Robert Hudson, Works: 1968-1971—Opening Reception

Robert Hudson has been a force in the art world for more than 50 years. Uncharacteristic of the complex, illusionistic, polychrome constructions for which he is best known, the historic body of minimalist work on view at the Luckman demonstrates his broad artistic range. While an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, Hudson was given access to a nearby government surplus yard. The facility was stocked with every imaginable object: massive convex mirrors from ships, thick discs of glass, navigation devices, beautifully machined equipment parts, steel eye beams, aluminum tubing, sheets of stainless steel, squares of black rubber and slabs of magnesium. He worked alone at the UC metal shop, crafting the sculptures by hand. The yard became his main source of material from 1968 to 1971. His work is included as part of the collections in the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; the de Young Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.