Untitled

Robert Morris began to make felt sculptures in the late 1960s as a departure from the rigid materials and strict geometry of Minimalism. This work returned in part to the artist’s early concerns with the body as it manifested in his engagement with contemporary dance in the 1950s and early 1960s. The heavy curves and folds of the thick, industrial felt emphasize the action of gravity while also possessing anthropomorphic, skin-like qualities. This return to bodily formations is explained in an essay Morris published in Artforum in April 1968. Here the artist argues that, despite seeking to reduce artworks to a unitary, self-evident form, the Minimalists could not escape the compartmentalization and aesthetic choice implicit in ordering and installing of their often serial works. Using the term "Anti-Form", Morris calls for a renewed emphasis on the process of making: as can be seen in this work, he advocated "random piling, loose stacking" and "hanging" as a means of letting material determine its own contingent—rather than enduring and determinate—form.