Carl Andre

The Way West (Uncarved Blocks)

1975

The Way West challenges the traditional nature of sculpture: while it has the fundamental components of mass, volume and gravity, it is reduced to two identical cuboids. Any trace of the artist’s creative hand is missing. Its banality and the absence of a base negate the monumentality which has historically been one of the vocations of sculpture. Its title, The Way West, is taken from the epic American western novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr., which became the basis for a film in 1967. The supine trunk of wood in fact "points" westwards.

Not on View

Artist Carl Andre
Date 1975
Medium Western red cedar
Dimensions 2 units, each: 30.5 x 30.5 x 91.4 cm; overall: 91.5 x 90.6 x 60.5 cm
Credit line Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection, bequest of Hannelore B. Schulhof, 2012
Accession 2012.22
Collection Schulhof Collection
Type Sculpture

Copy caption

Not on View


Other artworks

Marino Marini

Pomona

1945

On view