Andre Cadere

Key facts

Lived

1934–1978, Romanian^[1]

Works held in

3 museums

Wikipedia

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• What is Andre Cadere known for?+

  André Cadere is known for his carved and painted wooden bars, which he called Barres de bois rond. From 1970^[1] until his death, he made these by hand, each divided into colour segments in a mathematical sequence, but with one deliberate error. He would take them uninvited into other artists' exhibitions, openings, and institutions across Europe as a form of institutional critique.
• What is Andre Cadere's most famous work?+

  André Cadere is best known for his wooden sculptures called *Barres de bois rond* (Round Wooden Bars). These works consist of cylindrical wooden batons, painted in various colours and arranged in a specific sequence. Cadere began creating these sculptures in the early 1970s. Each *Barre de bois rond* is unique, with the colour order determined by a mathematical system, although Cadere sometimes disrupted the system by introducing an error. The sculptures were portable; Cadere often carried them around, displaying them in different environments, both inside galleries and in public spaces. The *Barres de bois rond* challenged conventional notions of sculpture, authorship, and the art market. Cadere aimed to democratise art by taking it outside traditional gallery settings and engaging directly with the public. The sculptures became a symbol of his nomadic artistic practice and his critique of the art establishment.
• What should I know about Andre Cadere's prints?+

  André Cadere is best known for his conceptual installations and performances using painted wooden bars; however, he also produced prints. Printmaking, with its capacity for repetition, has allowed many artists to explore their ideas. Some artists use printmaking to explore concepts first developed in other media, while others find the medium itself opens new possibilities. Experimentation in printmaking has often led artists to new discoveries. S. W. Hayter, a twentieth-century innovator in etching and engraving, greatly influenced artists in Europe and America. He encouraged experimentation and automatism. Printmaking has also served artists who wish to explore the relationship between visual and written forms; some created prints to accompany their own writings. Prints have allowed artists to reach a wider audience, because they can be produced in greater quantities and distributed at a lower cost than unique works.
• What style or movement did Andre Cadere belong to?+

  Andre Cadere, born in 1935^[1], is most often associated with Minimalism. However, some critics have drawn comparisons between his work and Constructivism, although these comparisons are often considered superficial. Cadere's artistic practice involved using materials in their basic form and arranging them in direct relation to the surrounding space. His sculptures often lay directly on the floor, which made viewers aware of gravity as a condition of sculpture. One of his exhibitions involved laying sand-lime bricks directly on the floor in different permutations. Cadere's early work was influenced by Constantin Brancusi, particularly in the absence of differentiation between sculpture and base. He also spent time in Frank Stella's studio, and Stella's ideas about materials influenced him. Cadere's work is resolutely abstract, but it also identifies with nature by recognising the floor as a zone for existence.
• What techniques or materials did Andre Cadere use?+

  Andre Cadere worked with a range of materials and techniques throughout his career. Early on, he created small sculptures from plexiglas and wood, drilling and incising them while keeping the original block-like surfaces intact. These shapes were geometric: cubes, spheres, cylinders, or pyramids. By 1958^[1], Cadere made larger wood sculptures, described as man-sized "negative sculptures", hand-cut from building timbers. He realised that the wood was better before he cut it, leading him to use the material as the cut in space, rather than cutting into the material. In later works, Andre used standard commercial units, identical modules determined by arithmetic combinations. Examples include sand-lime bricks, concrete bricks, plastic blocks, styrofoam slabs, and metal plates composed of aluminium, copper, steel, magnesium, lead, and zinc. These materials were often arranged directly on the floor, sometimes in specific patterns or geometric configurations.
• What was Andre Cadere known for?+

