Biography

Sculptor Fred Sandback was born in Bronxville, New York. After receiving a BA in Philosophy at Yale University (1962–66), he undertook an MFA in sculpture at Yale School of Art and Architecture (1966–69). He was taught by some of the most influential artists working in the United States at that time, including Donald Judd and Robert Morris. Sandback introduced the motif of the line into his work while still a student. He created near intangible shapes that appear to morph between intersecting lines, pictorial planes and three-dimensional structures, which both co-exist with and fracture the space they inhabit. Sandback’s first solo exhibitions in Europe took place while he was a graduate  – in 1968 – at Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich and Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf. His first solo presentation at a museum took place in 1969 at the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld. He was quickly associated with Minimalism and Conceptual art, although his practice resists such straightforward categorisations. His first solo exhibition in the UK, Here and Now: Fred Sandback, was presented in 1999 by the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. In 2006, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, was the only UK venue for a major posthumous touring retrospective, Fred Sandback.