The exhibition is structured around four works that are united by the use of language which, to quote Weiner, is crucial in that it suggests that it is not necessary to create or construct in order to make art.
The works in the exhibition use writing – an incursion into the medium, as regards Schnabel, and a customary practice for the others – as a tool to alter the conventional relationship between signified and signifier, leaving the greatest level of interpretative autonomy to the observer.
According to Barry, while words respond to an aesthetic and to the space they occupy and create around them, they are to be understood more as signs to show that there is art, to indicate the direction in which it exists, to prepare for it, inviting us to transcend the limits of materiality. And it is this new creative dimension which presents the art object as pure language that has marked a significant turning point in art history.
About Robert Barry (New York, 1936)
Lives and works in New Jersey. He participated in the Paris Biennale (1971), Documenta 5 (1972) and the Venice Biennale (1972). He has had solo exhibitions at the Tate Gallery in London, the Kunsthalle in Nuremberg, the Kustmuseum in Lucerne, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Kunsthalle in Lausanne. His work is included in the collections of the world’s major museums, including: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum, Basel; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum für Kunst Monderne Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
About Joseph Kosuth (Toledo, 1945)
Lives and works in New York. During his career he has participated in seven Documenta and eight Venice Biennales, receiving an Honourable Mention in the ’93 edition. Other prizes and honours he has received include the Brandeis Award (1990), the Frederick Wiseman Award (1991), the rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic (1993) and the Gold Decoration of Honour for services to the Republic of Austria (2003). His works are included in the collections of the world’s most important museums of modern and contemporary art: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Musée du Louvre, Paris; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome.
About Julian Schnabel (New York, 1951)
Lives and works in New York and Montauk, Long Island. Participated in the Venice Biennale in 1980 and 1982. A multifaceted artist, his practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, film, architecture and furniture. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
About Lawrence Weiner (New York, 1942 – 2021)
During his career he participated in four Documenta editions and as many Venice Biennales. His numerous awards and honours include two National Endowments for the Arts Fellowships (1976 and 1983), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994), the Wolfgang Hahn Prize (1995), the Skowhegan Medal for Painting/Conceptual Art (1999), the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation Prize (2015), the Wolf Prize and the Aspen Award for Art (2017). In 2022, the Arsenale in Venice hosted a major retrospective of his work. Works by the artist appear in the collections of the British Museum, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute, Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London.
For more information, please visit https://www.giorgiopersano.org/
