Editing Michael Asher (artist)

{{short description|American conceptual artist (1943–2012)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Michael Asher
| image              = 
| imagesize          = 
| caption            = Michael Asher
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1943|7|15}}
| birth_place        = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{dda|2012|10|15|1943|7|15}}
| death_place        = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| education          = [[University of California, Irvine]] (BA)
| occupation         = Visual artist
| movement           = [[Conceptual art]]
}}
'''Michael Max Asher''' (July 15, 1943 &ndash; October 15, 2012) was an American [[conceptual art]]ist, described by ''The New York Times'' as "among the patron saints of the Conceptual Art phylum known as [[Institutional Critique]], an often esoteric dissection of the assumptions that govern how we perceive art."<ref>Roberta Smith, [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/arts/design/08ashe.html ''How Art Is Framed: Exhibition Floor Plans as a Conceptual Medium''], March 8, 2008.</ref> Rather than designing new art objects, Asher typically altered the existing environment, by repositioning or removing artworks, walls, facades, etc.

Asher was also a highly regarded professor of art, who spent decades on the faculty at [[California Institute of the Arts]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Lawson|first=Thomas|title=Michael Asher (1943 - 2012)|url=http://www.eastofborneo.org/archives/michael-asher-1943-2012--2?fb_comment_id=fbc_475110825867025_17269909_475495829161858#fe0fb470ae8a08|website=East of Borneo|date=October 15, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923232612/http://www.eastofborneo.org/archives/michael-asher-1943-2012--2?fb_comment_id=fbc_475110825867025_17269909_475495829161858#fe0fb470ae8a08|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> Cited by numerous successful artists as an important influence in their development, Asher's teaching has been described by British journalist [[Sarah Thornton]] as his "most influential" work.<ref name="Sarah Thornton 2009">Sarah Thornton. ''Seven Days in the Art World'' New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-393-33712-9}})</ref>

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Los Angeles]], California, Asher is the son of gallerist [[Betty Asher]] and Leonard Asher.<ref name="aaa-transcript">{{cite web | url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/asher80.htm | title=Oral history interview with Betty M. Asher, 1980 June 30 and 1980 July 7 | publisher=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution | access-date=March 9, 2012}}</ref> While in high school, one of his classmates was future colleague, [[Thom Andersen]]. He studied at the [[University of California, Irvine]],<ref name="nytimes.com">Randy Kennedy (October 17, 2012), [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/arts/design/michael-asher-artist-dies-at-69.html Michael Asher, Titan of Conceptual Art and Teacher, Dies at 69] ''[[New York Times]]''.</ref> where he received his bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1966.<ref name="latimes.com">Jori Finkel (October 17, 2012), [http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-michael-asher-20121017,0,6823892.story Michael Asher dies at 69; pioneering conceptual artist] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref>

==Life and career==
He began teaching at the [[California Institute of the Arts]] in 1973,<ref name="latimes.com"/> along with other influential artist-professors like [[John Baldessari]], [[Judy Chicago]] and [[Allan Kaprow]].<ref name="nytimes.com"/> His "post-studio art" course consisted of intensive group critiques that can focus on a single work for eight hours or more. His ''Writings, 1973–1983, on Works 1969-1979,'' co-authored by the art historian [[Benjamin H. D. Buchloh]], was published by The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Chapter 2 of ''Seven Days in the Art World'' <ref name="Sarah Thornton 2009" /> by [[Sarah Thornton]] is set in Asher's Post-Studio Crit class. Thornton describes the Crit as a "rite of passage" for the students and as the artist's "most influential" work - "an institutional critique that reveals the limits of the rest of the curriculum."  

On medical leave from CalArts since 2008,<ref name="latimes.com"/> Asher died Sunday, October 14, 2012 after a long illness. He was 69.<ref>{{cite news|last=Finkel|first=Jori|title=Pioneering conceptual artist Michael Asher dies at 69|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-artist-michael-asher-dies-69-20121016,0,2379491.story?track=rss|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 16, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kennedy|first=Randy|date=October 17, 2012|title=Michael Asher, Titan of Conceptual Art and Teacher, Dies at 69|page=B19|newspaper=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/arts/design/michael-asher-artist-dies-at-69.html?_r=1&}}</ref>

==Works==
Asher's work takes the form of "subtle yet deliberate interventions – additions, subtractions or alterations – in particular environments."<ref name=Rondeau>James Rondeau, [http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/thinking_space/ ''Thinking Space''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012180058/http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/thinking_space/ |date=2008-10-12 }}, ''Frieze'', March 2008.</ref> His pieces were always site-specific; they were always temporary, and whatever was made or moved for them was destroyed or put back after the exhibitions.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

Much of Asher's work, especially in the 1970s, focused upon the specific idiosyncrasies of the gallery as an artistic space. Asher conceived spatial and curatorial choices of the gallery as their own minimalist works, conceptually focused around the viewer's perception.

