Luis Camnitzer
Encyclopedia
Luis Camnitzer is a German-born
Uruguay
an artist
and academic who resides in the United States
. He is a conceptual art
ist who creates work in a variety of media—including installation
, printmaking
, drawing
, and photography
—that breaks down limitations and questions that define the center versus the periphery. Even though select works of Camnitzer deal with explicitly political content, he states that all his art is deeply political, "in the sense of wanting to change society." His approach to Conceptualism
often utilizes language
to underscore issues of power and commodification
, exploring the relationship between images, objects, and texts.
, Germany in 1937, grew up in Montevideo
, Uruguay, and has lived and worked in New York
since 1964. He received Guggenheim Fellowship
s in 1961 and 1982 and has made his mark internationally not only as an artist but as a critic
, educator, and art theorist.
Formally allied with the American Conceptualists of the 1960s and 1970s, over the past fifty years Camnitzer has developed an essentially autonomous oeuvre. Through his art, Camnitzer often plays with the role of audience
as silent witness and accomplice
, within the arts as well as politics, often drawing on his youth in Montevideo under a repressive government that the international community allowed to persist.
, MoMA
, and El Museo del Barrio
.
Retrospectives of his work have been presented at Lehman College
Art Gallery in the Bronx (1991), Kunsthalle Kiel in Germany (2003), Daros Museum in Switzerland
(2010) and El Museo del Barrio (2011). His work has appeared in biennials and group shows, including Information (1970), The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Biennial of Havana
(1984, 1986, and 1991); Venice Biennale
(1988); Whitney Biennial
(2000); Documenta 11 (2002); Beyond Geometry (2005), Los Angeles County Museum of Art
; The New York Graphics Workshop (2008), Blanton Museum of Art
, University of Texas; and El Museo Del Barrio (AMANAPLANACANALPANAMA (1995), Uruguayan Torture Series (1983), and The Disappeared (1997).
just before the Museum’s founding, immediately joining the fomenting dialogue about representation and culture at that time, including pivotal roles in the city -based New York Graphic Workshop, Museo Latinoamericano, and Movimiento por la Independencia Cultural de América (MICLA). On one hand, The New York Graphic Workshop (founded by Camnitzer, José Guillermo Castillo, and Liliana Porter
, 1964-1970) sought to redefine art objects in Conceptual terms through printmaking by creating disposable, serial objects whose ideas invoked accessibility and participation. On the other hand, artists in New York founded the Museo Latinoamericano and MICLA in 1971, to respond to the way they were being represented, share resources, and later, join forces internationally to object to dictatorship
s or repression in Latin America
and the Caribbean
.
For nearly five decades, Camnitzer has persevered as an influential creator, critic, writer, theorist, teacher, and curator
—a true “artist’s artist.” His activism on many fronts mirrors the political, social, economic, and artistic challenges that have faced our broader communities over this time. His life has been lived in Spanish
and English
, crossing artistic and cultural boundaries and troubling any stereotype
s of what a “Latin American” artist should be.
El Museo has featured Camnitzer’s work in many past exhibitions. Of particular note is his retrospective Luis Camnitzer (2011) organized by Daros Latinamerica, his solo exhibition, AMANAPLANACANALPANAMA in 1995, as well as the presentation of his Uruguayan Torture Series (1983) in The Disappeared (1997), an exhibition organized by the North Dakota Museum of Art
. Camnitzer also co-curated an exhibition for El Museo with Lowery Stokes Sims
, The Latino Papers: Posters, Prints and Works on Paper from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection (1994), presented at the Equitable Gallery, NY. In addition, El Museo holds in public trust several of his works in its own Permanent Collection.
at Old Westbury, New York
, where he started teaching in 1964. He currently lives in Great Neck, New York
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and academic who resides in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He is a conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ist who creates work in a variety of media—including installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
, drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
—that breaks down limitations and questions that define the center versus the periphery. Even though select works of Camnitzer deal with explicitly political content, he states that all his art is deeply political, "in the sense of wanting to change society." His approach to Conceptualism
Conceptualism
Conceptualism is a philosophical theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between Nominalism and Realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies...
often utilizes language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
to underscore issues of power and commodification
Commodification
Commodification is the transformation of goods, ideas, or other entities that may not normally be regarded as goods into a commodity....
, exploring the relationship between images, objects, and texts.
Background
Luis Camnitzer was born in LübeckLübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Germany in 1937, grew up in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay, and has lived and worked in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
since 1964. He received Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
s in 1961 and 1982 and has made his mark internationally not only as an artist but as a critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, educator, and art theorist.
