John Latham (artist)

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John Latham (born February 23, 1921 in Livingstone , Northern Rhodesia , † January 1, 2006 in London ) was a Rhodesian- British conceptual artist , painter, sculptor and performance artist .

life and work

John Aubrey Clarendon Latham was born in Livingstone in 1921, now alternatively Maramba in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia . He was the son of English parents and went to school in Winchester . During the Second World War he belonged to the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and led an MTB in the Royal Navy as a first lieutenant .

In 1946 he enrolled at the University of Westminster (formerly Regent Street Polytechnic). From 1947 to 1951 he studied painting at the Chelsea College of Art and Design . John Latham and Barbara Steveni were married in the early 1950s and have two sons and a daughter.

Latham worked in conceptual art, performance art. He created paintings, films and videos . In 1958 he began to process torn, painted over and burned books into assemblages .

John Latham developed his own philosophy of time as an event structure .

Skoob

The destruction and parody of knowledge systems in Latham's work can be seen in his project Skoob (backwards spelled Books). That action took place in 1966 while teaching part-time at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design . He invited his students to a party and the guests joined in his ritual ceremony of chewing and then spitting out Clement Greenberg's works of art and culture. The remains were then fermented in the mash , distilled and duly provided with the leather binding and the title Spit and Chew in a test tube and returned to the library in the place of the former book. Since the book was not returned in legible form, he was dismissed from his work at St. Martins School after this action. Latham recognized this as his first major confrontation with the authorities.

Latham went on to stack towers from the Encyclopædia Britannica and set them on fire. Since books are not only objects, but also embody the idea of ​​civilization and the Enlightenment, he received a lot of response to these works, which aroused deep fears and feelings in the viewer in the period after the end of National Socialism .

Creation and destruction were the focus of his artistic practice in the 1970s and 1980s. Latham was friends with the performance artists Gustav Metzger and Yoko Ono .

Artist Placement Group (APG)

In 1966, Latham and his wife Barbara Stevini founded the Artist Placement Group , which investigates the relationships between artists and industrial society. This is a sociological and aesthetic program aimed at placing artists in positions in industry, science and politics to develop alternatives. Artist friends such as Maurice Agis , Stuart Brisley , Barry Flanagan , David Hall , Ian MacDonald-Munro, Anna Ridley and Jeffrey Shaw joined them. After Joseph Beuys invited Latham to a discussion at documenta 6 in 1977 , many new contacts and internships arose in the 1980s.

Flat Time House (FTHo)

In 2003 John Latham declared his house a living sculpture and named it, according to his theory of time, Flat Time House (FTHo) . Until his death he opened it to anyone willing to contemplate art. Even today the house is available for a variety of artistic activities.

Exhibitions

John Latham has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1 , New York (2006), Tate Britain , London (2005), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , Germany (1991), Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles , Brussels (1984) and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf (1975 ). His work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including a. In 1977 at documenta 6 in Kassel, and in 2005 at the 51st Biennale di Venezia .

literature

  • John Latham: State of Mind (exhibition catalog, by J. Harten, R. Brooks and J. Stezaker, Städt. Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1975)
  • John Latham (exhibition catalog by T. Measham, London, Tate, 1976)
  • John Latham: Early Works, 1954–1972 (exhibition catalog by R. Hamilton, London, Lisson Gal., 1987) ISBN 978-0-947830-11-3
  • A World View: John Latham. Exhibition catalog Serpentine Gallery, London 2017, with contributions by: Gad, Amira; Constable, Joseph; Donagh, Rita; Hamilton, Richard; Jackson, Katherine; Kay, Elisa; Kleinman, Adam; Latham, Noa; Toop, David; Steveni, Barbara; Spooner, Cally. ISBN 978-3-96098-090-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The guardian, Michael McNay, January 7, 2006 John Latham, Radical and inspirational artist who courted controversy and pioneered conceptual art, accessed December 7, 2014
  2. ^ Tate John Latham 1921 to 2006 Artist Biography accessed December 7, 2014
  3. ^ Tate Britain John Latham in Focus accessed December 7, 2014
  4. ↑ Lisson Gallery John Latham accessed December 7, 2014 (English)
  5. ↑ The guardian, Michael McNay, January 7, 2006 John Latham, Radical and inspirational artist who courted controversy and pioneered conceptual art, accessed December 7, 2014
  6. ↑ Frieze, Peter Eleey Context is Half the Work ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on December 7, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frieze.com
  7. ↑ Flat Time House (FTHo) accessed on December 7, 2014 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Latham, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Latham, John Aubrey Clarendon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rhodesian-British conceptual artist, painter, sculptor and performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Livingstone (Zambia)
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 2006
Place of death London