Uncontained
Feb 8–Apr 29, 2007
Installation view of Uncontained (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 8–April 29, 2007). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins
On the second floor, with a selection of works from the Whitney's collection, Uncontained ponders the complete overhaul of notions of space in American art during the second half of the twentieth century, particularly the transformation that occurred in the definition of sculpture. In sculpture, the statue expanded from a self-contained object into a work of art with variable boundaries. Alexander Calder, for example, used motion and forms abstracted from nature, while Naum Gabo penetrated the solidity of the object through openness and transparency. As the possibilities of materials and processes used in art expanded, sculpture developed unprecedented spatial complexities.