His work in the late 1960s and early 1970s consisted of dividing up gallery spaces using partition walls and curtains, and designing environments that reflected or absorbed sound. For his first solo exhibition at the [[Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego|La Jolla Museum of Art]], Asher installed a tone generator in one of the gallery walls that effectively cancelled out all sound waves in the room, creating a dead zone in the center of the gallery.<ref>[http://www.pomona.edu/museum/artists/michael-asher.html Michael Asher] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131020235/http://www.pomona.edu/museum/artists/michael-asher.html |date=2012-01-31 }} [[Pomona College]].</ref> In 1969, for the group show  “Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials” at the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], he concealed a blower above a door to create a slab of air that visitors passed through when they moved from one gallery to the next.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> In the 1970s he began to remove elements from spaces, for example sandblasting away layers of paint (at Galleria Toselli, Milan, in 1973) or removing the partition walls separating an exhibition space from the gallery office. More dramatically, in his piece ''Installation'' (1970) at [[Pomona College]], he created a work by reconfiguring the interior space of a gallery and then leaving the gallery open, without a door, 24 hours a day, introducing light and the noise of the street into the gallery as experiential elements.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> For another early work at the [[Claire Copley Gallery]] in Los Angeles, in 1974, he removed a crucial wall that protected the office space from view, framing the art gallery's behind-the-scenes business operations as something worth viewing itself.<ref name="latimes.com"/> Further exploration into the workings of the gallery as institution took place in 1977, where he held an exhibition in both the Claire Copley and Morgan Thomas galleries. The exhibition took on the function of transposer, placing both gallery owners in the space of the other, displaying their own unique curatorial choices.<ref>Mcfadden, Jane. "Here, here, or there : on the whereabouts of art in the seventies." ''Pacific standard time : Los Angeles art 1945-1980''. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. 254.</ref> In 1979 he started to reposition objects in museum collections.<ref name=Rondeau /> Sometimes Asher gathers facts, like the list he published of all the artworks ever [[Deaccessioning|deaccessioned]] by the [[Museum of Modern Art]].<ref>[[Roberta Smith]] (March 8, 2008), [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/arts/08ashe.html?_r=0  How Art Is Framed: Exhibition Floor Plans as a Conceptual Medium] ''[[New York Times]]''.</ref> For a show at the [[Santa Monica Museum of Art]] in 2008, he decided to re-create all the 44 stud walls that have been built for every exhibition since the museum relocated to [[Bergamot Station]] in May 1998. Architectural floor plans for those 44 exhibitions, captioned with the title and dates of each one, are displayed in a small gallery at the show's entrance, providing a key to what visitors are about to see.<ref>Christopher Knight (February 13, 2008), [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-feb-13-et-asher13-story.html Labyrinth from the artist's mind] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref>

His untitled 1991 work featuring a functional, polished, granite drinking fountain juxtaposed with a flag pole was his first permanent public outdoor work in the United States. Part of the [[Stuart Collection]] of public art on the campus of the [[University of California, San Diego]], this drinking fountain is an exact replica of commercial metal fountains typically found in business offices and government buildings. Instead of its usual context as interior office furniture, the fountain is placed monument like on a grass island in the center of the campus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Michael Asher - Untitled|url=https://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artist/asher.html|access-date=2021-08-08|website=stuartcollection.ucsd.edu}}</ref> It marks the site as the former [[Camp Matthews]], a military training facility from 1917 to 1964.<ref>Leah Ollman (April 14, 1992), [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-14-ca-155-story.html UCSD Fountain Is a Drink of Cold Water : Aesthetics: Michael Asher's bland addition to the Stuart Collection fails to make a splash.] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.</ref> The piece was destroyed by a sledgehammer-wielding vandal on January 13, 2015.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Staahl|first1=Derek|title=Vandal with Sledgehammer Destroys Prized Artwork at UC San Diego|url=http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/Vandal-causes-nearly-20000-in-damages-at-UC-San-Diego-campus-291430901.html|access-date=2 April 2015|agency=CW News - San Diego Channel 6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319133726/http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/Vandal-causes-nearly-20000-in-damages-at-UC-San-Diego-campus-291430901.html|archive-date=19 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Exhibitions and awards==
Asher exhibited at [[documenta]] (1972, 1982), the [[MoMA]] (1979), and the [[Venice Biennale]] (1976), and his solo museum shows include the [[Centre Pompidou]] (1991), [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]] (2003), [[Art Institute of Chicago]] (2005) and [[Santa Monica Museum of Art]] (2008).

