Carl Andre
dal 16/3/2006 al 21/4/2006
Segnalato da
16/3/2006
Carl Andre
Sadie Coles HQ (old location), London
Sculpture. "I am certainly no kind of Conceptual artist because the physical existence of my work cannot be separated from the idea of it. That’s why I said I [have] no art ideas; I only have art desires. To speak of ideas as conceptions in a philosophical sense and then to think of ideas for art - well, that is to speak about two utterly different things. ". C. Andre
Sculpture
“I have no art ideas; I only have art desires." (1970)
I am certainly no kind of Conceptual artist because the physical existence of my
work cannot be separated from the idea of it. That’s why I said I [have] no art
ideas; I only have art desires. To speak of ideas as conceptions in a philosophical
sense and then to think of ideas for art - well, that is to speak about two utterly
different things. I think what we really mean to do is to apply ourselves to the
language we use in the most rigorous sense. As Confucius said, when he was asked
what he would do if he were made the prime minister of the duchy where he lived,
“The first thing I would do is call things by their right names." This is why I wish
to separate myself entirely from any Conceptual art or even with ideas in art. My
art springs from my desire to have things in the world that would otherwise never be
there.
By nature, I am a materialist, an admirer of Lucretius. It is exactly these
impingements upon our sense of touch and so forth that I’m interested in. The sens!
e of one’s own being in the world confirmed by the existence of things and others
in the world. This, to me, is far beyond being as an idea. This is a recognition, a
state of being, a state of consciousness - and I don’t wish at all to be portrayed
a mystic in that. I don’t think that that’s mystical at all. I think it’s a true
awareness that doesn’t have anything to do with mysticism or religion. It has to do
with life as opposed to death and a feeling of the true existence of the world in
oneself. This is not an idea. An idea is a much lower category on my scale in that
awareness, that consciousness."
Tuchman, ‘An Interview with Carl Andre’, cited in CUTS Carl Andre Texts 1959 - 2004
(Cambridge (MA) USA: MIT Press, 2005), p 85
Carl Andre lives and works in New York. For his third show at Sadie Coles HQ, he
will be making new graphite works.
Image: Carl Andre, Chain well 1964, wood, steel chain. (c) Carl Andre. Licensed by VAGA & VISCOPY, Australia
Private view: 17 March, 6-8pm
Sadie Coles HQ
35 Heddon Street - London