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Hans Haacke is a world-renowned artist whose work explores, both natural (such as geological and meteorological) and social (including governmental and corporate) processes. Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1936, Haacke received his degree in 1960 from the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel, Germany. He then worked in Paris at the print studio of Stanley William Hayter, and made his first trip to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship to study at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1961. |
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“In his early work, Haacke’s use of water and air was influenced by his involvement with Group Zero”
Hans Haacke, Installation View, 1967. Photo Credit: MIT List Visual Arts Center.
Hans Haacke 1967 at MIT
Caroline A. Jones
Hans Haacke is a world-renowned artist whose work explores, both natural (such as geological and meteorological) and social (including governmental and corporate) processes. Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1936, Haacke received his degree in 1960 from the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel, Germany. He then worked in Paris at the print studio of Stanley William Hayter, and made his first trip to the United States on a Fulbright fellowship to study at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1961.
In his early work, Haacke’s use of water and air was influenced by his involvement with Group Zero, an international group of artists interested in finding new and often kinetic materials with which to make art. After working in Cologne for several years, Haacke moved to the US in 1965 and began teaching; his primary position was at the Cooper Union in New York, where he was a professor of art from 1967 to 2002. He has also taught at universities in Seattle, Philadelphia, Hamburg, Essen, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and, in 1993, the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art Award and Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement. Haacke received the Golden Lion (which he shared with Nam June Paik) at the 1993 Venice Biennale for his site-specific installation Germania in the German Pavilion. The German parliament invited him in 1998 to propose an art project for the renovated Bundestag; after much public debate, the permanent installation was completed and inaugurated as Der Bevolkerung (“Of the Population”) in 2000. Throughout his distinguished career, Haacke has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows around the world. In 2006, he was the subject of a career-long retrospective titled “Hans Haacke: wirklich, Werke 1959–2006”, which was shown at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. He has participated in many document exhibitions in Kassel and in biennials in New York, Venice, Sydney, São Paulo, Johannesburg, Gwangju, and most recently Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. He lives and works in New York City.
*** This article was published by NY Arts Magazine, 2011. NY Arts Magazine is published by Abraham Lubelski. Sponsored by Broadway Gallery, NYC and World Art Media.
