ROBERT MORRIS (B. 1931)

In 1981, a professor at Emory University, Peter Morrin of the High Museum and Catherine Fox, art critic for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, solicited a proposal from Robert Morris for a site-specific work to be included in that year’s now defunct Arts Festival of Atlanta’s Site Works program. For his contribution, Morris dynamited a hole in Piedmont Park and titled the resultant work, Sketch for 1-Megaton Tactical Weapon. Clearly alluding to a nuclear weapon, a sign placed next to the crater listed the size of crater vaporization, destruction and radiation as if the hole had been made by an act of war. The present lot was completed at the end of the Festival to commemorate Morris’ brief, yet impactful and audacious use of the Atlanta park.