When Carl Andre sold 120 fire bricks to the Tate Gallery and shipped them across the Atlantic with instructions for them to be arranged in two layers in a six-by-ten rectangle, he launched the greatest public controversy the British art world has ever witnessed.
Titled Equivalent VIII, Andre’s minimalist sculpture was purchased by the Tate for £2,297 (around £20,000 in today’s money) and when it went on display in 1974 it attracted little attention.
However, in early 1976 an article appeared in the business section of The Sunday Times about recent additions to the Tate’s collection, illustrated with a picture of Andre’s bricks.
Uproar followed. The next day, the Daily Mirror splashed with a photo of the bricks and a headline that shouted: “What