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ROBERT WHITMAN 61

ROBERT WHITMAN

61 ROBERT WHITMAN

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October 26 – December 21, 2018 510 West 25th Street, 5

Robert Whitman: Theater of Images

Adam Harrison Levy

If you expect Robert Whitman to talk about his directions, Kaprow opened a door for Whitman. art, forget it. He’d rather discuss the Masi lugs “You didn’t have to be concerned about these things on the frames of a racing bike, the role of clowns lasting forever,” Whitman recalls. “You could be in Fellini films, or his local hardware store. “Too sloppy, and you could make work that decayed and much thinking,” he says, as we pull into the park- fell apart.” In the late ’50s, he would sometimes ing lot in front of Joann, the local craft store near leave drawings on his garage floor for a few weeks Warwick, New York, where he lives. “I’m a great so that tire marks and oil drippings would add to believer in instinct.” their composition. In Untitled (Checkerboard) (1957; p. 42), he used Scotch tape and aluminum I had asked him about the role of impermanence foil, everyday materials that are fragile and transi- in the work of , , and tory. Some sixty years later, the tape is brittle and , fellow artists who had also played pivotal the foil has lost some of its luster. roles in the downtown art scene of New York in the and Robert Whitman at the The Menil Collection, 10th Anniversary celebration, Houston, 1997 late 1950s and early ’60s. Instead, he is intent on This is also true of the sets he would later build for buying fabric for his reconstruction of One Thread, his incandescent theater pieces American Moon a work that was first shown in 1970. He gets out of (1960) and Flower (1963). They seemed purposely his car and heads across the parking lot. ephemeral. American Moon, Whitman recalls, was “like a backwards filming of something that had Whitman says he likes to use materials that are crumbled and was growing up again, reconstructing “rough, cheap, and dirty.” Melissa Rachleff, the itself out of all these boards and fragile parts.” author of Inventing Downtown, tells me that they result in “fugitive artwork,” work that isn’t meant Susanne De Maria, one of the original performers to be permanent, an aesthetic he picked up from in Flower, also recalls the transitory delicacy of Kaprow, who had been his art professor at Rutgers Whitman’s work. In the performance, she wore a University. Although their work evolved in different satin costume that she buttoned and unbuttoned 6 7

to reveal different layers, each a distinct stratum Unfazed by his odd request, she flops the bolt over Asbel believes that this is the element that distin- which they were set. It was the physical context for of color. At one point, a sack fell from the ceiling as if rolling a dead fish in flour. She measures out guishes Whitman’s work from what other artists the images he created. In American Moon, audi- and rags were violently ripped from it. It’s a the fabric, cuts it, and unceremoniously dumps it were making at that time. ence members sat across from one another in shocking image. But the original sack has van- in a white plastic bag. six tunnels resembling mini theaters, each with a ished. “I mean, who would save a bag of rags?” Whitman studied English as an undergraduate at 16mm film projected onto flaps that would later roll she says with a laugh. “Careful,” says Whitman as she hands it over. Rutgers and wanted to be a playwright. But he up. The tunnels faced one another with a circle for “That’s going to be a work of art.” found theater at that time to be deathly boring. The performance in the middle. When the flaps rolled Rachleff believes that Whitman intentionally made cultural energy was elsewhere. “The most vital up, the beam from the projectors would fall on the his work to be experienced in the moment and * * * * * stuff in the arts in those days was Abstract Expres- audience on the other side, turning them into the that it wasn’t meant to last. It was an aesthetic, sionism and painting,” he says. So he gravitated to equivalent of film images. Action then took place as well as an ethic, of impermanence. There was Whitman’s reputation as an artist hasn’t solidified the art department and took a class in art history in the center space while the noise of actors’ feet a sense, she says, that if “you just sneezed on it, into a coherent narrative yet. Depending on whom taught by Kaprow, who encouraged Whitman. He walking on platforms came from overhead. Toward it looked like everything would just get destroyed you talk to, he is the first artist to use film with began spending time with fellow art student Lucas the end, the