Goodyear's Ladder to Babel was of such length that the only way we could fit it into the museum
was to hang it sideways in our longest gallery. The symbolism of the ladder is obvious.
It makes a great statement.

Goodyear, like many of the other Minimalists is attracted to industrial materials in erecting his
sculptures.

Marvin was a precocious and curious child at an early age. He fondly remembers working with
basic materials in his dad's basement workshop - molding them, bending them, and painting
them.

The ruby red paint in Ladder to Babel is absolutely stunning. Visitors to the gallery usually do
a double take at the immensity of the project.






Dueling Ladders - 1962 - red & yellow paint on steel

Dueling Ladders deals with the interplay of the dominant and the recessive. It deals with the master
and the subservient, the large and the small.

Goodyear's niche in Modern Art is secure. His investigation deals with the idolized tool. Rather
than a manufactured product or raw material he chooses the type of building block that is basic
to the construction of our civilization the use of which demarks mankind from his closest
relatives.

Tools can be both useful and beautiful.





Tryptish - 1963 - red & yellow & orange paint on steel

Most Minimalistic endeavors are not symbolic. What you see is what you get. Yet here we have
a complex work with a complex symbolism. The smaller ladders seem to dance about the larger
one, alternatingly emerging and then receeding into the wall.