Melt Piece 1966

This sculpture is by Gary Kuehn, and it's called Melt Piece. The artwork encourages a dialogue between the organic and the geometric. Sculptures like this belong to a broader category of process art. Process art foregrounds the artist’s physical engagement with the materials. It rejects the idea of the artwork as a commodity, a finished object made for sale. It brings the artist’s labor, and the transformation of materials, to the viewer’s attention. In the United States in the 1960s, process artists drew upon the values of the counter-culture. They embraced chance, improvisation, and collaboration. They challenged the traditional hierarchy of artistic skills, and they aimed to break down barriers between art and life. Art historians rely on a range of resources to understand the values and motivations of artists in the 1960s. We study their manifestos and statements. We look at the social and political contexts in which they worked, and we also examine the institutions that supported and promoted their work.