audience would come out of their and disappear.” Which is exactly why Whitman and sculpture, he is a pioneer of theatrical performance Samaras as well as with George Segal, who, tunnels and gather in the middle. The lights would I are walking into Joann. The thread that was One who did away with linguistic narrative, he is an although not a student, lived close by and taught a turn off and then come back on, and a performer Thread had disappeared. innovator who saw the potential of collaborations drawing class. Whitman started making things in (Samaras) would be magically suspended above between art and technology, and he makes draw- the studio. “You just built the stuff you wanted to the audience, frozen in mid-flight on a swing, like a ings, sculptures, and prints like a traditional artist. do,” he recalls. The art department was miniscule, circus performer caught in a strobe. * * * * * Whitman, like his namesake, contains multitudes. the resources were thin (he would later say that the Joann is a suburban craft store for people who like art library had fewer books than most artists now Whitman was liberating his work from the con- to make things, such as baby clothes, quilts, and His mutability is a blessing and a curse. It has have in their own personal possession), but it was a straints of traditional theater. The physical impact scrapbooks. The store smells of potpourri. Whitman allowed him to move deftly between genres without fever storm of passionate conversation and argu- of the tunnels, the flaps, and the placement of the looks out of place. He’s dressed in jeans, with a being categorized. Part of the problem is that art ment that would later migrate to and audience informed the experience of what was gray, long-sleeved shirt over a light blue T-shirt. historical classifications haven’t caught up with energize the art scene there. being seen. This was radical at the time. He’s wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and a day’s him yet, even in this age of interdisciplinary studies. worth of stubble. Is he best understood under the rubric of perfor- Kaprow introduced Whitman to that New York This attention to the use of space came to fruition mance? Or as part of the lineage of theater? Is his scene, first by inviting him to show at the Hansa in a much later work, Light Touch (1976). In this use of technology and collaboration with engineers Gallery in January 1959 and then by including him theater piece, performed on a loading dock, the “We’re looking for muslin,” says Whitman offhandedly. his defining artistic mode? How do you integrate in the groundbreaking 18 in 6 Parts audience sat on the loading platform looking A slightly puzzled greeter points us toward a far objects, like his sculptures, Cinema Pieces, and that fall. Whitman responded in 1960 with a torrent toward the entrance. The truck noises reached wall. We pass spools of satin ribbons, jars of glitter drawings, with his other work? He’s not a Pop art- of creativity, producing his first theater work, Small the audience from disorienting directions until the glue, and some lime-green calico drapery. Whitman ist, as others of his generation, such as Oldenburg Cannon, followed by Duet for a Small Smell, E.G., doors of the loading bay opened, mercury vapor zeroes in on the muslin. He fingers the fabric with and Dine, have been labeled, and he’s certainly not and culminating in American Moon, which was street lights started to glow, and a truck backed expert delicacy. a conceptual artist. He occupies a no man’s land of presented at the Reuben Gallery. These works into the bay. The space of the street became part his own creation. shared many of the characteristics of Oldenburg, of the piece. “Bob comes to the environment with a “We want stuff that’s unbleached,” he says, moving Dine, and : immersive environments, poetic agenda,” says Asbel. “And he uses his poetic down the row. He quickly finds the one he wants, Jim Asbel, who worked for Whitman as an assistant non-narrative structures, and an emphasis on agenda with that environment.” hauls the bolt off the rack, and carries it over to a in the ’70s, struggles to define the arc of Whitman’s powerful imagery. bored-looking shop assistant. “How much do you career. Unlike Oldenburg or Robert Rauschenberg, In News, which was first conceived in 1972, people want?” she asks. “Enough for one long thread,” he says, Whitman didn’t start from an art-making What was distinctive about Whitman’s pieces was were asked to use pay phones to call into the New Whitman says. “How about twenty feet?” trajectory, but from “live-action theater-making.” that he was especially attuned to the space in York radio station WBAI and describe, live and on 8 9

