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Groundbreaking conceptual artist Robert Irwin dies at 95

2023-10-26T15:35:00-04:00

Robert Irwin, a pioneering conceptual artist and leading figure of the Light and Space movement whose work had significant influences in architecture, passed away last night in San Diego. He was 95.

Irwin helped push the boundaries of American post-war art with his understanding of the principles of design. Along with a cohort of artists like James Turrell, Richard Serra, Larry Bell, and Donald Judd, Irwin worked to constantly challenge the perception of his viewers. He left behind painting to pursue a “conditional art” that espoused a further shift away from pictorial composition and towards the responsiveness of art objects to the context of a site.

Irwin’s collaborative site-conditioned work with institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dia Art Foundation, and LACMA set new precedents for the inclusion of living artists in a museum’s program, the influence of which today can be seen in the careers of Marina Abramović and Isaac Julien, among others. Irwin was also ...

Lawrence Weiner, American conceptual artist, dies at 79

2021-12-02T19:49:00-05:00

Declaration of Intent: The artist may construct the piece. The piece may be fabricated. The piece need not be built. Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.

"Lawrence Weiner, a towering figure in the Conceptual art movement arising in the 1960s and who profoundly altered the landscape of American art, died December 2 at the age of seventy-nine. Known for his text-based installations incorporating evocative or descriptive phrases and sentence fragments, typically presented in bold capital letters accompanied by graphic accents and occupying unusual sites and surfaces, Weiner rose to prominence among a cohort that included Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, and Sol LeWitt. A firm believer that an idea alone could constitute an artwork, he established a practice that stood out for its consistent embodiment of his famous 1968 “Declaration of Intent.”

Lawrence Wiener is also known to the architecture world for his townhouse in New York designed by LO-TEK.

Dan Graham hates conceptual art

2016-08-08T06:44:00-04:00

Dan Graham points his finger at conceptual art as it practiced today and taught in schools. Makes a lot of sense when it is overused and over-appropriated meaninglessly and endlessly. I don't think he would say that forty years ago. Though, he spares Lawrence Weiner.

Michael Asher (1943 - 2012)

2012-10-16T13:16:00-04:00

His own artwork is often described as institutional critique or engagement -- work that grows out of the particular conditions of a museum or gallery environment. But unlike other artists grouped under that umbrella, his work was not fueled by political dogma as much as intelligence and curiosity: How will your art experience change if you alter a choice operating assumption, often in the form of a key architectural element? LA Times

Also few words from Tom Lawson @ East of Borneo including a link to a radio interview of Chris Williams, a well known artist and Michael Asher student in late 70's at Cal Arts.

From my own collection, here is a work by Michael Asher, "Michael Asher Lobby", for the inaugural Exhibition of MoCA, then called Temporary Contemporary:

Photos by the courtesy of Orhan Ayyuce