Art in the Information Age: Technology and Conceptual

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Art in the Information Age: Technology and Conceptual S A I N G D Art in the Information Age: G R C A U P L H T Technology and Conceptual Art U A R R E T A B S T R A C T Edward A. Shanken Art historians have generally drawn sharp distinctions be- tween conceptual art and art- and-technology. This essay reexamines the interrelationship of these tendencies as they developed in the 1960s, focus- n the mid-1960s, Marshall McLuhan prophesied protocols of computer software and ing on the art criticism of Jack I Burnham and the artists in- that electronic media were creating an increasingly intercon- the increasingly “dematerialized” cluded in the Software exhibition nected global village. Such pronouncements popularized the forms of experimental art, which that he curated. The historiciza- idea that the era of machine-age technology was drawing to a the critic interpreted, metaphori- tion of these practices as close, ushering in a new era of information technology. Sens- cally, as functioning like informa- distinct artistic categories is ing this shift, Pontus Hultén organized a simultaneously nos- tion processing systems. Software examined. By interpreting talgic and futuristic exhibition on art and mechanical included works by conceptual artists conceptual art and art-and- technology as re¯ections and technology at the Museum of Modern Art in New York such as Les Levine, Hans Haacke constituents of broad cultural (MOMA) in 1968. The Machine: As Seen at the End of the Me- and Joseph Kosuth, whose art was transformations during the chanical Age included work ranging from Leonardo da Vinci’s presented beside displays of tech- information age, the author 16th-century drawings of !ying machines to contemporary nology including the "rst public ex- concludes that the two tenden- cies share important similarities, artist-engineer collaborations selected through a competition hibition of hypertext (Labyrinth, an and that this common ground organized by Experiments in Art and Technology, Inc. (E.A.T.). electronic exhibition catalog de- offers useful insights into E.A.T. had emerged out of the enthusiasm generated by nine signed by Ned Woodman and Ted late±20th-century art. evenings: theatre and engineering, a festival of technologically en- Nelson) and a model of intelligent hanced performances that artist Robert Rauschenberg and architecture (SEEK, a recon"g- engineer Billy Klüver organized in New York in October 1966. urable environment for gerbils designed by Nicholas Negro- E.A.T. also lent its expertise to engineering a multimedia ex- ponte and the Architecture Machine Group at the Massachusetts travaganza designed for the Pepsi Pavilion at the Osaka World’s Institute of Technology) [1]. Fair in 1970. Simultaneously, the American Pavilion at Osaka Regardless of these points of intersection and the fact that included an exhibition of collaborative projects between artists conceptual art emerged during a moment of intensive artis- and industry that were produced under the aegis of the Art tic experimentation with technology, few scholars have ex- and Technology (A&T) Program at the Los Angeles County plored the relationship between technology and conceptual Museum of Art. art. Indeed, art-historical literature traditionally has drawn Ambitious as they were, few of the celebrated artist-engineer rigid categorical distinctions between conceptual art and art- collaborations of this period focused on the artistic use of in- and-technology. The following reexamination, however, chal- formation technologies, such as computers and telecommu- lenges the disciplinary boundaries that obscure signi"cant nications. Taking an important step in that direction, Cybernetic parallels between these practices. The "rst part describes Burn- Serendipity, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in ham’s curatorial premises for the Software exhibition and in- 1968, was thematically centered on the relationship between terprets works in the show by Levine, Haacke and Kosuth. The computers and creativity. This show, however, remained fo- second part proposes several possible reasons why conceptual cused on the materiality of technological apparatuses and their art and art-and-technology became "xed as distinct, if not anti- products, such as robotic devices and computer graphics. thetical, categories. The conclusion suggests that the corre- Art critic Jack Burnham pushed the exploration of the rela- spondences shared by these two artistic tendencies offer tionship between art and information technology to an un- grounds for rethinking the relationship between them as con- precedented point. In 1970, he curated the exhibition Software, stituents of larger social transformations from the machine Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art, at the Jewish Mu- age of industrial society to the so-called information age of seum in New York. This show was the "rst major U.S. art-and- post-industrial society. technology exhibition that attempted to utilize computers in Before proceeding, some working