Robert Morris
(Kansas City 1931–2018 Kingston, New York)
Untitled (Grey Felt), 1974, felt and metal rings, 280 x 220 x 35 cm (variable dimensions)
This work is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance:
Galleria Alessandra Castelli, Milan
Private Collection
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 22 October 1986, lot 378
Sale, Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris, 27 October 2015, lot 76
Galleria Fumagalli, Milan
European Private Collection
Exhibited:
Milan, Galleria Alessandra Castelli, October-November 1974
Milan, A personal view of Abstract Painting and Sculpture, Galleria Fumagalli, 26 May-10 September 2016
Paris, Une brève histoire de la modernité des formes, Galerie Mitterand,
18 April-27 July 2019, exh. cat. p. 45 with ill.
Paris, From line to Matter, Galerie Mitterand, 12 September-20 December 2025
Note:
As can be seen from the certificate of authenticity signed by the artist, the work is intended to be displayed in two different ways, both approved by the artist.
A central figure in post-war
American art, Robert Morris (1931–2018) played a pivotal role in the development of Minimalism, redefining the relationship between the artwork, space and the viewer. From the early 1960s onwards, his practice focused on the physical and perceptual dimensions of sculpture, challenging the notion of the artwork as an autonomous and immutable object. By the end of the decade, Morris had progressively moved beyond the rigidity of Minimalist geometric forms, experimenting with flexible materials and open-ended processes that would become funda-mental to the emergence of Postminimalism. Created in 1974, Untitled (Grey Felt) belongs to Morris’s exploration of felt, which began in 1967 and was closely associated with the concept of Anti-Form, articulated in his seminal essay of the
same name, published in 1968. Through the use of a soft,
malleable industrial material, Morris relinquishes absolute control
over the work’s final configuration, allowing gravity, the flexibility of
the material and the conditions of installation to play an active role in shaping its form. The grey felt folds and unfolds into broad, sinuous surfaces, creating a suspended structure in which the initial geometry gives way to a dynamic and unpredictable equilibrium. Within this conception of sculpture, form is no longer the result of a rigidly predetermined design, but emerges from the interaction between material, process and space. The possibility of displaying the work in two different orientations, both approved by the artist, reinforces the open-ended and non-definitive nature of the composition. The work thus invites the viewer to consider sculpture not merely as an object to be contemplated, but as a physical and perceptual experience in which the presence of the material and the conditions of its display become integral to the work itself.
Specialist: Alessandro Rizzi
(Kansas City 1931–2018 Kingston, New York)
Untitled (Grey Felt), 1974, felt and metal rings, 280 x 220 x 35 cm (variable dimensions)
This work is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Provenance:
Galleria Alessandra Castelli, Milan
Private Collection
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 22 October 1986, lot 378
Sale, Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris, 27 October 2015, lot 76
Galleria Fumagalli, Milan
European Private Collection
Exhibited:
Milan, Galleria Alessandra Castelli, October-November 1974
Milan, A personal view of Abstract Painting and Sculpture, Galleria Fumagalli, 26 May-10 September 2016
Paris, Une brève histoire de la modernité des formes, Galerie Mitterand,
18 April-27 July 2019, exh. cat. p. 45 with ill.
Paris, From line to Matter, Galerie Mitterand, 12 September-20 December 2025
Note:
As can be seen from the certificate of authenticity signed by the artist, the work is intended to be displayed in two different ways, both approved by the artist.
A central figure in post-war
American art, Robert Morris (1931–2018) played a pivotal role in the development of Minimalism, redefining the relationship between the artwork, space and the viewer. From the early 1960s onwards, his practice focused on the physical and perceptual dimensions of sculpture, challenging the notion of the artwork as an autonomous and immutable object. By the end of the decade, Morris had progressively moved beyond the rigidity of Minimalist geometric forms, experimenting with flexible materials and open-ended processes that would become funda-mental to the emergence of Postminimalism. Created in 1974, Untitled (Grey Felt) belongs to Morris’s exploration of felt, which began in 1967 and was closely associated with the concept of Anti-Form, articulated in his seminal essay of the
same name, published in 1968. Through the use of a soft,
malleable industrial material, Morris relinquishes absolute control
over the work’s final configuration, allowing gravity, the flexibility of
the material and the conditions of installation to play an active role in shaping its form. The grey felt folds and unfolds into broad, sinuous surfaces, creating a suspended structure in which the initial geometry gives way to a dynamic and unpredictable equilibrium. Within this conception of sculpture, form is no longer the result of a rigidly predetermined design, but emerges from the interaction between material, process and space. The possibility of displaying the work in two different orientations, both approved by the artist, reinforces the open-ended and non-definitive nature of the composition. The work thus invites the viewer to consider sculpture not merely as an object to be contemplated, but as a physical and perceptual experience in which the presence of the material and the conditions of its display become integral to the work itself.
Specialist: Alessandro Rizzi
