Interview: Carl Andre

Could you introduce the piece you show at the exhibition?

I did not chose 15 CulON for this exhibition. It was available in Switzerland. It is an excellent specimen of my sculpture.

How did you title the work and why?

I think that is very simple. Most titles are descriptive. A smaller number have subjective associations. My abstract portraits of friends and artists I admire are examples of such associations.

How does the piece relate to the theme of the exhibition One?

The exhibition of my work always spring from the works themselves. The works are not influenced by the conditions of exhibtion. Curating an exhibition of sculpture is as difficult as making the sculpture. Of course great works of art tend to have a profound sense of simplicity to them. I believe the greatest works are both simple and complex like Bach's fugues.

I believe with Walter Pater that all art aspires tot he condition of music. I am incapable of producing any notes on pitch and in rhythm but I love all good music from buxtehude to jazz, beebop and beyond.

How does your work interact with the gallery space and with the other works of art in the exhibition?

How they interact is the way they interact.

This show was originally made as an hommage to Sol LeWitt. Why did you find it interesting to participate in such an exhibition? What does the work of Sol LeWitt mean to you?

Sol LeWitt was among the very finest artists of his generation. When I taught art I found that Sol LeWitt's art was the only art that did not lead students into the corruption of imagination. Sol's work liberated the students in their work. Sol was impossible to imitate. I once asked Sol if he was disturbed when a student tried to make a Sol LeWitt. He said no: If it was good it would just be another Sol LeWitt.

Industial processes of creation seem to have remained a consistant theme in your work throughout your career. What fascinates you about these?

Yes, but I never use any industrial processes of creation - the suppliers of my materials use industrial processes, not me. I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, a city of granite quarrying and carving and shipbuilding of all varieties. There are no more sculptural manufacturing than those two. Great blocks of granite to be carved in gravestone works and acres of immense steel plates waiting to be formed into the curvaceous hulls of ships. All art is erotic!

Thank you.