Robert Heinecken Object Matter Eva Respini The Museum of Modern Art, New York Contents Published in conjunction with the exhibition Robert Heinecken: 6 Lenders to the Exhibition Object Matter, organized by Eva Respini, Curator, with Drew Sawyer, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 7 Foreword The exhibition is presented at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Glenn D. Lowry from March 15 to June 22, 2014, and at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, from October 5, 2014, to January 17, 2015. 9 Not a Picture of, but an Object about Something Major support for the exhibition is provided by The William Eva Respini Randolph Hearst Endow ment Fund and by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. 26 Plates Additional funding is provided by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art and by the MoMA Annual Exhibition Fund. 146 Pinups, Photograms, Polaroids, and Printing Plates: Special thanks to the Center for Creative Photography, University Iterations in Robert Heinecken’s Work Process of Arizona, Tucson, which houses the Robert Heinecken Archive, Jennifer Jae Gutierrez and to The Robert Heinecken Trust, Chicago. Produced by the Department of Publications, Writings by Robert Heinecken The Museum of Modern Art, New York 154 Statements about Work Edited by Diana C. Stoll Designed by Naomi Mizusaki, Supermarket 155 The Photograph: Not a Picture of, but an Object about Something Production by Matthew Pimm 156 Manipulative Photography Printed and bound by Ofset Yapimevi, Istanbul 158 I Am Involved in Learning to Perceive and Use Light This book is typeset in Akzidenz Buch, ITC Bookman, and Bodoni Poster. The paper is 150gsm Magno Satin. 160 Untitled Published by The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53 Street, New York, New York 10019 162 Chronology © 2014 The Museum of Modern Art, New York Drew Sawyer Copyright credits for certain illustrations are cited on p. 186. 170 List of Plates All rights reserved Library of Congress Control Number: 2013948968 174 Selected Bibliography ISBN: 978-0-87070-906-7 Distributed in the United States and Canada 178 Selected Exhibition History by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. 55 Sixth Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, New York 10013 www.artbook.com 184 Index Distributed outside the United States and Canada by Thames & Hudson Ltd 187 Acknowledgments 181 High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX www.thamesandhudson.com 188 Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art Front and back covers, front and back endpapers: all Robert Heinecken, from Are You Rea, 1964–68 (see plate 25) Printed and bound in Turkey Lenders to the Exhibition Foreword Art Institute of Chicago The Museum of Modern Art is proud to present Robert Heinecken: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson Object Matter, the first major consideration of Heinecken’s art since Denver Art Museum his death in 2006. This exhibition surveys four decades of the artist’s George Eastman House, Rochester, New York remarkable and unique practice, from the early 1960s through the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles late 1990s. A West Coast pioneer in experimental photography, International Center for Photography, New York Heinecken described himself as a paraphotographer, because his J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles work stood “beside” or “beyond” traditional ideas associated with Los Angeles County Museum of Art photography. Although he was rarely behind the lens of a camera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Heinecken’s photo-based works question the nature of photogra- Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago phy and radically redefine the perception of it as an artistic medium. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago The Museum recognized Heinecken as an innovative experimenter Museum of Fine Arts, Houston early on—acquiring its first work by him in 1968—and continued The Museum of Modern Art, New York to collect his work throughout his career. Heinecken’s work was Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey included in several landmark photography exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Museum in the 1970s and 1980s, including Photography into Sculpture (1970), Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960 (1978), and California Photography: Remaking Make-Believe Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons, New York (1989). MoMA remains keenly attuned to the developments of art in Black Dog Collection our time, and in today’s world of image oversaturation, photography Bill Block, Los Angeles plays a critical role in the visual culture. In the context of the twenty- Eileen and Michael Cohen first century, Heinecken is as contemporary as ever. His prescient Darryl Curran, Los Angeles explorations of the definition of photography, the possibilities of Philip F. Denny, Chicago appropriation, and the limitations of artistic categories are as rel- Kathe Heinecken evant today as they were fifty years ago. Robert Heinecken: Object The Robert Heinecken Trust, Chicago Matter makes a major