the page
in
Graphite on paper, 38
tried again
on the
right.
Time estimation
Let the large cross on the
crashed
steppe
in
in
felt
snowstorm somewhere
and butter, preserving
he lay near death
in
in
1944
warmth
in
+20"
the unconscious airman
strict
in
cross on the right
airfield at the
Russian front.
sense
sentence
12 coma-like days
the Luftwaffe archives which notes a
few miles from an
Joseph Beuys,
"What makes the difference between
not a difference
Joseph Beuys, was
for the
a corporal
127 cm). Collection
tail
of the artist.
gunner and radio
half
hour
after the accident.
is
the wastes of the Russian
a frozen yurt. Let the large
stand for the Stuka listed
crash
in
pilot,
who wrapped
his
error:
The same thing
operator was brought to hospital by Russian workers a
stand for the Stuka that
left
1943, and from which the
pulled by Tartar tribesmen
left.
50 inches (96.5
and records that
the upper section.
Then working blindfolded and estimating the lapsed time, the
hands attempt to enlarge the cross on the
course
with
of
the
in
meaning) but
to tell a
lie
a he
and
in
and using
how
it
one another, as say, acting and
must make an assertion so as
in
metaphor
to
(in
is
any
the words are used. Using a
to
make
metaphor
totally different uses, so different that they
what one does not;
words used or what they mean
are, of
do not interfere
lying do. In lying,
one
represent oneself as believing
acting, assertion
is
excluded. Metaphor
is
careless of the difference.' Donald Davidson
BLIND TIME
IV
299
155 Blind Time
.:
IV
(Drawing with Davidson)
1991
'.raphite on paper,
38
50 inches (96.5
"Perhaps you have
blindfoldi
come
to
127 cm). Collection
ever seeing the drawing as a
Hues
il
il
rabbit. But
the di.iwing can be seen
one toui
dm
"g as
Metaphor makes us see one
ti
by making som>
prompts
most case
:
.iii.
ret
ognitlon o(
or
some
truth oi
i
ealing to a hid
100
the
v \:
W *#>t*i
156. Blind Time IV (Drawing with Davidson), 1991. Graphite on paper, 38
Working blindfolded, estimating the lapsed time, and summoning
up the
memory
of the first
Cezanne
Kansas
City,
In
1988
embarrassment and
out.
was
filled
my
stood there with
fingers
could bear the desire, the
the dread of being discovered.
the traffic outside and
of
were
went to Cezanne's Lauves studio
against the cloth for as long as
could hear
with a nostalgia for the silences
Time estimation
error:
-52"
50 inches (96.2
127 cm). Collection
of the artist.
"Why would anyone ever perform an action when he thought
everything considered, another action would be better?
Sainte-
The Nelson Gallery
order to touch his cloak.
Cezanne sought
in
Mont
Missouri touch the page as though
touching the Cezanne.
at Aix in
ever knew
1902-06,
Victoire seen from Les Lauves,
Art,
If
request for a psychological explanation, then the answers
that,
this is a
will
no doubt refer to the interesting phenomena familiar from most
discussions of incontinence:
self
deception, overpowering
desires, lack of imagination, and the rest. But
read, what
it
is
the agent's reason for doing a
would be better,
the answer
David
must
[sic]
all
if
the question
is
when he believes
things considered, to do another thing, then
be: for this, the agent has no reason."
Davidson
BLIND TIM
I\
30
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AND
EXHIBITION
HISTORY
'
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ESSAYS AND STATEMENTS
BY THE ARTIST
ieJ
New
with
ments from Texts
Yotk)
it
Yirk'
"Ant!
A B
8
1 irk) 6, no.
Ms
p.
New
>,pp
NY
Sonnabend,
<
New
07
L03
pp
I
dor
1980: Preludes
York), no. i9
Reprintedint
New
York), no. 3 (spring ID
"Installation at
nber 1981). pp. 92-105.
no.
i.
Fragments rrom the Rodin Museum.'
14, BO. 2
\
American Quarter." Art
tor the Relit
Sulfur 10 (Los Angeles)
W-U2.
L980), pp.
York), nos.
42
13(1984),
(April
PP-
V
statement
"Letter from
York)
-a
no.
6 (June
(January 1971), pp
York) 9, no. 5
Jo.),
New York
August
The Aspen
id. no
Letter to Allan
C, p. 8
10,
Henry
In
Don
Flynt,
\rt
(March 1971
Kaprow
ncinnati:
'
In
Solwa)
arl
'
p 8
>,
Prepared
.a
U-r\
bn
1987, p
The Assistant Question: Interviews with Ji Artists,"
mem
in.
Art in
'New
"Los Angeles Project
\ n
York) 81
no.
Flynt,
New
Response Irom Robert Morris. Artjurum
"Letters
Artists as Decoration."
'
63
i'
Henry Flynt, dated
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York: Fluxus Press, L968, unpaginated.
Artists:
lal
New
to
Letter from
and
dated
in Fro.
Bob Morris
19<
in.
Three
>
1.
53.
York),
winter 1969),
no. 8(fall
11.
se<
(Januarv 1993), p
Barbara Rose, Memory
In
r.
"A Method for Sorting
(Lausanne)
'Nth: Rot
Italj
elle,
rk)2,no.
The U
Ml
I':'
New
'.'/.-'.'.
'
i
id,
1966, p
Proje<
\"in on Dance
New
Orleans)
s
id,
on
s>
ruarj
Ybrl
K
lition
Re< lamacion as s<
\ms
"
Tulani
fd
md
i'\
Yanki
Not<
In
pp
14.
i.'
1968, pp
on
s,
ulpture,
P.m
.in.l
Republished as "Notes on Art
in
Exhibition
atalogui
no
(>
Gregorj Battcock,
2
'
'
!8
Wtforum
!0
!3
tl
os Angeles)
Reprinted
Minimal Art {Critical \nthology, cd Gregorj
New York Dutton, 1968, pp !28 15
Washington,
<
ollei
.hi Si
b
I
'
>
pp
<
ulptun
(Lo
^ngel
Pari
1
Work
oi
1968
msi .mi
hi
Brani u
Notes and Nonsequiturs
id
(June 196
'>.
19
(New Vbrk)
run
iin
no
Notes on Sculpture, Part
n Institution,
'.