de"nitions will clarify the a museum context. Software’s technological ambitions were terminology of conceptual art and art-and-technology in order matched by Burnham’s conceptually sophisticated vision, for to open up a discussion of their relatedness beyond the nar- the show drew parallels between the ephemeral programs and row con"nes of extant discourses. Resisting the arch formal- ism that had become institutionalized by the 1960s, conceptual art has sought to analyze the ideas underlying the creation and Edward A. Shanken (art historian), Information Science 1 Studies (ISIS), 17 John Hope reception of art, rather than to elaborate another stylistic con- Franklin Center, Box 90400, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, U.S.A. E-mail: <edward.shanken@duke.edu>. vention in the historical succession of modernist avant-garde Based on a paper originally presented at SIGGRAPH 2001 in Los Angeles, California, 12–17 movements. Investigations by conceptual artists into networks August 2001. The paper was presented in the art gallery theater as part of the Art and of signi"cation and structures of knowledge (which enable art Culture Papers component of N-Space, the SIGGRAPH 2001 Art Gallery. An earlier, shorter version of this essay was published in SIGGRAPH 2001 Electronic Art and Animation Catalog to have meaning) have frequently employed text as a strate- (New York: ACM SIGGRAPH, 2001) pp. 8–15. Reprinted courtesy ACM SIGGRAPH. gic device to examine the interstice between visual and verbal © 2002 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 433–438, 2002 433 S A I N G D languages as semiotic systems. In this re- Esthetics” (1968) and “Real Time simulations and representations—i.e. G gard, conceptual art is a meta-critical and Systems” (1969) [4], Burnham designed software—as opposed to "rst-hand, di- R C A U self-re!exive art process. It is engaged in Software to function as a testing ground rect, corporeal experiences of actual ob- P L H T theorizing the possibilities of signi"ca- for public interaction with “information jects, places and events, i.e. hardware. U tion in art’s multiple contexts (including systems and their devices.” Many of the A R All activities which have no connection R E its history and criticism, exhibitions and displays were indeed interactive and T with object or material mass are the re- markets). In interrogating the relation- based on two-way communication be- sult of software. Images themselves are ship between ideas and art, conceptual tween the viewer and the exhibit. Software hardware. Information about these im- art de-emphasizes the value traditionally was predicated, moreover, on the ideas of ages is software. The experience of seeing something "rst hand is no longer accorded to the materiality of art objects. “software” and “information technology” of value in a software controlled society, It focuses, rather, on examining the pre- as metaphors for art. Burnham conceived as anything seen through the media car- conditions for how meaning emerges in of “software” as parallel to the aesthetic ries just as much energy as "rst hand ex- art, seen as a semiotic system. principles, concepts or programs that un- perience. In the same way, most of the Art-and-technology has focused its in- derlie the formal embodiment of actual art that is produced today ends up as in- formation about art [8]. quiry on the materials and/or concepts art objects, which in turn parallel “hard- of technology and science, which it rec- ware.” In this regard, he interpreted con- Levine conceived of the 31,000 indi- ognizes artists have historically incorpo- temporary experimental art practices, vidual photos as the residual effects or rated in their work. Its investigations including conceptual art, as predomi- “burn-off” of the information system he include: (1) the aesthetic examination of nantly concerned with the software aspect created—as the material manifestation the visual forms of science and technol- of aesthetic production. of software. In other words, Systems Burn- ogy, (2) the application of science and In his 1970 essay “Alice’s Head,” Burn- Off was an artwork that produced infor- technology in order to create visual forms ham suggested that, like the “grin with- mation (software) about the information and (3) the use of scienti"c concepts and out the cat” in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in produced and disseminated by the media technological media both to question Wonderland, conceptual art was all but de- (software) about art (hardware). It of- their prescribed applications and to cre- void of the conventional materiality as- fered a critique of the systematic process ate new aesthetic models. In this third sociated with art objects. He subsequently through which art objects (hardware) be- case, art-and-technology, like conceptual explained Software in similar terms, as “an come transformed by the media into in- art, is also a meta-critical process. It chal- attempt to produce aesthetic sensations formation about art objects (software). lenges the systems of knowledge (and the without the intervening ‘object’” [5].
Recommended publications
  • Cartography and Mapping Visualizations—A Genealogy of Space
    THE PARSONS INSTITUTE 68 Fifth Avenue 212 229 6825 FOR INFORMATION MAPPING New York, NY 10011 piim.newschool.edu and artists, such as Buckminster Fuller and Roy Ascott,2 Cartography and Mapping developing devices for territorial knowledge and research- Visualizations—A Genealogy ing the common social understandings under a single, self- of Space: Digitization and Visual comparative, world map. Artist Ursula Biemann also maps matters on geopolitics, mineral resources, and material Representation of Knowledge as Art wars. In her work, she depicts the artist as a change-agent who can help solve problems for society using archives, LAURA GARCIA, MA libraries, and databases. One such example she presents is the history of the Caucasus/Caspian crude oil and gas pipelines that travel KEYWORDS Art and memory, art and technology through East/Middle East roads. This is a geopolitical awareness, genealogy of space, phenomenology, artwork that contributes to developing the aesthetics psychogeography, visual displacement of spaces. Considering artworks using mapping, docu- mental, archives, or databases. These strategies for DATE 2012–2013 social observation can be artistically rendered as car- tographic, databases, or other mapping formats. These URL http://cartographies-of-non-place.blogspot.co.uk/ representational systems can be said to include examples from video.art to net.art, and belong to communication ABSTRACT Since the end of the Cold War art and technol- and social sciences. Using documents and aesthetics of ogy awareness theory has emerged in response to concur- process, art, and language artworks based upon extensive rently developing forms of new media. This theory re- lists, alphabetical orders, archives, etc., 1970s conceptual sponds to digitization as it arises out of analogue systems art tried to resolve the tensions between art and memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Discovering the Contemporary
    of formalist distance upon which modernists had relied for understanding the world. Critics increasingly pointed to a correspondence between the formal properties of 1960s art and the nature of the radically changing world that sur- rounded them. In fact formalism, the commitment to prior- itizing formal qualities of a work of art over its content, was being transformed in these years into a means of discovering content. Leo Steinberg described Rauschenberg’s work as “flat- bed painting,” one of the lasting critical metaphors invented 1 in response to the art of the immediate post-World War II Discovering the Contemporary period.5 The collisions across the surface of Rosenquist’s painting and the collection of materials on Rauschenberg’s surfaces were being viewed as models for a new form of realism, one that captured the relationships between people and things in the world outside the studio. The lesson that formal analysis could lead back into, rather than away from, content, often with very specific social significance, would be central to the creation and reception of late-twentieth- century art. 1.2 Roy Lichtenstein, Golf Ball, 1962. Oil on canvas, 32 32" (81.3 1.1 James Rosenquist, F-111, 1964–65. Oil on canvas with aluminum, 10 86' (3.04 26.21 m). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 81.3 cm). Courtesy The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. New Movements and New Metaphors Purchase Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alex L. Hillman and Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (both by exchange). Acc. n.: 473.1996.a-w. Artists all over the world shared U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Anomalies: Art & Language in the Art School 1969-1979
    Strategic Anomalies: Art & Language in the Art School 1969-1979 Dennis, M. Submitted version deposited in Coventry University’s Institutional Repository Original citation: Dennis, M. () Strategic Anomalies: Art & Language in the Art School 1969-1979. Unpublished MSC by Research Thesis. Coventry: Coventry University Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Some materials have been removed from this thesis due to Third Party Copyright. Pages where material has been removed are clearly marked in the electronic version. The unabridged version of the thesis can be viewed at the Lanchester Library, Coventry University. Strategic Anomalies: Art & Language in ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ the Art School 1969-1979 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Mark Dennis ​ ​ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University’s ​ ​​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy/Master of ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Research September 2016 ​ ​ Library Declaration and Deposit Agreement Title: Forename: Family Name: Mark Dennis Student ID: Faculty: Award: 4744519 Arts & Humanities PhD Thesis Title: Strategic Anomalies: Art & Language in the Art School 1969-1979 Freedom of Information: Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) ensures access to any information held by Coventry University, including theses, unless an exception or exceptional circumstances apply. In the interest of scholarship, theses of the University are normally made freely available online in the Institutions Repository, immediately on deposit.
