Carl Andre

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Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) American minimalist artist.

Andre was born in Quincy, Massachusetts and educated in Quincy public schools and at Philips Academy, Andover, where he became friends with Hollis Frampton and Michael Chapman. Andre served in the U.S. Army in North Carolina from 1955-56. He moved to New York City and in 1958 met Frank Stella in whose studio he developed a series of wooden "cut" sculptures. From 1960-64 Andre worked as freight brakeman and conductor in New Jersey for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1965 his first public exhibition of work was in the "Shape and Structure" show curated by Henry Geldzahler at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. In 1970 he had a one man exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY and has had one man exhibitions and participated in group shows in major museums, galleries and kunsthalles throughout America and Europe to the present. Andre's concept of sculpture as "place" is of singular importance to the evolution of his work and "minimalist" work in general.

In 1972 the Tate Gallery in London bought his Equivalent VIII (1966), popularly known as "The Bricks", which consists of 120 firebricks arranged in a rectangle, and which was an international succès de scandale. Andre also writes concrete poetry which has been exhibited in the United States and Europe, a comprehensive collection of which is in the collection of the Stedjlik Museum, Amsterdam. He is represented by the Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

In 1986 he was acquitted of murder in the death of his wife, artist Ana Mendieta.

[edit] Trivia

Andre's uncle was the British broadcaster Raymond Baxter. Baxter often appeared to defend his nephew's work in the UK and recalled taking him as a teenager to visit Stonehenge.