Beyond Objects
no 8 (April 1969), pp
iO
>
1
<
1
vol
'
ions
1971, p|
on the Observatorj
In Sonsbeek
7,
Geert van Beijeren and Coosje Kapteyn
I'l
Anihcm
i,
Minimal
in
Rei lamation
National
10
So
Battcock
N..i.
""
I
Reprinted
1966), pp
World A
'iniii in
New
l\
hrtforum (Los Angeles)
ulpture
1966),
Search
Johnson
<
Drama
ommission
and tymposium
Robert Morris
i
ulptun
as
ounrj Arts
no 2 (winter 1965), pp.
New York Dutton,
'
King
the
ol
\( ritical Anthology, ed
\>:
15.
".
L980),
ommission
ss
Yirk). Februarj
'.
ilpture:
Noti
Ran
si
pp 87 ID-'
"Earthworks: Land Reclamation
published as
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s
Ma
Utspnn.u
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1"
J (fall
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ambridgi
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180
"Notes on Art as/and Land Reclamation
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\ u
<
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actoria di
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(fall
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"Pace and Process, August 26, 1969" Avalanche
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(fall
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The
Political
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Gallery,
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Domus
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11
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"The Present Tense of Space." Art
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Fineberg, Jonathan. "Robert Morris Looking Back:
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Exhibition catalogue. Eindhoven: Stedelijk van
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Achille Bonito Oliva."
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Inquiry (Chicago) 19
Some Afterthoughts
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in
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'.
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ran Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C.,
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at h.
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olli
Blind Turn Dniuwgs
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utth Daudioti. Introduction by Donald Davidson.
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it)
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bert
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(
l
>so
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I-
r>
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elli
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i
i
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it
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*>'
|
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l
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<
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19"
n<
ai
.-,.,
's
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Pr)
Km, IK
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'
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19 '0),
atalogui bj
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I
irt
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Through
il/miil hi
"
IV
Genom
v.ir.i
.1
tin turn
1961
Sail)
m. in
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r.uu
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ol
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ol
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i
r'uan Scu/ptun of tin Si\tit\
I
os Angeles
<
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HIHI.IOC. H AI'll Y 3
SELECT EXHIBITION
HISTORY
New
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
York,
Robtr:
\\
Whitney Museum
9-May
>.. April
American Art.
of
31. Exhibition catalogue.
1957
San Francisco, Dilexi Galler\. August 31-October
1.
1971
London, Tate Gallery. April 2S-June
1958
6.
Exhibition
catalogue.
San Francisco, Dilexi Gallery, October 5-October
J]
Ueana Sonnabend.
Paris, Galerie
'
rallery,
October 15-November
5.
1972
New
1964
(X tober 26
Diisseldorf, Galerie Schmela,
mber
18-May
New
21
22-May
9,
December 16-
ilery,
6.
York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Robert Morris: Projects,
April
V wYbd
January
York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Robert Morris: Hearing,
April
13.
Belhngham. Wash
1965
1965
March 10-April
en Gallery,
Max
Washington, D.C.,
Dwan
Western
Ciallery,
Projects on
3.
1966
Vngeles,
Western
Washington State College, Robert Morris:
Paper, October 24 November 1<>
Protetch Gallery, Ten Years of
Robert Morris, November.
March 13 April
Gallery,
1.
1973
Ueana Sonnabend, Robert Morris:
Paris, Galerie
Vbrk,
Leo
March
Castelli Gallery,
opened January
I'n ces,
February 17March
Robert Morris, February 16 March
h \6
.'.
Ybrl
lli
May
Gallery, April 20
Fans, Galerie Ueana Sonnabend
Ace Gallery, June 9July
alif.,
LeoGa
11
Naples, Lucio Amelio
fall
nzoSperone, March
nlli
telli
Morris:
Washington,
March 1-22.
rallery,
Warehouse,
Irs.
Blum
Irsinr
22
rail) i\.
D(
Drawings, 2 Films,
Max
Protetch Gallery.
1974
ol
ontemporary Art,
Continuoui
Bra hure
niversity ol Pennsylvania, Robert
Mum\
m<
Novi ml.,
iii
24
Mas
rallerj ol Arc,
embi
>e<
Instituti
28
ol Arts,
Api
[ravi
li
.1
New
York, Leo
<
asielh Gallery
le$,
Blum
1>-
ralli
.1
fanuar) 27.
bert
Moi
h,
i.iK
ie
Aj
pe nn. men
i.
and Sonnabend
Blind Time, April 6 27.
in
Progress,
September 5
Belknap Park, GntndRjipidi
earthwork, from
( )<
tober.
rraphi
Milan, Alessandra
Grand Rapids, Mich
Void
October 9
Projei
(
atalogui
tttaloj
m
.iriii
<
fanuary 8
Muni)
Dm
d'Industrie,
ei
Maj Exhibition
il
Gallery, Labyrinths
libition
/Vw/tv/i,
March 23 April 27 Exhibition catalogue
Saint-Etienne, France, Musee d'Art
a,
i.
Modern Art Agency,
Felt Piece, 10
Philadelphia, Institute
I
Man
II.
opened November
Turin, Galleria Gian
May 8-26.
Vancouver, Aic Gallery Canada,
BrOl huTC
Venice,
\'
Fischer, Robert Morris,
16.
Genoa. Galleria Forma, March.
Pans, Galerie Ueana Sonnabend, Robert Morris,
Man
$1
Exhibition catalogue.
iary 20-
Konrad
Diisseldorf, Galerie
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Stedelijk van
Abbemuseum,
Felt
-28.
)(
totx
Novi mber.
astelli
rallery, Ri
Morris,
1975
New
Rome, Galleria D'Alessandro-Ferranti, November.
Realm of the Carceral, March 324.
Dayton, Ohio, Wright State University, Robert Morris:
1976
New
\brk, Sonnabend Gallery, Robert Morris: In the
Mirror Works and Drawings, September 13October 4.
Leo Castelli Gallery and Sonnabend
\fork,
Gallery, April 17-
May
6.
1980
New
\brk, Leo Castelli Gallery, Robert Morris: Black
and White
Felts,
October 9-30.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Robert Morris,
April
30June
15.
Exhibition catalogue.
