Bricks make hay

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34085, 24 February 1976, Page 10

Bricks make hay

The Tate in London. Britain's leading gallery for modem art, is the proud owner of a pile of bricks once priced at $7760.

Trustees of the gallery will not reveal the price paid the American owner of the bricks but thev do insist the bricks are an art form, reports an N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent. The bricks — 120 common or garden variety firebricks — were bought with public funds, but have been locked away in a storeroom.

The “art form” began in America in 1965, when a former railwayman, Carl Andre, decided to launch his own down-to-earth

sculpture. He bought the bricks, and arranged them in a low flat pile on the floor of his studio, with a price tag of SNZ776O. There were no buyers.

However, Tate officials saw a photograph of Andre’s work in 1972, and offered to buy the bricks for Britain. Unfortunately, the originals had been sold back to the brickyard, but Andre bought another 120, and sent them to the gallery with assembling instructions.

The slab was exhibited several times, and then put into storage. The gallery’s director (Sir Norman Reid) said the shortage of space for exhibits would be improved when the new

building was opened next year.

“We consider it a work of art," he said. “It must be remembered that for at least a hundred years every new form of art has been ridiculed and labelled a folly. The Andre piece is part of a recognised movement in the art field."

The Tate receives an annual Government grant of about $970,000, and among other unusual modern works it has acquired are five hessian blankets, dyed and folded in a pile.

The gallery has also bought 18 sheets of paper with "Room 1970” typed on them. These have to he hung all round the walls of a small room.