Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner played a key role in the development of Conceptual art, a movement that emphasized the idea of an artwork over its material form and questioned the structures through which art is created, presented, and distributed. His earliest artistic undertakings were sculptural, and in the mid-1960s he exhibited a series of propeller-shaped canvases at Seth Siegelaub Contemporary Art. From 1968 on, however, language has been the primary component, and his text-based works, which often describe procedures, propositions, or actions, have embraced a wide range of formats: paintings, sculptures, films, videos, records, compact discs, posters, books, wall installations, and even a website. Varied in form and context, these works are connected in their supposition that the majority of our experiences— even the activity of seeing—are mediated by language.

HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE is presented as a chorus and refrain: parenthetical statements pertaining to direction (such as BENEATH IT ALL and ABOVE IT ALL) are each followed by the general declaration HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE (a ready descriptor of where one might encounter Weiner’s work). Following from his belief that viewers are integral to the creation of any given work’s meaning—and indeed to its very status as art—Weiner does not need to do the lettering himself, and allows the work to be installed in a variety of configurations and color palettes at the discretion of a curator. The Whitney has installed this work in various ways: on a single wall, on the glass window at the front of the Museum’s former uptown home, and placed on the four panes of a revolving door.