air, what they were seeing on the street. Whitman (E.A.T.), which Whitman was also involved with, Whitman doesn’t like being railroaded by pre-pre- Was the “kaboom” the recognition that intuition gave each caller twenty seconds to talk, but if they playing a significant role in the Pepsi-Cola pavilion pared questions. “Nature has a way of directing and irrationality were valid—that he didn’t have described an image (for example, “I see an elderly installation at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. Since 2005, conversation,” he says, when I ask him, too abrupt- to “think” about his work in a conscious way? I man in a checked jacket walking his dachshund she has produced many of his performances. ly, about artistic influences. It’s not something he remembered a story that his daughter, Pilar, told down the street”), he would cut them off and take likes talking about. Instead, he turns the conver- me. She came home from school one day and the next call. It was a sonic found poem of the street. Martin also tries to explain Whitman’s oeuvre. We sation to his granddaughter, Fiona, and her love of found her father on the sofa with his head thrown discuss the difficulty of categorizing his work. Is it Japanese manga, and then to his daughter’s dog, back as if he was sleeping. “Careful,” he said, In 2003, for a performance in Leeds, England, he an example of “interdisciplinary fluidity”? She thinks Daisy, who is panting at his side. opening his eyes, “I’m working.” upgraded the piece by asking participants to use that’s a nice-sounding phrase but not one she would cell phones to call in their descriptions. In 2005, he ever use; it doesn’t fit with Whitman’s aesthetic or But then the conversation takes another turn and Susanne De Maria, who also performed in his took it a step further by asking participants to use his sensibility. Discussing Wavy Red Line (1967; pp. he describes watching an elderly couple trying to early-’60s theater piece Prune Flat, calls Whitman the new technology of cell-phone video to shoot 30–31), and the way in which the laser seems to cross a road. They would start out, take a few steps, a “dream maker.” She is also the woman apply- twenty seconds of footage. The images were then bloom across the walls of the gallery through a mist and be forced to retreat by a passing car. They ing makeup in Dressing Table, both in the original uploaded to a website and projected onto screens resembling smoke, she has an astute insight: The would start out again and another car would pass (c. 1964) and in the re-creation (2018; pp. 12–15). in the performance space in the order in which they continuity that links Whitman’s seemingly disparate by, and the couple would retreat. And this happened Filming it some fifty-four years later was a discon- were received. Participants were also asked to ver- work is performance. In Red Stream (1994–95; p. 28), over and over. It took them an agonizingly long time certing experience. De Maria found herself trying to bally describe what they were seeing, in real time, the way the water pours from the wall and splashes to cross the road, but they eventually made it. remember: How did she hold her hands back then? independent of the video footage. As soon as an into the bucket is performance. The way in Dressing How did she apply eyeliner? She doesn’t want to image was described, Whitman would hang up and Table (c. 1964) the woman applies makeup is per- He tells the story in a way that is both poignant speculate about the piece, except to say that she go on to the next call. The piece was not a loop; it formance. In Io (2007; p. 20), the way the image of and funny. “It’s hard to do anything,” he says thought it was strange for this woman to be putting was not mechanical. The gap between the video Jupiter’s moon is projected onto the cloth, and how without irony. “People don’t realize how hard it is to on makeup in nature, rather than in a bathroom. a slice of that projection hits the wall and creates the and the audio is what made the audience pay atten- cross a road. But for them it was an adventure.” It Maybe she is preparing for a night out in the city, illusion of space is performance that verges on magic. tion. This piece is a visual and aural map of a city is also a Whitmanesque moment: everyday yet pro- but she really wants to be in the country? Perhaps where the environment itself became the subject. found, pedestrian yet poetic. I ask if he is going to it’s not that literal? She gives up. “It’s a visual * * * * * use the image in a piece. “I’ll file it away” he says, dream,” she says, “and it can have a different The one person with the most comprehensive meaning for everyone.” Whitman hates to be interviewed. When he was just slightly annoyed. “It’s in there so you don’t have to knowledge of Whitman’s work is Julie Martin. a kid, he tells me, referring to an interview he did in worry about it. It’ll come out, or not.” Martin was married to the engineer Billy Klüver It is this quality, call it visual poetry or mystery, that 1968 (when he was thirty-three), he said all sorts of who, along with Rauschenberg, conceptualized helps unlock the marvel of another of the Cinema things that now sound to him like gibberish: “When My initial question about artistic influence still 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering, which was Pieces, Shower (c. 1964; pp. 32–35). At first you you’re backed into a corner, you’ll say just about hangs in the air. He won’t answer it directly. “There performed at the 69th Regiment Armory in 1966. see a woman taking a shower. It’s not voyeuristic anything.” Now he’s more practiced. He puts on a are certain ‘kaboom’ images,” he says. “Have you It featured pieces by Whitman, John Cage, Lucinda or titillating but quotidian and pragmatic. And then gruff but friendly front and deflects big questions seen the Duchamp piece Why Not Sneeze, Rose Childs, and David Tudor, among others, and the you realize that the water is made up of a different about art with anecdote. At first this seems evasive. Sélvany?, the one in Philadelphia?” I hadn’t, but I work of Bell Lab engineers such as . color, like paint, and the walls of the shower stall are But his stories turn out to be more revealing than later looked it up. It’s a birdcage full of sugar cubes With its use of fiber-optic cameras, closed-circuit bathed in color as well. Then there are disjunctive theorizing could ever be. (made from marble), a thermometer, a small dish, close-ups of the shower head, the skin of the bather, television, and Doppler sonar, it shattered conven- and a piece of cuttlebone sticking through the top— tion and ignited technological innovation. We are sitting in the living room of his eighteenth- ordinary objects arranged in a way that is both and the drain, and slowly the familiar becomes century house. It’s raining outside, and the garden enigmatic and beautiful. “Well, when I saw it, it was something else entirely, and the piece takes on a Martin was Whitman’s assistant then, and that’s is so green you could munch on it. The house is like, kaboom, it’s over. I had to leave. I couldn’t see kind of wonder, an abstract theatricality. “You’re where she met Klüver. She went on to be an small and sagging. The walls bow. The rooms are anything else.” just drawn in, almost like you would be in a theater integral part of Experiments in Art and Technology close and comfortable in an almost storybook way. production where you’re just like, ‘I’m not sure what 10 11

