Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an artist born and raised in New York City. One of the central figures in the formation of Conceptual Art in the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner explored the potentials of language as a sculptural medium. For him language could be presented in any format able to discourse with typical art subjects such as: language installed on a wall, printed as text in a book or catalog, spoken or performed in a film, spoken aloud in conversation, simply remembered, et cetera; as Lawrence explains in 1970:"As to construction please remember that... there is no correct way to construct the piece as there is no incorrect way to construct it. If the piece is built it constitutes not how the piece looks but only how it could look."Weiner divided his time between his studio practice in New York City and his boat, The 'Joma' in Amsterdam. He believed in the importance of making his work non-metaphorical. His goal was to give his viewers the opportunity to use the work towards their own ends. He attempted to make work that crosses cultural boundaries and defines cultural distinctions while the work is frequently translated to suit the idea of place anywhere in world. He participated in public and private projects in the new and old world maintaining that:"ART IS NOT A METAPHOR UPON THE RELATIONSHIPS OF HUMAN BEINGS TO OBJECTS & OBJECTS TO OBJECTS IN RELATION TO HUMAN BEINGS BUT A REPRESENTATION OF AN EMPIRICAL EXISTING FACT"
Early life Lawrence Weiner was born premature in Manhattan, to Toba Horowitz and Harold Weiner. He grew up in The Bronx, where his parents owned a candy store. In 1958, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School early at 16, and went on to study philosophy and literature at Hunter College for less than a year.Roberta Smith (November 16, 2007), The Well-Shaped Phrase as Art New York Times. He traveled throughout Mexico, America, and Canada before eventually returning to New York City in the mid-sixties.Lawrence Weiner Guggenheim Collection.
Early career (1960–1970)
Before he began to use language as a sculptural medium, Weiner produced two distinct series of paintings in the 1960s which he exhibited with Seth Siegelaub: Propellor Paintings (1964-1966) and Removal Paintings (1966-1968). These painting series were concerned with “idea of painting rather than a painting”, but are still inherently bound to the physical constraints of a specific object, a paradoxical issue. Weiner’s sculpture STAPLES, STAKES, TWINE, TURF produced for the outdoor group exhibition "Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Lawrence Weiner" at Windham College in 1968 instigated a seminal revision of Weiner’s work. The sculpture was destroyed by the group to which the work was addressed—the students—as it was an imposition on their space. Alice Zimmerman Weiner recounts that the “work had trespassed a boundary that Weiner had not been aware of and prompted him “to reflect on the implications of imposing structures on an unknown public”. Weiner later declared that:“A REASONABLE ASSUMPTION SEEMS TO BE THAT / PROLONGED NEGOTIATIONS WITH A NON- / ACCOMMODATING STRUCTURE IS NOT THE ROLE / & / OR USE OF THE ARTIST OR THE ART.”.This incident prompted Weiner to realize that an artwork need not impose on physical space at all and Weiner began to utilize language as a primary material—the work “had become a manifestation of ‘language + the materials referred to’”. Weiner asserted that by utilizing language, “there is no edge that the picture drops over or drops off. You are dealing with something completely infinite.”. Joseph Kosuth stated that Weiner “changed his notion of ‘place’… from the context of the canvas (which could only be specific) to a context which was ‘general’, yet all the while continuing his concern with specific materials and processes.”.
From 1968 onwards, Weiner’s work operated under the conditions dictated by the "Declaration of Intent", first presented in the magazine Art News in the fall of 1968 and in the "January 5–31, 1969" exhibition catalog. The "Declaration of Intent" often accompanies a presentation of Weiner's work:
The first condition recalls the traditional relationship between the artist and the artwork. The second condition permits the work to be ‘fabricated’ by someone other than the artist. Finally, the work does not need to be acted upon at all, it can simply exist as language or an idea to function as art. Weiner uses the general term ‘receiver’ for any individual, collector, gallery, or museum who accepted the responsibility of ownership under these conditions. Weiner utilized this tripartite declaration as the framework for all of his work until his death in 2021.
Artist's books Weiner has extensively used the format of the artist book to disseminate his work. The format is integral to his practice. In 1976, Weiner asserted: “THEY (BOOKS) ARE PERHAPS THE LEAST IMPOSITIONAL MEANS OF TRANSFERRING / INFORMATION FROM ONE TO ANOTHER (SOURCE)”.
Weiner's first body of work produced using language was the solo-exhibition "Statements", an artist's book published in December 1968 by The Louis Kellner Foundation and Seth Siegelaub. Statements consists of twenty-four works, condensed linguistic statements that describe sculptural processes and common materials of production. In an interview with Benjamin Buchloh, Weiner asserted that the work in Statements is “decidedly non-macho, but [turns] out to be the tough guy in the bar.”.
Exhibitions A comprehensive retrospective of Weiner's career was organized by Ann Goldstein and Donna De Salvo at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 2007–2008. Major solo exhibitions of the artist's work have been hosted at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1988/89), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (1990), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1991), Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1991), Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (1991/92), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1992), The Arnhem (Sonsbeek) The Netherlands (1993) Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1994), Philadelphia Museum of Art (1994), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1995), Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin (2000), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2004), Tate Gallery in London (2006), The Jewish Museum, NY (2012), Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2016), and the Nivola Museum, Orani, Italy (2019).
He participated in Documenta V (1972), VI (1977), VII (1982) and XXIII (2012). He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1972, 1984, 2003, and 2013.
