What is the title of Carl Andre's sculpture made of fire bricks?

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The title of Carl Andre’s sculpture made of fire bricks is Equivalent VIII.

Created in 1966, the work consists of 120 fire bricks arranged in two layers, forming a six-by-ten rectangle. It belongs to Andre’s Equivalent series, in which each arrangement used the same number of bricks and therefore had the same mass and volume, while differing in shape. The title refers to this idea of equivalence among the configurations.

The sculpture became widely known as “The Bricks” after Britain’s Tate Gallery acquired it in 1972. Its simple appearance provoked a major public controversy in 1976, when newspapers questioned why public money had been spent on what looked like an ordinary pile of building materials. The work’s Minimalist point is precisely its use of unaltered industrial materials and its emphasis on space, scale, weight and arrangement rather than representation.

A common mix-up is Carl Andre’s Lever, another brick work made from 137 fire bricks in a single line. That piece is not Equivalent VIII.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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