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Stephan von Huene

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Stephan von Huene (September 15, 1932, in Los Angeles – September 5, 2000, in Hamburg) was an American artist with German origins. His kinetic and sound sculptures bring together art and science, amalgamating image, tones and motion synesthetically.[1]

Stephan von Huene
Stephan von Huene with
"The New Lore Ley II", (1997)
Born
Stephan von Huene

(1932-09-15)September 15, 1932
Los Angeles, California
DiedSeptember 5, 2000(2000-09-05) (aged 67)
Hamburg, Germany
EducationChouinard Art Institute
University of California, Los Angeles
Known forsound sculptures
Kinetic art
Notable workTap Dancer (1967)
Text Tones (1979–83)
Dancing on Tables (1988)
Lexichaos (1990)
AwardsDAAD artist in residence, Berlin (1976)
Media Art Prize of the ZKM, Karlsruhe (1992)
guest of Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades (1997)

Life

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Early life

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Stephan von Huene was born into a family of immigrants from the Baltic States (now Estonia). Both parents were descendants of historical German families: the noble von Hoyningen Huene family and the Andreae family of theologians. They brought up their children according to the protestant faith and european culture and science. This legacy may have been formative for von Huene to search for a contemporary art medium in the spirit of an universalist. The family spoke German, however he learned English outside the family. As a child in Los Angeles, he came into contact with more languages. These experiences had an influence on von Huene's work. "One of the most important concerns that occupied Stephan von Huene throughout his life was communication in all its manifestations"[2]

Stephan von Huene's father worked as an engineer at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) where he built specialized machinery. Von Huene and his brother spent time within this working environment. The young Stephan von Huene acquired knowledge and approaches that he later applied to his work. For example, he constructed a punching machine to programme the perforated tapes for his first sound sculptures, which he built himself.[3]

Artistic career

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Von Huene studied painting, drawing and design at the Chouinard Art Institute (Bachelor of Arts), as well as fine art and art history at the University of California, Los Angeles where he received a (Master of Arts) degree.[4]

His first abstract-expressionist paintings, which he developed into combines, date from the early 1960s. The Norton Simon Museum owns two of those assemblages.[5][6]

They were created concurrently with a series of figurative pen, ink and pencil drawings (Pasadena Pen Drawings). Drawing as an artistic medium and tool for developing and manifesting ideas remains an essential component of von Huene's work (i. e. The Getty Talk). Onomatopoetic phenomena appeared already in his early pictures and drawings.[7][8]

In the first part of 1960s von Huene created Surrealism-inspired sculptures in wood, leather, bread and other materials. These static sculptures were influenced by the aesthetic of domestic objects of utility and everyday material.[9][10][11]

Between 1964 and 1970 he built his first kinetic and sound sculptures, based on investigations of the acoustics of musical instruments, mechanical keyboards (player pianos), musical automatons, and organs, and guided via optoelectronic programs (perforated tape). These works were connected to von Huene's theoretical interest in acoustical phenomena. His reading of Hermann von Helmholtz's On the Sensations of Tone (1865) as well as of Dayton C. Miller's The Science of musical Sounds (1916) was formative to this.

For his later works, von Huene developed electronic programs in which his preoccupation with communication theory and its application to artistic activity played a fundamental role. Here Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick and later the cyberneticist and friend Heinz von Foerster served as crucial sources of information. From his earliest days as an artist, von Huene cultivated friendships with Allan Kaprow and Edward Kienholz, and also with the painter Sam Francis. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, he worked together with the composer James Tenney on Drum (1975).[12]

During the Hamburg period he became acquainted with the composer György Ligeti. With the art historians Horst Bredekamp and Martin Warnke as well as the historian Achatz von Müller he shared a close friendship, which is partly reflected in his artworks, for example in What's wrong with Art, the Blue Books and Entry Questions/Exit Questions.

