Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner (born 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 New York City 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]

Early career

Weiner was born in the Bronx, New York. His work in the early 1960s included 6 years of making explosions in the landscape of California to create craters as individual sculptures.[5] 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.
Later career

Since the early 1970s, wall installations have been Weiner's 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.

References

^ Artist Ranking: Top 100 Artists
^ Marian Goodman Gallery
^ Yvon Lambert
^ Dvir Gallery
^ DIA Center Bio

External links

Work for the Abbey of Corbigny, "Au pays"
Guggenheim bio page
Lisson Gallery
Lawrence Weiner in the Video Data Bank
Homeport
Lawrence Weiner audio work "Having Been Done At / Having Been Done To, Essendo Stato Fatto A", 1973 (excerpt 2:25) from Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Artist statement and bio by the Guggenheim in Berlin
PersonalStructures.org
Lawrence Weiner video by Hillman Curtis
Lawrence Weiner at Dvir Gallery
Lawrence Weiner at Regen Projects, Los Angeles

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