Andre, Carl [key], 1935–, American sculptor, b. Quincy, Mass. A student of Patrick Morgan and associate of Frank Stella, Andre produces sculptures of elemental form and abstract monumentality. His works and materials—granite blocks and other cut or natural stone, bricks, raw wooden timbers, steel plates, and repeating geometric shapes of various other metals—reflect the quarries, shipyards, and islands of his birthplace and his years spent as a freight-train brakeman. One of the founders of minimalism) in sculpture, he is famous for his grid-based floor pieces and for his large outdoor works. A typical early work is Lever (1966), in which fire bricks were arranged to extend laterally 400 feet (122 m) from a gallery wall. A representative late outdoor piece is the gravel and steel Chinati Thirteener (2010), one of the minimalist installations at Marfa, Tex. Andre is also known for his “concrete poetry.” In 1988 he was acquitted of pushing his wife, land art sculptor Ana Mendiata, to her death from their 34th-floor apartment.
See his 12 Dialogs (1980); study by A. Rider (2011).
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