Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021)

Lawrence Weiner, an American conceptual artist best known for his public installations featuring poetic words and phrases with graphic accents has died at 79. He passed away December 2, 2021.

Weiner rose to prominence in the late 1960s when conceptual art was gaining traction in the US. He was part of a generation of artists questioning conventional modes of making and displaying art. At the time Weiner was creating grid-based drawings, shaped canvases and ephemeral interventions that sought to delineate public spaces. Before he became more widely known for his graphic text works, Weiner achieved fame within the art world for pieces that called upon the people presenting them to enact certain tasks. Often, the activities called for were odd and not particularly utilitarian.

Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021) was born in New York, NY, USA, where he lived and worked. Solo exhibitions have been held at Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Holstebro, Denmark (2021), Museo Nivola, Orani, Italy (2019), Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA (2017);  Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, USA (2017); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria (2016); Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, UK (2015); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2014); Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain (2013); Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2007); A major retrospective survey was shown at the Whitney Museum, New York; MoCA, Los Angeles, and K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2007-2009).; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico (2004); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2000); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA (1994); and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA (1990). He participated in documenta 5, 6, 7, and 13 (1972, 1977, 1982, 2012); the 36th, 41st, 50th and 55th Venice Biennales, Italy (1972, 1984, 2003, 2013); and the 27th Biennale de Sao Paulo, Brazil (2006). Among many honours he was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976, 1983), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1994), the Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1995), a Skowhegan Medal for Painting/Conceptual Art (1999), an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Graduate Center, City University of New York (2013) and recently the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation Prize (2015), and the Wolf Prize and the Aspen Award for Art in 2017.