George Brecht

George Brecht ( born March 7, 1926 in New York City; † December 5, 2008 in Cologne) was an American artist of the Fluxus movement.

Life and work

Brecht was born George MacDiarmid; depending on the source year of birth and month of birth are given different. George Brecht was one of the early and most important actors of Fluxus. From 1946 to 1950 he studied at the College of Pharmacy and Science in Philadelphia and worked until 1965 as a chemist and engineer for companies in New York and New Jersey. 1958/59 he attended the course Experimental Composition by John Cage at the New School for Social Research in New York.

In 1959 he participated already in the first Fluxus actions, and organized jointly with Robert Watts in the early 1960s, the " Yam Festival " in New York. In 1965 he moved to France, in the small town of Villefranche -sur -Mer, near Nice, and joined the European Fluxus movement. There he ran until 1968 with Robert Filliou the business' La Cédille qui sourit " ( The smiling cedilla; cedilla denotes the accent in French under the C Ç ). In 1966, both artists, the "Non -École de Villefranche ." From 1968 to 1969 he was at the College of Art and Design in Leeds a professorship. Brecht created mainly so called " ready-mades " or " Event Objects ", works that are essentially based on found objects, such as a coat rack (Clothes Tree, 1962/1963 ), which consists of the stator, clothing and umbrellas. Intention is that such a work for the viewer when confronted with the work about the event ( event ) is.

1970 Brecht moved to Dusseldorf in 1972 to Cologne. Brecht was strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism. His work is in addition to objects of fine art also from movies, books and compositions. George Brecht worked no more artistically since the 1980s.

He took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Department of Individual Mythologies, 6 (1977) and the Documenta 8 represented at the documenta in 1987 as an artist.

2006 George Brecht received the Berlin Art Prize ( "Berlin Art Prize - Jubilee Foundation 1848/1948 "). The award ceremony was held in the Academy of Arts in Berlin on 18 March 2006.

George Brecht died in December 2008 at the age of 82 years in Cologne.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Works (selection)

  • Chance - Imagery. New York, Something Else Press 1966. (A Great Bear Pamphlet. No.. 3). Printed on yellow paper. ( Künstlerbuch. text of 1957 on the chance in art ). Revision: 2004 ubuclassics pdf 676k
  • The illusory world of the paradox (Book)
  • Analphabetikon (Book)
  • Hsin Hsin Ming (composition)
  • Silent Music ( voice composition)
  • Move Exchange ( voice composition)
  • 1960 " Motor Vehicle Sundown "
  • 1963 "Water -Yam " (event scores )
  • 1978 Autobiography: A selection of 27 dreams
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