Lawrence Weiner:
AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE
September 27, 2008 – January 11, 2009
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Ständehausstraße 1
40217 Düsseldorf
+49 (0) 211.8381-600
Lawrence Weiner (born 1942, South Bronx, New York) has been long recognized as a central figure among the founders and developers of Conceptual Art, whose origins reach back to the 1960s. The exhibition Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE is the most important retrospective in many years to be devoted to this radical, complex, and epochal artist. Especially in recent years, Weiner has been regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic artists worldwide. He has defined art as “the relationship of human beings to objects and of objects to objects in relation to human beings,” and this premise constitutes the core of all of his work to date. For Weiner, language is a material object – whereby the existence of the individual work is nonetheless independent of its material execution. His works address an unending diversity of physical and cultural phenomena, exploiting verbal figures, punctuation marks, and graphic elements as resources in order to transgress conventional hierarchies and boundaries. Here are works that address matters both simple and complex, challenging viewers in both conceptual and political terms.
The focal point of this exhibition is formed by approximately 50 language works and a number of works executed according to them. Also featured are 10 early paintings, a sculpture, and circa 30 drawings. The presentation also includes circa 200 artist’s books and multiples as well as circa 230 posters. The exhibition itself is supplemented by works installed in the city’s public spaces and those appearing in a daily newspaper.
