What material did Carl Andre use for 'Equivalent VIII'?

Carl Andre used fire bricks for Equivalent VIII.

Completed in 1966, Equivalent VIII consists of 120 ordinary firebricks arranged as a low rectangular block. The bricks are set in two layers, forming a six-by-ten rectangle. Andre’s choice of a standard industrial material is central to the work: the sculpture depends on quantity, arrangement, mass, and volume rather than carving or modeling.

Equivalent VIII was the final work in Andre’s eight-part Equivalent series. Each version used the same number of bricks and therefore had the same mass and volume, although the horizontal arrangement changed. This idea of “equivalence” made the series a study in geometry and material relationships.

The work became famous—or notorious—after the Tate Gallery bought it in 1972. When it was exhibited in Britain in 1974–75, newspapers attacked the purchase as an expensive acquisition of “bricks,” making it a lasting example of the public controversy surrounding Minimalist art. The bricks are not concrete blocks, wood, or steel; their familiar, prefabricated character is precisely part of Andre’s point.