    [Show full text]
  • Art and Language 14Th November – 18Th January 2003 52 - 54 Bell Street
    Art and Language 14th November – 18th January 2003 52 - 54 Bell Street Lisson Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition by Art & Language. Art and Language played a key role in the birth of Conceptual Art both theoretically and in terms of the work produced. The name Art & Language was first used by Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge, Harold Hurrell and Terry Atkinson in 1968 to describe their collaborative work which had been taking place since 1966-67 and as the title of the journal dedicated to the theoretical and critical issues of conceptual art. The collaboration widened between 1969 and 1970 to include Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden, Joseph Kosuth and Charles Harrison. The collaborative nature of the venture was conceived by the artists as offering a critical inquiry into the social, philosophical and psychological position of the artist which they regarded as mystification. By the mid-1970s a large body of critical and theoretical as well as artistic works had developed in the form of publications, indexes, records, texts, performances and paintings. Since 1977, Art and Language has been identified with the collaborative work of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden and with the theoretical and critical collaboration of these two with Charles Harrison. The process of indexing lies at the heart of the endeavours of Art and Language. One such project that will be included in the exhibition is Wrongs Healed in Official Hope, a remaking of an earlier index, Index 01, produced by Art & Language for the Documenta of 1972. Whereas Index 01 was intended as a functioning tool in the recovery and public understanding of Art and Language, Wrongs Healed in Official Hope is a ‘logical implosion’ of these early indexes as conversations questioning the process of indexing became the material of the indexing project itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptual Art in Britain 1964–1979 Art & Language Large Print Guide
    Conceptual Art in Britain 1964–1979 12 April – 29 August 2016 Art & Language Large Print Guide Please return to exhibition entrance Art & Language 1 To focus on reading rather than looking marked a huge shift for art. Language was to be used as art to question art. It would provide a scientific and critical device to address what was wrong with modernist abstract painting, and this approach became the basis for the activity of the Art & Language group, active from about 1967. They investigated how and under what conditions the naming of art takes place, and suggested that meaning in art might lie not with the material object itself, but with the theoretical argument underpinning it. By 1969 the group that constituted Art & Language started to grow. They published a magazine Art-Language and their practice became increasingly rooted in group discussions like those that took place on their art theory course at Coventry College of Art. Theorising here was not subsidiary to art or an art object but the primary activity for these artists. 2 Wall labels Clockwise from right of wall text Art & Language (Mel Ramsden born 1944) Secret Painting 1967–8 Two parts, acrylic paint on canvas and framed Photostat text Mel Ramsden first made contact with Art & Language in 1969. He and Ian Burn were then published in the second and third issues of Art-Language. The practice he had evolved, primarily with Ian Burn, in London and then after 1967 in New York was similar to the critical position regarding modernism that Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin were exploring.
    [Show full text]
  • N. 17 Dicembre 2017/Marzo 2018 a Painting by Hans Haacke
    n. 17 dicembre 2017/marzo 2018 A Painting by Hans Haacke : Dematerializing Labor di Andreas Petrossiants Artistic activity is a mode – a singular form – of labor power . Antonio Negri, 2008 1 To center an essay concerning the more - than - expansive discursive field denoted by «painting», on just one work by Hans Haacke, might at first glance seem misplaced. However, while Haacke’s work was surely instrumental for the shifts in Western artistic pra ctice comprising the «conceptual turn» of the 1960s and the parallel «dematerialization» of the art object, his painting Taking Stock (unfinished) (1983 - 1984 ) not only brings such broad period generalizations into question, but also examines the labor invo lved in producing (the value of) a painting [fig. 1]. Taking Stock (unfinished) , first exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1984, depicts Margaret Thatcher in the style of Victorian portraiture, encoded with information concerning the careers and art collectio ns of Charles and Doris Saatchi, as well as their ties to Thatcher and her reactionary government. Referring specifically to the medium and style of the work, Haacke remarks that it was produced to cite and critique how Thatcher «expressly promotes Victori an values, nineteenth century conservative policies at the end of the twentieth century». He continues: « Thatcher would like to rule an imperial Britain. The Falklands War was typical of this mentality». 2 This essay proposes to displace and problematize the traditional discourses applied to historicizing conceptual art, and to describe how Haacke employs both physical «painterly» and immaterial conceptual labor to produce a material object. He fosters a str ategy mirroring the changes in the structure and critical position of the (art) worker 1 during the late 1960s.
