Rasheed Araeen Retrospective: Before and After Minimalism 1959-1974

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Rasheed Araeen's solo exhibition 'Before and Beyond Minimalism: Drawings, Painting, Sculpture and Concepts, 1959 - 1974' focuses on the first 15 years of Araeen's artistic practice. This ranges from works he made in Pakistan that drew on his training as a civil engineer such as 'My First Sculpture' to his encounter with the works of Anthony Caro in 1965 and the works Araeen subsequently conceived such as 'Sculpture No.1', 'First Structure' and 'Second Structure'. The exhibition then traces Araeen's introduction of the kinetic into minimalism, initially through works such as 'Char Yar' and 'Lovers' where the viewer could theoretically change the configuration of the serial elements that constituted each work. After 1970 Araeen's works such as 'Chakras' increasingly tended to leave the confines of the gallery space and continue his fusion of minimalism and kineticism outdoors.