  Andre Cadere (1934^[1]-1978^[1]) was a Romanian^[1]-French conceptual artist known for his "Barres de bois rond," or wooden bars. These sculptures consisted of cylindrical wooden segments, painted in different colours and arranged in a specific sequence. Cadere began creating these works in the early 1970s. The bars were intended to challenge conventional notions of sculpture and art presentation. He often carried the bars with him, placing them in galleries, museums, and public spaces without permission. This was a deliberate act of intervention, questioning the established art world and its institutions. His practice involved a system of calculated disruption. The colour sequences of the wooden segments, while seemingly random, followed a specific logic, with one element always intentionally out of place. This "error" was a deliberate feature, introducing an element of imperfection and challenging the viewer's perception of order. Cadere's nomadic approach and use of simple, portable forms allowed him to bypass traditional gallery settings, engaging directly with the public and redefining the boundaries of art.
• When did Andre Cadere live and work?+

  Carl Andre was born on 16 September 1935^[1], in Quincy, Massachusetts. He studied art with Patrick Morgan at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1951 to 1953. Frank Stella and Hollis Frampton, the film-maker, were studying there at the same time. After working briefly for the Boston Gear Works, Andre travelled to England and France in 1954, visiting Stonehenge, Parliament, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre. The following year, he joined United States Army Intelligence in North Carolina. By 1957, he had moved to New York City and was working as an editorial assistant for a publisher. Andre's first solo exhibition took place in 1965 at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. He participated, along with Flavin, Sol LeWitt, and Donald Judd, in Primary Structures, a Minimalist sculpture exhibition at The Jewish Museum in New York in 1966. Solo exhibitions of Andre's work took place at the Dwan Gallery in New York and Los Angeles, and at the Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf in 1967. Andre created installations for the Portland Center for the Visual Arts in Oregon and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1973 and 1976 respectively. In 1977, he executed Stone Field Sculpture in Hartford. Carl Andre lived and worked in New York.
• Where can I see Andre Cadere's work?+

  Andre Cadere's work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries around the world. In Paris, his art can be seen at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, located within the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou. Other museums in France that have exhibited Cadere's work include the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques. Outside of France, museums such as the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Kunsthalle Tübingen in Germany have also displayed his pieces. Additionally, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, has featured Cadere's art within its collections. These institutions provide opportunities to view and study Cadere's artistic output.
• Who did Andre Cadere influence?+

  Carl Andre, born in 1935^[1], studied with Frank Stella and Hollis Frampton. Stella was important to Andre's early artistic development. Andre himself said he was Stella's student for a time. Stella's remark about the untouched rear side of a column being sculpture influenced Andre's realisation that the material was better before he cut it. Andre's sculpture, along with work by Robert Morris, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, and Donald Judd, defined a position against Abstract Expressionism. Critics saw Minimal Art as a reaction against the art of the 1950s. Andre's work played a germinal role in experiments such as Earthworks and Conceptual Art. His cryptic definition of sculpture as "FORM = STRUCTURE = PLACE" clarifies his development and options open to contemporary work. Andre's concept of place disrupted the traditional role of the art object, making the object viable within its conceived context. He retained principles of sculpture, such as mass, space, volume, and gravity, while ridding it of traditional form and structure.
• Why are Andre Cadere's works important today?+

  Carl Andre, born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1935^[1], is known for his minimalist sculptures and his exploration of "place" as a fundamental aspect of art. His works challenge traditional notions of sculpture as precious objects, instead emphasising the relationship between the sculpture and its environment. Andre's sculptures often consist of arrangements of industrial materials, such as bricks or metal plates, placed directly on the floor. This challenges the conventional role of sculpture and encourages viewers to engage with the work physically and spatially. His well-known statement, "FORM = STRUCTURE = PLACE," encapsulates his artistic philosophy. Andre's work can be seen as a reaction against the Abstract Expressionist sculpture of the 1950s. He sought to reduce the object to its essential elements, focusing on mass, space, volume, and gravity. By doing so, he influenced later movements such as Earthworks and Conceptual Art. His emphasis on the inherent properties of materials and the specific environment of a work remains relevant to contemporary art practices.
• What was Andre Cadere's art style?+

  André's artistic practice involved conceptual and performance traditions. His wooden bars were hand-carved and mathematically ordered, with a deliberate error in the sequence.
• When was Andre Cadere born?+

  Andre Cadere was born in 1934^[1]. Andre Cadere died in 1978^[1], aged 44.