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Lawrence Weiner

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Lawrence Weiner
Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2005
NationalityAmerican
Known forConceptual art

Lawrence Weiner (born in the Bronx, New York, February 10, 1942) was a central figure in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s [1] His work often takes the form of typographic texts. He lives and works in New York and Amsterdam.

Weiner is represented in NYC by Marian Goodman Gallery,[2] in London by Lisson Gallery, in Paris by Yvon Lambert Gallery,[3] in Los Angeles by Regen Projects, in Reykjavik by i8 Galleri, and in Tel Aviv by Dvir Gallery.[4]

In 2011 he was invited to participate in the exhibition “Personal Structures” in Palazzo Bembo as part of the 54. Biennale di Venezia in Italy a project which was initiated by Rene Rietmeyer .[5]

Works

Weiner's work in the early 60s included 6 years of making explosions in the landscape of California to create craters as individual sculptures.[6] He is also known during his early work for creating gestures described in simple statements leading to the ambiguity of whether the artwork was the gesture or the statement describing the gesture: e.g."Two minutes of spray paint directly on the floor.." or " A 36" x 36" removal of lathing or support wall..." (both 1968). In 1968, when Sol LeWitt came up with his Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, Weiner formulated his famous Declaration of Intent (1968):

1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.

Weiner created his first book Statements in 1968, a small 64 page paperback with texts describing projects. Published by The Louis Kellner Foundation and Seth Siegelaub, "Statements" is considered one of the seminal conceptual artist's books of the era. He was a contributor to the famous Xeroxbook also published by Seth Siegelaub in 1968. Since the early 1970s, wall installations have been his primary medium, and he has shown at the Leo Castelli gallery. Nevertheless, Weiner works in a wide variety of media, including video, film, books, sound art using audio tape, sculpture, performance art, installation art, and graphic art. In 2007 he participated at the symposium “Personal Structures Time-Space-Existence” a project which was initiated by the artist Rene Rietmeyer. In 2008 an excerpt from his opera (with composer Peter Gordon) The Society Architect Ponders the Golden Gate Bridge was issued on the compilation album Crosstalk: American Speech Music (Bridge Records) produced by Mendi + Keith Obadike. In 2009 he participated in the art project Find Me, by Gema Alava, in company of artists Robert Ryman, Merrill Wagner and Paul Kos.

Bibliography

  • Dieter Schwarz. ed. Lawrence Weiner: Books 1968-1989. Köln / Villeurbanne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König / Le Nouveau Musée, 1989.
  • Bartomeu Mari & Alice Weiner. ed. Show & Tell: The Films and Videos of Lawrence Weiner. Ghent: Imschoot, 1992.
  • Alexander Alberro, Alice Zimmerman, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, David Batchelor. Lawrence Weiner. London: Phaidon, 1998.
  • Gerti Fietzek & Gregor Stemmrich. ed. Having Been Said: Writings & Interviews of Lawrence Weiner 1968-2003. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2004.
  • Donna De Salvo and Ann Goldstein. ed. Lawrence Weiner: As Far as the Eye Can See. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007.
  • Peter Lodermeyer, Karlyn De Jongh & Sarah Gold, Personal Structures: Time Space Existence, DuMont Verlag, Cologne, Germany, 2009.

References

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