Formally allied with the American Conceptualists of the 1960s and 1970s, over the past fifty years Camnitzer has developed an essentially autonomous oeuvre. Through his art, Camnitzer often plays with the role of audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
as silent witness and accomplice
Accomplice
At law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even though they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller and asks for the money is guilty of armed robbery...
, within the arts as well as politics, often drawing on his youth in Montevideo under a repressive government that the international community allowed to persist.
Exhibitions
Camnitzer’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions, and is represented in the permanent collections of various international institutions including Tate ModernTate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, MoMA
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, and El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino visual arts cultural institution, is located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, United States, also known as El Barrio. The museum welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of the Latino, Caribbean, and...
.
Retrospectives of his work have been presented at Lehman College
Lehman College
Lehman College is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, USA. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within the City University in 1968. The college is named after Herbert Lehman, a former New York governor,...
Art Gallery in the Bronx (1991), Kunsthalle Kiel in Germany (2003), Daros Museum in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(2010) and El Museo del Barrio (2011). His work has appeared in biennials and group shows, including Information (1970), The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Biennial of Havana
Havana biennial
The Havana Biennial Art Exhibition takes place in Havana every two years, and principally aims at promoting the « Third World » contemporary art...
(1984, 1986, and 1991); Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
(1988); Whitney Biennial
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...
(2000); Documenta 11 (2002); Beyond Geometry (2005), Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
; The New York Graphics Workshop (2008), Blanton Museum of Art
Blanton Museum of Art
The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art is the art museum and research center of the University of Texas at Austin. Formerly under the College of Fine Arts, the museum director now reports to the University's...
, University of Texas; and El Museo Del Barrio (AMANAPLANACANALPANAMA (1995), Uruguayan Torture Series (1983), and The Disappeared (1997).
Connection to El Museo del Barrio
In many ways, Luis Camnitzer’s career reflects El Museo del Barrio’s own trajectory. Camnitzer arrived in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
just before the Museum’s founding, immediately joining the fomenting dialogue about representation and culture at that time, including pivotal roles in the city -based New York Graphic Workshop, Museo Latinoamericano, and Movimiento por la Independencia Cultural de América (MICLA). On one hand, The New York Graphic Workshop (founded by Camnitzer, José Guillermo Castillo, and Liliana Porter
Liliana Porter
Liliana Porter is a contemporary artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Porter attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico. She has exhibited internationally and currently lives and works out of New York. Porter...
, 1964-1970) sought to redefine art objects in Conceptual terms through printmaking by creating disposable, serial objects whose ideas invoked accessibility and participation. On the other hand, artists in New York founded the Museo Latinoamericano and MICLA in 1971, to respond to the way they were being represented, share resources, and later, join forces internationally to object to dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
s or repression in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
For nearly five decades, Camnitzer has persevered as an influential creator, critic, writer, theorist, teacher, and curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
—a true “artist’s artist.” His activism on many fronts mirrors the political, social, economic, and artistic challenges that have faced our broader communities over this time. His life has been lived in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, crossing artistic and cultural boundaries and troubling any stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s of what a “Latin American” artist should be.
El Museo has featured Camnitzer’s work in many past exhibitions. Of particular note is his retrospective Luis Camnitzer (2011) organized by Daros Latinamerica, his solo exhibition, AMANAPLANACANALPANAMA in 1995, as well as the presentation of his Uruguayan Torture Series (1983) in The Disappeared (1997), an exhibition organized by the North Dakota Museum of Art
North Dakota Museum of Art
The North Dakota Museum of Art is the official art museum of the U.S. state of North Dakota. Located on the campus of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, the museum is a private not-for-profit institution...
. Camnitzer also co-curated an exhibition for El Museo with Lowery Stokes Sims
Lowery Stokes Sims
Lowery Stokes Sims is Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design. From 2000-2007 Sims was executive director then president of The Studio Museum in Harlem and served as Adjunct Curator for the Permanent Collection. Sims was on the education and curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from...
, The Latino Papers: Posters, Prints and Works on Paper from El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection (1994), presented at the Equitable Gallery, NY. In addition, El Museo holds in public trust several of his works in its own Permanent Collection.
Publications
Camnitzer is a frequent contributor to the magazine ArtNexus. He is the author of New Art of Cuba (1994, 2003) and Conceptualism in Latin American Art: Didactics of Liberation (2007).Academic Career and Residence
Camnitzer studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Uruguay, and the Academy of Munich. Camnitzer is Professor Emeritus at State University of New YorkState University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
at Old Westbury, New York
Old Westbury, New York
Old Westbury is a village in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village population was 4,671....
, where he started teaching in 1964. He currently lives in Great Neck, New York
Great Neck, New York
The term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...
.