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Stedelijk Museum opens OP DE WIND GESCHREVEN / WRITTEN ON THE WIND – Drawings by Lawrence Weiner

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents OP DE WIND GESCHREVEN / WRITTEN ON THE WIND – Drawings by Lawrence Weiner an exhibition on view 21 Sep 2013 – 5 Jan 2014.

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents OP DE WIND GESCHREVEN / WRITTEN ON THE WIND – Drawings by Lawrence Weiner, the first major exhibition devoted to works on paper by Lawrence Weiner (b. 1942, Bronx, New York), one of the most culturally engaged artists of our time. The exhibition is organized by the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), where it premiered earlier this year, and co-produced with the Stedelijk Museum.

WRITTEN ON THE WIND comprises an extensive survey of nearly 300 drawings produced over a fifty-year period. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the artist’s remarkable trajectory in drawing— from cartoons, notebooks, and otherwise unseen working material and sketches, together with formal works on paper. The exhibition is narrated by his gestural graphics, leading the viewer into the sensibility of Weiner’s oeuvre. Many works contain his initial thoughts and ideas that are often seen transformed into the artists sculptural works using language. Drawing is at the origin and underlines his entire production; the exhibition itself is organized as if it were a drawing in and of itself, as the exhibition has been composed by the artist in a specially designed architectural installation for the Stedelijk’s monumental lower-level gallery space in the new wing.

One of the central figures associated with the emergence and foundations of Conceptual art in the 1960s, Weiner remains one of the most significant artists working today. Weiner‘s work consists of “language + the materials referred to,” wherein language is also considered a sculptural, i.e. 3-dimensional material. Well- known for his text pieces and wall installations, his work spans a broad range of forms, including drawings, books, films, videos, music, posters, editions, and public projects. Weiner has often defined art as “the relationship of human beings to objects and objects to objects in relation to human beings.” His employment of language is purposely open-ended to allow for translation, transference, and transformation by the receiver; each time the work is made, – See more at: http://www.stedelijk.nl