    [Show full text]
  • Art, Technology, Consciousness Mind@Large
    Art, Technology, Consciousness mind@large Edited by Roy Ascott intellect Art, Technology, Consciousness mind@large Edited by Roy Ascott First Published in Hardback in 2000 in Great Britain by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK Intellect Books, ISBS, 5804 N.E. Hassalo St, Portland, Oregon 97213-3644, USA Copyright ©2000 Intellect Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording, or otherwise, without written permission. Consulting Editor: Masoud Yazdani Copy Editor: Peter Young A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Electronic ISBN 1-84150-814-4 / Hardback ISBN 1-84150-041-0 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cromwell Press, Wiltshire Acknowledgements There are many individuals to thank for their help in bringing this book into being. In addition to the authors themselves, my colleagues and students in CAiiA-STAR, the editorial support team at ACES, and the staff of Intellect, thanks are due to Professor Ken Overshott, Principal of the University of Wales College Newport, for his continuing support. Contents Preface Beyond Boundaries 2 Edge-Life: technoetic structures and moist media – Roy Ascott Towards a Third Culture | Being in Between – Victoria Vesna The Posthuman Conception of Consciousness: a 10-point guide – Robert Pepperell Genesis: a transgenic artwork – Eduardo Kac Techno-Darwinism: artificial selection in the Electronic age – Bill
    [Show full text]
  • Cybernetics in Society and Art
    Stephen Jones Visiting Fellow, College of Fines Arts, University of NSW s.r.jones@unsw.edu.au Cybernetics in Society and Art Abstract: This paper argues that cybernetics is a description of systems in conversation: that is, it is about systems “talk- ing” to each other, engaging in processes through which information is communicated or exchanged between each system or each element in a particular system, say a body or a society. It proposes that cybernetics de- scribes the process, or mechanism, that lies at the basis of all conversation and interaction and that this factor makes it valuable for the analysis of not only electronic communication systems but also of societal organisation and intra-communication and for interaction within the visual/electronic arts. The paper discusses the actual process of Cybernetics as a feedback driven mechanism for the self-regulation of a collection of logically linked objects (i.e., a system). These may constitute a machine of some sort, a biological body, a society or an interactive artwork and its interlocutors. The paper then looks at a variety of examples of systems that operate through cybernetic principles and thus demonstrate various aspects of the cybernetic pro- cess. After a discussion of the basic principles using the primary example of a thermostat, the paper looks at Stafford Beer's Cybersyn project developed for the self-regulation of the Chilean economy. Following this it examines the conversational, i.e., interactive, behaviour of a number of artworks, beginning with Gordon Pask's Colloquy of Mobiles developed for Cybernetic Serendipity in 1968. It then looks at some Australian and inter- national examples of interactive art that show various levels of cybernetic behaviours.
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptual Art: a Critical Anthology
    Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology Alexander Alberro Blake Stimson, Editors The MIT Press conceptual art conceptual art: a critical anthology edited by alexander alberro and blake stimson the MIT press • cambridge, massachusetts • london, england ᭧1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Adobe Garamond and Trade Gothic by Graphic Composition, Inc. and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conceptual art : a critical anthology / edited by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-01173-5 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Conceptual art. I. Alberro, Alexander. II. Stimson, Blake. N6494.C63C597 1999 700—dc21 98-52388 CIP contents ILLUSTRATIONS xii PREFACE xiv Alexander Alberro, Reconsidering Conceptual Art, 1966–1977 xvi Blake Stimson, The Promise of Conceptual Art xxxviii I 1966–1967 Eduardo Costa, Rau´ l Escari, Roberto Jacoby, A Media Art (Manifesto) 2 Christine Kozlov, Compositions for Audio Structures 6 He´lio Oiticica, Position and Program 8 Sol LeWitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art 12 Sigmund Bode, Excerpt from Placement as Language (1928) 18 Mel Bochner, The Serial Attitude 22 Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier, Niele Toroni, Statement 28 Michel Claura, Buren, Mosset, Toroni or Anybody 30 Michael Baldwin, Remarks on Air-Conditioning: An Extravaganza of Blandness 32 Adrian Piper, A Defense of the “Conceptual” Process in Art 36 He´lio Oiticica, General Scheme of the New Objectivity 40 II 1968 Lucy R.
