Carl Andre
American minimalist artist (1935–2024)
Barbara Brown
(divorced)Rosemarie Castoro
(divorced)Ana Mendieta
(m. 1985; died 1985)Melissa Kretschmer
(m. 1999)Carl Andre (September 16, 1935 – January 24, 2024) was an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks (such as Stone Field Sculpture, 1977, in Hartford, Connecticut,[1] and Lament for the Children, 1976,[2] in Long Island City, New York), to large interior works exhibited on the floor (such as 144 Magnesium Square, 1969[3]), to small intimate works (such as Satier: Zinc on Steel, 1989, and 7 Alnico Pole, 2011[4]).
In 1985 his third wife, contemporary artist Ana Mendieta, fell from their 34th-floor apartment window and died. Neighbors heard an argument and Mendieta shouting "no" immediately before the fall. He was acquitted of a second-degree murder charge in a 1988 bench trial, causing uproar among feminists in the art world; supporters of Mendieta have protested at his subsequent exhibitions.
Early life
Andre was born on September 16, 1935, in Quincy, Massachusetts, the youngest of the three children of George (a master designer of freshwater plumbing for ships[5]) and Margaret (Johnson) Andre.[6] He completed primary and secondary schooling in the Quincy public school system and studied art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1951 to 1953.[7] While at Phillips Academy, he became friends with Hollis Frampton, who would later influence Andre's radical approach to sculpture through their conversations about art[8] and through introductions to other artists.[9]
Andre served in the U.S. Army in North Carolina from 1955 to 1956, and moved to New York City in 1956. While in New York, Frampton introduced Andre to Constantin Brâncuși, through whom Andre became re-acquainted with a former classmate from Phillips Academy, Frank Stella, in 1958. Andre shared studio space with Stella from 1958 through 1960.[9]
Work
Early work
Andre cited Brâncuși as an inspiration for his early wood sculptures,[10] but his conversations with Stella about space and form led him in a different direction. While sharing a studio with Stella, Andre developed a series of wooden "cut" sculptures[8] (such as Radial Arm Saw cut sculpture, 1959 and Maple Spindle Exercise, 1959). Stella is noted as having said to Andre (regarding hunks of wood removed from Andre's sculpture), "Carl, that's sculpture, too."[7]
From 1960 to 1964, Andre worked as a freight brakeman and conductor in New Jersey for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His experience with blue collar labor and the ordered nature of conducting freight trains would later influence Andre's sculpture and artistic personality. For example, it was not uncommon for Andre to dress in overalls and a blue work shirt, even to the most formal occasions."[7]
During this period, Andre focused mainly on writing, and there is little notable sculpture of his on record between 1960 and 1965. His poetry resurfaced later, most notably in a book published in 1980 by NYU Press called 12 Dialogues, in which Andre and Hollis Frampton took turns responding to one another at a typewriter using mainly poetry and free-form essay-like texts.[8] Andre's concrete poetry has been exhibited in the United States and Europe, a comprehensive collection of which is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.[11]
