Benjamin Patterson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Patterson

Benjamin Patterson (born May 29, 1934 in Pittsburgh ; † June 25, 2016 in Wiesbaden ) was an American artist and musician and co-founder of the Fluxus movement in the 1960s.

Life

Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, the artist and musician graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1956 . As early as 1951, the double bass player's solo concert was broadcast on television. As an African American he could not find a place in a symphony orchestra in the USA and went to Canada, where he played in the symphony orchestras of Halifax and Ottawa . In Europe he became a member of the orchestra of the 7th US Army. In 1960 he moved to Cologne and devoted himself to the contemporary music scene. Until 1962 Patterson performed in addition to Cologne, among others in Vienna , Venice and Paris .

After he and George Maciunas organized the Wiesbadener Festspiele Neuester Musik , later known as the first Fluxus Festival, in the Wiesbaden Municipal Museum in 1962, the first Fluxus-related newspaper article by Emmett Williams was published in The Stars and Stripes magazine. In the same year Patterson moved to Paris, where he published the book Methods and Process himself and published it in the Fillious Galerie Légitime through collaboration with Robert Filliou Puzzle poems . In 1963 he moved to New York and withdrew from avant-garde art in order to lead a "bourgeois life".

His work in the following two decades included the management of the Symphony of the New World orchestra , the management of the Institute of Cultural Relations in New York, as well as the management for development of the Negro Ensemble Company and the management of the Pro Musica foundation Inc. His artistic work occurred occasionally on the basis of performances in appearance. In 1982 and 1983 he took part in the São Paulo Biennale and his work was featured in various exhibitions in the Silverman Collection in the United States. In 1988 Patterson opened his first solo show, An Ordinary Life with new assemblages and installations at the Emily Harvey Gallery, New York. His works, ironic and subtle in relation to politics and society, are a constant feature of Fluxus festivals and group exhibitions.

Awards

  • 2012: Wiesbaden Culture Prize
  • 2014: museum FLUXUS + Orden, Potsdam
  • 2015: “Follow me Dada and Fluxus”, art award from the Friends of Museum Ostwall , Dortmund

Exhibitions

  • 1990: 44th Paris Biennial
  • 2003: Fluxus in Düsseldorf 1962/63 , Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
  • 2006: I moved in as a stranger , Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
  • 2007: Vertigo , MAMbo Bologna
  • 2008/2009 : FLUXUS EAST , Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen, Bunkier Stzuki, Krakau, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Ludwig Museum Budapest
  • 2010–2012: Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX / us , Contemporary Arts Museum Houston , Studio Museum Harlem, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden
  • 2012: Thing / Thought , Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 2012/2013: Fluxus! > Anti-art <is also art , State Gallery Stuttgart , December 1, 2012 - April 28, 2013
  • 2014: Dr. Ben's Fluxus Medicin Show (80th Birthday Tour) , Genoa, Brno, Berlin, Zagreb, Zurich, Cologne, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Blois, Schwerin, Krakow, Wiesbaden, Nassauischer Kunstverein
  • 2017: documenta 14 , Athens, Kassel
  • 2019: " ... do not be afraid of long silences! ", Museum FLUXUS + , Potsdam

literature

  • Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (ed.): Ben Patterson Analog. Photographs by Elfi Kreiter . With texts by Carina Heuckmann and Lila Agoritsa Kapsioti. Wiesbaden 2009
  • Valerie Cassel Olivier: Ben Patterson: In the State of Fluxus . Contemporary Arts Museum Houston 2010
  • Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (ed.): Benjamin Patterson Living Fluxus . Texts by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Bertrand Clavez, Charles Gaines, Elke Gruhn, Jon Hendricks, George E. Lewis, Fred Moten, Benjamin Patterson, Marcia Reed, Harry Ruhé, Sara Stehr. With a greeting from US Consul General Kevin C. Milas. Published by Koenig Books Ltd, London / Cologne. Wiesbaden 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ben Patterson, Cornerstone of Fluxus and Experimental Art, Dies at 82 , artnews.com, June 27, 2016, accessed June 28, 2016
  2. ↑ Page on the exhibition at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 30, 2017@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.staatsgalerie.de  
personal data
SURNAME Patterson, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Patterson, Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American visual artist and musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2016
Place of death Wiesbaden