Asher won the [[Bucksbaum Award]] 2010. The jury consisted of: [[Adam D. Weinberg]], the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director; Donna De Salvo, Whitney Associate Director of Programs and Chief Curator; the 2010 curators [[Francesco Bonami]] and Gary Carrion-Murayari; and three guest panelists, [[Hou Hanru]] ([[San Francisco Art Institute]]), Yasmil Raymond ([[Dia Art Foundation]]), and James Rondeau ([[Art Institute of Chicago]]). The winner received $100,000 and a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.<ref name="flashart">{{cite web|url=http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=news_det&id=742&det=ok&title=Michael-Asher-wins-Bucksbaum-Award |title=New York Michael Asher wins Bucksbaum Award |publisher=Flash Art |access-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229142006/http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?pagina=news_det&id=742&det=ok&title=Michael-Asher-wins-Bucksbaum-Award |archive-date=February 29, 2012 }}</ref> His project for the 2010 [[Whitney Biennial]] involved having the museum remain open 24 hours a day for one week (although this was shortened to three days by the museum due to “budgetary and human resources limitations”).<ref>[http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Michael+Asher%2c+the+artist+who+kept+the+Whitney+open%2c+has+died/27405  Michael Asher, the artist who kept the Whitney open, has died] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019013514/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Michael+Asher,+the+artist+who+kept+the+Whitney+open,+has+died/27405 |date=2012-10-19 }} ''[[The Art Newspaper]]'', 16 October 2012.</ref>

In the mid-1970s, after a dispute with gallery dealer, [[Heiner Friedrich]], Asher decided to use contractual agreements in order to control the production, dissemination and ownership of his art projects.<ref>{{Cite web|title = A Document of Regulation and Reflexive Process:  Michael Asher’s Contractual Agreement Commissioning Works of Art (1975)  {{!}} Art & Education|url = http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-document-of-regulation-and-reflexive-process-michael-ashers-contractual-agreement-commissioning-works-of-art-1975/|website = Art & Education|access-date = 2015-12-12|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222094318/http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-document-of-regulation-and-reflexive-process-michael-ashers-contractual-agreement-commissioning-works-of-art-1975/|archive-date = 2015-12-22}}</ref> Using [[Seth Siegelaub]] and Robert Projanksy's contract, [[:File:The_Artists_Reserved_Rights_Transfer_and_Sale_Agreement.pdf|The Artists Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement]], as a model, Asher crafted his own contract with the help of Los Angeles attorney, Arthur Alef.<ref>{{Cite web|title = A Document of Regulation and Reflexive Process:  Michael Asher’s Contractual Agreement Commissioning Works of Art (1975)  {{!}} Art & Education|url = http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-document-of-regulation-and-reflexive-process-michael-ashers-contractual-agreement-commissioning-works-of-art-1975/|website = Art & Education|access-date = 2015-12-12|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222094318/http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/a-document-of-regulation-and-reflexive-process-michael-ashers-contractual-agreement-commissioning-works-of-art-1975/|archive-date = 2015-12-22}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Asher's ''Writings, 1973–1983, on Works 1969–1979 ''{{ISBN|978-0-919-61627-1}} has been published by [[NSCAD University|The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design]], co-authored by the art historian [[Benjamin H. D. Buchloh]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Buchloh|first=Benjamin H. D.|title=Michael Asher: Writings 1973 - 1983 on Works 1969 - 1979|year=1983|publisher=Nova Scotia College of Art and Design / Museum of Contemporary Art|isbn=978-0919616271}}</ref>
* Michael Asher, "George Washington" at the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], 1979 and 2005, published by Art Institute of Chicago, 2006.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moller|first=Whitney|title=George Washington at the Art Institute of Chicago 1979 and 2005|year=2006|publisher=Art Institute of Chicago|isbn=978-0300119428}}</ref> 
* ''Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher'' by the MIT Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0262013680}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Peltomäki|first=Kirsi|title=Situation Aesthetics: The Work of Michael Asher|year=2010|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0262013680}}</ref> 
* ''Michael Asher: Kunsthalle Bern 1992'' published by Afterall, 2012.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rorimer|first=Anne|title=Michael Asher: Kunsthaller Bern 1992|year=2013|publisher=Afterall|isbn=978-1846380938}}</ref>
*Jennifer Wencha King. "Michael Asher and the Art of Infrastructure." PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 2014. [[ProQuest]] no. 1524245613. ISBN 978-1-303-80861-6

==External links==
*{{commons category inline|Michael Asher}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asher, Michael}}
[[Category:American conceptual artists]]
[[Category:Institutional Critique artists]]
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:Artists from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American artists]]
[[Category:21st-century American artists]]