Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) presents Written on the Wind Lawrence Weiner Drawings an exhibition o view 8 March–24 June 2013.
With clear references to navigation, Written on the Wind presents one of the most significant artists of the past fifty years through the humble but essential medium of drawing. The exhibition offers an insight into the work of Lawrence Weiner (New York, 1942) through his drawings, which are probably the least known aspect of his oeuvre. Written on the Wind is an exhaustive survey of the works on paper by this artist who has shown that art does not require a physical medium. Weiner employs the democratic, universal element of language to create works that range from intangible objects—his famous word sculptures—to sound pieces and film.
In 1959, Weiner publicly presented his works for the first time. A year later, he used dynamite to create sculptures by means of “subtraction” in a national park in California. In 1964, audiences who attended his show in New York discovered that they had to decide the final form that the works would take. In 1968, Weiner created a work at Windham College in Putney, Vermont, that involved positioning a series of stakes in the ground at regular intervals and stringing twine between them to form a grid. When the students cut the twine because it hampered their access to the campus, Weiner realised that he could have created the same effect without the need to physically materialise the piece. That same year, he formulated the famous declaration of intent that has guided his work since then, and that is a milestone in the history of contemporary art.
1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.
Since then, Weiner has used language as a material to create works that demand the active participation of the observer. Once it has been freed from its appearance and its physical state, an artwork exists in as far as it is formulated through language and inhabited by the spectator. Based on these premises, Weiner has made language the central element of his work, meticulously selecting precise formulations that he interprets in their most objective sense. Weiner sculpts with words.
Curated by Bartomeu Marí and Soledad Gutiérrez
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)
Plaça dels Àngels, 1
08001 Barcelona
www.macba.cat