Alan Saret, wire sculptor who expanded minimalism, dies at 82

Alan Saret, the American artist known for pioneering wire sculpture that infused minimalism with spiritual and mathematical inquiry, has died. Born in 1944, Saret graduated from Cornell University with a degree in architecture in 1966 before studying under Robert Morris at Hunter College, New York. His breakthrough came that same year when he began stretching chicken wire over electrical conduit frames, eventually abandoning the frame to work with wire mesh alone. His debut solo exhibition was at Bykert Gallery in 1968, followed by group shows Nine in a Warehouse at Leo Castelli Gallery (1968) and Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form at Kunsthalle Bern (1969). In 1971, he participated in the Indian Triennale in New Delhi and remained in India for three years exploring questions of self and world. Returning to New York, he produced large organic forms of threaded and looped wire. Saret's conservation notes advised that 'shaking can restore life to the work' and that kinks can be removed by passing wire through fingers. He was working on the sculpture Two to Ten Rising at Karma, New York, in 2025.