ROBERT BARRY
LUIS CAMNITZER
IAN WALLACE
Words and Deeds
ROBERT BARRY
Robert Barry (New York, 1936) is one of the pioneers of Conceptualism and Minimalism. His work has always been focused on space: the space between objects, between time, between artist and viewer. To him, the “idea” of an artwork is as important as the art object. Words are essential elements in Barry’s oeuvre. They evoke mental states in flux or contemplation and declare to the viewer a temporal and psychic intangibility.
Two Pieces, 1971
Typewriting on paper
5 parts 33 x 39 cm each
Unique piece
Index Cards, 1971
Typewriting on paper
74 x 64 cm each
Unique piece
“When you take the word out of a text, if there’s not text surrounding the word, or it’s not part of the flow of a text, then it’s presented, I guess you could say, in its purest form. It’s not defined specifically – it becomes an object. I think of those words as designed objects, like individual drawings. I use a certain kind of style. I try to make them work with the physical space, make them go around corners and things like that. I think that the situation with the colours and the space and the architecture and the words and their – whatever their meanings are or non-meanings – is very open. ” Robert Barry
Robert Barry in interview by Vitus Weh for Museum in Progress, 1995
Untitled, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
2 parts 127 x 127 cm each
Unique piece
LUIS CAMNITZER
Born in Lübeck (Germany) and raised in Uruguay, Luis Camnitzer moved to New York in the 1960s, where he focused on his art, essays and teaching work. He is currently professor emeritus at the State University of New York. Camnitzer regards himself as a Latin American artist exiled in the contemporary art capital, and is unquestionably a key figure in the development of twentieth-century Conceptualism.
Garden Wall, Door, Table, 1968
Etching on paper
63.5 x 60.96 cm
Artist’s proof 2 of 2
Campo de concentración, 1970
Etching on paper
64.77 x 64.77 cm
Ed. 4 of 10
In 1964 after moving to New York from his native Uruguay, Luis Camnitzer co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop, along with fellow artists, Argentine Liliana Porter and Venezuelan Guillermo Castillo (1941–1999). For six years, until 1970, they examined the conceptual meaning behind printmaking, and sought to test and expand the definition of the medium. In 1964, Camnitzer wrote a manifesto on printmaking that was later adopted by the group as a statement of intent. In this text, Camnitzer argues that printmaking should not restrict, but rather amplify the possibilities of an artist to generate conceptually rich ideas through strong images.
The Craftsmanship of a Landscape, 1979
Photoetching
89 x 70 cm
Artist’s proof 2 of 2
“It was essential for me to separate myself from closed hegemonic tautology, where a phrase refers to itself and you become excluded from the work or trapped inside it, but with no way of activating the spectator” Luis Camnitzer
A Luis Camnitzer de Luis Camnitzer, con afecto y admiración, 1976
Etching on paper
79 x 66 cm
(Marked 2 of 50)
Signature by the Inch, 1971
Silkscreen and graphite on paper
48 x 69 cm
Unique piece
This idea would dominate Camnitzer’s artistic practice through the later part of the 1960s and well into the 1970s. During this time Camnitzer developed a body of work that explored language as primary medium, shifting from printing text on paper or walls, such as his Dictionary etchings and the room-size installation, Living Room (both 1969). As his interest in language unfolded, so did his aim to identify socio-political problems through his art. Camnitzer responded in great part to the growing wave of Latin American military regimes taking root in the late 1960s, but his work also points to the dynamic political landscape of his adopted country, the United States.
IAN WALLACE
The works of Ian Wallace (Shoreham, 1943) are characterized by the abstract combinations of flat colors – visibly influenced by De Stijl – and which often show the spaces where the artist works: the studio, the museum and the street. The juxtaposition of painting and photography, the first being completely abstract and the second very descriptive, manifests the interest of the artist in exploring the power of images and the possibilities of expression offered by the different pictorial mediums.
“In my opinion, art can be made anywhere, under any conditions, studio or no studio. I have always envied poets who only need a pen and a piece of paper, or even just their voice. I occasionally do what I call ‘concept pieces’, or works that need not be actually made by me, but which are authored by me as an idea. I am interested in the ‘work’ aspect of the work of art as well as the purely conceptual ‘art’ aspect.” Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace in interview by Gigiotto Del Vecchio for Mousse Magazine, 2009
Table with Un coup de Dés II, 2011
Photolaminate with acrylic on canvas
183 x 152 cm
Unique piece
In the Museum, Los Angeles, 2009
Photolaminate with acrylic on canvas
198 x 122 cm
Unique piece
In the studio III, 1993
Photography
57.5 x 47.5 cm (framed)
Unique piece