Selected solo-exhibitions 2024, "A PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS ASAP", UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing 2024, "OF & ABOUT POSTERS: The Lawrence Weiner Posters Archive (1965 - 2021)", Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver 2023, "UNDER THE SUN", AmorePacific Museum of Art (APMA), Seoul 2023, "Artists Rooms: Lawrence Weiner", Tate Modern, London, UK 2023, "LAWRENCE WEINER: WITHIN A REALM OF RELATIVE FORM", Lisson Gallery, Beijing 2022, "AS LONG AS IT LASTS", Mai 36, Zurich 2022, "APROPOS LAWRENCE WEINER", Marian Goodman Gallery, NYC 2021, "AROUND THE WORLD", Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon 2021, "CLOSE TO A RAINBOW", Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Holstebro 2020, "TRACCE/TRACES", Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome 2020, "ON VIEW", Regen Projects, Los Angeles 2019, "ATTACHED BY EBB & FLOW", Museo Nivola, Orani 2019, "LONG AGO FAR AWAY", OSL Contemporary, Oslo 2018, "WATER & SOME OF ITS FORMS", Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo 2017, "LAWRENCE WEINER: INHERENT INNATE TENSION", Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee 2016, "WHEREWITHAL | WAS ES BRAUCHT", Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria 2015, "WITHIN A REALM OF DISTANCE", Blenheim Art Foundation, Oxfordshire 2015, "Straight Down to Below: Lawrence Weiner ", Artist Rooms on Tour at Tate Modern and National Galleries of Scotland), Woodhorn Museum, Northumberland, Scotland 2014, "Lawrence Weiner: ALL IN DUE COURSE", South London Gallery, London 2014, "CRISCROSSED ENTRECUZADO", Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon 2013 - 2014, "Lawrence Weiner: WRITTEN IN THE WIND", Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 2012, "BE THAT AS IT MAY", Lisson Gallery, London 2012, "Lawrence Weiner: NO TREE NO BRANCH", The Jewish Museum, New York 2011, "A SYNTAX OF DEPENDENCY" (with Liam Gillick), Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium 2010, "AS TO BE IN PLAIN SIGHT", Denver Art Museum, Colorado 2010, "GYROSCOPICALLY SPEAKING", Marian Goodman Gallery, New York 2010, "Lawrence Weiner in the House of Art", České Budějovice, Czech Republic 2008, "LAWRENCE WEINER: QUID PRO QUO", Gagosian Gallery, Rome 2008, "OFFSIDES", Lisson Gallery, London 2008 "A SELECTION OF SHORT FILMS AND VIDEOS BY LAWRENCE WEINER", UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing 2008, "DEMATERIALIZING CINEMA-THE FILMS OF LAWRENCE WEINER" Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Boston 2007 - 2008, "Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE", at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2007, "Lawrence Weiner: Inherent in the Rhumb Line", at National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England 2005, "WITHIN A REALM OF RELATIVE FORM", Lisson Gallery, London 2004, "WITH ALL DUE INTENT", Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon 2003, "LE DESTIN LA DESTINÉE", Yvon Lambert, Paris 2000, "UNDER THE APPLE TREE", Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy 1998, "WRITTEN ON THE WIND", Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany 1997, "TOWARDS MOTION", Canary Wharf, London. 1996, "BADLY MIXED CONCRETE", Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna 1995, "TO BUILD A SQUARE IN THE RHINELAND", Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Museum Ludwig, Cologne 1995, "LEARN TO READ ART: Lawrence Weiner - The Books", New York Public Library, New York 1993, "SPECIFIC & GENERAL WORKS. 1968 - SEPT. 1993" Le Nouveau Musée/Institut d'Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne 1993, "AS LONG AS IT LASTS", Gallery 360°, Tokyo 1992, "CHAINS WRAPPED AROUND ONE THING & ANOTHER BROKEN ONE BY ONE WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco 1991, "DISPLACEMENT", Dia Center for the Arts, New York 1991, "DROPPED STONES", Leo Castelli Gallery, New York 1991, "SPHERES OF INFLUENCE", Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 1990, "WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIME", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1988, "LAWRENCE WEINER WORKS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTIES TOWARDS THE END OF THE EIGHTIES", Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1985, "Sculpture", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris / ARC, Paris 1983, "The Lawrence Weiner Poster Archive", Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax 1983, "WORKS + RECONSTRUCTIONS", Kunsthalle Bern 1980, "Lawrence Weiner", Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva 1977, "THREE WORKS OF LAWRENCE WEINER PRESENTED FOR SALE &/OR INFORMATION AT LEO CASTELLI NYC", Leo Castelli Gallery, New York 1976, "FIVE WORKS, ONE BOOK, ONE VIDEOTAPE", Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 1976, "A PROPOSITION + SOME QUESTIONS AS TO MOVED PICTURES", Artists Space, New York 1973, "WITH RELATION TO THE VARIOUS MANNERS WITH VARIOUS THINGS", Jack Wendler Gallery, London 1970, "Lawrence Weiner", Yvon Lambert, Paris 1969, "5 WORKS" Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art Design, Halifax 1968, "STATEMENTS", Seth Siegelaub Contemporary Art and The Louis Kellner Foundation 1960, "CRATERING PIECE", Mill Valley, California
Recognition Among his many honors were National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1976 and 1983), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994), Wolfgang Hahn Prize (1995), a Skowhegan Medal for Painting/Conceptual Art (1999), An Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Graduate Center, City University of New York City, (2013), the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, Zurich, Switzerland (2015), and the Aspen Award for Art (2017). He posthumously won the Oskar-Kokoschka-Prize in Vienna (2022).