Royden Rabinowitch

A career retrospective on the conceptually complex sculpture of the Canadian Postminimalist

Compiling documentation of nearly 40 abstract steel sculptures, as well as drawings and paintings, this monograph introduces the work of Canadian sculptor Royden Rabinowitch (born 1943). Rabinowitch’s approach to sculpture is inspired by his admiration for mathematician Henri Poincaré and his distinction between abstract space and the space of ordinary human experience. Though the forms of his abstract metal and wooden sculptures recall the work of Minimalists such as Richard Serra, his aims greatly diverge from theirs. Grease Cone, reproduced here, consists of a black metal cone covered in grease. The cone itself recalls the purity of form of the Minimalists, but the unevenly applied grease expresses Rabinowitch’s concern with human space insofar as it alters the shape of the sculpture, as a whole, into a messier, asymmetrical form.