contribution to the reevaluation of significant Maja Hoffmann/LUMA Foundation artists of the 1960s and 1970s in the discourse of art today. Vicky Hughes and John Smith, London After its presentation in New York, this exhibition will be shown Jeffrey Leifer, San Francisco at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. This cross-country tour is Susan and Peter MacGill, New York possible only because the exhibition’s lenders (listed on the page Nion T. McEvoy opposite) have been willing to part with important works, and we Karol Heinecken Mora, Los Angeles owe an enormous debt of gratitude to them. Anton D. Segerstrom, Corona del Mar, California I would like to salute Eva Respini, Curator, Department of Photog- Marc Selwyn, Los Angeles raphy, for skillfully and thoughtfully organizing this exhibition Susan and Eugene Spiritus, Newport Coast, California and preparing this catalogue, assisted by the fine staff throughout Geofrey and Laura Wyatt, Santa Barbara, California the Museum. I am grateful to The Robert Heinecken Trust and Heinecken’s family for their kind cooperation and support of this project. For their most generous support of the exhibition and pub- Private collection lication, we extend our warmest thanks to our funders: The William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles and the MoMA Annual Exhibition Fund. Petzel Gallery, New York Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago Glenn D. Lowry Director, The Museum of Modern Art 6 7 Not a Picture of, but an Object about Something Eva Respini Robert Heinecken (1931–2006) is a difficult artist to categorize, and which were recirculated into the mainstream after his manipula- a man who thrived on contradiction, in both his work and his life. tions) is part of his larger investigation into the very definition of He was a photographer who rarely picked up a camera;1 a teacher art, into central aesthetic and Conceptual issues of his period— well versed in photography’s history who rebelled against the medi- specifically the “dematerialization” of the art object. Anticipating um’s conventions; a trained fighter pilot who cultivated a radical postmodern art practices of the 1980s, Heinecken used almost artistic persona, complete with ponytail and beard; a charismatic exclusively found images early on to comment on the state of image figure respected by the women who knew him, whose use of porno- making in a crowded media landscape. His prescient enterprises graphic material, however, drew fierce feminist critique; a profoundly are as relevant today as they were fifty years ago: investigating the American artist with a strong allegiance to the European avant-garde. definition of photography, exploring the possibilities of appropriation, America and its obsessions with sex, consumerism, violence, war, TV, engaging with and locating new meanings in the tsunami of found and cheap copies are at the forefront of his art. Heinecken’s work is images, and challenging the limitations of artistic categories. often messy, sometimes shocking, other times analytic, but always provocative—his examination of the particularly American terrain • • • of sex and violence was unapologetic. He was a cross-disciplinary pioneer who used diverse techniques and materials to make his To grasp the complexity and multidimensionality of Heinecken’s work. His free use of found images and inquiry into the nature of work, it is worth revisiting his formative cultural and artistic influ- representation anticipated the current use of photographs as tools ences. He was born in Denver in 1931, during the Depression, into to investigate our culture’s self-definition in a world overflowing a Germanic family of Lutheran missionaries.3 In 1946 his family with images and copies of images. Heinecken’s photo-based works moved to Riverside, California, where Heinecken enrolled at Riverside destabilize the very definition of photography, and essentially rede- Junior College, eventually transferring to the University of California, fine its perception as an artistic medium. “The photograph,” he Los Angeles. He dropped out in 1953 to join the Naval Air Cadet argued, “is not a picture of, but an object about something.”2 Program, advancing to the Marine Corps as a jet fighter pilot and Heinecken’s art has affinities with the work of artists such as attaining the rank of captain. Just shy of the five-foot-six height John Baldessari, Wade Guyton, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, requirement, Heinecken lined his socks with magazines in order to Cady Noland, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, and Gerhard enlist—an amusing precursor to his extensive work with magazines.4 Richter—in his free use of mass-media images and his fascination By all accounts, his military experience indelibly shaped Heinecken, with popular culture and its effect on society, as well as with the who became confident and focused, with a strong work ethic.5 relationship between the original and the copy—yet he is conspic- After his discharge from the military in 1957, Heinecken fin- uously absent from the histories of Pop, Conceptual, and contem- ished his studies at UCLA, culminating in 1960 with a master’s porary art.