Kenneth Capps
born 1939, Kansas City, MO
works in Carlsbad, CA
X-Frame, 1974–1975, wood, steel, 10' x 10' x 10', Lent by the Artist
X-Frame represents California artist Kenneth Capps' early work of the mid-1970s. The sculpture's assertive presence and primary form place it within the sculptural traditions of Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism. Capps has created the simple form of a large "X", fashioned from a series of intersecting wood beams contained in a steel frame that forms an open cube. Minimalist in its directness and impersonality, X-Frame also relates to Abstract Expressionist sculpture, such as work by Mark di Suvero, in its use of wood and steel I-beams and in the tension created by the framing of the "X" in a cage, suggesting a contained energy. The apparent simplicity of X-Frame is belied as one circumnavigates the sculpture, and the form of the letter "X" no longer reads as such from the side.
