Robert Grosvenor, whose work resisted artistic classification for more than six decades, died in Long Island, New York, on Wednesday, September 3, at the age of 88. His death was announced by Paula Cooper Gallery, which has represented the artist since the gallery opened in 1968.Grosvenor was primarily known for large-scale abstract sculptures, although his oeuvre also encompassed photography, drawing, and collage. He first gained recognition in the 1960s, participating in seminal Minimalist group exhibitions like Primary Structures (1966) at the Jewish Museum and Minimal Art (1968) at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. He often used unorthodox industrial materials and toyed with concepts of spatial dynamics and function, all with a dry wit and opaqueness that, at times, perplexed his audience. Robert Grosvenor, “Topanga” (1965) (© Robert Grosvenor, documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH, photo by Andrea Rossetti)Grosvenor charted his own creative path, diverging from Minimalism’s strict formalism. His diverse output spanned many forms, from seemingly gravity-defying cantilevered steel structures to fractured wooden beams and the outer shells of vehicles set bluntly on the floor. He deliberately left much of his work untitled and presented little explanation, as with a complex 2020 sculpture composed of stacked cinder blocks, rubber lining, and stagnant water that art critic and Hyperallergic contributor John Yau described as “simple and brilliantly economical in its construction” while also “funny and generous.”“Grosvenor is able to walk right up to the line separating art from function without crossing over or commenting on it,” Yau wrote. “That’s his gift, and I don’t know of another sculptor who has it.”Installation view of Robert Grosvenor at 155 Wooster Street in April 1975 (© Robert Grosvenor, photo by Geoffrey Clements; courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York)Born in New York City in 1937, Grosvenor grew up in Rhode Island and Arizona. As a teenager, he studied art and design in Europe, receiving a classical education at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Dijon, the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the Università de Perugia in Italy. As a student, he found inspiration in experimental artists like Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni, he told the Brooklyn Rail in a 2019 interview.After returning to the United States in 1959 to complete a six-month military service requirement, he moved to New York, where he forged friendships in the art scene. He became acquainted with members of the cooperative Park Place Gallery, directed by Paula Cooper, and the Green Gallery, which gave an early platform to artists including Yayoi Kusama, Mark di Suvero, and Donald Judd. He described his art of that time to the Brooklyn Rail as “paintings that came off the wall,” and in 1962 he began exhibiting it in group shows.Installation view of Robert Grosvenor at Paula Cooper Gallery (© Robert Grosvenor, courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York)According to Paula Cooper Gallery, he felt that his career began with the 1965 exhibition of “Transoxiana” — a 31-foot angular cantilevered sculpture that was later featured in the pivotal show Primary Structures alongside works by Judd and such other Minimalist pioneers as Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, and Anne Truitt. He also garnered acclaim for his dynamic geometric works, as in “Topanga” (1965), which he built after seeing a picture of a massive solar telescope in Arizona’s Sonoran desert, and an untitled all-white steel structure from 1968–70 that hovers midair from cables attached to the ceiling. The latter was featured in his first solo show at Paula Cooper Gallery. Departing from the Minimalist movement during the ’70s, Grosvenor experimented with wooden sculptures constructed from broken lengths of pine planks and found telephone poles. Resting horizontally on the ground, they featured symmetrical fractures, and at times were blackened with creosote, a toxic, oily preservative. In the following decades, he employed found materials like corrugated steel and concrete blocks to create unclassifiable structures that wavered between architecture and sculpture. His most recent works included vehicular floor sculptures stemming from his lifelong fascination with cars and boats.Robert Grosvenor during Spring 1969 (photo by John Ferrari, courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)“His work of the past twenty years was among his very best, at times making that of younger sculptors appear awfully conservative in comparison. In comparison? There was none. His was a world really unto itself,” wrote curator Bob Nickas in a statement for the New York Art Critics Association.Throughout his life, Grosvenor remained humble about his artistic process. “I make as much as I can,” he told the Brooklyn Rail. “I work regularly and very quickly, but there are a lot of mistakes. I guess that’s why my production isn’t so big.”More than 30 of the artist’s works are currently on view in a solo exhibition at the Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany, which continues through January 2026. His pieces are also held in the collections of numerous institutions, including Storm King Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami.Installation view of Robert Grosvenor at Paula Cooper Gallery earlier this year (© Robert Grosvenor, photo by Steven Probert; courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York)