MEMORIES
The Day Carl Andre Came to Class
David Lloyd Brown
When I was a junior and senior undergraduate at the Massachusetts College of Art, Rob Moore taught me Advanced Drawing and Painting. In every course that Rob taught everyone was enthralled with him. I remember he was captivating and motivated everyone. Everyone competed for his attention in class. Everyone tried to impress him. Sometimes that resulted in a seriously tough critique and in front of the entire class.
The Advanced Drawing course often had an in-class assignment with Rob starting the class by introducing a drawing idea, or sometimes a challenge to be met. We then had half the class to work up a solution using the second half to critique the work done that day. No real surprises there. On this day, Rob issued the assignment and quietly disappeared from class. Still not a surprise since many professors would set their classes working while they ran off for a coffee break.
The actual topic for that day is now lost from my memory. But I do remember while my fellow students ground away at desks or easels or with paper tacked up on a wall, I got the idea to stretch out six or so sheets of drawing paper in a row on the floor. I made an equal number of folded paper boxes and placed one in the center of each sheet creating a nice even regular row of paper with two-inch cubes in their centers.
Just as I was finishing the last little paper box, we heard Rob booming from the head of the class “It’s Carl Andre! Carl Andre is back.” We’ve got Carl Andre. “ What we had was Rob totally excited about my drawing/ installation. I was both excited to be recognized but also a little apprehensive because one never knew how a critique would turn. That day, my drawing led the critique and that is how we all met Carl Andre.