Fred Sandback

      Fortunately, being in Colorado this week gave me the opportunity to see two art museums in Denver, The Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art(MCA) Denver. Both housing some spectacular work, the MCA however had an amazing solo show of sculpture Fred Sandback. Splitting their whole upper floor gallery, his almost unseen, pulled taught pieces of yarn, separated nonexistent shapes and planes in the rooms space.

      Walking through the galleries, the eye almost automatically finds Sandback's lines separating sections of the room into shapes, But, however, upon realizing, the pieces aren't actually separating anything. A piece of yarn is merely a line in space, and since space exists three dimensionally, a line cannot separate anything. It would take a geometric plane to do this task, which is not what he is utilizing at all. But, rather he is playing with the perception of space, after viewing(or rather experiencing) this exhibition, even myself, have been rethinking our interpretations of space. We perceive things visually in two dimensions; the camera has proved this, having the ability to capture three dimensional shapes into a two dimensional form. But, does our perception of sight differ much from the camera? Obviously our world we exist in is three dimensional, but we almost experience it as an image taken from a camera. As Written by Adam Lerner in the exhibition catalog, Fred Sandback's work has the "intensity of being in a room where there is next to nothing-- and yet there is something. "

      As discussed, Fred Sandback also accepts the harsh criticism imposed upon his work. His work being no more then carefully placed pieces of yarn, you can only image what critics have to say about him. He avoided theorizing about his artwork, "He understood that no amount of theory can make a work of art more or less meaningful than it is when the artist is making it or a viewer is encountering it." On his philosophy of art, he has little to no writings or essays talking of his art, and rarely does interviews. However, he does have one interview with a very harsh German reporter who, like most, questioned contemporary art in whole. The conversation going,

Sandback

...if you want one[of my sculptures] ... you can simply imitate it. All you need is a piece of string.

Reporter

But would I then have a genuine Sandback?

Sandback

Are you claiming that there is something special about my strings that other strings don't have? 

      Sandback takes an interesting side on his work, he understands his work is no more then some pulled string. But, in this interview for example, he did not counter the critical reporter with concepts concerning space and perception, but rather choose to highlight what the reporter had already said. By recognizing that the sculptures are just pieces of yarn, he rebuttal by claiming that the reporter had already heighten his works by implying that there is such thing as a "genuine Sandback." Which opposed the reporters initial point of view that they are no more then yarn.