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Carl Andre’s sculpture Webern´s Run (1988) refers to the Viennese composer Anton Webern, who developed further the 12-tone system created by his teacher Arnold Schoenberg, ending up with serial music. Webern’s compositions are reduced and brief, often only a few bars in length. The connection with Andre’s sculpture is evident.
Webern's Run very much resembles a road. Constructed of zinc and copper plates perhaps an inch thick, it spreads horizontally across the floor as a direct line, or a road, if that is what we want to see. The work illustrates perfectly the key elements of Andre’s art. It is flat, almost perfectly two-dimensional, and situated at feet level on the floor. Aluminium and copper plates have been placed according to a simple set of numbers, 1+1+1+1. The plates are of equal size, but their colours range from copper to dark grey. Andre uses different shades to study the variations of positive and negative space. Is the work at floor level, does it rise from it, or is it a hole in the floor?
Hanna Johansson
Teksti Kiasma-Kokoelma -näyttelyyn / Text Kiasma-Collection Exhibition, 1999
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