Rolling homage

This, by Iván Navarro, whose show is coming up December 10 at Paul Kasmin, Chelsea.

This, by way of explanation, from Kasmin’s press release:

“Die” (2009) is the second of Navarro’s sculptures to respond to the American sculptor Tony Smith’s famous six-foot steel cube, “Die” (1962). Smith’s sculpture was designed to match human scale; he claimed that anything larger would be a monument and anything smaller an object…

“Die” (2009) is a four-foot plywood black cube. In accordance with Smith’s statement, it appears as more of an object. Although the piece is hollow, its mirrored inside allows viewers to look down through a virtual space that extends beyond the actual material boundaries of the cube and into an illusory hole plunging deep into the earth. This spatial effect is produced by a neon light that is installed between a mirror on the floor and a one-way mirror on the top of the cube.

Is the artist paying homage, or just riffing? It’s easy to pick up on the reference to “die”—as in the many-sided kind. But seeing it in person would be the way to see how the artist addresses Smith’s notions of scale, if  at all. More work by Navarro, some just plain formally gorgeous, some more socially conscious…

Images taken from DesignBoom of his work in the Chilean Pavillion of the Venice Biennale:

and

and finally,

Here’s more on that original Tony Smith sculpture, acquiring by the National Gallery in D.C., if you’re interested.

Gosh, true Minimalism seems so warm by comparison to our contemporary take on it.
(Image from slideprojector.com.)