Robert Grosvenor’s sculpture Untitled (yellow) was first installed at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles and later in the seminal survey American Sculpture of the Sixties at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1967. Pitched from the ceiling at an acute angle, the massive, yellow form hovers a foot above the ground. Its hidden system of suspension creates an impression of weightlessness that prompts the viewer to explore the space and engage with its sleek dynamic structure.
The work is emblematic of Grosvenor’s monumental sculptures of the 1960s. Often cantilevered and suspended to bisect an architectural expanse, his installations played with and against the equilibrium of his Minimalist peers. While he shared their interest in reduced abstract forms, Grosvenor favored imposing, enigmatic shapes and aerodynamic thrust over Minimalism’s resolute geometric stasis. His emphasis on scale as well as his use of the ceiling radically shifts the viewer’s experience of space. With their subtle play on volume and surface, these linear shapes disorient as much as they captivate.
