Untitled (Box for Standing)

Untitled (Box for Standing) is built to fit the artist’s body and is connected to his work on sets for performances. From 1961 onwards, the work of Robert Morris underwent a very complex evolution, which can be explained by his relationship with choreography and which directed him towards a consideration of the way the body is posed and seen in various spatial locations. As a result of this reflection, Morris gave up painting and became involved in a work connected to the performing arts, which would lead him to a redefinition of sculpture. When discussing Untitled (Box for Standing), a work which was fundamental to this process, it seems fitting to quote from his 1966 essay Notes on Sculpture, which says the following about the concept of scale: “In the perception of relative size, the human body enters into the total continuum of sizes and establishes itself as a constant on that scale. One knows immediately what is smaller and what is larger than himself. […] The quality of intimacy is attached to an object in a fairly direct proportion as its size diminishes in relation to oneself.” In this work, the body is not the represented object, it is the actual measurement used for interaction with and understanding of the surrounding environment, meaning that the work appears as an imprint of the artist’s presence, his size, and is constructed as an object that appears to be minimalist but to have processual, stage-based connotations.

Carmen Fernández Aparicio