Edward kienholz. plataformas artísticas

Ed Kienholz 1927-1994

Born in 1927 at Fairfield, Washington. He studied at Eastern Washington College of Education and, briefly, at Whitworth College, Spokane, but did not receive any formal artistic training. He earned his living as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, as the manager of a dance band, as a dealer in secondary cars, a caterer, decorator and vacuum cleaner salesman. In 1953 hemoved to Los Angeles. In 1954 he made his first reliefs in wood. In 1956 he founded the NOW Gallery, and in 1957 the Ferus Gallery with Walter Hopps. In 1961 he completed his first environment Roxy's, which caused a stir at the documenta "4" exhibition in 1968. His retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1966 provoked the County Board of Supervision to attempt to close theexhibition. The theme of his environments is the vulnerability of the private life of the individual to intervention by the environment and social convention. In 1972 he met Nancy Reddin in Los Angeles. In 1973 he was guest artist of the German Academmic Exchange Service in Berlin. He moved to Berlin with his wife Nancy. His most important works during this period were the Volksempfänger (radio receivingapparatus from the National Socialist period in Germany). Since then he has lived in Berlin and Hope, Idaho, spending six months of the year in each. In 1975 he received a Guggenheim Award. In 1977 he opened The Faith and Charity in Hope Gallery with his wife. Since the exhibition Die Kienholz-Frauen at the Galerie Maeght in Zurich, 1981, he has authorized his work with his wife, Nancy Kienholz.In Life and Death, Ed Kienholz Makes Us Participate
By Frank McEntire "He loved bartering," said Nancy Reddin Kienholz of her late husband and collaborator, sculptor Ed Kienholz, who died June 10, 1994 of a heart attack while hiking in the mountains near their home in Hope, Idaho, where Ed was born and raised. "We went to flea markets all over the world. We would just wander aimlessly around andlook for something that had magic -- and then bring it home and fool with it." The Kienholzes' use found materials to create life-size sculptures and entire environments, which in turn make sardonic social commentary. Perhaps it was the profusion of garage sales and junk shops in the Houston area and its culture of wheeling and dealing that enticed the Kienholzes to establish a studio here, inaddition to the one in Idaho and another in Berlin. Robert Hughes, known for his art criticism in Time magazine and his book on modern art, Shock of the New, features Kienholtz in the last episode of "American Vision," his art series airing on PBS. Houston Painter Lucas Johnson said that the Kienholz's move there "energized everything. They didn't have people copying their work, becoming littleKienholzes, they just lifted everything up a level." What impressed Johnson most about Ed was his desire to seek out other artists. "Every time he came here we would go to artists' studios. And he would often buy their art to show his support." Encouraging younger, or unrecognized, artists was a major theme throughout Ed's career. "Ed believed in the system," Nancy said. Houston turned out to be agood place for the Kienholzes, with its bounty of recyclable objects, good ol' boys, story-telling women and cold beer. As collaborators, Nancy and Ed were able to use the Houston studio for only three years. It is where they and their assistants worked on several major pieces, including "All Have Sinned in Rm. 323," "76 J.C.s Led the Big Charade," "Feedin' The Hog" and "Jody, Jody, Jody." Nancy andEd began collaborating in 1972. "Ed taught me everything I know. He was my teacher, my mentor, my all, 100 percent," she said. For a year or so after his death, Nancy said she had a bust-sized sculpture of Ed on a dolly. She said she moved "him around to see

what he thought7quot; about whatever piece she was working on. "Mentally, I had the same arguments with him that I always did." Several...