All About Untitled (Pink Felt) by Robert Morris

Title of Artwork: “Untitled (Pink Felt)”

Artwork by Robert Morris

Year Created 1970

Summary of Untitled (Pink Felt)

A large number of sliced pink industrial felt pieces that have been carelessly dropped on the ground make up Untitled (Pink Felt) (1970). Morris’s strewn felt strips make indirect references to the human body by responding to gravity and having an epidermal quality. The jumbled heap’s rough irregular contours defy the strict unitary profile that is a hallmark of Minimalist sculpture. Morris’s work from the late 1960s and early 1970s became known by terms like Anti-Form, Process art, and Post-Minimalism as a result of this and its growing referentiality.

All About Untitled (Pink Felt)

In the body of work by Morris known as Process art or Anti-Form, a movement he theorised in a well-known 1968 essay titled “Anti=Form,” randomness and temporality played significant roles. Morris cut and dropped pieces of felt onto the floor to create the piece you can see; the result is a jumbled mass of shapes with jagged edges and irregular sizes that spill across the floor in a jumbled object without any discernible structure. This form was temporary because each time Untitled (Pink Felt) was installed in a new location, fresh felt pieces were dropped, creating a new composition. 

Untitled (Pink Felt) was a striking departure from earlier works like Untitled (L-Beams), which featured serially repeated geometric shapes, in addition to introducing ephemerality into the artistic process. Such works appeared to reintroduce figuration as the arrangement of felt pieces evokes organic forms, embodying a softer aesthetic than their austere Minimalist predecessors.