is going on, I’m not sure what it means, but boy is American Art, 1960–1985, and her performance take on his reaction: “It’s important to know what without irony—beauty, emotion, and what can only it beautiful,’” says Rachleff. “And then, at a certain work, as well as her drawings, are undergoing a the other guy is doing, so you don’t have to do it be called visual poetry. Early on, he recognized the point, you’re like, ‘It’s okay I don’t know what it major revival. She has a sparkly presence. yourself.” Seeing Rauschenberg’s work gave him the limitations of conventional theater and sought to means. It’s this visual experience.’” freedom to follow his own artistic path. Although both expand and deepen the form. He turned to Whitman sidles up to the kitchen counter and both men showed affection for the found object, the vitality of art making to energize that desire, The awe produced by visual experience is some- starts to make a drink, a Jack Daniels and soda, in their work would evolve in different ways. Martin but unlike Oldenburg, Dine, and Rauschenberg, he thing that Whitman has felt from an early age. a highball glass. He scoops the ice and it falls into makes the point that Whitman was of a younger always kept performance at the core. When he was six and living in Cold Spring Harbor, the glass with a clink. In Soundies (2015), there is generation, and, along with Dine and Oldenburg, an upscale enclave on Long Island’s North Fork, also the sound of ice falling into an empty highball broke from the last vestiges of an American art Whitman’s impulse was partly atavistic, harkening he and his brother were taken to the circus. The glass, and it too starts off sharp and clear and that still yearned for European intellectual approval, back to performance before words, where images clown Emmett Kelly was performing. Kelly was carries with it the promise of a convivial evening. even with the success of Abstract Expressionism. communicated awe and even dread, like a pool of not just an ordinary clown; he transformed the But in Soundies, the clink slows down, drops a few Rauschenberg went to Paris for a time. Whitman light being swept into darkness. His use of tech- slapstick art by adding another dimension: the registers, and turns into a deep, resonant gong— always stayed in New York. nology, and collaborations with engineers, can melancholy down-and-out hobo who didn’t rouse another example of Whitman taking the everyday be seen as another facet of that same impulse. the audience to raucous laughter but rather evoked and transforming it into a moment of wonder. * * * * * Whether it’s 8mm and 16mm film, lasers, or NASA affection bordering on pity. At the end of the show, imaging, for Whitman technology is not an end in his Weary Willie tries to sweep up the spotlight in We return to the living room. Whitman picks up The rain has stopped and it’s getting close to itself, but is a means to propel performance into a farcical dance of failure. The spotlight keeps one where we had left off. There are the kaboom images, dinnertime. I hear Sylvia in the kitchen. There’s an ethereal but no less powerful realm of wonder: step ahead of him, always managing to slip away he says, but there are also lurking images. I ask him time to squeeze in one last question. Did Whitman a glimmering image of one of Saturn’s moons, a at the last minute. But then, in a flash of cunning, about that. "Well," he says, "there is a dog in the experience what the literary critic Harold Bloom female form bathed in a shower of color, or the Willie sweeps the light under a rug. He’s caught it. corner of a Goya painting, one of the dark works he called the “anxiety of influence” of the previous red line of a laser seemingly inhaling and exhaling The lights go out. made at the end of his life." And he leaves it at that. generation of artists? across a wall. The visual and emotional impact of We sit in silence. the image—the kaboom—is the point. The mate- The force of the image made the young Whitman “You’re getting too smart for me!” he says with a rial, be it a laser or a piece of string, is simply the feel as if time itself had stopped. He looked around He knows what I’m looking for. He hesitates for laugh. He ponders for a bit. “George [Segal] once means to get there. at the audience; he couldn’t believe what he had one more moment and then gives it up. “I was a said something that shocked me. He was talking just seen. It was an epiphany. Why hadn’t every- fucking lucky kid when I met Bob,” he says, re- about Picasso, and he said that ‘he strides across * * * * * one else been as affected as he was? Something ferring to Rauschenberg. In 1957, he went to an the art world like a Colossus.’ And I said, ‘George, powerful had been triggered. “It’s why I ended up exhibition at the Jewish Museum, The New York he’s just some guy. He had his moments of interest. “What are you guys doing?” asks Sylvia as she doing what I do,” he says now. School: Second Generation, and had seen Raus- But most of us just struggle on and get to be part speeds through the living room. “Oh,” says Whit- chenberg’s work there. Kaprow arranged for a of the foundation, part of the pile.’” man, “we’re just bullshitting.” He turns to me and * * * * * studio visit, but Whitman doesn’t remember him asks, “Would you like another drink?” I nod yes being there. What he does remember is seeing He laughs again. Intentionally or not, Whitman and gather up my notebooks and audio recorder. Whitman looks at the clock. It’s past 5:30 p.m. “O.K.” Bed (1955) and Monogram (1955–59). “I was like had hit on something important about his own I’m slow packing up and he has already left the he says. “It’s time.” He gets up and makes his way a child walking into an ocean of art.” He instantly legacy. He is indeed part of the foundation, part of room. The dog jumps down and follows him. I get into the kitchen. His wife, Sylvia, is there, buzzing recognized that the work was astonishing. the pile, of a sector of art that has developed into up, take a few steps, and look over my shoulder from stove to refrigerator with graceful intensity. one of the most dynamic areas of contemporary to make sure I haven’t left anything behind. And She herself is a performer and a choreographer who But for Whitman, being affected by another artist is practice: experience-driven art, where theater, film there, crumpled in the corner of the sofa, is the worked with Trisha Brown for many years. Her iconic different from being influenced. He has said that he performance, technology, and installation all come white plastic bag from Joann’s. Inside is the piece piece Large Green Hands (1977) was featured in L.A. was too stupid to understand Rauschenberg’s work, together. His work gives permission to a new gen- of muslin, which will soon be a hallowed work of art. at the Hammer Museum’s Radical Women in Latin which is hard to believe. Now, he has a different eration of artists, post-conceptualism, to explore— Whitman had been sitting on it. Dressing Table | c. 1964 and 2018 16mm, color, silent; table, mirror, cosmetics 1 installation dimensions variable; as pictured: 46 ⁄2 x 109 x 38“ running time: 38:50 Video component collection of the Newark Museum, Purchase 1999 Alberto Burri Memorial Fund Established by Stanley J. Seeger 14 15 16 17

