11 Facts About Fred Sandback

Fred Sandback was an American minimalist conceptual-based sculptor known for his yarn sculptures, drawings, and prints.

Frederick Lane Sandback was born in Bronxville, New York where, as a young man, he made banjos and dulcimers.

Fred Sandback majored in philosophy at Yale University before studying sculpture at Yale School of Art where he studied with, among others, visiting instructors Donald Judd and Robert Morris.

Indeed, Fred Sandback was fond of installing "corner" pieces whose shadows assist with this form completion process.

Fred Sandback died by suicide in his studio in New York City on June 23,2003.

Fred Sandback's artwork was included in the 1968 Annual Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Biennale of Sydney in 1976, and the Seventy-third American Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979.

In 2003, several large Fred Sandback sculptures were permanently installed at Dia's museum in Beacon, New York.

That same year, Fred Sandback created Mikado as site-specific at the then newly opened Pinakothek der Moderne.

Fred Sandback's work was the subject of an extensive survey exhibition organized in 2005 by the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz.

Fred Sandback's work is represented in many public collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.

Fred Sandback was one of a small group of avant garde artists sponsored by the Dia Art Foundation.