Melt Piece 1967

Gary Kuehn made this "Melt Piece" and well, it’s just a perfect name. The sculpture has these super clean blocks but then a puddle or spill seemingly oozing out from under them, blurring the hard edges. The blocks themselves have a really dry look, not shiny at all, almost like plaster. I can see bits and bobs, little crumbs and rough bits, like it was mixed up by hand. But then there’s this flowing form, this gooey looking puddle. It’s like he set something solid in motion, like he captured this moment of change. I keep thinking about the edge of the puddle, how it thins out and almost disappears into the floor. I think of Robert Morris who also played with felt and gravity. Really, Kuehn is asking us to look at how things fall apart or transform, and to see the beauty in that process. It reminds us that nothing stays the same. And that art can be a way of slowing down and noticing those shifts.