April - July 2012
Howard Wise Gallery: Exploring the New
Moeller Fine Art, Berlin
Berlin
Curated by Stéphanie Ruth
In collaboration with Electronic Arts Intermix and the Howard Wise Estate
Artists
Billy Apple, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Christo, Piero Dorazio, Juan Downey, Edward Dugmore, Heinz Mack, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Julio Le Parc, Otto Piene, George Rickey, Peter Sedgley, Eric Siegel, Aldo Tambellini, Takis, Günther Uecker
Howard Wise (1903–1989) was among the first gallerists to see that the future of art lay also in light, movement, and the machine. In 1957, he opened his gallery in Cleveland before relocating three years later to New York, where he introduced American audiences to European and American artists associated with the New Tendency. At a time when most galleries resisted such experiments, Wise became the rare figure to champion kinetic sculpture and video art on both sides of the Atlantic.
His gallery quickly established itself as a centre for new media. On the Move (1964) marked the first US exhibition of kinetic art; Lights in Orbit (1967) brought together thirty-nine artists working with moving light; and TV as a Creative Medium (1969) became the first gallery exhibition devoted entirely to video.
Piero Dorazio, Heinz Mack, Heinz Mack, Piero Dorazio, Julio LeParc, photo: Hans-Georg Gaul
In 1971, Wise closed the gallery at the height of its influence to found Electronic Arts Intermix, a non-profit that would support the burgeoning field of video art.
The exhibition in 2012 at Moeller Fine Art was a tribute to the legacy of Howard Wise, presenting works originally shown at his Gallery.
Highlights included Otto Piene’s Light Ballet (1969), an aluminium table and globe that cast shifting beams across walls and ceiling; Heinz Mack’s Veil of Light (1964), a shimmering expanse of aluminium hex cells; Billy Apple’s neon sculpture Unidentified Fluorescent Object [UFO] (1967); Aldo Tambellini’s Black Spiral (1969), a hypnotic video spiral; and Peter Sedgley’s Blue-green Trace (1966), with its vibrating network of lines. Works by Christo, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, George Rickey, Takis, and Günther Uecker further illustrated the breadth of Wise’s programme.
More Projects