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January 1973. Vermont marble. Dimensions: 36 × 24 × 12 in (91 × 61 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Untitled (Kiss I) was created while I was an undergraduate at Kent State and reflects my early interest in Jean Arp, Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi. The work pays homage to Brancusi’s The Kiss and his reduction of the embracing figures to two simplified, block-like forms. Here, two marble elements are brought closely together, activating the negative space between them. The central opening is carved so that as the viewer moves from side to side, the opening appears to shift and follow—a simple optical effect that makes the viewer’s movement part of the experience of the sculpture.
Like Brancusi, I retained much of the geometry of the original quarry block, allowing the rectangular mass of the stone to remain clearly present. At the same time, the work reflects my growing awareness of the Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960s and ’70s, particularly the reduced geometric sculpture being made around me at Kent State—an approach I later affectionately called “Midwest minimalism.” The piece represents an early merging of these influences: the sensual, carved forms of European modernism with the more austere geometry of contemporary American sculpture. Untitled (Kiss I) was exhibited and sold in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 1973 May Show, becoming my first sculpture to be sold.
January 1973. Vermont marble. Dimensions: 36 × 24 × 12 in (91 × 61 × 30 cm). Private Collection.
Untitled (Kiss I) was created while I was an undergraduate at Kent State and reflects my early interest in Jean Arp, Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi. The work pays homage to Brancusi’s The Kiss and his reduction of the embracing figures to two simplified, block-like forms. Here, two marble elements are brought closely together, activating the negative space between them. The central opening is carved so that as the viewer moves from side to side, the opening appears to shift and follow—a simple optical effect that makes the viewer’s movement part of the experience of the sculpture.
Like Brancusi, I retained much of the geometry of the original quarry block, allowing the rectangular mass of the stone to remain clearly present. At the same time, the work reflects my growing awareness of the Minimalist aesthetic of the 1960s and ’70s, particularly the reduced geometric sculpture being made around me at Kent State—an approach I later affectionately called “Midwest minimalism.” The piece represents an early merging of these influences: the sensual, carved forms of European modernism with the more austere geometry of contemporary American sculpture. Untitled (Kiss I) was exhibited and sold in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 1973 May Show, becoming my first sculpture to be sold.
