By Wendy
Visitors who brave the cold will notice that the green Caro sculpture outside the museum’s entrance has gone home to Dallas. In its place is an imposing block of granite, an untitled 2004 work by Ulrich Rückriem.
The German-born artist was once a stonemason for the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Now he’s known for his large-scale Minimalist stone sculptures.
This sculpture, according to our curatorial department, bears the traces of the moment when the flecked and irregular stone was bored and split by the artist in order to reveal the stone’s transformation from its natural, primordial state into a work of art. Rückriem’s roughly hewn blocks emphasize the temporal process of creation rather than a polished and flawless final result.
IMAGE: Ulrich Rückriem, “Untitled,” 2004. Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.