This October, the Chinati Foundation will remount Fred Sandback: Sculpture, an exhibition Sandback first presented at Chinati from 2001–2002. Consisting of six sculptures made of acrylic yarn and three painted wood reliefs, the exhibition provides visitors with the opportunity to experience Sandback’s work as it was initially conceived, interacting with the architecture of the U-shaped army barrack in which it was installed. The exhibition will remain on view through June 2026.
Sandback’s sensitivity to context and time is especially germane at Chinati, where so much of the work engages these concerns. For Sandback, context is integral to realization of his art but doesn’t constitute it. And neither does the work attempt to determine, or dominate, its context. In “Notes,” he writes, “My work isn’t environmental. It’s present in pedestrian space, but is not so strong or elaborate that it obscures its context. It doesn’t take over a space, but rather coexists with it.” Remounting Fred Sandback: Sculpture at Chinati provides an opportunity to encounter a great artist’s actuality of line, color, shape, and material, in what Sandback once described as his preferred conditions for exhibition, “a strong, immediate, and beautiful situation.”
Sandback’s sensitivity to context and time is especially germane at Chinati, where so much of the work engages these concerns. For Sandback, context is integral to realization of his art but doesn’t constitute it. And neither does the work attempt to determine, or dominate, its context. In “Notes,” he writes, “My work isn’t environmental. It’s present in pedestrian space, but is not so strong or elaborate that it obscures its context. It doesn’t take over a space, but rather coexists with it.” Remounting Fred Sandback: Sculpture at Chinati provides an opportunity to encounter a great artist’s actuality of line, color, shape, and material, in what Sandback once described as his preferred conditions for exhibition, “a strong, immediate, and beautiful situation.”
11 October 2025 to June 2026