    [Show full text]
  • From Point to Pixel: a Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy
    From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Whitney Davis, co-chair Professor Jeffrey Skoller, co-chair Professor Warren Sack Professor Abigail DeKosnik Professor Kristen Whissel Spring 2010 Copyright 2010 by Hoy, Meredith All rights reserved. Abstract From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Whitney Davis, Co-chair Professor Jeffrey Skoller, Co-chair When we say, in response to a still or moving picture, that it has a digital “look” about it, what exactly do we mean? How can the slick, color-saturated photographs of Jeff Wall and Andreas Gursky signal digitality, while the flattened, pixelated landscapes of video games such as Super Mario Brothers convey ostensibly the same characteristic of “being digital,” but in a completely different manner? In my dissertation, From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics, I argue for a definition of a "digital method" that can be articulated without reference to the technicalities of contemporary hardware and software. I allow, however, the possibility that this digital method can acquire new characteristics when it is performed by computational technology. I therefore treat the artworks covered in my dissertation as sensuous artifacts that are subject to change based on the constraints and affordances of the tools used in their making.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release Zurich, 3 February 2017 Hans Haacke Receives The
    Press release Zurich, 3 February 2017 Hans Haacke receives the Roswitha Haftmann Prize Hans Haacke (b. 1936) receives Europe’s best endowed art award, worth CHF 150,000, from the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation. The Board of the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation has decided to award the Roswitha Haftmann Prize to Hans Haacke in recognition of his life’s work. The jury praised his courageous and unflinching commitment over many decades and his ability to foster debate on social issues through provocative art, but also his intellectual brilliance and the formal quality of his works. Hans Haacke was born in Cologne in 1936 and has lived in New York since 1965. He has aroused particular controversy for the political aspects of his work. CONCEPTUAL ART AND LAND ART Haacke studied at the Staatliche Werkakademie, Kassel, from 1956 to 1960. His early works already revolved around systems and processes and analysed their workings – and failures. The young artist presented interactions between physical and biological systems, animals, plants and states of water and wind; he also made forays into land art. From 1970 onwards, he increasingly turned his attention to political developments and the mechanisms of manipula- tion – of opinions, sensibilities and historical facts. MARKET, POLITICS, MORALITY The abrupt cancellation of his exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in 1971, which was to include his ‘Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971’, on property ownership and speculation, led to a heated debate on the politics of conceptual art. In Cologne in 1974 he put forward a provocative project on the provenance of a still life by Edouard Manet purchased for the Wallraf Richartz Museum on the initiative of the then chairman of its patron association Hermann Josef Abs, and turned the spotlight on his role in the Third Reich.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans Haacke Biography
    P A U L A C O O P E R G A L L E R Y Hans Haacke Biography 1936 Born Cologne, Germany 1956-60 Staatliche Werkakademie (State Art Academy), Kassel, Staatsexamen (equivalent of M.F.A.) 1960-61 Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17, Paris 1961 Tyler School of Fine Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia 1962 Moves to New York 1963-65 Return to Cologne. Teaches at Pädagogische Hochschule, Kettwig, and other institutions 1966-67 Teaches at University of Washington, Seattle; Douglas College, Rutgers University, New Jersey; Philadelphia College of Art 1967 - 2002 Teaches at Cooper Union, New York (Professor of Art Emeritus) 1973 Guest Professorship, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg 1979 Guest Professorship, Gesamthochschule, Essen 1994 Guest Professorship, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg 1997 Regents Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley Lives in New York (since 1965) Awards 1960 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) 1961 Fulbright Fellowship 1973 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship 1978 National Endowment for the Arts 1991 College Art Association Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement Deutscher Kritikerpreis for 1990 Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Oberlin College 1993 Golden Lion (shared with Nam June Paik), Venice Biennale 1997 Kurt-Eisner-Foundation, Munich Honorary Doctorate Bauhaus-Universität Weimar 2001 Prize of Helmut-Kraft-Stiftung, Stuttgart 2002 College Art Association Distinguished Teaching of Art Award 2004 Peter-Weiss-Preis, Bochum 2008 Honorary Doctorate, San Francisco Art Institute
    [Show full text]