Michael Asher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Asher , also known as Mike Asher (born July 15, 1943 in Los Angeles California , USA ; † October 14, 2012 there ), was an American conceptual artist . His art did not primarily create new art objects; Instead, it typically changed the existing environment, for example by repositioning or removing elements, works of art, walls or facades.

life and work

Michael Asher was born in 1943 as the son of gallery owners Betty and Dr. Leonard Asher was born in Los Angeles. He studied at the University of California, Irvine until 1966 .

Michael Asher is one of the first concept artists in the USA. His work took the form of "subtle but deliberate interventions - additions, changes or subtractions - especially in and from surroundings". In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it consisted of dividing gallery spaces with partitions and curtains, or the design of surroundings through the reflection or absorption of sound and noises.

In 1969 he had his first solo exhibition at the La Jolla Museum of Art. In the 1970s, he began to change rooms, for example removing layers of paint with sandblasting. Since 1979, he has also repositioned collection objects in museums. His first permanently installed and public work in the United States is the untitled granite fountain next to a flag on the University of California , San Diego campus in 1991.

Michael Asher was a teacher at the California Institute of the Arts , where he taught the Post-Studio Art course.

Michael Asher took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Individual Mythologies : Processes department and Documenta 7 in 1982. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale (1976) and four times at the Skulptur.Projekte in Münster in 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007. In Münster, during the exhibition by Skulptur.Projekte, he placed a caravan at twelve unspectacular locations that change weekly. He had already determined these locations in 1977. Asher's main interest was in the tension between rigid form and moving space: the caravan, which remained the same over the decades, was positioned at stations in the city that were constantly changing. Ongoing photo documentation made these changes visible during the exhibition and since 1977.

He has had major solo exhibitions at the Center Pompidou in Paris (1991), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2003), the Art Institute of Chicago (2005) and the Santa Monica Museum of Art (2008). In spring 2010 he received the highly endowed Bucksbaum Award of the Whitney Biennial including a residency grant and a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the fall of that year.

Awards

Literature and Sources

  • Exhibition catalog: documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today ; Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (list of exhibits); Kassel 1972
  • documenta archive (ed.); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive on documenta 1972 ; Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121-X
  • Catalog: documenta 7 Kassel ; Vol. 1: (visual biographies of the artists); Vol. 2: (Current works of the artists); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6

Web links

Commons : Michael Asher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jori Finkel: Pioneering conceptual artist Michael Asher dies at 69th Los Angeles Times , October 16, 2012, accessed on October 19, 2012 (English).
  2. ^ New York: Michael Asher wins Bucksbaum Award ( Memento from January 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Asher, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Asher, Mike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American concept artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , USA
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2012
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA