Fred Sandback

Beginning in the late 1960s, Fred Sandback (1943–2003) developed a singular Minimalist vocabulary through which he explored the perception of space and volume with remarkable consistency. Dispensing almost entirely with mass and weight, he used materials such as steel rod, elastic cord and acrylic yarn to delineate planes and volumes in space. Rather than separating the work from its surroundings, these constructions actively engage with the architecture and with what Sandback called the “pedestrian space” of everyday life. Sandback was born in Bronxville, New York, in 1943. He studied philosophy and sculpture at Yale University, receiving his BA in 1966 and his MFA in 1969. While still a graduate student, he held his first solo exhibitions at Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf and Galerie Heiner Friedrich in Munich, both in 1968. Other early exhibitions were presented at Dwan Gallery, New York (1969); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld (1969); Kunsthalle Bern (1973); Museum Folkwang, Essen (1974); Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (1975); Kunsthaus Zürich (1985); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (1987); and Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (1987). Sandback was among the artists supported by Dia Art Foundation, which operated the Fred Sandback Museum in Winchendon, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1996. Located in a former bank building near the artist’s studio in Rindge, New Hampshire, the museum was devoted to the presentation of his work. A group of sculptures installed by Sandback for the opening of Dia Beacon in 2003 remains on long-term view there. A major survey organised by Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in Vaduz in 2005 subsequently travelled to the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh and the Neue Galerie am Joanneum in Graz in 2006. Later institutional exhibitions included presentations at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2011), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2011). In 2014, Kunstmuseum Winterthur organised the first major retrospective devoted to Sandback’s drawings, curated by Dieter Schwarz; the exhibition later travelled to the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop and Museum Wiesbaden. In 2015, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St Louis presented Fred Sandback: 64 Three-Part Pieces, while Glenstone in Potomac, Maryland, organised the survey Fred Sandback: Light, Space, Facts, on view from 2015 to 2016. The latter brought together drawings, wooden reliefs and sculptures made with wire and yarn from every decade of the artist’s career. In 2016, his sculptures were installed in four buildings designed by Luis Barragán in Mexico City: Casa Luis Barragán, Casa Antonio Gálvez, Cuadra San Cristóbal and Casa Gilardi. More recent institutional exhibitions include a solo presentation at Fondation CAB in Brussels (2021) and Fred Sandback: Simple Facts at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin (2023). David Zwirner has represented the Estate of Fred Sandback since 2004 and has organised several exhibitions devoted to his work. These include a survey of sculptures and drawings from across his career in New York (2012), a solo exhibition in London (2013), Fred Sandback: Vertical Constructions in New York (2016) and a presentation at the gallery’s East 69th Street location in New York (2022). The two-person exhibition L’Objet Invisible: Giacometti / Sandback was presented at the gallery’s Paris location in the same year. Sandback’s work is held in numerous public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the British Museum, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai.