Luis Camnitzer

In 1964, Camnitzer co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop, along with Liliana Porter and José Guillermo Castillo. They probed the social impact and theoretical possibilities of printmaking by defying its traditional limitations. The workshop’s innovative propositions, including three-dimensional prints and an exhibition staged through the mail, epitomize the irreverence and social efficacy unifying Camnitzer’s diverse body of work.

Language has been a key subject of inquiry for Camnitzer since 1966. His juxtapositions of text and image in various media expose the fallibility of both representational systems. Early prints annotated with the procedures of their own production characterize his biting wit. As do his recurrent subversions of individual authorship and his scrutiny of the discrete art object and its commercial value. As Camnitzer’s interest in the polysemy of representational systems unfolded, so did his aim to express socio-political concerns through his art—especially in his rebuke of military regimes taking power in Latin America and the fraught political landscape of his adopted country, the United States.

The wooden Object Boxes that Camnitzer began constructing in the early 1970s typify his investigation of the relationship between language and image. Objects, drawings, and found images are contained between glass panes and accompanied by brass plates bearing evocative yet enigmatic texts. Rather than definitive explanations of the contents, the correlation of text to object or image is an extemporaneous construct, an indeterminate narrative meant to be formed by the viewer.

Camnitzer’s work frequently beckons the subjectivity of the spectator through discursive, interactive, and participatory propositions that reveal his dedication to pedagogy. As an educator, he has advocated since the 1960s for the need for art to transcend the boundaries of its conventional parameters and establishments. That conviction is the basis of A Museum Is a School, a touring site-specific installation displayed on the exterior of various arts institutions since 2009. By emphatically re-defining the museum, Camnitzer re-contextualizes the work housed inside. Under his proposal, art becomes a dynamic process rather than a product, a means of acquiring and developing knowledge; the museum becomes a forum for exchange; the artist becomes a facilitator rather than an authority. Camnitzer’s commitment to involving the public in this creative process reflects his role as a progenitor of process-oriented art, his abiding commitment to institutional critique, and his lifelong conviction in art’s transformative function.

Retrospectives of Camnitzer’s work have been presented at El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2018); Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá (2012); El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (2011); Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany (2003); and Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY (1991). The artist’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at El Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago, Chile (2013); Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2011); Daros Latinamerica, Zürich, Switzerland (2010); and El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (1995), among others. His work has been included in many group exhibitions, including HOME—So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, traveled to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2017); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (2014); and Information, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1970). He has participated in several international biennials, including documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (2002); Whitney Biennial, New York, NY (2000); and Pavilion of Uruguay, 43rd Venice Biennale, Italy (1988). Camnitzer’s work is represented in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others. His honors include the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982 and 1961. From 1969–2000, he taught at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Old Westbury and is professor emeritus.