Lawrence Weiner
1942–2021
Lawrence Weiner played a key role in the development of Conceptual art, a movement that emphasized the idea of an artwork over its material form and questioned the structures through which art is created, presented, and distributed. His earliest artistic undertakings were sculptural, and in the mid-1960s he exhibited a series of propeller-shaped canvases at Seth Siegelaub Contemporary Art. From 1968 on, however, language has been the primary component, and his text-based works, which often describe procedures, propositions, or actions, have embraced a wide range of formats: paintings, sculptures, films, videos, records, compact discs, posters, books, wall installations, and even a website. Varied in form and context, these works are connected in their supposition that the majority of our experiences— even the activity of seeing—are mediated by language.
HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE is presented as a chorus and refrain: parenthetical statements pertaining to direction (such as BENEATH IT ALL and ABOVE IT ALL) are each followed by the general declaration HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE (a ready descriptor of where one might encounter Weiner’s work). Following from his belief that viewers are integral to the creation of any given work’s meaning—and indeed to its very status as art—Weiner does not need to do the lettering himself, and allows the work to be installed in a variety of configurations and color palettes at the discretion of a curator. The Whitney has installed this work in various ways: on a single wall, on the glass window at the front of the Museum’s former uptown home, and placed on the four panes of a revolving door.
Introduction
Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942 – December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word art.
Wikidata identifier
Q680192
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed December 5, 2024.
Introduction
Prominent figure of the American Conceptual art movement since the the 1960s known for his text-based installations incorporating phrases and sentence fragments, typically presented in bold capital letters accompanied by graphic accents.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, conceptual artist, installation artist, muralist, painter, photographer, sculptor, video artist
ULAN identifier
500013081
Names
Lawrence Weiner, Lawrence Charles Weiner, Lawrence Wiener
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed December 5, 2024.