Von Huene was also a teacher, among his students were Mira Schor, Olav Westphalen and Thomas Zitzwitz. He taught sculpture at the California Institute of the Arts from 1971 until 1980.[13][14]

Later he taught basic drawing classes in Europe at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg. In 1977–78, von Huene held a scholarship with the Artists in Berlin program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 1980 he relocated his studio from Los Angeles to Hamburg. He spent 1991 in Santa Monica as a participant in the Getty Research Institute's Scholars in Residence Program. In Karlsruhe, he organized the Low Fidelity Studio in the Department of Media Arts at the University of Art and Design between 1992 and 1997. In 1997, he was a guest at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.[15]

During his Hamburg years von Huene was married to Petra Kipphoff, a cultural critic and editor for the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. Von Huene's ZEIT-Collages were created in the correspondence between the two. Kipphoff had sent him issues of ZEIT by post, and the artist replied with collages of photos and text fragments from the newspaper, arranged on A4 sheets of paper, supplemented by his own drawings and writing. This work was exhibited at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 2003 and 2010.[16]

Kinetic and sound sculptures

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Kinetic sound sculptures are at the centre of Stephan von Huene's art. In the 1960s, he constructed mechanically operated, sculptural objects reminiscent of pieces of furniture that had been set in motion. According to Allan Kaprow, "There is no nostalgia in his beings who articulate their own existence almost didactically and "in tongues". They seem on their own, stylistically removed from now just enough to perform without either necessity or apology. They are perhaps a little smug of their mystery. What they are not, that is, what is absent, is of no importance to them. It is what makes their magic so potent."[17]

During the 1970s and 1980s, these sculptures acquired the character of automatic musical instruments or automata. With the Text Tones, they were expanded to become interactive sound installations which occupy entire rooms. Added as well during the 1990s were pictorial media, drawings for example in Dancing on Tables, and projections, for example in the Blue Books and Sirens Low. Dancing on Tables (1989) and the Man from Jüterbog (1995) have a special focus on the expression of human movements in interaction with spoken texts. 1999 von Huene built the Semiconductor of Chemnitz, a mute kinetic half figure for the Foyer of the lecture hall of the Chemnitz University of Technology.[18][19]

1964–1969

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The early sculptures were "the point of departure motivically, stylistically, and conceptually for von Huene’s production in the interspace between form, sound, movement, and language, and at the same time a result of his graphic and sculptural work from the early 1960s".[20]

Based on the bread and leather sculptures von Huene developed mechanically mobile apparatuses in wood and metal with an electronically controlled inner workings. They evolved from traditional sculptures (Kaleidophonic Dog) into objects which occupy space like items of furniture, which dissolve the traditional duality between sculpture and pedestal to form a unity (Rosebud Annunciator).[21][22]

1969–1983

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During the 1970s, von Huene chose the organ pipe itself as a sculptural form and at the same time as a source of sounds. The sculptures expanded into the surrounding space with their physicality and acoustic intensity (Totem Tones). Perceiving the material weight of the wooden Totem Tones as an imperfection, he started to reduce the visual presence of his sculptures. With minimalist forms and transparent materials, the sculptures alluded to the immateriality of the sounds they generated, which shifted the viewers' perceptual attention, as in the works, Glass Pipes, and Drum I.[23][24]

The Text Tones (1979, 1982-83) marked the beginning of a shift in artistic intention from a mechanical object that produces sound to an instrument whose sound production uses the entire room. Thus the audience becomes incorporated into the work as an active participant. The metal pipes of the Text Tones are equipped with microphones that receive tones and sounds produced by visitors. The sounds are then altered by computer control, and the resulting modified sound is audible the exhibition space. The visitors are able to recognize and consciously influence the sounds of the Text Tones in real-time, thus communicating directly with the artwork and with other visitors.[25]

1985–1992

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From the mid-1980s onwards, von Huene's focus was primarily on the reflection of verbal and body language and the expansion of correspondences between the various visual media. The linguistic decay and a redefinition of the linguistic signs of human expression are thematised in Extended Schwitters, a reference to Kurt Schwitters, the Dadaist and poet of speech sounds, and Lexichaos, an expansive installation based on the History of the Babylonian confusion of languages that breaks down speech and text to the level of letters and sounds.[26][27]

