Lawrence Weiner is regarded as the father of Concept Art. During the 1960s, he developed an artistic use of language with reference to materials, which renders unnecessary actual execution of the verbally defined work. He still holds fast to this artistic practice, which he proclaimed in 1968 in his legendary Statement of Intent. Here Weiner declares that the production of a work of art is not necessarily bound up with the artist, but is a function of its reception. Thus in the tradition of Mallarmé's claim, he creates continuous objectivised texts (since the beginning of the 1970s in block capitals and without punctuation), the languages of which are juxtaposed, equivalent in translation. Weiner's concept of art excludes metaphor: "Art is never metaphorical", he would often assert emphatically. Nonetheless, the artist is aware that in interpreting the work, the viewer will transform it into a metaphor.
For the main staircase and upper rooms of our renovated gallery and for the façade of the Salzburg Museum of Modern Art, Lawrence Weiner created permanent installations of letters and symbols, in the tradition of his open concept of a work.
Lawrence Weiner: Lawrence Weiner, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg, 2005
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Overview
During the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner developed an artistic use of language with reference to materials, which renders unnecessary actual execution of the verbally defined work.
Lawrence Weiner is regarded as the father of Concept Art. During the 1960s, he developed an artistic use of language with reference to materials, which renders unnecessary actual execution of the verbally defined work. He still holds fast to this artistic practice, which he proclaimed in 1968 in his legendary Statement of Intent. Here Weiner declares that the production of a work of art is not necessarily bound up with the artist, but is a function of its reception. Thus in the tradition of Mallarmé's claim, he creates continuous objectivised texts (since the beginning of the 1970s in block capitals and without punctuation), the languages of which are juxtaposed, equivalent in translation. Weiner's concept of art excludes metaphor: 'Art is never metaphorical', he would often assert emphatically. Nonetheless, the artist is aware that in interpreting the work, the viewer will transform it into a metaphor. For the main staircase and upper rooms of our renovated gallery and for the façade...