Columbus, Ohio, Sullivant Hall Gallery, Ohio State
University, Robert Morris, November.
Seattle,
1977
London, Waddington Galleries
Humlebaek, Denmark, Louisiana Museum of Modern
October-November.
Art, January 15 February 13.
New
Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark Art
Institute, Morris Mirrors,
January 22 February 26.
Richard Hines Gallery, Robert Morris,
September 16-October
"York,
31.
II,
Robert Morris,
Leo Castelli Gallery, Robert Morris:
First
and
Study for a View from a Corner of Orion (Night)
Second Study for a View from a Corner of Orion (Day),
October 25November
Los Angeles, James Corcoran Gallery, March 6
April 9.
15.
1981
Portland, Oreg., Portland Center for the Visual Arts,
Robert Morris,
Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, Robert Morris:
Selected
March 11 April
Works 1970-1980, December 12-February
14,
19-
1982. Exhibition catalogue.
The Netherlands,
and Permanent Installation of
Oostelijk, Flevoland,
Reconstruction
1982
New %rk,
"Observatory," from April.
Leo Castelli Gallery, Psychomachia:
Drawings, January 829.
Diisseldorf, Galerie
Blind Time
II,
Amsterdam,
Art
in Progress, Robert Morris:
April 22-June
Stedelijk
New \brk, Sonnabend Gallery, Hypnerotomachia:
and Firestorms: Drawings, January 829-
2.
Museum, Het
Observatorium van
Robert Morris in Oostelijk Flevoland, April
23-May
Champaign,
111.,
Reliefs
Krannert Art Museum, University
30.
of Illinois, Urbana, Psychomachia Drawings,
Exhibition catalogue.
February 27 March 27.
Paris, Galerie Ileana
Pieces,
Sonnabend, Robert Morris:
Felt
Williamstown, Mass., Sterling and Francine Clark
May.
Museum of Art,
May 1June 27.
Art Institute, Williams College
The Drawings of Robert Morris,
1978
Swarthmore,
Pa.,
Florence Wilcox Art Gallery,
Swarthmore College, Robert Morris: Blind Time
Drawings, February 2-March
Exhibition catalogue. Traveled to Boston, Institute of
II
Contemporary Art, July 6-August 29;
Art Museum, November 27-January
5.
Tex.,
Glenside, Pa., Beaver College, Robert Morris,
Comune
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, April 1-May
Austin,
8,
Grand Rapids, Mich., Grand Rapids Art
Museum, May 29-July 10, 1983; Otterlo, The
Netherlands, Rijksmuseum Kroller-Miiller,
1983;
March 8-18.
Ferrara,
Seattle, Seattle
15, 1983;
di Ferrara, Padiglione
d Arte
Contemporanea, Parco Massari, Robert Morris,
Robert Morris: Tekeningen 19561983, September 10
May 28-August
October 23, 1983; Milan, Padiglione d'Arte
Contempoianea, / disegni di Robert Morris/ The
26. Exhibition catalogue.
1979
New
"Yfork,
Leo Castelli Gallery, Six Mirror Works,
March 324. Exhibition
Mirror Works 1961-78.
catalogue, Robert Morris:
Drawings of Robert Morris, 1984; Malmo, Sweden,
Malmo Konsthall, January 28-April 3, 1984.
Paris, Galerie
Works,
May
Daniel Templon, Robert Morris: Riant
4 -June
2.
INHIBITION HISTORY
3 13
JCiM Galerie, Robert \I rris Feutres et dessins,
1964-1984, October ll-November 5
Paris.
Sweden. Galerie Nordenhake, R
to,
Ran:
<rts:
Felt Pieces, April.
DC, Corcoran
Washington,
mo
Endure or Dt
Konsthall, Robtrt Morris:
tk
Gallery of Art, Inability
grid: Represt rttation
and
1991.
17,
Exhibition catalogue.
tbout
luly-August. Exhibition catalogue.
1991
New
Portland, Oreg., Portland Center tor the Visual Arts.
Drawing
ember
Fin form
Y>rk. Leo
Ciallery,
.istelli
and Sonnabend Gallery, Robert
and Psychomacbia,
Apnl
i-January 20, 1985.
6.
Sonnabend Gallery, Robert Morris,
Perspectivt
January 5-26.
I
Gallery, Robert
astelli
of
l
The 1-Btam
9.
Contemporary Art, Robert Morris:
bruary i-Apnl 13 Traveled to
1
Newport Harbor Art Museum,
2-June
Permanent
tbt
<
of Fine Arts.
ollection: Robt rt
rris,
Brochure
2.
Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Robert Morris:
February
Museum
Chicago,
on
April 23-June
m 1967
Street.
March 9
rris,
Brochure.
Richmond. Virginia Museum
-k,
Thompson
65
27June
Suiti, April
22.
Montreal, Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Robert
DessinslDrawings, JanuaryFebruary.
New
York, Sonnabend Gallery, Robt
June
JO
rt
rris,
May 9
JO. Exhibition catalogue.
Mb
<
Kemper Gallery,
rrii
Drawings and
harlotte Crosby
Kansas City Art Institute, R
February
Paintings, January 17
Allentown,
(
Frank Martin Gallery, Muhlenberg
Pa.,
ollege, Ri bert
Blind Timt Drau
rris:
with
ings
ho II.
15.
1993
Vbrk, Leo Castelli Galler)
London, Tan Gallery,
Robert
Thi Films of Robert Morris,
Vlorris,
Man hApril.
Januai
laura, Japan, Akir.i [keda
Sonnabend Gallery, Robert Morris,
August
'
rallery, R<
trt
rris,
K tobet JO.
Januai
New
Pans. Galerie Daniel lemplon, Robert Worrii
15November
er
P.ins,
Gal
lemplon,
iel
Novi
'
Oeu
York. Leo
<
Gallery, Blind Timt
astelli
Drawing with lXn
idson,
l\
September 25 October
23.
16
Robt rt
New
Mori
mber
Vbrk, 65
rhompson
Street, Fot
>
Beam
Piect
r,
Si
ptember 25
< )i
tobet 2
l<>
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
M
oLeavin
961
hroi
Won
rallei
/988,Januarj
Februarj
San Francisco, San Francisco
11
\m
<
...II.
and Stud)
i\
San Ft
<
nt<
|uly
xiul.ifii.il
lition
iii
h 10
O'Hara Gallerj Maj
ai
xhibition
Vbrk
Decembt
>.
ill.
Maj
April 2
atalogue.
\i
rris,
Gordons
Fifth
Avenue Gallery,
JO
Iravi led
'
|un<
'
New
Vbrk,
[anuarj 8
|j
April
Man
[rt Association,
Art, Seventy
Exhibition
1962
ataloj
London, Runkel Hu< Williams, Robert Won
Museum ol
and Sculptun
Woi
New
Sculpt
Painting
Felt
Annual
eighth
New
Vbrk,
[anuarj
"'
Green Gallery,
1
bruarj
Green
Sett
Gallery, Sett
Pebi uarj
Work Part
'
16
Work
//.
I.
to
Text in tbt
Work of Robert Morris, December 8February
titan benne;
>.
oj tin
New
York, Gordon's Fifth Avenue Gallery, Boxing
Match, February 27-March 24.
Exhibition,
Buffalo,
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Mixed Media and
Pop Art,
November 19 December
15.
Exhibition
catalogue.
New
16.
Exhibition
New
York,
Dwan
Gallery, 10, October 4-29-
Ambiguous Image, October 22
Hard Center,
December
\brk, Cordier and Ekstrom, Sight
and Sound.
1964
New
August 19October
catalogue.
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Eight Sculptors: The
York, Thibaut Gallery,
December 328. Brochure.
New
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 68th American
and Ears,
York, Cordier and Ekstrom, For Eyes
4.
Exhibition catalogue.
New "York, Whitney Museum of American Art,
Annual Exhibition 1966: Contemporary Sculpture and
Prints, December 16 February 5, 1967. Exhibition
catalogue.
January 325.
Hartford, Conn.,
1967
Wadsworth Atheneum,
and Grey, January 9-February
9-
Black, White,
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Museum
of Art,
Brochure.
American Sculpture of the
Sixties,
28June 25.
April
Museum
Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art,
Traveled to Philadelphia, Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania, The Atmosphere
September 15October 29- Exhibition catalogue.
April 17-June
of 64,
Exhibition catalogue.
New
Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art,
Sight/Sound,
November 19December
Los Angeles,
Dwan
Brochure.
16.
York, Tibor de
Nagy
Gallery, Shape
and Structure
York, Pace Gallery, Beyond Realism,
May 429-
Exhibition catalogue.
New
Gallery, Language
May 26-June
York,
12.
Be Looked at
York, Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum,
October 20 February
4,
1968. Traveled to Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario,
February 24-March 27, 1968; Ottawa, National
Gallery of Canada, April 26June 9, 1968; Montreal,
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, June 20August 18,
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Stedelijk van
Abbemuseum, Kompas 3: Schilderkunst na 1945
uit
Whitney Museum of American
Art,
Young America, 1965: Thirty American Artists under
Thirty-five,
to
Be Read, June.
1968. Exhibition catalogue.
York, Green Gallery, Flavin, Judd, Morris,
Williams,
New
New
to
Sculpture from Twenty Nations,
1965, January 5-23.
New
Dwan
Guggenheim International Exhibition 1961:
Gallery, Boxes.
1965
New
York,
and/or Things
of Art,
June 23August 29-
New
York/Paintings after 1945 in
November 9December
17.
New
York,
Exhibition catalogue.
1968
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Plus by Minus:
Buffalo,
1966
Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art,
Todays Half-Century, March 3-April
14.
Exhibition
catalogue.
University of Pennsylvania, The "Other" Tradition,
January 27March
New
York,
7.
Whitney Museum of American
Contemporary American Sculpture. Selection
April
5 May
Museum
15.
of Art,
The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Minimal Art,
March 23May 26. Exhibition catalogue and brochure.
Exhibition catalogue.
Art,
Kassel,
Traveled to Syracuse, Everson
December
13,
1967-January 21, 1968;
Albany, Albany Institute of History and Art,
February 14 March
New
'Vfork,
1968. Exhibition catalogue.
The Jewish Museum, Primary
Structures,
April 27-June 12. Exhibition catalogue.
New
New
Real:
17,
Ybrk, Finch College Art
The Visual Development of a
Exhibition catalogue.
Museum, Art
Structure,
May
Germany, Documenta
4,
June 27-October
6.
Exhibition catalogue.
The Museum of Modern Art, The Art of the
USA 1948-1968, July 3-September 8.
York,
Exhibition catalogue. Traveled to Paris, Grand Palais,
LArt du reel USA 1948-1968, November 14December 23; Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Der Raum in
der amerikanischen Kunst 1948-1968, January 19-
in Process:
11June 30.
February 23, 1969 (exhibition catalogue); London, Tate
Gallery, The Art of the Real:
Painting
An
Aspect of American
and Sculpture 1948-1968,
April 22-June
1,
1969 (exhibition catalogue).
EXHIBITION HISTORY 31S
Cillery.
London, Hayward Gallery, Pup
October.
'ks,
Septemtx
liscum of American Art,
A rr. July 9
anized by the Arts Council of Great
Britain. Exhibition catalogue.
P-February
niber
October
Pennsylvania, Plasties and
K
!
New
Nay Art Institute. March 16
ocouver Art Galli
bruary
New
York 15,
Traveled to Regina,
16.
d Art Contemporain, June 3July
Museum
l\
Vndrew Dickson White
Museum of Art,
Cornell University, Earth Art, February 11March
Museum
December 11January
of Art,
Art in
26, V>~(V Exhibition
The Museum ot Modern Art, Spaces,
SO March 1, 1970. Exhibition catalogue.
York.
Decembei
Exhibition
14.
atalogue.
<
New
atali
Ithaca
Contemporary Art. Art by
York. Finch College
Norman
Exhibition
5.
of
November 1-December
catalogue.
Mackenzie Art Gallery, March 10 April 21; Montreal,
10.
1970. Exhibition catalogue.
1,
Telephone,
January 17February 23. Exhibition catalogue.
Janu.
The Metropolitan Museum or Art. V
and Sculpture: 1940 1970, October 18-
York.
Pi
hicago,
und Westfalen, Minimal
die Rheinlande
York
February
-"adust he Kunsthalle und Kunstverein
tiir
February 8, 1970,
\rt,
Exhibition catalogue.
September 5
Exhibition catalogue
January 15-February 25 Traveled to San Antonio,
April
51
Traveled to Vancouver, Vancouver Art
5.
Gallery, January 13
Contemporary Art,
Philadelphia, Institute of
Art Museum,
Seattle, Seattle
9, 1969. Exhibition catal.
Mayagtiez, Puerto Ruo.
16.
Puerto Rico,
RAR
AM
\iRR0Rl
Diversity of
R01 IBSI iTERLR
bition catalogue.
Museum
ach College
Round
bition
<
Exhibition
li
Museum, Op
Stedelijk
'
Rafael Ferrer).
rrii
\l
L970
Mil
Amsterdam,
>bt
oi Art, Drau/it
II
atalogue
Hempstead, N.l
April
15
ichibition
rallery,
April
19
May Septembei
Princeton, N.J.,
Exhibition catalogue.
1C>
Mem,
nsthalle
When
Lipt in Your Head:
''
Attitu
\;
ril
xhibition
niversity,
ichibition
Ann
i
.'
Rake. Zeichnungen amerikanischer
ologne, Galerie
Kunstler,
taiversitj
tnd
March
Emilj Lowe Gallery, Hofstra
atalogue.
atalog
rsitj
University, Hanging Leaning, February
broeven
March
<
Exhibition catalog
The An Museum. Princeton
May 6
rican Art unci I960,
atalogw
New
York, llu Jewish
Maj
13
Museum,
ting U.//A (Ina
.Hal'
letzel
April
inon Building Gall
Diversity,
<
Ma) 20
<>
\t w York,
Dwan Gallery,
Language, June.
lavin, Judd,
\IhI>iiimii
Exhibition catalogue
June 21
H in
an
\i w York, Tlu Musi uin
atali
Julj
An
'
Septembei
!0
Modem
ol
Art. Information,
Exhibition catalogue
Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Niirnbergam Marientor,
''
April 15
ichibition
Das Di>
ai
Int
K in .in
\i.,
19
An
ful)
ink
mi mu. ii
i.
Contemporar] Arts Center, Monumental
Si pt( nil'i
Novembei
i
<
l<
>
uu/( d by
-Illinium
..
tin
W.ilki
An
atalogue
hcim Mu
'
r,
Exhibition catalogue, Monumental in
SO
iustrial
Solomon
August JO Exhibition
in
atalo
July 8-Se|
New
Vbrk, Leo
astelli
Gallery, Benefit
0, Si pit iul>i
lei
14
ted
19
'<
xibition for
Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art,
New
University of Pennsylvania, Against Order: Chance
March 20May
and Art, November 14 December
22. Exhibition
New
catalogue.
New
York,
New
York Cultural Center,
"York,
Whitney Museum of American Art,
December 12-February
7,
1971
Whitney Museum of American
May
Art,
25-July 22.
Exhibition catalogue.
Exhibition
Soft as Art,
Exhibition catalogue.
6.
American Drawings, 1963-1973,
1970 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American
Sculpture,
York,
Grand Rapids, Mich., Grand Rapids Art Museum,
September 8-December 3-
Sculpture Off the Pedestal,
catalogue.
Exhibition catalogue.
1971
New
Guggenheim International Exhibition, 1971
February 12 April
11.
New
Guggenheim Museum,
York, Solomon R.
York, Leo Castelli Gallery, Videotapes,
September 28October 27. Traveled
Calif,
De
Saisset
Exhibition catalogue.
Videotapes: Six from Castelli,
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Museum
of Art,
Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art: 1961 -1971, May 10-August 29.
Exhibition catalogue.
to Santa Clara,
Museum, Santa Clara
University, as
March 12-April
28, 1974.
Brochure.
1974
The Art Museum, Princeton
Draw,
Februaty 23 March 31- Exhibition catalogue.
Princeton, N.J.,
University, Line as Language: Six Artists
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Works for
May
New Spaces,
18-July 25. Exhibition catalogue.
Paramus,
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Idea and Image in
N J., Van Saun Park, Sculpture in the Park,
June 13September 26. Exhibition catalogue
Recent Art,
March 23 May
5.
Exhibition catalogue.
Cologne, Kolnischer Kunstverein, Kunst-Uber Kunst,
published by the North Jersey Cultural Council,
April
11
-May
26. Exhibition catalogue.
Hackensack, N.J.
Arnhem, The Netherlands, Park Sonsbeek,
June 19August
New
15.
Cambridge, Mass., Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts
Sonsbeek 11,
April
York, Leo Castelh Gallery, Works on Film,
September 25October
12-May
11
Greensboro, N.C., Weatherspoon Art Gallery,
9-
University of North Carolina, 1974 Art on Paper,
Dusseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle Diisseldorf, Prospect
71 Projection,
Institute of Technology, Interventions in Landscapes,
Exhibition catalogue.
November 17 December
15.
Exhibition catalogue.
October 817. Traveled to Humlebaek,
Denmark, Louisiana Museum of Modern
Dusseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle, SurrealitatArt, 1972.
Bildrealitdt 1924-1974,
December 8-February
2.
Exhibition catalogue.
Traveled to Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle
Chicago,
Museum
of Contemporary Art, Six Sculptors:
Extended Structure, October 24 December
Baden-Baden. Exhibition catalogue.
12.
1975
Exhibition catalogue, Six Sculptors.
Chapel Hill, N.C., William Hayes Ackland Memorial
Art Center, University of North Carolina,
1972
North Haven, Lippincott
Inc.,
Large Scale Sculpture,
JuneOctober.
Spoleto, Italy,
Light/Sculpture, January 19 February 16. Exhibition
catalogue.
The Spoleto
Festival,
Dublin, Royal Dublin Society,
June 23-July
ROSC
9-
Chicago,
Museum
March 8 April
1971.
New
July 10-August 15.
The Netherlands, Rijksmuseum
Kroller-Miiller, Diagrams and Drawings, August 12
Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Richard
Brown Baker
Otterlo,
from
the
Collects!
Whitney Museum of American
Art,
7973 Bi- Annual Exhibition, January 10-March
Exhibition catalogue.
Selection of
Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary
May 3June 22. Brochure.
