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Spaces: Works from the Collection, 1966–1976

August 4, 2018 – February 18, 2019
East Building, Mezzanine

Charles Ross, Hanging Islands, conceived 1966, refabricated 2015, acrylic and metal (36 prisms), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Virginia Dwan

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Inspired by presentations of single-room artworks at the Dwan Gallery (1959–1971) and the exhibition Spaces (1969–1970) at the Museum of Modern Art, this installation features five significant minimal and post-minimal sculptures; several of these works have been donated to the Gallery by Virginia Dwan or given in her honor. Each work is installed in a gallery of its own, highlighting the unique architectural character of the East Building and its exhibition spaces.

Among the works on view are Fred Sandback’s Untitled (One of Four Diagonals), which was first installed in Dwan’s office in her New York gallery; Charles Ross’s luminous prismatic sculpture Hanging Islands, first shown at Finch College Museum of Art in New York in 1967 and refabricated by the artist for this presentation; and Robert Morris’s Untitled (Battered Cubes), an iconic work of minimal sculpture first exhibited at Dwan’s Los Angeles gallery in 1966.

Other works include Barry Le Va’s Equal Quantities: Placed or Dropped In, Out, and On in Relation to Specific Boundaries, a recently acquired floor sculpture of felt, aluminum rods, and steel ball bearings; and a gift from the collection of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, André Cadere’s B12004030=35=9x10=—one of the “Round Bars of Wood” that the artist carried and left in galleries, where they created spaces that had not previously existed.

The exhibition is curated by James Meyer, curator of art, 1945–1974, National Gallery of Art.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required