For the next few years, he showed with John Weber, who had taken over many of the Dwan gallery's artists when Virginia Dwan closed her gallery, in 1971.
Four out of five of the victorious Dwans appeared at the Hung Drawn and Quartered, posing for group photographs and celebrating the latest win in the Dwan dynasty.
It is painstaking work, and for their labor the Dwan Swans earn $600 annually, barely enough to feed their children, three pigs and two ornery dogs.
Cutting through all the complexity, Dwan is the person the staff at the academy trusts say they work for.
Even more worrisome is the darkness, which needs to be utter — or, in the words of one director, "Dwan black".
Richard Brody on Allan Dwans The Rivers Edge (1957).
The National Gallery is shaping history, too, in its reinstalled modern collection, though along far less unconventional paths than ones Ms. Dwan traveled.
Ms. Dwan and Mr. Sandback pick up a conversation from 35 years ago about his show at her gallery, which consisted of elastic cords diagonally bisecting the room so that, Ms. Dwan says, "the question arose, on which side of the cord was the sculpture?
"He helps Shack in the sense that Wilkins can carry the ball," Dwan said Wednesday.
"Primary Structures" brought bankable recognition to several of the artists involved, including Andre, who joined the Virginia Dwan gallery soon afterward.
(The only Dwan piece in this Washington show that is not part of the promised gift is the 1954 Reinhardt, luminous with midnight light, in the first gallery).