Chicago,
1973
Y>rk,
Richard Brown Baker Collection. April 24
June 22. Exhibition catalogue.
September 25. Exhibition catalogue.
New
of Contemporary Art, Bodyu orks,
27. Exhibition catalogue.
18.
Otterlo,
Art, Menace,
The Netherlands, Rijksmuseum
Miiller, Funkties
van TekenenlFunctions
May 25-August
4.
of
Kroller-
Drawing.
Exhibition catalogue.
KXH1BITION HISTOHV
ungton,
I)
National Collection or Fine Arts.
Smithsonian Institution, Sculpture. American Directions.
'5,
Octob<
\hibition
catalogue.
Museum
Chicago,
of a
of
Contemporary Art. A
September 10-November
Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts Center, Environmental
Sau u
Proposals for
:ure.
Drawing and
from the Dorothy and
Sculp tun of ti
:ion, October 7 November 18.
Traveled CO Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts (enter.
Acrsity ot Pennsylvania, Painting.
November 2~
Point,
Museum and
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn
Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Probing
Traveled to Lajolla,
16 November 22. Exhibition catalogue.
lS-June 27
-ber
Art since
Modet
Toledo
'
'.
San
ne Arts Gallery ol San
October
IV
D
r
19
Fine Arts,
Bordeaux,
and
rj
Art,
Gallery, Objects!,
entre d Arts Plastiques Contemporains,
May
Sculpture \
Toronto, Art Cillers
5-Jul\
M.i\
Is
New
Ontario, Structures for
beri
rris,
and Georgi
Rabin witch, Richard Serra
)rganized by the
York Exhibition
ol
Sculptures by
Sett
vior:
David
Trakas,
9 Exhibition catalogue.
Julj
Museum
hitnej
ii>rk, \\
Raleigh. North
bibition,
ol
March
Movembei
ago, Seventy -second
hit
Maj 9 Exhibition
13
American Art,
ol
September 24. Traveled to
arolina Museum ol Art. October 15-
Februarj
im
Aim ti<
Ol
Seulptun
xhibition
Man
ago, Art Instil
Febi
19
hoc
Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Apn
Chi
ollege "t Ari
xhibition
m of
'
<
I'
hibition
>.,-.
i.i
hum,
is
KinonnnnI.il
Exhibition
\
|uru
\Aerct
Museum
rermany,
March n
Man h Maj
Bex
in.
>'
:.
in
xhibition
William Hayes Ackland Memorial
niversitj ol
i
hum, H rds H brds,
Genoa, Palazzo
rraveled to
Today
North
Januai
<
!8
arolina,
Man
hau
ings
ll
atalogui
atalo
'i
Octol
Amherst, Mass., Hampshin Collegi Gallery, Imagi
v
lary 19 Man h
xhibition atalo;
il'i
Boston, Instituti
Object
\
i
iii
An
rs,
'
hapel Hill,
Am
\rt,
Gallery, Saluti
Mart h
.//
ataloj
Sculp
Dm ale,
An
(
i
Portland
Exhibition
atali
ontemporar)
.,
Januarj
'.'
April
iningbam, Jobi
Brochure.
Oreg
1979; Portland,
II,
Thomas Segal
Boston,
igo
Wight
December
h 16
atali
>
hit
alifbrnia,
atali
niversirj ol
Museum, March 6
An,
.111
19
26; Los Angeles, Frederick S
Art Gallery,
atalo
York. Whit:
'
Institute ol Art
ataioj
Chii ago, Art Institute
Goodman
\i w York. Marian
February 25 April
Art about lr/,Julj
January 15February 25.
\. br, Joslyn Art
P.
Maj 31
go,
mber ),
Greenville,
Museum, January 8
New
City, N.Y.,
rban Resources. Ihro
of Fine Arts,
-April 17.
Modern Art,
i
>i<
2, 1976;
Richmond, Virginia Museum of
7;
March
()
Greenvilli Count)
May
_'_'
Museum
S,
Museum
'
Long Island
January LOFebruary 22.
Museum, March
1976; Dallas, Dallas
11,
August
s
Tbt Sell Image,
oi Art,
of Art,
tenver Art
July
>
Museum
21, 1978.
Exhibition catalogue.
Museum, American
!. Miuseumoj
n the Collection
tober 20November JO; Toledo, Ohio,
Museum, March 23May
Seattle. Seattle Art
Mass., W>rcester Art
ontemporary Art, January 27February 26, 1978;
Exhibition catalogue
High Museum
Atlanta,
Sculpture
the Earth:
Land Projects, October 27January 2,
( alii
Lajolla Museum of
Contemporary,
rnber 17February 15, 1976. Exhibition catalogue.
Philadelphia, Philadelphia College ot Art, Labyrinth,
October 8
H xhibition catalogue and brochure.
Exhibition
catalogue
Contemporary Art.
Philadelphia, Institute or
>er
10.
ol
<
Survey of (hi
April
19
ontemporar) Art,
oj
1 1><
Reductive
\iinimalist Aesthetic in tbt 1960s,
Ridgefield, Conn., Aldrich
Minimal
Art, The
Museum
Tradition, April
of Contemporary
29September 2.
York,
The Museum of Modern
Sculpture from the Collection,
August
7.
New
May
18
Museum
Barbara
Museum
18, 1981;
Land
of Art,
Museum
1981-January
Museum
of Contemporary Art,
November 7,
Manitoba, Winnipeg Art
3, 1982;
Museum
March 15April 25,
1982; Brookings, S.Dak., South Dakota Memorial Arts
Center,
May
Normal,
111.,
Museum, July 5August
Center
for the Visual
Illinois State University,
1982; Louisville, Ky., J.
November 8 December
Museum
Museum,
23 March 15, 1981;
April 10-May 29, 1981.