Glass (tall glass with ice) | 2015 Shovel | 2015 color photo, mp3 sound element (01c. glass ice water 100% speed 5:51), wall label color photo, mp3 sound element (07. shovel 4:00), wall label 1 3 3 1 1 3 1 1 3 1 1 piece: 41 x 48 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 3 ⁄4 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" piece: 47 ⁄4 x 36 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 3 ⁄8 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios 18 19

Diving Board | 2015 Burning Match | 2015 color photo, mp3 sound element (03. Diving board 4:36), wall label color photo, mp3 sound element (11. match 3:20), wall label 1 3 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 piece: 36 x 48 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 4 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" piece: 36 x 48 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 2 ⁄4 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios 20

Io | 2007 cloth with looped digital video projection installation dimensions variable; cloth approximately 11' x 8' 9" viewable from both sides running time: 7:59 edition of 3 23

Local Report | 2005 three digital video projections with sound each projection: 66 x 79" installation dimensions variable continuous loop edition of 4 24

Line in the Sand (Negative) | 2004 mixed media installation dimensions variable 26

Great Lakes | 1996 mixed media installation dimensions variable 28

Untitled (red wall stream) | 1994–95 mixed media installation dimensions variable 30

Wavy Red Line | 1967 laser projection installation dimensions variable 32

Shower | c. 1964 16mm film loop, color, silent; projector, shower stall and curtain, water, water pump 80 x 30 x 30" running time: 16:30 edition of 1 + 1 AP 34 36

Window | 1963 DVD, window, artificial foliage, and white backdrop installation dimensions variable video loop: 6:27 edition of 2 38

Inside Out | 1963 and 2012 16mm black and white film, projectors, and audio players (audio added in 2009) overall installation dimensions variable audio file "John" duration 06:50 audio file "Larry" duration 00:45 audio file "Simone" duration 17:24 audio file "Suzanne" duration 22:37 video file "East" duration 02:22 video file "North" duration 01:36 video file "Overhead" duration 01:43 video file "South" duration 03:02 video file "West" duration 02:27 edition of 6 + 1 AP 40

Untitled | 1959 wooden door, metal, rubber tubing, and plastic sheeting 3 1 75 ⁄4 x 60 ⁄2 x 24" 42 43

Untitled (Checkerboard) | 1957 Untitled (Checkerboard) | 1957 Scotch tape, aluminum foil and graphite on paper Scotch tape and graphite on paper 1 1 1 15 ⁄4 x 15 ⁄4" 11 x 8 ⁄2" 44 45

Untitled | 1957 Red Square | 1957 aluminum foil, paper, and Scotch tape wood, painted red 1 1 1 1 12 ⁄2 x 12 ⁄4" 14 ⁄4 x 14 ⁄4 x 2" 46

Untitled | 1957 thread installation dimensions variable Theater Works 1967 Shirt, theater work, presented by Midsummer, East Hampton, New York. Untitled, theater work, presented by Midsummer, East Hampton, 1960 New York. Small Cannon, first theater work, Reuben Gallery, New York, January 8–11. 1969 Duet for a Small Smell, theater work, Ray Gun Festival, Judson Untitled, theater work, University of California, Los Angeles. Church, New York, February 29, March 1–2. E.G. (An Opera), theater work, Reuben Gallery, New York, June 11. 1970 American Moon, theater work, Reuben Gallery, New York, Untitled, theater work, Fondation Maeght, St. Paul, France, November 29–December 4. July 26.

1961 1971–72 Mouth, seven performances, Reuben Gallery, New York, April Artists and Television. Presentation of artists’ work on New 18–23. York’s public access stations. Moving Experience, theater work, Southern Vermont College, Bennington, and Ann Halprin’s studio, Marin County, California, among other venues. 1972 Ball, six performances, Green Gallery, New York, December News, radio performance, on WBAI, New York; Houston, Texas; 29–30 and January 2–6. Minneapolis. Architecture, , Hoboken Ferry Terminal and adjacent piers, New York, February 5 and 12. 1962 Movies with Sound, Song, and Play, theater work, Maidman Flag, theater work, 85 Walker Street, New York. Theater, New York, March 22. Flag II, theater work, New York.

1963 1973 Flower, twenty performances, 9 Great Jones Street, New York, Untitled, happening, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. March 1–3 and every weekend until March 30. Hole, theater work, 9 Great Jones Street, New York, May 27–June 1. 1974 Water, four performances, 10560 Wyton Drive, Los Angeles, Music, three performances, The Kitchen: Center for Video, September 20–21. Music and Dance, New York, April 12–14. Traveled to: Galleria l’Attico, Rome; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

1965 Salad P.N., theater work, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, November 1974. Night Time Sky, theater work, First New York Theater Rally, television studio on Broadway and 81st Street, New York, May 14–16. 1976 Prune Flat, first staged at Jonas Mekas’s Film-Makers’ Light Touch: Film Images 1960–1976, theater work, 589 Cinematheque on 42nd Street, Expanded Cinema Festival, Washington Street, New York. New York, December. 1977 1966 Sound, 3452 Inwood Drive and 16 Crestwood Drive, Houston, in collaboration with Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Untitled, theater work, Martinique Theater and Circle in the December 9–10. Square, New York, June. Traveled to: University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Two Holes of Water No. 1, theater work, presented by Mid- 1980 summer, East Hampton, New York, August 27–28. Stound, theater work, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York, September 27 and October 2–4. Two Holes of Water No. 2, theater work, New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, September. Two Holes of Water No. 3, theater work, in “9 Evenings: 1981 Theatre and Engineering,” Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory, New A Walk in the Park, theater work, Palisades State Park, New York, October. Jersey, September 17–20.

