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Karin Sander. Wallpiece 24 x 18". 1994

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Wallpiece 24 x 18"

Karin Sander (German, born 1957)

1994. Polished wall paint, 24 x 18" (61 x 45.7 cm). The Herbert and Nannett Rothschild Memorial Fund in memory of Judith Rothschild. © 2010 Karin Sander / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany

284.1994

Audio Program excerpt
Lilian Tone

MoMA2000: Open Ends (1960-2000)

September 28, 2000–March 4, 2001

Lilian Tone: Karin Sander is a German artist whose polished wallpieces verge on invisibility. She creates them through a process of subtraction. Here, she has sanded down a rectangular section of the wall—two feet high and one–and–a–half feet wide—obtaining a sheen that subtly reflects the viewer. To get this effect, she goes over the surface again and again, starting with rougher sandpaper and moving to finer and finer grades.

Sander first created this work for an exhibition here at MoMA in 1994. The Museum acquired the piece, cut out the section of the wall, and stored it so that it could be referred to when the work was recreated. For this exhibition, the artist sent an assistant from Germany, who spent an entire week sanding the surface within the precisely measured sides of the rectangle, set at a specific height above the floor.

Sander knows that some people walk by her pieces without even noticing them. She says she doesn't mind because she believes that this is part of the work. In fact, when we were installing the exhibition, we had to be careful that this section of the wall wasn't painted over.

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