Washington, D.C., National Collection of Fine Arts,
Smithsonian Institution, Across
the Nation: Fine
Federal Buildings, 1972-1979, June
Traveled to Chattanooga, Tenn., Hunter
Art, January 11 March
Paris,
les
yeux: Objets
Museum
of
1981. Exhibition catalogue.
1,
Musee d'Art Moderne de
Ecouter par
Art for
4September
et
la Ville
de Paris (ARC),
environnements sonores,
June 18August 24. Exhibition catalogue.
of Art,
10-June 20, 1982; Springfield, Mo.,
Springfield Art
Lisbon, Gulbenkian
of Art,
Gallery, January 18-February 28, 1982; Iowa City,
University of Iowa
Museum, December 6-9, Madrid,
Santa Barbara, Santa
March 30-May 10, 1981; Phoenix, Phoenix Art
Museum, May 25-August 6, 1981; Amarillo, Tex.,
Amarillo Art Center, September 2-October 18, 1981;
Tyler, Tex., Tyler
Kunstforeningen Museum, October 20 November 20;
Oslo, Henie Onstad
Biblioteca Nacionale, January
of Art, February 1-March 15, 1981;
Lajolla, Calif., La Jolla
Venice, United States Pavilion, Biennale of Venice,
June 1September 30. Traveled to Copenhagen,
Reclamation as Sculpture, August 17 September 30.
December 8-January
4. Exhibition
Art, Contemporary
York,
Art Museum, Earthworks:
Traveled to San Jose, San Jose
March 29 May
catalogue.
Exhibition catalogue.
Seattle, Seattle
Massachusetts at Amherst, Sculpture on the Wall: Relief
Sculpture of the Seventies,
Exhibition catalogue.
New
Amherst, Mass., University Gallery, University of
29, 1982;
Arts Gallery,
September 12-October 24,
B. Speed Art Museum,
Kunstmuseum
Diisseldorf,
Diisseldorf, Stadthalle
Minimal + Conceptual Art aus der
Sammlung Panza, September November. Exhibition
Diisseldorf,
catalogue. Traveled to Basel,
Museum
fur
Gegenwartkunst, November 8-June 28, 1981
In Black
The Brooklyn Museum, American Drawing
and White: 1970-1980, November 22-
January
18, 1981.
Brooklyn,
19, 1982; Toledo,
Ohio, Toledo
of Art, January 3 February 20, 1983.
Brochure.
Exhibition catalogue.
The Hudson River Museum, Supershow,
9; St. Paul, Minn., Landmark
Center, January 26 March 9, 1980; Mesa, Ariz., The
Yonkers, N.Y.,
1981
October 20 December
Madrid, Fundacion Juan March, Minimal Art,
Center for Fine Arts, April 12-June 4, 1980; Cleveland,
The New
Gallery, October 3-31, 1980. Organized by
Independent Curators Incorporated,
New
January March. Exhibition catalogue.
Ridgefield, Conn., Aldrich
Art,
New Dimensions
in
Museum of Contemporary
May 2September 6.
Drawing,
York.
Exhibition catalogue.
Exhibition catalogue.
Museum of American Art,
County Branch, A Tradition Established
1940-70, September 4-October 14. Exhibition
Stamford, Conn., Whitney
1980
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Carl
Andre, DonaldJudd, Robert Morris: Sculture minimal,
January 16 March
Fairfield
catalogue.
2.
Exhibition catalogue.
Akademie der Kiinste, Fur Augen und Ohren,
January 20 March 2. Exhibition catalogue.
Amherst, Mass., University Gallery, University of
Berlin,
Museum, Oberlin
February 20
Oberlin, Ohio, Allen Memorial Art
College, From Reinhardt
March
to Cbristo,
19.
Purchase, N.Y., Neuberger
of
New
Museum,
York, Hidden Desires,
State University
March 9-June
Massachusetts at Amherst, Selections from the Chase
Manhattan Bank Art
Contemporary Art,
University of Pennsylvania, Urban Encounters:
March 19-August
September 19
15.
Purchase,
Philadelphia, Institute of
Architecture, Audience,
Collection,
December 20; Burlington, Vt., Robert Hull Fleming
Museum, University of Vermont at Burlington,
January 22-March 21, 1982; Providence, R.I., David
Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, October
16-November 11, 1982.
of
Art.
New
N.Y, Neuberger Museum,
State Universit\
York at Purchase, Soundings, September 20-
December
23. Exhibition catalogue
and brochure.
30.
EXHIBITION HISTORY 319
mgton, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Smithsonian Institution, Metaphor.
s
Ipi
December 17
Bennington, Vt
ftheBomh,
Mass
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Exhibition
catalogue.
Bennington College, Judson Da
Gallery, University oi
L Iniversity
Massachusetts at Amherst, Tin
April 1-June 10. Traveled to South Hadley,
Exhibition catalogue.
Febn.
Amherst. Mass.,
Montreal. Musee d Art Contemporain.
2 -1966. Exhibition catalogue.
Mas 8June
Cologne, Museen der StaJt Koln, Westkunst:
nstseit 1939- Exhibition catalogue.
New
\...
\...
24. Exhibition catalogue.
York, Hunter College Art Gallery, Endga
s
L6June 20.
of Postmodernist Perform ance, M.i\
ies
Exhibition catalogue
Bordeaux, Centre d'Arts Plastiques Contemporains,
)66-69, March.
Anti
Annandale-on-Hudson. \ V
of Art, City u
idt
Contemporary Sculptun Exhibition, July 15October
Blum Art
Edith C.
Museum
Toledo, Ohio, Toledo
14.
Exhibition catalogue.
Bard College, The Rebounding
Institute,
SurJ.i
Dublin, The Guinness
August 15
\>.\
Septembei
Hop
Lugust 2
Ridgefield, Conn.,
Aldnch Museum of Contemporary
September 19-December 19-
R0S(
Store.
November
Exhibition
catalogue.
Art, Post Minimalism,
Diisseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle,
Exhibition catalogue.
Aspects of Beauty in Contemporary Art, August
Gropius Bau, /
Berlin, Martin
January
16,
cober 16
rutin
oi
Hi
ol
American Art
Philip Morns, Twentieth-Century Sculptun
ill xhibition
(
ambridge, Mass.,
layden
New
Vbrk, Whitney
The
xplosion
1958
196
mi
lin
and
Process
inlxr
Bn>
lor
'
lit
198V Exhibition
Ann -rii
.in
lirshhorn
mam
NY.
atali
\rt,
inhibition
us Angell
mporary Art,
hibition
Cecili
..hi
h 9
Zillcha
in\. rsity,
i
ithil
atali
<
ll
January
6,
ludson River
'8,
February
AP(
((
Art
'),
Exhibition catalogue.
