#robertmorris

Untitled, Robert Morris, 1962, MoMA: Drawings and Prints

Gift of Katharina Faerber Size: 14 3/4 x 21 1/2" (37.5 x 54.6 cm) Medium: Gouache on newspaper

[Untitled], Robert Morris, 1973, Brooklyn Museum: Contemporary Art

Size: Sheet: 9 1/16 x 12 in. (23 x 30.5 cm) Image: 8 11/16 x 11 11/16 in. (22.1 x 29.7 cm) Medium: Lithograph

http://counterfeitnessfirst.blogspot.com/2021/03/robertmorriis.html

Robert Morris

The past eight and a half months have been tumultuous to say the least — dare I say, unprecedented. I have certainly had a lot to grapple with this year, trying to navigate the pandemic, reckonings with race in America, the political landscape approaching the elections, natural disasters, and personal (so far, often failed) attempts to keep my mental health in check and sustain healthy relationships with others. That being just the tip of the iceberg, I know for a fact I am not alone in feeling weighted down by 2020.

The chaos of this year has shed a new light on one of my lesser favorite art movements/styles. As someone who loves art history, deciphering the metaphors, symbolism, and meaning behind all kinds of art, Minimalism always frustrated, and to be honest, bored me. That’s not to say I didn’t respect it as art, I just didn’t get the point of making something void of meaning. It was outwardly unrelatable. 

‘Untitled’, Donald Judd, 1980, concrete

‘Lament for the Children’, Carl Andre, 1976-1996, concrete blocks

Minimalism developed in the early 1960s as a counter-movement to Abstract Expressionism. It was a deliberate renunciation of the hyper-emotive artwork in favor of anonymity, lack of expression, and a reduction of art into its most basic shape, form, and material. Minimalist art does not try to represent anything other than itself, and when everything around you is chaotic and difficult to process, this offers more solace than I had previously appreciated.

1 Peter 5:7 - “Cast your cares on Him.”

“Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” (AMP)  

1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your cares on Him. For He cares for you." The cares of this world can choke us. God wants to take your burdens and carry them for you! Robert Morris said this funny thing, “Do you realize that we were not designed to carry burdens? Do you know that? I mean, God calls us sheep in the Scripture, right? Sheep. "We are the sheep of His pasture", Psalm 100:3. Okay, sheep are not burden bearing animals. You've never heard someone say, I'm going on an expedition, I need to rent some pack sheep. We are not designed to carry burdens! What we're supposed to do is lay them at the feet of the Shepherd. But, here's the problem. We lay them, but we don't leave them. So, here's what we do many times. We say, Lord, I've just got this burden. It's just too heavy for me, Lord. Oh, I'm just going to put it at your feet, and I just can't carry it, Lord! I just can't. I just can't carry it anymore, God! I just give it to you, and I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to worry about it, Lord. It's yours. If anything's going to happen, you're going to do it, because I'm not doing any more, Lord. No, I'm not. I'm, well, if you're just going to sit there.” And we take the burden back. In Psalm 1:1-3, "The man who meditates on the Word of God will be like a tree planted by the water whose leaves don't wither and whatever he does prospers." In the worldly definition of prosperity that would mean getting money, gold, a “nice” car, a big house, etc. Robert Morris says that’s not what this is. “The Hebrew word "prosper" has two definitions. One is, a person who has a burden, and you get behind that person and help that person carry the burden up the hill, and the other is you actually take the burden off the person and carry it for him. When God prospers you, He takes your burden and carries it for you. That's pretty good. Whatever he does prospers: marriage, family, children, health, finances, career. If you meditate on the book, day and night, whatever you do will prosper. If we believed that, it would change our habits. We'd be meditating on this book a whole lot more. Wouldn't we?” The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things will all pull us away from the Word of God, because God knows we need things, but only if He comes first. If you cast your cares on God and let Him help you carry them, then you will truly prosper. 

“So if there's something trying to pull you away from God's Word and from God Himself, just take a moment and just confess it to the Lord. Say, Lord, I don't want to drift away from you. I want your Word to have its perfect work in me.” —Robert Morris.