Kansas City, USA, 1931; lives in New York, USA
Untitled (Mirrored Cubes), 1965-1971
mirror glass and wood
A pioneer of minimalism and post-minimalist experience, Robert Morris is a key figure in the artistic context of the late 20th century and the definition of its principal movements. Morris was an influential theorist of minimalism and his work and thought helped to define the centrality of the experience of the spectator in the exhibition space and the consequent rupture with the autonomy of the art object. Resorting to theatrical strategies (which sprang from his interest in experimental dance and his involvement with the Judson Dance Theater, for which he conceived minimalist props) in the mid-1960s, the artist developed a series of objects that establish a direct relationship with the spectator.
The sculpture presented here belongs to this group of works and provides a situation triggered by the presence of the body and the consequent investigation and perception of time and space. While moving around the work, the visitor sees his or her image, the walls, ceiling and floor reflected on the mirrored surfaces in the form of cubes, a minimalist archetype that contrasts the ideal world of art with the imperfection of reality. The first version of Mirrored Cubes was shown at Green Gallery in New York, in 1965, and is a significant work for recent art history, often expanded upon further or resonating with contemporary art.
