Christian Boltanski | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Boltanski in 2016 | |
| Born | Christian Liberté Boltanski (1944-09-06)6 September 1944 Paris, France |
| Died | 14 July 2021(2021-07-14) (aged 76) Paris, France |
| Known for | Sculpture, painting, photography,installation art |
| Movement | Conceptual art |
Christian Liberté Boltanski (6 September 1944 – 14 July 2021) was a French sculptor, photographer, painter, and film maker. He is best known for his photography installations and contemporary Frenchconceptual style.[1]
Boltanski was born in Paris on 6 September 1944.[2][3] His father, Étienne Alexandre Boltanski,[4] a physician, was Jewish and had come to France from Russia, while Marie-Elise Ilari-Guérin, his Roman Catholic mother originated fromCorsica, descended from Ukrainian Jews.[5] His Jewish heritage was a large influence in Boltanski's household. DuringWorld War II, while living in Paris, his father escaped deportation by hiding in a space under the floorboards of the family apartment for a year and a half. Christian grew up with this knowledge, and his early experiences with wartime affairs deeply affected him. These experiences would influence his artwork later on.[6][7][8] He dropped out of school at age 12.
Boltanski began creating art in the late 1950s, but did not rise to prominence until almost a decade later through a few short, avant-garde films and some published notebooks in which he referenced his childhood.[9] He had his first one-man exhibition at theThéâtre Le Ranelagh in May 1968.[2][3] His earliest works included imagery of ideal families and imaginary lifestyles (something Boltanski always lacked), made to display as if they were in museums.[3]
Boltanski began creating mixed media/materials installations in 1986 with light as essential concept. Tin boxes, altar-like construction of framed and manipulated[10] photographs (e.g.Le Lycée Chases, 1986–1987), photographs of Jewish schoolchildren taken inVienna in 1931,[11] used as a forceful reminder ofmass murder of Jews by the Nazis, all those elements and materials used in his work are used in order to represent deep contemplation regarding reconstruction of past. While creatingReserve (exhibition atMuseum für Gegenwartskunst inBasel in 1989), Boltanski filled rooms and corridors with worn clothing items as a way of inciting profound sensation of human tragedy atconcentration camps. As in his previous works, objects serve as relentless reminders of human experience and suffering.[12] His piece, Monument (Odessa), uses six photographs of Jewish students in 1939 and lights to resembleYahrzeit candles to honor and remember the dead. "My work is about the fact of dying, but it's not about theHolocaust itself."[13] In 1971 Boltanski produced his installation,L' Album de la famille D. 1939-1964.[14]
Additionally, his enormous installation titled "No Man's Land" (2010) at thePark Avenue Armory inNew York City, is a great example of how his constructions and installations trace the lives of the lost and forgotten.[15] Also in 2010, Boltanski unveiled theLes Archives du Cœur onTeshima, an island inJapan, which has since recorded and archived the heartbeats of many visitors.[16]
Boltanski participated in over 150 art exhibitions throughout the world.[17] Among others, he had solo exhibitions at theNew Museum (1988), theKunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Magasin 3 in Stockholm,[18] theLa Maison Rouge gallery, Institut Mathildenhöhe, the Kewenig Galerie, TheMusée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, and many others.[17]
In 2002, Boltanski made the installationTotentanz II, a shadow installation with copper figures, for the undergroundCentre for International Light Art (CILA) inUnna, Germany.[19] Nine years later, theEs Baluard museum inMallorca exhibitedSignatures from July to September 2011. The installation was conceived by Boltanski specifically forEs Baluard and which is focused on the memory of the workers who in the 17th century built the museum's walls.[20][21]
In the winter of 2017–2018, Boltanski created a new installation for theOude Kerk, titledAfter. It tackled the theme of what will come after life has come to an end. The exhibition was shown from November 2017 until April 2018.[22]
Boltanski was married toAnnette Messager, who is also a contemporary artist, until his death. They chose not to have children.[2] They lived inMalakoff, outside Paris. He was the brother of sociologistLuc Boltanski and uncle of writerChristophe Boltanski.[23]
Boltanski died on 14 July 2021 atHôpital Cochin in Paris. He was 76, and suffered from an unspecified illness prior to his death.[2][24]
Following his death, the artist'smoral rights — which prerogatives are the right of disclosure, the right of respect of the works' integrity and the right to authorship - were passed on toAngelika Markul.
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IB: This touches on the newer work, you have rephotographed and enlarged a portrait of a high school class, in such a way that the information in the pictures is no longer very specific and detailed. You're really asking the spectator to fill it in. CB: You mean the Lycee Chases? CB The less information you have, the more open the work, the more you can think about it.