Robert Whitman’s American Moon, 1960. Photograph by Robert R. McElroy 50 51

1982 2012 Chronology 1963–64 Raincover, theater work, three performances each week, Local Report 2012, theater work, organized by Creative Time, Cinema Pieces: Window, 1963; Dining Room Table, 1963; Whitman Projects, New York, October 14–November 6. Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, New York, October 12–20. Shower, c. 1964; Dressing Table (also known as Makeup Table), c. 1964; Garbage Bag (originally known as Shopping Bag), 1964; Bathroom Sink (also known as Sink), 1964; Toilet, 1935 1983 2013 c. 1964; Bathtub, c. 1964. Eclipse, theater work, Whitman Projects, New York, Inside Out, theater work, Broadway 1602, New York, January 19. Robert Whitman born in New York City. He lives and works in December–January. Warwick, New York. 1964 2014 Seven New Artists, group exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New 1987 Inside Out, theater work, Raven Row, London, May 21. 1953–57 York, May 5–29. BA in English Literature at Rutgers, The State University of Northern Dark, theater work, Teknorama-Tekniska Museet, Group exhibition, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York. , New Brunswick. Stockholm. 2015 Inside Out, performance collaboration with Ulf Linde, for Marcel Swim, theater work, Peak Performance series, Alexander 1965 Duchamp Centennial Celebration, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Kasser Theater, Montclair State University, New Jersey, March 1958 26–29. Studies art history at , New York. Eleven from the Reuben Gallery, group exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, January 5–31. 1989 Robert Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Art House, Rutgers, 2016 The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, March. Drawings by Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Robert Whitman, Ben Fast Cloud, theater work, Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Talbert, group exhibition, Dwan Gallery, New York, February Side Effects, theater work, Arts Catalyst, London, October 7. 9–March 13. 1959 1990 Art Turned On, group exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Black Dirt, theater work, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, 2017 Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Hansa Gallery, New York, Boston, December 10–January 30. January 12–30. Massachusetts. Traveled to: The Kitchen, New York; Painted Parades for FIAC—Prune Flat (1965) / Local Report: Side Ten from Rutgers, group exhibition, Bianchini Gallery, New Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia, with the Fabric Workshop, Effects (2007), theater works, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Robert Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Rutgers, The State York, December 18–January 12. Philadelphia; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, at the Southern October 21. University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, February. Theater, Minneapolis. Show, group exhibition, 92nd Street Young 1966 2018 Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association, New York, March. 2002 Sixty-eighth American Exhibition, group exhibition, Art Seoul—New York: Kids Exchange, theater work, National Group exhibition, Barnard College, New York, March. Institute of Chicago, August 19–October 16. Ghost, theater work, PaceWildenstein, New York, September Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, and Culture 100 Works on Paper: 1. United States, group exhibition, 18–19 and 25. Hub, New York. Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) founded by Robert Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, April–May. Whitman and Robert Rauschenberg, and scientists Billy Klüver 24, group exhibition, Hansa Gallery, New York, November 3–22. and Fred Waldhauer, September. 2004 Robert Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Reuben Gallery, New Erotic Art, group exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, Antenna: A Public Performance and Installation by Robert York, November 27–December 17. October 3–29. Whitman, Leeds International Film Festival, October 29–30. Below Zero, group exhibition, Reuben Gallery, New York, News Report, theater work, Lumen Media Festival, Leeds. December 18–January 5. 1967 Billy’s Sendoff, theater work, Judson Church, New York. The Projected Image, group exhibition, Institute of Contemporary 1960 Art, Boston, January–February. 2005 Paintings, group exhibition, Reuben Gallery, New York, Dark, one-artist exhibition, The Pace Gallery, New York, October Local Report, five-screen video and sound installation, Hawley January 29–February 18. 17–November 7. Lane Plaza, Trumbull, Connecticut, July 29–31. Traveled to: New Forms—New Media I, group exhibition, Martha Jackson Projected Art, group exhibition, Finch College Museum of Art, Kohl’s Plaza, Holmdel, New Jersey, August 5–7; Liberty Square Gallery, New York, June 6–24. New York. Center, Burlington, New Jersey, August 12–14; Kingston Center, New Jersey, August 19–21; Northampton Crossings, Easton, New Forms—New Media II, group exhibition, Martha Jackson Pennsylvania, August 26–28; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Gallery, New York, September 28–October 22. 1968 New York, December 6. Robert Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Whitney Museum of 1961 American Art, New York, April 8. 2010 Environments, Situations, Spaces, group exhibition, Martha 4 Cinema Pieces, one-artist exhibition, Museum of MoonRain, theater work, Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, July Jackson Gallery, New York, May 25–June 23. Contemporary Art, Chicago, April 12–May 19. 25–26. 6 Artists, 6 Exhibitions, group exhibition, Walker Art Center, 1963 Minneapolis, May 12–June 23. Traveled to: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, September 23–October 27. 2011 Robert Whitman and rent a space at 9 Great Passport, theater work, Dia:Beacon, New York and Montclair Jones Street, New York. Magic Theater, group exhibition, Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins State University, New Jersey, April 16–17. Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, May 29–June 23. Traveled to: An Interior of Sculpture: New Work by Robert Whitman and City Art Museum, St. Louis, October 26–December 1; Museum MoonRain, theater work, Dia:Beacon, New York, May 14. Walter De Maria, group exhibition, 9 Great Jones Street, New of Fine Arts, Montreal, September 2–October 5, 1969. York, January 5–February 2. 52 53

