Books by Susanneh Bieber
This volume reframes the development of US-American avant-garde art of the long 1960s-from minima... more This volume reframes the development of US-American avant-garde art of the long 1960s-from minimal and pop art to land art, conceptual art, site-specific practices, and feminist art-in the context of contemporary architectural discourses.
Susanneh Bieber analyzes the work of seven major artists, Donald Judd, Robert Grosvenor, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson, Lawrence Weiner, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Mary Miss, who were closely associated with the formal-aesthetic innovations of the period. While these individual artists came to represent diverse movements, Bieber argues that all of them were attracted to the field of architecture—the work of architects, engineers, preservationists, landscape designers, and urban planners—because they believed these practices more directly shaped the social and material spaces of everyday life. This book’s contribution to the field of art history is thus twofold. First, it shows that the avant-garde of the long 1960s did not simply develop according to an internal logic of art but also as part of broader sociocultural discourses about buildings and cities. Second, it exemplifies a methodological synthesis between social art history and poststructural formalism that is foundational to understanding the role of art in the construction of a more just and egalitarian society.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, architecture, urbanism, and environmental humanism.
Articles and Essays by Susanneh Bieber
Getty Research Journal, February 2023
In 1966 Judy Chicago made a series of three sculptures, each consisting of a group of circular co... more In 1966 Judy Chicago made a series of three sculptures, each consisting of a group of circular columns ranging in height from two to nine inches. Formal variations among the three Untitled works reveal a playful oscillation between representational subject matter and abstract forms. These exquisite works have been absent from Chicago historiography, and we do not know their whereabouts. But the Rolf Nelson Gallery records at the Getty Research Institute contain several photographs of these sculptures. They are valuable resources that provide new insights into Chicago’s practice during the mid-1960s and the challenges she faced as a woman artist working in a male-dominated art world. More broadly, the sculptures speak to the stylistic ambiguities among the registers of minimal art, pop art, and environments, and to artists’ interest in sexually allusive subject matter that questions static, binary, and hierarchical conceptions of gender.
Art Journal, 2021
In 1968, Judy Chicago worked on a number of dome-shaped sculptures, each consisting of three acry... more In 1968, Judy Chicago worked on a number of dome-shaped sculptures, each consisting of three acrylic hemispheres arranged symmetrically on a square surface. Made with new industrial materials and techniques, works such as Iridescent Domes #2 and Bronze Domes fit within the formal-aesthetic discourse of Minimal art. During the 1970s, Chicago and feminist critics positioned these sculptures—characterized by round forms and evanescent colors—as unconscious expressions of what they conceived as a feminine sensibility, which they opposed to the angular and cold language favored by male, Minimalist artists. This article argues that Chicago’s dome-shaped works were protofeminist due to their associations not with traditionally female forms but with contemporary engineering structures. I show that Chicago’s hemispherical sculptures, and her Minimal art more generally, referenced civil engineering projects at the forefront of technological innovation that were thought to advance human society and improve living standards for all. I thus expand the concept of protofeminism beyond notions of radical subjectivity, as theorized for art made by women during the 1960s, to a broader sociopolitical attitude intent on building a more just world. Interpreting Chicago’s Minimalist sculptures within the historically specific context of engineering, however, associates them with Western ideologies of modern progress that since the late 1960s have been questioned, reformulated, or discarded. Indeed, from the perspective of second-wave feminism, these ideologies not only seemed out-of-date but morally objectionable. The article reveals both the promises and pitfalls of Chicago’s techno-aesthetic, protofeminist practice.
Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, 2020
As part of my research on Donald Judd (1922–1994), I discovered the exhibition Twentieth Century ... more As part of my research on Donald Judd (1922–1994), I discovered the exhibition Twentieth Century Engineering, which was on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1964. Judd, in his role as critic for Arts Magazine, wrote a positive review stating that the presented engineering structures “comprise the bulk of the best visible things made in this century.” At the time, the exhibition curated by Arthur Drexler (b. 1925) was a popular and highly praised exhibition, but it has received little scholarly attention. In this article, I recover the exhibition, analyze Judd’s review, and then explore how the structures and ideas presented in the exhibition played out in the art of Judd. The exhibition provides a framework for interpreting Judd’s work, and Minimal art more generally, within the larger context of contemporary visual and material culture.
