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Lot Essay
'Words have palpable tactile qualities that we feel when we speak them, when we write them, or when we hear them, and that is the real subject' (C. Andre, quoted in R. Weiner, 'On Carl Andre's Poems,' Carl Andre,www.chinati.org, [21st May 2012].
Composed of a precise grid of letters which form rows and columns of phonetically similar yet unrelated words, Carl Andre's text based works demonstrate the same aesthetic purity and intellectual meticulousness as his sculpture. In Flage Blade , the placement of the letters, how they form into words, and how those words are placed on the page creates a text based landscape to be experienced on a mental, visual and audible level. Hand written by Andre in neat block lettering, the columns not only appear aesthetically pleasing, but when the words are spoken out loud offers the work a further level of poetic beauty. As with Andre's sculptures, where he strips the notion of construction down to the basic individual elements that make up the whole, Flange Bland highlights the beauty of each element . As Weiner has asserted 'the pictorial strength in the work comes from Andre's great ability to compose. The link between his sculpture and poetry is easy to make in this regard. Words are laid end to end, or stacked in vertical columns. The poems visually re-examine how words function as a systematic arrangement of letters fitted together. The overall design of the page is evident long before you try to read it for sense. Andre treats words and the space between them pictorially; by adding to it or leaving it blank, he allows the text to register as a drawing' (C. Andre, quoted in R. Weiner, 'On Carl Andre's Poems,' www.chinati.org, [21st May 2012].
Composed of a precise grid of letters which form rows and columns of phonetically similar yet unrelated words, Carl Andre's text based works demonstrate the same aesthetic purity and intellectual meticulousness as his sculpture. In Flage Blade , the placement of the letters, how they form into words, and how those words are placed on the page creates a text based landscape to be experienced on a mental, visual and audible level. Hand written by Andre in neat block lettering, the columns not only appear aesthetically pleasing, but when the words are spoken out loud offers the work a further level of poetic beauty. As with Andre's sculptures, where he strips the notion of construction down to the basic individual elements that make up the whole, Flange Bland highlights the beauty of each element . As Weiner has asserted 'the pictorial strength in the work comes from Andre's great ability to compose. The link between his sculpture and poetry is easy to make in this regard. Words are laid end to end, or stacked in vertical columns. The poems visually re-examine how words function as a systematic arrangement of letters fitted together. The overall design of the page is evident long before you try to read it for sense. Andre treats words and the space between them pictorially; by adding to it or leaving it blank, he allows the text to register as a drawing' (C. Andre, quoted in R. Weiner, 'On Carl Andre's Poems,' www.chinati.org, [21st May 2012].