Words on the walls is something else. The re-materialization of the work of art: Lawrence Weiner from paper to walls
Abstract
Within the art circles that, between 1966 and 1972, engaged in the dematerialization of the artwork (Lippard 1973), Lawrence Weiner is probably the one who used language most coherently and exclusively. The verbal enunciation of the sculpture becomes the sculpture itself; any possible fabrication is left to the receiver; each option is equally legitimate. This rigorous theoretic line is, however, complicated by the transfer, starting in the early Seventies, of his writings from paper to walls.
The transition occurs in Italy when Weiner visits Giuseppe Panza di Biumo in his Villa in Varese and finds there one of his artworks printed or painted on the wall (Weiner 1982). The event marks the start of a series of experimentation on fonts and typographic composition.
The wall contradicts both the dematerialization of language and the tridimensionality of sculpture, reintroducing visuality within conceptuality. The paper examines the preconditions and the consequences of this return, exploring its connections with the international art world and in particular the links with the Italian context, where Arte Povera on one side and the verbal-visual researches on the other were redefining the relationship between art and language.
References
Alberro, A. (2003), Conceptual Art ant the Politics of Publicity, MIT Press, Cambridge and London.
Barilli, R. (1973), Le Due anime del concettuale, «Op. Cit.», gennaio, pp. 63-88.
Buskirk, M. (2005), The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art, MTPress, Cambridge and London.
Camarda, A. (2020), Lawrence Weiner. ATTACHED BY EBB & FLOW, Scheidegger & spiess, Zurigo.
C. Chaffee (2018), To Teach and Delight. A Few Precedents for an Art of Instruction, in A. Andersson (a cura di), Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 168–183.
Conconi, L. (2019), Cronologia, in Celant, G. (a cura di), + Spazi. le gallerie Toselli, Johan & Levi, pp. 62-635.
Corà, B., Panzera, M. (1998), Sol Lewitt in Italia, Maschietto e Musolino, firenze.
Golan, R. (2009), Muralnomad. The Paradox of Wall Painting, Europe 1927 - 1957, Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
Groos, U., von Bismarck, B., Heubach, F. W., de Bruyn, E., Harrison, C., Hess, B., Wevers. U. (2004), Ready to shoot: Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum, videogalerie schum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf.
Judd, D. (1973), Complaints II, «Arts Magazine», 47, 5, marzo, ora in Judd, D. (2016), Complete Writings 1959-1975: Gallery Reviews, Book Reviews, Articles, Letters to the Editor, Reports, Statements, Complaints, Judd Foundation, New York.
Kosuth, J., Art after Conceptual Art, Studio International, October, ora in Alberro, A., Stimson, B. (1999) (a cura di), Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology, The MIT Press, Cambridge and London, pp. 158 - 177.
Krauss, R. (1991), Overcoming the Limits of Matter: On Revising minimalism, in Elderfield, J. (a cura di), American Art of the 1960s, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, pp. 123-141.
LeWitt, S., Norwell, P. (1969), Sol LeWitt. June 12, 1969 (audio), ora in Alberro, A., Norvell, P. (2001), Recording Conceptual Art: Early Interviews with Barry, Huebler, Kaltenbach, LeWitt, Morris, Oppenheim, Siegelaub, Smithson, and Weiner by Patricia Norvell, University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, pp. 112-123.
Lippard, L. (1973), Six Years: the dematerialization of the art object frm 1966 to 1972, Praeger, New York.
Mann, T. (2014), Il Museo d’Arte Ambientale” incontra il “Tempio della Non Oggettività: la collezione Panza degli anni Sessanta e Settanta e il Guggenheim Museum, in Belli, G. e Barisoni, E. (a cura di), Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. Dialoghi americani, Marsilio, Venezia, pp. 84-89.
Mari, B., Weiner, A. (1992) (a cura di), SHOW (&) TELL. The Films & Videos of Lawrence Weiner, Imschoot, Gent.
Meyer, J. (2009), The Minimal Unconscious, «October», n. 130 (ottobre), pp. 141–76.