American Art, 2019
Donald Judd’s first solo show, held at the Green Gallery in 1963, marks the beginning of his Mini... more Donald Judd’s first solo show, held at the Green Gallery in 1963, marks the beginning of his Minimal art. Concurrently with that exhibition, Judd published “Kansas City Report” in Arts Magazine. The article reveals his interest in functional vernacular buildings, characterized by plain, geometric forms and familiar to him from his upbringing in the Midwest. Judd justified the artistic merit of such ordinary structures via modern European architectural theory, in which simple forms expressed ideals of Western progressivism. Guided by “Kansas City Report,” which has received little scholarly attention, I argue that in his Minimal art Judd allocated value to the ordinary, which he associated with notions of equality. Thus, his preference for the ordinary coincided with the nonelitist stance of Pop artists; due to the abstract nature of Judd’s work, however, the biographical and sociopolitical contexts of his Minimal forms have been neglected in favor of formal-aesthetic interpretations.
Journal of Architectural Education , 2019
American architect Victor Lundy designed an inflatable pavilion to house the traveling Atoms for ... more American architect Victor Lundy designed an inflatable pavilion to house the traveling Atoms for Peace exhibition in 1960. This pavilion constituted a literal atmosphere, because the difference between its internal and external air pressure functioned as the structural element. The pavilion also produced an experiential atmosphere that, like the exhibition within, used technological progress to suggest a better world to come. In this paper, I recover the little-known history of Lundy’s pavilion to expand its atmospheric dimension to include not only the literal and experiential but to the sociopolitical. Such an expansion reveals the ideological pressures that shaped the pavilion and, more generally, the changing meanings of inflatable architecture during the postwar period.
Cityscapes in History: Creating the Urban Experience, 2014
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Conference Presentations by Susanneh Bieber
George Rickey: A Symposium, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 2024
George Rickey's work and writing have been positioned between two continents, namely North Americ... more George Rickey's work and writing have been positioned between two continents, namely North America and Europe. In this paper, I place Rickey between three continents, exploring how his work related to Latin American art and, in particular, the work of Venezuelan artist Jésus Rafael Soto. Rickey and Soto met during the Bewogen Beweging show that opened at the Stedeljik Museum in Amsterdam in early 1961. Their paths crossed numerous times during the 1960s, exhibiting together in group shows, corresponding, and exchanging works of art. Focusing on the two sculptures that the artists gifted each other-namely Rickey's Six Lines Horizontal II of 1965 and Soto's Vibration Noir et Vert of 1966-I bring out formal and conceptual correspondences between their art. Analyzing Rickey's work and writing of the 1960s across three continents, not only provides new insights into his aesthetic approach, but also reveals the promises and pitfalls of the artists' international ambitions.
SECAC Annual Conference, 2024
The exhibition Air Art, featuring the work of about a dozen artists, opened in Philadelphia in Ma... more The exhibition Air Art, featuring the work of about a dozen artists, opened in Philadelphia in March 1968. Assembled by Willoughby Sharp, a young, independent curator, the show focused-as the title of the exhibition implied-on artworks that incorporated the medium of air. Examples included Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds, Graham Stevens' Pneumatic Structure, and David Medalla's Cloud Canyon. In the accompanying catalog, Sharp described the exhibited works as novel and avant-garde, positioning them in contrast to old static or object-like art. The narrative that Sharp presented in the exhibition and the catalog expose his geographically and historically limited view. All of the artists and innovators mentioned were male and no single artist from Latin America was included. This paper expands Sharp's idea of Air Art by exploring the work of a number Brazilian artists, architects, and innovators who employed the immaterial medium of air to make lightweight, malleable, and flying objects. Marcello Nitsche, Amelia Toledo, and Sergio Bernardes, for example, all worked with air during the long 1960s to create pneumatic objects and structures.
