I enjoyed the Andre Cadere: 1965- 1978 exhibition at Ortuzar Projects so much that I saw it twice. I had seen Cadere’s iconic wooden bar work many times before, but did not know much about him. I went purposely to see the bars, and really liked his other work as well.

“The first major exhibition of Cadere’s artwork in New York since PS1 Contemporary Art Center’s 1989 posthumous retrospective, the show begins with the artist’s psychedelic paintings made in Romania and Paris in the 1960s, which are shown alongside a selection of the barres de bois rond for which he is best known.” (Ortuzar Projects)

“In the decades since his passing, Cadere has become synonymous with his round bars of wood, the results of a rigorous system of object-making, first conceived in 1972, that he pursued with complete dedication for the last seven years of his short career. Composed using an idiosyncratic mathematical sequence that determined the order of colors (including one intentional error) and number of segments, the hand-carved bars were discrete manifestations of a single overarching procedure that allowed for only so many possible variations. Referred to as “Peinture sans fin” (“painting without end” or “unlimited painting”), the bars’ total length followed the constraint that they be lightweight enough for the artist to carry, with their shape allowing for varied orientations and modes of presentation. With the aim for his work to exist outside the traditional circuits of contemporary art, the bars were brought, both invited and uninvited, into museums and galleries, and carried almost exclusively by the artist from 1973 on as he moved through his daily life.” (Ortuzar Projects)

I have a thing for vertical totemic work, so it is no surprise that I love these bars.

There was a grouping of 30 photographs showing Cadere’s bars in various locations.

As with a lot of my posts, if you make it to the end you get a bonus. I had to read more about Cadere and loved seeing images of him walking around with his bars. The one below being my favorite of the many images I found as he looks a lot like a mix between a young John Cale, and my husband when we met. I can only imagine what my mother would have thought if Steve had walked around carrying a barres de bois rond!

Read more about Andre Cadere here.