April 21
Museum,
May
s.
us
Annies
OUntJ
\.
Exhibit ion
bruary
Man
Museum
atali
Art,
nl
Aspects of Publu
rban
\rt
Bnx nun
iropean
Art Museum, States
Wat \./.
and imerican Rtintings, April IS June
xhibil ion
Paris,
'"it
>
atalogui
National* Suplrieure des Beaux Arts,
Cinquante ans de dessins amiricains 1930
Seattle, Seattle
|ul\
I
iv.)
Sculpture
lletown,
19
ontemporain
tasS rial Designet
atali
[pocalypse,
<
ontent
in
Dreams
Institution,
in
The
1968
ning
Museum and
atalogue
'
Museum and
984
Febi
<
Bordeaux, Musee >l Ari
Minimal I, February
mbei 8
Exhibition
Art,
ibnkers,
& ulptun Garden, Smithsonian
rfbrmana
2.
1984, October
mporary Focus 1974
yondtht
Bn> hure
1\
rallt ry,
hui
)
I
ol
American Art, Blam!
September 20-December
f,
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn
nd St ulptun
Collection, June 2-
Minimalism
oi
atalogue.
atalogue.
hnology,
November
>
li
Museum
Minimalism, and
oj Pup.
at
Institute ol
28. Exhibition catalogue.
Garden, Smithsonian Institution.
urn.
V<>posals
Sitt
Environmental Art,
of
si
Exhibition catalogue.
Whitney Museum
nty-two Original Pioneers
September 16October
Deo mber
Noven
I,
Land Marks: Neu
Bard College,
American Art.
Branch, Federal Reserve Plaza,
Minimalism
York,
Exhibition catalogue.
5.
Institute,
Museum
Downtown
(./.
25-
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., Edith C. Blum Art
Vbrk
October
Different
13
liiusiiiu
Organized
l
by chi
\lnl>it urn
atali
1980, Mb.)
Menil Foundation,
ii
Inc.,
New
The Museum of Modern
York,
India: Fall 1983,
Art,
Made
1989
in
October 16-Jan. 31, 1986. Exhibition
March 21
Feb. 18, 1990. Exhibition catalogue.
catalogue.
1986
Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn
1990
Museum and
Sculpture
Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Directions 1986,
February 6 March 30. Exhibition catalogue.
Mexico
Liverpool, Tate Gallery, Minimalism,
City,
Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo,
Fundacion Cultural
Televisa, A.C.,
Memento Mori,
Musee dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris,
Un Choix d'art minimal dans la Collection Panza,
July 12-November 4. Exhibition catalogue.
Paris,
Bordeaux, Musee d'Art Contemporain (CAPC), Feux
Pales,
December 7-March
3, 1991.
November-January 1987. Exhibition catalogue.
1991
Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Art, Individuals:
Museum
of Contemporary
Selected History of Contemporary Art,
1943-1986, December 10-January
10,
New
York, John
Weber
Gallery, The Political
February 128. Traveled to
St.
Louis,
Arm,
Washington
University Gallery of Art. Exhibition catalogue.
1988.
Exhibition catalogue.
Museum of Contemporary
May 18 September 22.
Ridgefield, Conn., Aldrich
Art, The Art of Advocacy,
1987
Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art,
University of Pennsylvania, 2967;
At
Indianapolis, Indianapolis
March 13April
26. Exhibition catalogue.
Chicago, Chicago International Art
John Cage,
May
Exhibition catalogue.
the Crossroads,
Fair,
Myths and Mores
Tribute
to
712. Organized by the Carl Solway
Gallery, Cincinnati. Exhibition catalogue, Prepared
Box
in
Museum
of Art, Power:
September 5-November
3.
Traveled to Akron, Ohio,
Akron Art Museum, January 18March 22, 1992;
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, May 11
for John Cage.
July 12, 1992. Exhibition catalogue.
Kassel, Germany, Documenta 8, June 12
September 20. Exhibition catalogue.
Catonsville, Md., Fine Arts Gallery, University of
1992
Maryland, Baltimore County, Environmental
1988
Cologne,
Museum Ludwig,
Llbrigens Sterben
Anderen-1950, January 15-March
immer
January 30March
die
Stephanie
6.
catalogue.
York,
Main
The Museum of Modern Art, Committed to
and Political Themes in Recent American
Print: Social
Printed Art, January 31-April 19- Traveled to Dayton,
Ohio, University Art Galleries, Wright State
University,
October 30 December
14.
Ann Roper
Exhibition
University,
New
Street Gallery,
Terror,
Traveled to Frostburg, Md.,
Gallery, Frostburg State
March 27-April
May
15;
Richmond, 1708 East
130. Exhibition catalogue.
West Nyack, N.Y, Rockland Center for the Arts,
Troubled Waters: American Social and Political Art:
A View of Two Eras: 1930-42 and 1980-92,
October 18-January
15;
10,
1993. Brochure.
Chicago, Peace
Museum, March 3May 31, 1989; Calgary, Alberta,
Glenbow Museum, September 23 November 19, 1989;
Albany, New York State Museum, December 16,
1993
London, Hayward Gallery, Gravity and Grace:
1989 February
January 21-March
11,
1990; Lawrence, Kans., Spencer
Museum of Art, University of Kansas, March 25
May 6, 1990; Newport Beach, Calif, Newport Harbor
Art Museum, July 20-September 30, 1990. Exhibition
The Changing Condition of Sculpture 19651975,
14.
Exhibition catalogue.
Venice, Italian Pavilion, 45th Biennale of Venice,
Points of Art,
New
catalogue.
June 13October
10.
Whitney Museum of American Art,
and Desire in American Art,
June 23-August 29- Exhibition catalogue.
York,
Abject Art: Repulsion
New
York, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery,
Hunter College, Representing Vietnam 1965-1973:
The Antiwar Movement in America, February 9-
March
Its
American Art 1961-1991
25. Exhibition catalogue.
Bordeaux, Musee d'Art Contemporain (CAPC),
Art Conceptuel
I,
October 7 November 27. Exhibition
catalogue.
KXHIBITION HISTORY 32
v<
jr
''-
-Hi
>
-Tr."
Eh
*._
ISBN
120-8
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