TITLE: Spaces with Iron
ARTIST: Will Horwitt
DATE: 1972
MATERIALS: cast iron, bronze
DIMENSIONS: 4’6″ x 7′ x 5’9″
TYPE: sculpture
As children we are alert to shapes, volume, and mass—arranging and rearranging things in an attempt to test the order of things. As we grow up, we tend to lose some of this drive to question the world—falling into routines and patterns, and taking things for granted.
Composed of one cast iron rectangle, one bronze rectangle, a pair of bronze elongated blocks, and one iron plank arranged atop a white circular concrete base, New York City-based artist Will Horwittt’s minimalist sculpture, Spaces With Iron (1972), invites us to consider how balance is achieved through arrangement.
Apparently fixed, there are ways the sculpture becomes dynamic. The track of the sun and the cast of its shadows alters the careful arrangement of lines and the work’s sense of depth. And by moving around the piece, you can play with the negative space, transforming the sculpture with every step. (Note that the main subject of the piece—as indicated in the title—is space, not material.)
On loan from Newfields, Spaces With Iron has been at IUPUI since 2009. Horwitt (1934-1985) was a nationally exhibited modernist sculptor who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. His work was well-reviewed by The New York Times, recognized for its expressive simplicity.
To learn more about this artwork, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaces_with_Iron,
which includes information created by Herron School of Art and Design and IUPUI
Museum Studies faculty and students in 2009 as part of “A
Survey of IUPUI Public Art.”