Galería Cayón • Fred Sandback

Fred Sandback

May 10 - July 10, 2024
Madrid

Cayón Madrid is pleased to present in its two Madrid spaces the third solo exhibition of the American sculptor Fred Sandback (New York, 1943-2003), renowned for his almost illusionistic sculptures.

Using subtle methods and seeking to expand the sensory faculties of the viewer, Sandback breaks the usual schemes of sculpture as an element in which the idea of mass prevails and intervenes the architectural space in an almost magical way, involving the viewer in a game where the work seems to exist and not exist at the same time. His work is ethereal and monumental, it appears and disappears as it is traversed, and can be described as a fragile architecture that seems to border on the immaterial.

The artist uses simple threads that he crosses from side to side, forming a drawing of faint lines that generate floating geometric planes, which build the illusion of solid transparent walls, glass panels or brightly colored lines.

A fundamental element in each of his installations -which varies according to the stage where it is presented- is light. The projections of the shadows of the lines made with thread draw new figures that add movement and dynamism to the reading of the work. In his words: ‘The inherent mysticism resides in persisting in wanting to make something as factual as possible and having it turn out just the other way (…) the realization that the simplest and most comfortable of perceptions are shadows.’

Untitled (Sculptural Study, Wall Construction) 2001/2007 FS065

In this way, Sandback establishes a poetic dialogue with space, exploring the line, the plane, the void, and the volume, with minimalism, with an exquisite austerity that surprises in how he expresses such concepts with so little.

I am interested in working in that area where the mind can no longer cling to things. My lines are not distillations or refinements of anything. They are simple facts, matters of my activity that do not represent anything beyond themselves.

- Fred Sandback

The project presented at Cayón Madrid is a sculptural set conceived based on primary colors as the main element, an installation created with the indispensable collaboration of the Fred Sandback Estate.

Untitled (Sculptural Study, Low-relief Wall Construction) 1975/2008

Blue acrylic thread

Spatial proportions were established by the artist; the total dimensions vary with each installation.

FS067

Untitled (Wall Construction) 1985

Red, blue, and yellow acrylic thread

Spatial proportions were established by the artist; the total dimensions vary with each installation.

FS066

Untitled (Six-part Vertical Construction) 1988

Blue, white, and red acrylic thread

Spatial proportions were established by the artist; the total dimensions vary with each installation.

FS068

His work is part of the collections of museums such as MoMA (New York), Reina Sofía (Madrid), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC), Kunsthaus (Zurich), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), and Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), among many other institutions. He also has a permanent installation at Dia: Beacon (New York).