Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Ryman, Sandback

In a 1993 essay, Judd opined that "Material, space, and color are the main aspects of visual art." The works on view in this exhibition prioritize these fundamental concerns, utilising them in distinct ways to influence the viewer’s experience. The gallery’s ground floor features works by each of the five artists that marshal color—–and frequently primary color—to define space and form. By contrast, the selection of works on the first floor is notable for its absence of color, demonstrating the fluidity with which each of the five artists approached formal experimentation within their respective bodies of work.

Among the works on view are Flavin’s three fluorescent tubes (1963), a rarely seen early work that was the artist’s first to incorporate more than one lamp, and his first multi-colored construction using light; a major untitled set of twenty woodcuts by Judd that use colour to iterate variations across a single compositional format; as well as two planks by McCracken—the artist’s signature sculptural form—that are executed in highly glossed red and blue and exemplify his long-standing interest in the transcendent potential of minimalist abstraction.

Also of note is a ten-part vertical construction by Sandback that is exceptional for its use of green yarn, a color that he employed only in a small number of works, its vibrant hue underscoring the artist’s multivalent use of the seemingly infinite vertical line; and a major early painting by Ryman from 1963 featuring curving brushstrokes of white that overlay similarly rendered strokes of green, red, and taupe. Emblematic of his facture from this period, these glyph-like forms function as compositional building blocks for Ryman—much like the formal units deployed by minimalist sculptors, but translated into the artist’s own abstract painterly vocabulary.