Abraham David Christian
Abraham David Christian (* 1952 in Dusseldorf ) is a German artist and sculptor.
Life and work
Abraham David Christian began his first artistic work in 1969. He made promotions and conceptual border experiences, created sculptures and refused even to define them as art. Joseph Beuys recognized his artistic potential and made him his pupil at the Dusseldorf Art Academy.
In 1972, Abraham David Christian took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel as a student at the age of 19 years. He rebelled against there Joseph Beuys, requiring it to be the legendary " boxing match for Direct Democracy through Referendum " out of the Fridericianum on October 8, 1972 took place in the space of Ben Vautier to the close of the exhibition Documenta. Beuys won the boxing match in three rounds with a points victory. ( During this time, Abraham David Christian hung the name of his girlfriend ( Moebuss ) for a few months on his name and called himself Abraham David Christian - Moebuss. )
Five years later, Abraham David Christian was invited to participate in Documenta 6, struck out but this invitation. To documenta 7 in 1982, he was invited again and took this time. After documenta 7, Abraham David Christian moved for years from the public art scene back.
Abraham David Christian represents a radical democratic conception of art. For him, art is something that comes from the society and this is also one. He always took strict care that he barely appeared in public and banned in part of the press to depict his portrait. In some catalogs he renounced the mention of his name. The concept of Abraham David Christian is the strict separation of art and the artist 's personality and it embodies therefore an alternative to the ubiquitous star artist.
His first sculptures shaped Abraham David Christian from Earth. Partial took the production of these works years. The creation of the sculptures and their precalculated decay were part of the art process for him. These sculptures were shown in 1973 at the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf and 1978 at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld in solo exhibitions. In the late 1970s he created complex paper sculptures, later he also worked with bronze. The Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf (1983 ), the Sprengel Museum Hannover (1985, 1994), the Musée des Beaux -Arts, Calais (1988) and the Kunstihoone Tallinna, Estonia ( 1998) focused his work a large solo exhibitions. 2000 showed the Wilhelm LehmbruckMuseum - International Sculpture Center in Duisburg his drawings and sculptures in a major international presentation. This exhibition was accompanied by a book published by DuMont Verlag, Cologne. Exhibitions at the New Museum Weserburg and in the Von der Heydt - Museum in Wuppertal was followed by 2003/2004. The Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg published a book for these exhibitions.
His work has been in exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama Hayama, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, in the National Gallery in Berlin and at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. He has had solo exhibitions at Galerie m Bochum (1979, 1986), Galerie Friedrich Bern (1980, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1992 ), Gatodo Gallery Tokyo ( 1986, 1988 ), Diane Brown Gallery in New York City ( 1987) Gallery Elke Dröscher Hamburg ( 1990), James Corcoran Gallery Santa Monica (1992 ), gallery Herbert Meyer- Ellinger Frankfurt am Main ( 1993), Shigeru Yokota Gallery Tokyo (every year since 1990), Annina Nosei Gallery New York (1999 ), Michael Haas Gallery in Berlin (2002 ), gallery Löhrl Mönchengladbach (2006), Galerie Utermann Dortmund (1993, 2009, 2011, 2012 ), Galerie Rothamel Erfurt / Frankfurt am Main (2008, 2010), GALERiARTiST Istanbul ( 2011), annex14 Bern (2012 ), Sabine Schmidt Galerie Cologne (2012), GALERiARTiST Ankara ( 2012).
In 2007, Abraham David Christian worked, among others, seven sculptures from the series " towers of wisdom." He designed the sculptures in Hayama, plaster models put forth in New York and cast them in Germany. The "Towers of Wisdom" are arranged in steps and echoes the forms of stupas, ziggurats and early historical designs. This group sculpture was part of the diverse and extensive exhibition " Abraham David Christian -道- The Road " in 2010 at the Museum of Modern Art Küppersmühle Duisburg. This lavish book for this exhibition was published by Kerber Verlag ( Bielefeld -Leipzig- Berlin).
Abraham David Christian has lectured at Keio University, Tokyo; at the Yamaguchi University in Japan; at the National Art University in Hangzhou, China; at Seoul National University, Korea, and at universities in Europe and taught at the Dusseldorf Art Academy and the Academy of Design ( HfG ) Pforzheim.
Abraham David Christian was honored in 1978 with the Villa Romana Prize. He lives in Dusseldorf, New York and Hayama and is a citizen of the United States of America.
Literature and sources
- Exhibition catalog: documentation fifth survey of reality - imagery today; Catalog (as folders ) Volume 1: (material); Volume 2: ( list of exhibits ); Kassel in 1972
- Gerhard Storck (ed. ); [Self ] Abraham David Christian; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, catalog the occasion of the exhibition at the Haus Lange in Krefeld, January 29 to March 19, 1978; Krefeld 1978
- Exhibition catalog: documenta 7 in Kassel; Vol 1: ( Visual biographies of artists ); Vol 2: ( Current work of the artist); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6
- Honisch, Dieter (ed. ); Art in the Federal Republic of Germany: 1945 - 1985; Catalog book at the same exhibition at the National Gallery in Berlin, September 27, 1985 to January 21, 1986; Berlin 1985 ISBN 3-875841-58-1
- Deecke, Thomas, metalanguage, Michael Erlhoff, flat out, Antje von Graevenitz, travel comparisons, Christian Schneider, disciplinary, catalog Abraham David Christian; FORTY YEARS OF WORK · FORTY YEARS WORK; Sprengel Museum Hannover 1985
- Patrick Le Nouene (ed. ); Gestes Blancs Parmiles Solitudes / Gestures amide Solitude, Collins & Milazzo, Chinatown, USA, Christian Schneider, La Leçon du Vide / Being Taught About Naught; Catalog book on the occasion of the exhibition at the Musée des Beaux -Arts, Calais and in the Gatodo Gallery, Tokyo; Calais / Tokyo 1988
- Norbert Nobis ( mfd ); FLORENCE '78, Sprengel Museum, Hannover 1994
- Deecke, Thomas, Abraham David Christian - the stranger; Critical Dictionary of Contemporary Art, Munich 1997
- Milazzo, Richard ( ed.); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, LA SALLE DES PIEDS perdus, DRAWING / DRAWING; New York, Paris, Turin, Louisville 1999 ISBN 1-893207-01-3
- Brockhaus, Christopher (ed. ); Abraham David Christian, the ways of the world; Catalog book on the occasion of the exhibition at Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg 20 February to 30 April 2000; Cologne 2000 ISBN 3-7701-5051-1
- Friese, Peter ( ed.); Abraham David Christian - The language of the people; Book catalog for the exhibition Abraham David Christian - The language of the people, New Museum Weserburg Bremen, November 16, 2003 to February 29, 2004, Von-der- Heydt - Museum Wuppertal, 16 March-18 May 2004; Heidelberg 2003 ISBN 3-936636-10-9
- Yokota, Shigeru (ed. ); Abraham David Christian, Richard Milazzo, ALONG THE HUDSON; Tokyo Publishing House, Tokyo 2006
- Kraus, Stefan; ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN SEVEN PANELS; Catalog on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the Fuhrwerkswaage Art Space, Cologne 2009
- Smerling, Walter ( mfd ); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, THE WAY THE WAY道; Catalog book on the occasion of the exhibition at MKM Modern Art Duisburg 11 June to 29 August 2010 Bielefeld / Leipzig / Berlin 2010 ISBN 978-3-86678-412-3