Light as Art, group exhibition, Newark College of Engineering, 1975–76 1999 2009 New Jersey, September 18–October 18. Creative Artists Public Service Grant. Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957–1963, Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time, Pond, one-artist exhibition, The Jewish Museum, New York, group exhibition, Newark Museum, February 18–May 16. group exhibition, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, October 7–January 5. January 24–May 24. 1976 Some More Beginnings, group exhibition, Museum John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. 2001 of Art, New York, November 26–January 5. 2010 National Endowment for the Arts, Artist-in-Residence Grant. Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964– 1977, group exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Realisms: 1957–1962. Object Strategies Between Ready- 1969 Theater Works, 1960–1976, one-artist exhibition, Dia Art New York, October 18–January 17. made and Spectacle, group exhibition, Museo Nacional Foundation, New York, April 8–May 15. Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, June 16–October 4. False Faces, group exhibition, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, April–May. 2002 1977 2012 Anand Project (E.A.T.), series of meetings, in Ahmedabad, India. Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961–2001, group Dante Drawings, 1974–75, acquired by Dia Art Foundation, exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Happenings: New York, 1958–1963, group exhibition, The Pace New York. Andover, Massachusetts, September 27–January 5, 2003. Gallery, New York, February 10–March 17. 1970 Traveled to: Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skid- more College, Saratoga Springs, New York, February 1–June 1; String and Rope Show, group exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, 1979 2013 New York, January 7–31. Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, July 12–September Palisade, one-artist exhibition, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, 14; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, October 9– Window, one-artist exhibition, Broadway 1602, New York, Children and Communications, New York, May. New York, February 3–March 25. January 25, 2004; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, January 19–February 20. Seattle, March 25–July 18. New Arts, group exhibition, United States Pavilion, Expo ’70, Whitman Projects at a Dia purchased building at 512 West 19 Osaka. Street, New York. 21st Century Happening: Robert Whitman, Leeds International 2014 Pavilion (E.A.T.), Pepsi Pavilion, Expo ’70, Osaka. Film Festival, October 1. Play What’s Not There, group exhibition, Raven Row, London, April 17–June 22. Figures/Environments, group exhibition, Walker Art Center, 1982 2003 Minneapolis, May 15–June 13. Traveled to: Cincinnati Art ’60–’80: Attitudes, Concepts, Images, group exhibition, Stedelijk Museum, October 2–November 1; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Museum, Amsterdam, April 9–July 11. Playback, one-artist exhibition, Dia:Chelsea, New York, March 2015 December 13–January 17. 5–January 11. 2004. Traveled to: Museu Serralves, Museu From the Archives: Art and Technology at LACMA, 1967–1971, de Arte Contemporanea, Porto, Portugal, July 23–October group exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 1984 17; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, September 15, 14–October 18. 1971 2005–January 8, 2006. Blam! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism and Performance: Soundies, one-artist exhibition, The Pace Gallery, New York, Art and Technology, group exhibition, Los Angeles County 1958–1964, group exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Museum of Art, May–August. April 2–May 2. Art, New York, September 20–December 2. 2004 Sigma 7, Sigma Festival, Bordeaux, France, November 15–20. Shading, one-artist exhibition, PaceWildenstein, New York, 2016 1994 January 16–February 21. The Promise of Total Automation, group exhibition, Kunsthalle 1972 Outside the Frame: Performance and the Object. A Survey Images on Paper, 1958–1998, one-artist exhibition, Glenn Wien, Vienna, March 11–May 29. Creative Artists Public Service Grant. History of in the U.S.A. since 1950, group Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, New York, August 21– exhibition, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, February September 21. 11–May 1. Traveled to: Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten 2017 E.A.T.: The Story of Experiments in Art and Technology. In 1973 Island, New York, February 26–June 18, 1995. Memory of Billy Klüver, group exhibition, Norrköpings Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, Project Series, one-artist exhibition, The Museum of Modern Konstmuseum, Sweden, September 12–November 7. 1952–1965, group exhibition, Grey Art Gallery, New York Art, New York, April 16–May 23. University, January 10–April 1. Traveled to: NYUAD Art Gallery, 1995 First Generation: Art and Moving Image [1963–1986], group Abu Dhabi, October 4–January 13. Backtrack, one-artist exhibition, PaceWildenstein, New York, exhibition, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1974 March 11–May 13. November 7–April 2. Robert Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Bykert Gallery, New 2018 E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology): Open-ended, York, March 26–April 13. 2006 1996 group exhibition, National Museum of Modern and Bob Whitman, one-artist exhibition, Galleria l’Attico, Rome, June. 15 Degrees from Rutgers: Charting New Directions in 9 Evenings Reconsidered: Art, Theatre and Engineering, 1966, Contemporary Art, Seoul, May 26–September 16. Projected Image, group exhibition, Walker Art Center, Contemporary Art, group exhibition, Mason Gross School of group exhibition, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Art in Motion: 100 Masterpieces with and through Media. An Minneapolis, September 21–November 3. the Arts, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Massachusetts, May 4–July 9. Operative Canon, group exhibition, ZKM Center for Art and Brunswick, February 28–March 31. Poets of the Cities of New York and San Francisco, 1950–1965, Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, July 14–February 24. group exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and Southern 2007 Judson Dance Theater: The Work is Never Done, group exhibi- Methodist University, Dallas, November 20–December 29. 1997 Local Report, 2005, one-artist exhibition, Williams Center for tion, The Museum of , New York, Traveled to: San Francisco Museum of Art, January 31–March Great Lakes, one-artist exhibition, PaceWildenstein, New York, the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, February September 16–February 3. 23; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, April 23– January 11–February 8. 18–March 25. June 1. Sun, one-artist exhibition, PaceWildenstein, New York, June 28–September 1 1975 1998 Turning, one-artist exhibition, PaceWildenstein, New York, Citation of Fine Arts, Brandeis University Creative Arts Award. Notes for Not a Novel, one-artist exhibition, Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm. September 7–29. 54 55