Atoms For Peace: An Inflatable Pavilion Travels Latin America
Southeastern College Art Conference, 2018
The Temporalities of Lundy’s Inflatable AEC Pavilion
Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2018
Judy Chicago: Claiming her Architectural Legacy
Abstract:
In 1970 Judy Gerowitz changed her last name to Chicago, announcing in the pages of Art... more Abstract:
In 1970 Judy Gerowitz changed her last name to Chicago, announcing in the pages of Artforum that she “hereby devests [sic.] herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance.” While this event is generally seen as marking the divide between Chicago’s austere minimal sculptures and her later feminist work, recent art historical scholarship has questioned such a break by exploring, for example, the artist’s continuous use of spectral colors. In this paper I similarly posit Chicago’s feminist practice as rooted in her earlier minimal inquiries. My research, however, bridges the minimal-feminist divide on procedural rather than on formal grounds. I argue that Chicago both before and after 1970 followed and “organic approach,” in which works of art were understood to emerge from the present. This organic approach was fundamental to the discourse of modern architecture and particularly associated with the Chicago School of Architecture. I suggest that by changing her name to Chicago, the artist consciously associated herself with that tradition.
Dams, roads, bridges, tunnels, storage buildings and various other useful structures comprise the... more Dams, roads, bridges, tunnels, storage buildings and various other useful structures comprise the bulk of the best visible things made in this century," wrote Donald Judd in October 1964. This positive assessment opened his review of the exhibition Twentieth Century Engineering that had been on view at New York's Museum of Modern Art before traveling to numerous national and international venues. In this paper I show that many Minimal artists were inspired by specific structures that were showcased in the Twentieth Century Engineering exhibition. Robert Grosvenor, for example, referenced the triangular form of the McMath Pierce Solar telescope in his work Topanga (1965), Judd used the cable-state technique of the Theodor-Heuss Bridge for his untitled red Plexiglas box of 1965, and Judy Chicago built hollow planks for her work Rainbow Pickett (1966) that mirror the buttresses of the Bessina Dam. In addition to tracing the formal, material, and structural characteristics of the artworks to specific industrial engineering feats, this paper explores the meanings of minimal forms within the technological and cultural context of industrial progress. I argue that the artists referenced modern engineering feats in order to imbue their work with social significance.
Performative Monuments: Projects by Claes Oldenburg and Robert Smithson
Dilapidated Hotels, Mayan Ruins, and Other Construction Sites: Robert Smithson’s Architectural Objects
A Square Removal from a Wall: Seeing Works by Lawrence Weiner and Gordon Matta-Clark in the Light of Colin Rowe’s Formal Methodology
Terra Foundation for American Art, Paris Center
October 8, 2014
The Jersey Homesteads, 1933-1940: A Case Study in the Reciprocity between Material Realization and Social Ideal
The Promises of Regionalism in Urban Planning and the Fine Arts: Shifting Attitudes between Lewis Mumford and Thomas Hart Benton, 1920-35
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Books by Susanneh Bieber
Susanneh Bieber analyzes the work of seven major artists, Donald Judd, Robert Grosvenor, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Smithson, Lawrence Weiner, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Mary Miss, who were closely associated with the formal-aesthetic innovations of the period. While these individual artists came to represent diverse movements, Bieber argues that all of them were attracted to the field of architecture—the work of architects, engineers, preservationists, landscape designers, and urban planners—because they believed these practices more directly shaped the social and material spaces of everyday life. This book’s contribution to the field of art history is thus twofold. First, it shows that the avant-garde of the long 1960s did not simply develop according to an internal logic of art but also as part of broader sociocultural discourses about buildings and cities. Second, it exemplifies a methodological synthesis between social art history and poststructural formalism that is foundational to understanding the role of art in the construction of a more just and egalitarian society.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, architecture, urbanism, and environmental humanism.
Articles and Essays by Susanneh Bieber
Conference Presentations by Susanneh Bieber
In 1970 Judy Gerowitz changed her last name to Chicago, announcing in the pages of Artforum that she “hereby devests [sic.] herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance.” While this event is generally seen as marking the divide between Chicago’s austere minimal sculptures and her later feminist work, recent art historical scholarship has questioned such a break by exploring, for example, the artist’s continuous use of spectral colors. In this paper I similarly posit Chicago’s feminist practice as rooted in her earlier minimal inquiries. My research, however, bridges the minimal-feminist divide on procedural rather than on formal grounds. I argue that Chicago both before and after 1970 followed and “organic approach,” in which works of art were understood to emerge from the present. This organic approach was fundamental to the discourse of modern architecture and particularly associated with the Chicago School of Architecture. I suggest that by changing her name to Chicago, the artist consciously associated herself with that tradition.