Lawrence Weiner Bent & Broken Shafts of Light (Vorzugsausgabe)

Lawrence Weiner
In the 1970s Lawrence Weiner started inscribing his works directly onto the walls of galleries and exhibition spaces. Before that he had already been sending out his work on invitations cards, publishing it in newspapers, or proliferating it on matchboxes. For the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg Weiner conceived a work that deals with colours and the immateriality of light. He drew his inspiration from the play of the green, yellow, red and violet of the northern lights. Stripes in these colours were applied to each of the 40 x 16.5 metre walls. The white of the writing on these walls creates the effect of apertures, while the walls themselves seem almost transparent. Weiner's work does more than simply reflect a natural phenomenon: amongst other things Bent & Broken Shafts of Light generates a complex interplay of different levels of perception in the viewer reading the texts in the exhibition space. This fine artist's book devoted to Weiner's work shows all the walls realised for this project as well as earlier works both inside and outside in the open air. (standard edition available ISBN 3-7757-1025-6) Exhibition Schedule: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg 11.11.2000-18.2.2001Lawrence Weiner (*1942 in the Bronx, New York) studied literature and philosophy at Hunter College in New York. After an intensive study of the traditional arts of painting and sculpture, he developed his own approach to art, using language, in the late 1960s. His work has been seen in countless solo shows and large, important international exhibitions. Recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; K21, Düsseldorf; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, produced a retrospective of his work titled AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (2007/08). Weiner's work has been shown at the documenta 5 (1972), 6 (1977), and 7 (1982), and will also be seen in 2012 at the dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel. The artist lives in New York and Amsterdam.