Migliorini, E. (1972), Conceptual Art, Edizioni d’arte Il Fiorino, Firenze.
Minola, A., Mundici, M. C., Poli, F., Roberto, M.T. (2000), Gian Enzo Sperone. Torino Roma New York. 35 Anni di mostre tra Europa e America, Hopefulmonster, Torino.
O’ Doherty, B. (1976), Inside the White Cube: Notes on the Gallery Space. Part I, «Artforum», Marzo 1976, Vol. 14, n. 7, pp. 24-30.
Osborne, P.(2013), Philosophy in Cultural Theory, Routledge, London.
Panza di Biumo, G. (1974), Enviromental Art Museum, «Data. Pratica e teoria delle arti», Estate, Anno 4, n. 12, pp. 28-33.
Panza di Biumo, G. (2006), Ricordi di un collezionista, Jaca Book, Milano.
Restany, P. (1974), L’art au carre et au cube, «Domus», n. 537, agosto. p. 47.
Richard, S. (2009), Unconcealed. The International Network of Conceptual Artists 1967-77. Dealers, Exhibitions and Public Collections, Ridinghouse.
Sperone, G. E. (1970), Dichiarazione, Torino 13 giugno54985, dattiloscritto, Archivi Giorgio Colombo, Milano.
Weiner, L. (1968), Statements, Seth Siegelaub / The Louis Kellner Foundation, New York City.
Weiner, L. (1970), Art in the Mind (Lettera a A. T. Spear del 25 febbraio), ora in Fietzek, G., Stemmerich, G. (2004), Having Been Said. Writings & interviews of Lawrence Weiner, 1968 - 2003, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit, p. 36.
Weiner, L., Sharp, W. (1972), Lawrence Weiner at Amsterdam. Interview by Willoughby Sharp, 15 maggio 1971, «Avalanche», n. 4, Spring, pp. 64-73), ora in ora in Fietzek, G., Stemmerich, G. (2004), Having Been Said. Writings & interviews of Lawrence Weiner, 1968 - 2003, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit, pp. 43-51.
Weiner, L., Gumpert, L. (1982), Early Work. Interview by Lynn Gumpert, in Benglis, L., Brown, J., Jimenez, L., Stephan, G. (1982), Lawrence Weiner: Early Work, The New Museum, New York, ora in Having Been Said, …, pp. 119-129.
Weiner, L. (2019), Reflection on Information, MoMA Magazine, accesso 06/06/2020, https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/225.
Zambianchi, C. (2014), «Oltre l’oggetto»: qualche considerazione su Arte Povera e performance, «Ricerche di storia dell'arte», a. 37, n. 3, pp. 35-45.
Zanchetti, G, Colombo, D., Giuranna, E., Sem, E. (2014), Altre libertà. Pratiche performative e comportamentali nella poesia visuale italiana degli anni Sessanta e Settanta, «Ricerche di storia dell'arte», a. 37, n. 3, pp. 20-34.
Zanchetti, G. (2007), Esploratori di parole, in Zanchetti, g., Belli, G. (a cura di), La parola nell’arte. Ricerche d’avanguardia nel ’900. Dal Futurismo ad oggi attraverso le collezioni del Mart, Skira, Milano, pp. 21-39.
Zevi, A. (2012), L’Italia nei wall drawings di Sol Lewitt, Electa, Milano.
Fonti archivistiche
Alice and Lawrence Weiner Archives, New York.
Giuseppe Panza papers, 1956-1990, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 940004. http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa940004.
Giorgio Colombo Archives, Milano.
Authors publishing on this journal will accept the following conditions:
Authors keep the copyright on their work and transfer it for the first publication to the publisher with a parallel license Creative Commons - Attribution - No derivatives 4.0 International, crediting others to share a work by specifying the intellectual authorship and the first publication on this journal.
Authors can support further non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version (e.g. registering it in an institutional archive or publishing it in a monograph), provided it is specified it was first published on this journal.
Authors can publicize their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their web sites) before and during the submission procedure, as it may result in fruitful exchanges and increase the citations of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