Since 1985, von Huene's work has moved freely between the creation of sculpturally conceived, figurative automata and spatial installations with various audiovisual media. Dancing on Tables is a synthesis of these different artistic concepts of sculpture and installation. Four lower bodies of male mannequins in trousers and shoes and 14 large-format drawings form a computer-controlled ‘stage play’. Their texts are taken from speeches by leading US politicians. A fifth naked figure dances to classical music.[28]

1995–1998

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In addition to technical constructions and artistic processes, von Huene was also concerned with art-historical and aesthetic theories, the practice-oriented aspects of which he incorporated into his artistic concepts. In the second half of the 1990s, he concentrated on language and word choice in art and art history with a new group of works. It was part of the exhibition "What's Wrong with Culture?", Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen 1998. The eponymous work What's Wrong with Art? is a collage of spoken comments by artists and art critics who interrupt each other to the point where "wrong" and "right" can no longer be distinguished.[29]

Blue Books is another example of this series of works. It is based on a collection of quotations from an older generation of art historians to criticise their interpretations and language (Martin Warnke, 1970). Von Huene combined them with the corresponding images to create a kind of slide show. Two drums function as a projection surfaces and percussion instruments convey this criticism as a visually and acoustically striking lesson on the relationship between artwork and verbal language.[30]

Selected works in collections

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Selected exhibitions

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Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

  • 1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties, New York/Los Angeles/Washington D.C.
  • 1967 Electro Magica (International Electric Art Exhibit), Tokio
  • 1975 Sound Sculpture, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, with a collection of essays and LP published by John Grayson, A.R.C.[35]
  • 1975 Sehen um zu hören, Düsseldorf/San Francisco
  • 1976 37. Venice Biennale (Glas Pipes)
  • 1980 Für Augen und Ohren, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • 1982 Contemporary Music Festival, Los Angeles (Text Tones)
  • 1985 Vom Klang der Bilder, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart
  • 1986 Inventionen 86. Musik und Sprache, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • 1987 documenta 8, Kassel (Text Tones and Extended Schwitters)
  • 1993 Artec 93, Nagoya, Japan; Multimediale 3, ZKM, Karlsruhe
  • 1995 46. Venice Biennale (Dancing on Tables)
  • 1996 Sonambiente, Festival für Hören und Sehen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • 2000 Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, London; Theatrum Naturae et Artis, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

Posthumous exhibitions

Bibliography (selection)

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  • Schmidt, Katharina, ed. (1983). Stephan von Huene – Klangskulpturen: Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden; Museum Ludwig, Köln; Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover; Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (exhibition catalogue). With contributions from Stephan von Huene, Allan Kaprow, Thomas von Randow, Wieland Schmied, Katharina Schmidt. Hannover: Kestnergesellschaft.
  • Oelschlägel, Petra, ed. (1995). Stephan von Huene: Tischtänzer / Dancing on Tables. With contributions from Horst Bredekamp, Petra Oelschlägel, Stephan von Huene. Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz. ISBN 3-89322-299-5.
  • Deecke, Thomas, ed. (1998). What's wrong with Culture? Stephan von Huene (exhibition catalogue). With contributions from Peter Bürger, Thomas Deecke, Doris von Drathen, Heinz von Foerster, Martin Warnke. Bremen: Neues Museum Weserburg. ISBN 9783894662288.
  • Brockhaus, Christoph; Gaßner, Hubertus; Heinrich, Christoph, eds. (2003). Stephan von Huene – Tune the World, Die Retrospektive / The Retrospective: Haus der Kunst, München; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (exhibition catalogue). With contributions from Joan La Barbara, Horst Bredekamp, Christoph Brockhaus, Wolfgang Kemp, Petra Kipphoff von Huene, Achatz von Müller, Martin Warnke, William Wilson. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 3-7757-1211-9.
  • Könches, Barbara; Weibel, Peter, eds. (2006). Stephan von Huene – Grenzgänger, Grenzverschieber (exhibition catalogue). With contributions from Barbara Könches, Peter Weibel, Achatz von Müller, Achim Heidenreich, Petra Kipphoff von Huene. Karlsruhe: ZKM / Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie. ISBN 3-936-636-885.
  • Gaßner, Hubertus; Kipphoff von Huene, Petra, eds. (2010). Stephan von Huene. The Song of the Line. Die Zeichnungen / The Drawings 1950–1999. With contributions from Marvin Altner, Petra Kipphoff von Huene, Johannes von Müller, Petra Oelschlägel. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3-7757-2642-9.
  • von Huene, Stephan (2012). Kipphoff von Huene, Petra; Altner, Marvin (eds.). Die gespaltene Zunge / Split tongue. Texte und Interviews / Texts and Interviews. München: Hirmer. ISBN 978-3-7774-5501-3.
  • Muñoz Morcillo, Jesús (2016). Elektronik als Schöpfungswerkzeug. Die Kunsttechniken des Stephan von Huene (1932–2000). Bielefeld: transcript. ISBN 978-3-8376-3626-0.
  • Ruccius, Alexis (2019). Klangkunst als Embodiment. Frankfurt/Main: Primat Verlag. ISBN 978-3-96505-000-6.
  • Weibel, Peter; Ziegler, Philipp, eds. (2021). Stephan von Huene. What's wrong with Art?. With contributions from Yannis Hadjinicolaou, Stephan von Huene, Martin Warnke, Achim Heidenreich, Philipp Ziegler. München: Hirmer. ISBN 978-3-7774-3729-3.
  • Brieler, Philipp; Jahrisch, Robert, eds. (2021). Lexichaos. Stephan von Huene. With contributions from Horst Bredekamp, Marvin Altner, Petra Kipphoff von Huene, Michael Naumann, Petra Kunst. Berlin: Barenboim-Said Akademie.
  • Gaßner, Hubertus (2022). Technologie ist die Magie von heute. Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle. ISBN 978-3-93800-267-4.

References

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  1. ^ "Stephan von Huene". ZKM center for art and media, Karlsruhe, Germany. January 1992. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
  2. ^ Muñoz Morcillo, Jesús (2016). Elektronik als Schöpfungswerkzeug. Die Kunsttechniken des Stephan von Huene (1932–2000). Bielefeld: transcript. p. 17-19. ISBN 978-3-8376-3626-0.
  3. ^ Muñoz Morcillo, Jesús (2016). Elektronik als Schöpfungswerkzeug. Die Kunsttechniken des Stephan von Huene (1932–2000). Bielefeld: transcript. p. 20. ISBN 978-3-8376-3626-0.
  4. ^ "Media Art Net, Stephan von Huene". medienkunstnetz.de. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  5. ^ Stephan von Huene (1963). "Norton Simon Museum, Karooooo". Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  6. ^ Stephan von Huene (1960). "Norton Simon Museum, Untitled". Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  7. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1961). "Pasadena pen drawings". hamburger-kunsthalle.de. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  8. ^ Gaßner, Hubertus; Kipphoff von Huene, Petra (2010). Stephan von Huene The Song of the Line (in German and English). Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3-7757-2642-9. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  9. ^ Tuchmann, Maurice (1967). American Sculpture of the Sixties, exhibition selected and book catalog. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. p. 211/212. ASIN B0007DDY2G.
  10. ^ The figurative tradition and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Whitney Museum of American Art. 1980. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  11. ^ Malina, Frank J., ed. (1974). Kinetic Art, Theory and Practice, Selections from the Journal Leonardo (PDF). Dorothy Newmark: Interview with Stephan von Huene on His Audio-kinetic Sculptures (1969). New York: Dover Publications, Inc. p. 99. ISBN 0-486-21284-X. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  12. ^ Wannamaker, Robert (2021). The Music of James Tenney: A Handbook to the Pieces (2). University of Illinois Press. p. Chapter 6.8. ISBN 978-0252043680. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  13. ^ Schor, Mira (September 4, 2010). "Stephan von Huene, Feminist Teacher". a year of positive thinking. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
  14. ^ Rotary Glass Plates made by Raúl Guerrero for a sculpture class, taught by Stephan von Huene, Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA. 1969 on Vimeo[dead link]
  15. ^ "Villa Aurora Grant Recipients, 1997, Jul, Aug, Sep, Stephan von Huene, Visual Artist". Grant Recipient Details – VATMH. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  16. ^ Gaßner, Hubertus; Kipphoff von Huene, Petra, eds. (2010). Stephan von Huene. The Song of the Line (in German and English). Marvin Altner: Fragmented Reflections of Society, The ZEIT Collages (1980/85). Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. p. 28. ISBN 978-37757-2642-9. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  17. ^ Grayson, John, ed. (1975). Sound Sculpture: A Collection of Essays by Artists Surveying the Techniques, Applications, and Future Directions of Sound Sculpture. Allan Kaprow: Animation. Vancouver: A.R.C. Publications. p. 25-26. ISBN 0889850003. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  18. ^ Liefeith, Florentina (2012). "Ein Huene auf seinem Podest – der "Halbleiter von Chemnitz"". tu-chemnitz.de (in German). Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  19. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1996). "Mann von Jüterbog, 1995–96". freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de (in German). Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  20. ^ Ruccius, Alexis (2019). Klangkunst als Embodiment (in German). Frankfurt/Main: Primat Verlag. p. 9. ISBN 978-3-96505-000-6.
  21. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1967). "Kaleidophonic Dog". lacma.org. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  22. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1967). "1967 – "Kaliedophonic Dog", "Rosebud Annunciator" (1969) – Stephan von Huene (American)". cyberneticzoo.com. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  23. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1980). Für Augen und Ohren – Von der Spieluhr zum akustischen Environment, exhibition catalogue (in German). Berlin: Akakdemie der Künste Berlin und Berliner Festspiele GmbH. p. 143.
  24. ^ von Huene, Stephan (2012). Kipphoff von Huene, Petra; Altner, Marvin (eds.). Die gespaltene Zunge / Split tongue. Texte und Interviews / Texts and Interviews (in German and English). Stephan von Huene, commentary on individual works: The Glass Pipe Enterprise (1993). München: Hirmer. p. 129-30. ISBN 978-3-7774-5501-3.
  25. ^ Schmidt, Katharina, ed. (1983). Stephan von Huene – Klangskulpturen: Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, exhibition catalogue (in German). Thomas von Randow: Text Tones 1982–1983. Baden Baden: Kunsthalle Baden Baden. p. 92-94.
  26. ^ Brockhaus, Christoph; Gaßner, Hubertus; Heinrich, Christoph, eds. (2003). Stephan von Huene – Tune the World, Die Retrospektive / The Retrospective, exhibition catalogue (in German and English). Stephan von Huene: Erweiterter Schwitters. A Study in Experimental Reality. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz. p. 237-242. ISBN 3-7757-1211-9.
  27. ^ "Lexichaos, Stephan von Huene". boulezsaal.de. Barenboim-Said Akademie gGmbH. 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "Stephan von Huene, TischTänzer, 1988". zkm.de. ZKM, Center for Art and Media. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  29. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1998). What's Wrong With Culture? Klang- und Mediaskulpturen aus den neunziger Jahren, exhibition catalogue (in German and English). Doris von Drathen: Babel is everywhere (on Lexichaos, What's Wrong With Art, Blue Books, entrance questions – exit questions, Greetings). Bremen: Neues Museum Weserburg. p. 45-57. ISBN 3-89466-228-X.
  30. ^ "Stephan von Huene, Blaue Bücher, 1997". zkm.de. ZKM, Center for Art and Media. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  31. ^ "Stephan von Huene". ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  32. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1969). "Totem Tone IV". hamburger-kunsthalle.de. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  33. ^ "Have No Fear, Kaleidophonic Dog is Here". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. October 19, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  34. ^ von Huene, Stephan (1967). "Tap Dancer". blogs.getty.edu. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  35. ^ Grayson, John, ed. (1975). Sound Sculpture: A Collection of Essays by Artists Surveying the Techniques, Applications, and Future Directions of Sound Sculpture. Vancouver: A.R.C. Publications. ISBN 0889850003. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
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