Robert Morris

"Random piling, loose stacking, hanging give passing form to the material. Chance is accepted and indeterminacy is implied, as replacing will result in another configuration. Disengagement with preconceived enduring forms and orders for things is a positive assertion. It is part of the work’s refusal to continue estheticizing the form by dealing with it as a prescribed end."

- Robert Morris, 1968

Robert Morris is a painter, sculptor, dancer, performer and writer that explored the enormous possibilities of art production. The range of styles is often astonishing. He has created performance works, minimalist sculpture, process and land art before turning to painting and drawing in his latest work of apocalyptic or political subjects.

Morris studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute and later attended the California School of Fine Arts. In 1961, he settled in New York where he studied art history at Hunter College. In the early 1960s he collaborated with Walter De Maria, Yvonne Rainer and La Monte Young on various performance and dance pieces. He was an important theorist of the emerging Minimalist art, and wrote several influential articles in the art press. His interest in more ephemeral materials, such as felt, waste products, steam and earth evolved in the late 60s and 70s. In the 1980s he turned to the more traditional materials of painting and drawings.

Untitled , 1967-68 consists of 254 pieces of felt, cut up in different sizes takes a slightly different form every time it is exhibited. The materials change but the form would alter with each installation of this work.

© Christopher Felver/CORBIS/MAGMA