Footnotes

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist.

This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by The Carl Andre and Melissa L. Kretschmer Foundation, New York.

Provenance
Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich
Sabine Knust Collection, Munich
Annemarie Verna Galerie, Zurich
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the previous owner
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited
Munich, Galerie Heiner Friedrich, 1968



A seminal, early work, 14 Steel Row from 1968, comes from Carl Andre's pioneering period during which the artist would see a meteoric rise in his recognition and influence. Within only five years of his first solo exhibition, and two years after the present work was executed, Andre would be the subject of a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, which would firmly establish his reputation and importance.

Born in 1935 in Massachusetts, Andre studied art at the Phillips Academy, Andover before completing his military service. He lived and worked briefly in New York in the late 1950s, where he reacquainted himself with his school-fellow Frank Stella, before working as a freight brakeman on the Pennsylvania Railroad until 1964. The rhythmic geometry of rail tracks and their ability to be interlocked together interchangeably resonated with Andre for the rest of his career. The railroad's use of industrial materials, most notably hot rolled steel of the variety seen in the present work, would also prove significant.

Stemming from a reaction against the ubiquity of Abstract Expressionism that dominated the American art scene for much of this period, the Minimalists including Andre aimed to bring conceptual rigour and a more intense focus on form to art that would be absent of any sign of human touch, emotion or expression. These works were intended to exist in the space of the viewer and were placed throughout the rooms they occupied: abutting and protruding from walls, rising in corners and, as in the present work, floating freely and proudly in the centre of the space. Standing and walking on the works, an act that until that point would have been considered outrageous, was also encouraged. Whilst devoid of the painterly finish of his contemporaries, the surface of Andre's works remained a vital element. Though made of slick, industrial, mechanical materials, the surfaces were intended to age and naturally weather in an act wholly separate from the artist yet an intentional characteristic of the work's nature.

Here, fourteen hot rolled steel tiles are presented in a row, placed against the long edge of each tile. With no proscribed order or pattern, the work differs upon each installation with its effect and presence further influenced by the type of floor, placement within a room, or point of view of the spectator. When installed, the work is monumental, extending almost three meters in length, a remarkably confident product of Andre's conceptual machinations that had begun in earnest only three years prior to the execution of the present work and that would continue for more than four decades.

14 Steel Row was exhibited in 1968 at one of the artist's earliest ever solo exhibitions hosted by Galerie Heiner Friedrich in Munich. Friedrich, a highly influential gallerist and collector in his own right, would go on to establish the Dia Art Foundation in New York in 1973, which remains an authority on Minimalism. Following 14 Steel Row's acquisition by the previous collector, the work has remained in the same private family collection for a generation, only now coming to public view for the first time.

Fifty years on, how truly radical works such as 14 Steel Row are can be hard to appreciate, with Andre now a museum main stay with his works a vital holding in collections such as the Tate Collection, London, MoMA, New York and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam amongst many others. Yet, they inspired a transformative and profound change in the definition of art, the role of the artist and the art-viewing experience. Considered the first 'post-studio' artist, Andre's practice, particularly the early works such 14 Steel Row, mark a clear shift in the art historical canon that still resonates today.