7, 11 Prime Couple

Carl Andre’s 7, 11 Prime Couple is a graceful evocation of space and form. The work is composed of twenty-one steel plates which Andre has arranged in a geometric snake. Simple and elegant, the work is part of the artist’s ongoing series of metal grid works which he first began in the 1950s. Over the decades, Andre’s commitment to material autonomy has remained resolute, as has his approach, which is neither hierarchical nor referential. Instead of deeming himself an all-powerful creator, he cedes autonomy to his materials, viewing them as ‘cuts into space’ in command of their environment (C. Andre, quoted in Carl Andre: Sculptor 1996, exh. cat., Museen Haus Lange und Haus Esters, Krefeld 1996, p. 54). The shape of his sculptures is thus determined by the materials themselves and the environment in which they are placed: save for arranging the component parts, Andre intervenes little. Nevertheless, in their profound occupation of a space, Andre’s sculptures encourage a bodily experience; they demand an interaction. ‘My work has never been architectural,’ he explained. ‘I began by generating forms, then generating structures, then generating places. A place in this sense is a pedestal for the rest of the world’ (C. Andre, quoted in K. Baker, Minimalism: Art of Circumstance, New York, 1988, p. 45).