It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, buried in the desert: His dealer says yes. His son says maybe. His artist buddies, like Ed Ruscha, say, no way the sculptor created this tall, silvery object.
At first it sounded like a plot twist from a science-fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. A tall, silvery slice of metal, about 10 feet high with an aura of strangeness about it, is spotted in the red-rock canyons of the Utah desert. State employees who found it while surveying the land for bighorn sheep say they have no idea who drove the slab of metal into the rock floor. And in the days since, the riddle of what it is and how it got there has proved irresistible.
Some cheekily wondered if it was planted there by aliens. Others thought it might be a tribute to the monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But the most tantalizing speculation was that it might be the work of John McCracken, a Minimalist sculptor with an affinity for science fiction who died in 2011.
The David Zwirner gallery, which has exhibited the artist’s work since 1997 and represents his estate, has asserted that the mystery monolith is a bona fide McCracken.
Read More