{"id":17523,"date":"2023-09-25T10:17:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/?p=17523"},"modified":"2023-12-15T10:54:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T16:54:20","slug":"bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Bieber Examines Avant-Garde Art Through Architectural Lens In New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new book by Susanneh Bieber<\/a> examines the avant-garde work of seven artists during \u201cthe long Sixties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmerican Artists Engage the Built Environment, 1960-1979,\u201d<\/a> published by Routledge, features Bieber\u2019s analysis of the work of artists Robert Grosvenor, Donald Judd, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mary Miss, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson and Lawrence Weiner during that transformational era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The associate professor in the Texas A&M School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, who has a joint appointment with the School of Architecture, challenges the convention to narrate the history of art as distinct movements, independent from society around it. In traditional narratives, pop and minimal art of the early 1960s are followed by conceptual art and then by site-specific art and feminist art, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bieber aimed to reframe the history of American avant-garde art in that time through an architectural lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m basically saying that these styles of avant-garde art do not just develop internally, one movement in reaction to the previous one, but that you can narrate that history of ’60s art as part of broader sociocultural discourses about buildings and cities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often think of such innovative architects as Frank Gehry or Peter Eisenmann as taking their inspiration from art, Bieber said. The book explores the opposite direction of influence, the idea that artists take inspiration from architecture and the built environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to emphasize the reciprocity between these disciplines \u2014 art, architecture and the built environment,\u201d Bieber said. \u201cThey enrich each other, they create lively and productive dialogues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In researching Judd\u2019s minimal abstract sculptures<\/a>, Bieber visited Marfa, Texas, where the artist moved in 1979 from New York. She also traveled to the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to study his art and the documents he left behind. Judd, who died in 1994, used materials including stainless steel and plexiglass in his pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re often just seen as objects that are to be appreciated through an aesthetic lens,\u201d Bieber said. \u201cI basically show that, if we go into the archives and look at some of his letters and writing from that period, we actually see that he was very influenced by the built environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bieber, who received a Glasscock Faculty Research Fellowship<\/a> for the 2023-24 academic year to research her next book<\/a> \u2014 became interested in the topic while serving as a curator at the Tate Modern<\/a> gallery in London. She said she was inspired by working with contemporary artists, many of whom were interested in built spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was interested in looking at the longer history,\u201d Bieber said. \u201cWhere do these ideas come from, and what kind of precedents are these contemporary artists referencing? That’s when the \u201960s came up as such an important period. The artists that I am discussing in my book \u2014 Donald Judd, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mary Miss \u2014 are often referenced by contemporary artists. I thought I’d look into that more closely, and that’s how the book really came about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bieber said she chose artists that were well-known and associated with a specific movement. She chose Judd for minimalism, Smithson for earth art, Weiner for conceptual art and Miss for feminist art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of humor by artists was among Bieber\u2019s favorite discoveries. Though these artists were socially and politically involved, they sometimes took a lighthearted approach, she said. An example: Oldenburg\u2019s technique of envisioning large monuments of everyday items, including a giant hot dog (featured on the book cover), a pair of scissors<\/a>, and a gearstick in motion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe never thought that the monuments he jotted down on paper would actually be realized, so there is a kind of tongue-in-cheek approach to his art,\u201d Bieber said. \u201cThese early proposals for monuments were quite critical and intersected closely with the architectural discourses at the time, but there is a sense of humor that also plays into his work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how artists shape society, Bieber said. The act of creation \u2014 even something as simple as drawing something on paper \u2014 gives viewers the opportunity to envision it, to think it possible, she said. In Oldenburg\u2019s case, it turned out that he was commissioned just a few years later to realize some of his ideas as actual monuments: a clothespin<\/a>, lipstick<\/a> and a plug<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenerally, I think art is often disparaged or dismissed or even seen as frivolous,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd artists like Oldenburg do have outlandish ideas. But only by thinking beyond what is ordinary and familiar are we actually able to then also envision and realize the impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bieber will discuss the book on Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. in the Adams Presentation Room, Langford Architecture Building A, on the second floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book by Susanneh Bieber examines the avant-garde work of seven artists during \u201cthe long Sixties.\u201d \u201cAmerican Artists Engage the Built Environment, 1960-1979,\u201d published by Routledge, features Bieber\u2019s analysis of the work of artists Robert Grosvenor, Donald Judd, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[250,58,90],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBieber Examines Avant-Garde Art Through Architectural Lens In New Book - Texas A&M University College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cAmerican Artists Engage the Built Environment, 1960-1979\u201d features Bieber\u2019s analysis of the work of seven artists during \u201cthe long Sixties.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bieber Examines Avant-Garde Art Through Architectural Lens In New Book\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAmerican Artists Engage the Built Environment, 1960-1979\u201d features Bieber\u2019s analysis of the work of seven artists during \u201cthe long Sixties.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Texas A&M University College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-25T15:17:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T16:54:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/app\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Book-new.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Site Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tamupvfa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Site Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Site Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/e8836c3c69a68963a7cd2e72f2b564f4\"},\"headline\":\"Bieber Examines Avant-Garde Art Through Architectural Lens In New Book\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-25T15:17:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T16:54:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\"},\"wordCount\":792,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Faculty Achievements\",\"News\",\"Visualization\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pvfa.tamu.edu\/news\/2023\/09\/25\/bieber-examines-avant-garde-art-through-architectural-lens-in-new-book\/\",\"name\":\"Bieber Examines Avant-Garde Art Through Architectural Lens In New Book - 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