The sculptor who defined minimalism died in 88

Robert Grosvenor, a sculptor Robert Grosvenor whose traits are full of minimalist aesthetics, can only strike on his own and create works that are completely indivisible, died Wednesday at the age of 88 in New York.

Grosvenor showed off his work in the 1960s with the famous minimalists, and he received praise in New York when he performed in 1966 in the era defined by the Jewish Museum. Although these works also stood out from these works, over the next few decades, Grosvenor defined the “main structure” at the Jewish Museum.

His art is in many forms and everyone is deceiving it. He carefully crafted huge steel forms that stretched from the ceiling and cut into most vacant galleries. He chopped the heavy wooden beams and applied them to creosote oil, a material commonly used to reinforce the rail tie. He made sculptures that looked like cars, with wheels, taillights and all the sculptures that were offensive as he slightly changed their appearance, sometimes by causing the surface to look rough.

The artist rarely explains his work, causing critics to wonder what they actually mean. Critic John Yau most comments are thinking about how best to interact with it Untitleda 2020 sculpture in which a pool sits on top of a rubber lining wrapped in stacked cement blocks. “In the pool that perfectly reflects the ceiling above, he does a work of openness and acceptance of the world, while quietly rejoicing in its ever-changing material conditions.” Highly allergic. “He reminded us that nothing is forever.”

Like many other works by Grosvenor, the work is titled Untitled. The choice of not providing an explanatory title for most of his works is intentional. “It feels more complete and simpler – it’s not stuffing it too much and letting them open up,” Grosvenor once said in an interview. Brooklyn Railroad.

Grosvenor discovered his artistic particularity and the strangeness of his career as an admirer. Roberta Smith New York Timesonce described an arc like this: “Robert Grosvenor was the only sculptural wolf. In the late 1960s, he was almost a minimalist, but due to an increasing preference for the use of rough materials, Scrappy Finding’s objects and his own hands were denied. Since then, his career has been shown with amazing surprises.”

Grosvenor gained a degree of fame early in his career, appearing in two versions, a legendary exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany and exhibited alongside closely watched gallery performances such as Paula Cooper and Virginia Dwan.

But in recent years, Grovnov’s art continues to appear in unusual places, proving that he is an artist and it is difficult to place in any movement. For example, in 2022, his art appeared in the surrealistic-inspired Venetian Biennale by Cecilia Alemani, one of the oldest living participants and one of the few male artists among them. Grosvenor died just days after an investigation that opened at the Fridericianum Museum in Kassel.

Robert Grosvenor was born in New York in 1937 and grew up in Newport, Rhode Island and Arizona. In the 1950s, he left the United States to study art in the École de Beaux art in Paris, and as he once said, he felt as if there were “enough boarding schools” in the United States. He received a classical education and was reluctant to look at artists like Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, whose experimental practices violated the norms of painting and sculpture in the post-war era. “I’m so attracted to Fontana and Manzoni right away. I don’t usually tell people what I want to do,” he said.

In 1959, he was called to serve in the military. But he had never seen a fight: he recalled mostly just parading in New York. While in his military service, he met Art Magazines and read about the performance of sculptor Mark Di Suvero, one of whom appeared. Grosvenor then met Di Suvero, who introduced him to other artists.

Grosvenor began making what he described as “paintings that fell off the walls,” although he did not retain them because he said he “was not as confident in them.” He then moved to the sculpture with his first full three-dimensional work, which was 1965 wood and steel called topangaseems to rise from the floor and then drive down toward it.

He showed topanga Paula Cooper serves as a director at Park Place, New York. Through her own gallery, Cooper will continue to represent Grosvenor by now. (Karma and Galerie Max Hetzler now also represent artists.)

Grosvenor became increasingly ambitious in his subsequent works topanga. Grosvenor Transoxiana (1965), another wood work, created a V shape by lowering from the ceiling and then rose again. Untitled (1968–70), a white steel work painted by Grosvenor, hung from the ceiling, where it lingers over the audience’s heads. (The latter’s work was recreated by Grosvenor in 2018 for the Art Art Art Institute of Miami.)

In the 1970s, Grosvenor began to use wooden beams to make sculptures. Grosvenor worked with Pine to discover the wood pole, sawing and breaking his material in a way some critics called violence. “What remains are beautiful, but not because anything has been added, but because any pre-existing but hidden beauty has been revealed,” commentator Joseph Masheck wrote. Artforum. On these beams, he painted variegated colors, a toxic and irritating material.

In recent years, Grosvenor has carved cars and boats, part of his habit of spending time on the Florida keys, where houses are. He often spends several months at a time working on one of these works, gradually honing them.

He remained modest about his process, told rail“I work regularly and quickly, but there are a lot of mistakes. I guess that’s why my work isn’t that big.”