12–15 Dressing Table | c. 1964 and 2018 30 Wavy Red Line | 1967 16mm, color, silent; table, mirror, cosmetics laser projection 1 installation dimensions variable; as pictured: 46 ⁄2 x 109 x 36" installation dimensions variable running time: 38:50 Video component collection of the Newark Museum, Purchase 1999 32–35 Shower | c. 1964 Alberto Burri Memorial Fund Established by Stanley J. Seeger 16mm film loop, color, silent; projector, shower stall and curtain, water, water pump 80 x 30 x 30" 16 Glass (tall glass with ice) | 2015 running time: 16:30 color photo, mp3 sound element (01c. glass ice water 100% speed 5:51), wall label edition of 1 + 1 AP 1 3 3 1 1 piece: 41 x 48 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 3 ⁄4 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios 36 Window | 1963 DVD, window, artificial foliage, and white backdrop | 17 Shovel 2015 installation dimensions variable color photo, mp3 sound element (07. shovel 4:00), wall label video loop: 6:27 3 1 1 3 1 1 piece: 47 ⁄4 x 36 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 3 ⁄8 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" edition of 2 edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios 38 Inside Out | 1963 and 2012 18 Diving Board | 2015 16mm black and white film, projectors, and audio players (audio added in 2009) color photo, mp3 sound element (03. Diving board 4:36), wall label overall installation dimensions variable 1 3 1 1 piece: 36 x 48 x 1 ⁄2"; display card: 4 x 10"; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" audio file "John" duration 06:50 edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios audio file "Larry" duration 00:45 audio file "Simone" duration 17:24 19 Burning Match | 2015 audio file "Suzanne" duration 22:37 color photo, mp3 sound element (11. match 3:20), wall label video file "East" duration 02:22 1 3 3 1 1 piece: 36 x 48 x 1 ⁄2”; display card: 2 ⁄4 x 10”; amplifier: 1 ⁄4 x 6 ⁄8 x 4 ⁄4" video file "North" duration 01:36 edition of 3; panel printed at Ken Allen Studios video file "Overhead" duration 01:43 video file "South" duration 03:02 video file "West" duration 02:27 20 Io | 2007 edition of 6 + 1 AP cloth with looped digital video projection installation dimensions variable; cloth approximately 11' x 8' 9" 40 Untitled | 1959 viewable from both sides running time: 7:59 wooden door, metal, rubber tubing, and plastic sheeting 3 1 edition of 3 75 ⁄4 x 60 ⁄2 x 24"

42 Untitled (Checkerboard) | 1957 22 Local Report | 2005 Scotch tape, aluminum foil and graphite on paper three digital video projections with sound 1 1 15 ⁄4 x 15 ⁄4" each projection: 66 x 79" installation dimensions variable continuous loop 43 Untitled (Checkerboard) | 1957 edition of 4 Scotch tape and graphite on paper 1 11 x 8 ⁄2" 24 Line in the Sand (Negative) | 2004 | mixed media 44 Untitled 1957 installation dimensions variable aluminum foil, paper, and Scotch tape 1 1 12 ⁄2 x 12 ⁄4" 26 Great Lakes | 1996 45 Red Square | 1957 mixed media installation dimensions variable wood, painted red 1 1 14 ⁄4 x 14 ⁄4 x 2" 28 Untitled (red wall stream) | 1994–95 46 Untitled | 1957 mixed media installation dimensions variable thread installation dimensions variable Catalogue © 2018 Pace Gallery Works of art by Robert Whitman © 2018 Robert Whitman Text by Adam Harrison Levy © 2018 Adam Harrison Levy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Every reasonable effort has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Cover: Wavy Red Line, 1967 (detail) Endpapers: Sketch for Red Stream Comes off the Wall into a Tub and Splashes on the Floor, 1995 (detail)

Photography: Tom Barratt; pp. 12–13, 14–15 (details), 19, 32 (details), 33, 34–35 (details), 38–39, 42–46, 47 (detail) G.R. Christmas; p. 41 Genevieve Hanson; pp. 20–21 Ellen Labenski; pp. 24–25 Robert R. McElroy, courtesy Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2014.M.7), © J. Paul Getty Trust; p. 48 Kerry Ryan McFate; cover, pp. 16–18, 30–31, 36 (details), 37 Courtesy Robert Whitman; p. 4 Ellen Page Wilson; pp. 26–29

Design: Tomo Makiura and Mine Suda Production: Pace Gallery Color correction: Motohiko Tokuta Copyediting: Doug Brod

Typeset in Benton Gothic

Printing: Meridian Printing, East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018959376 ISBN: 978-1-948701-09-9

ROBERT WHITMAN 61