George Brecht

Infobox Artist
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name = George Brecht


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birthname = George MacDiarmid
birthdate = 1926
location = New York
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nationality = American
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George Brecht (born George MacDiarmid, New York, United States August 27, 1926 [The reference to Halfway, Oregon, was a joke that appeared in an early fluxus periodical. A more reliable date is given in the book accompanying the major retrospective in Cologne, 2005; George Brecht Events; A Heterospective, Robinson, Walter König] ) is a minimalist artist and composer (although not in the conventional sense) and a professional chemist who has worked as consultant for such companies as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil to support his art. He was an early Fluxus artist. His nom de guerre is an homage to Bertolt Brecht.

Biography

Brecht studied at John Cage's New School for Social Research in 1958 and 1959. He also wrote about Fluxus in The Fluxus Newspaper. Hannah Higgins, daughter of Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles, mentions and quotes Brecht several times in her landmark book about Fluxus, "The Fluxus Experience" (2002). Notable contributions to Fluxus from George Brecht include "Word Events", and Water Yam, the earliest and one of the most famous "Fluxkits". Brecht was associated with the Fluxus artists of the 1960s including, Daniel Spoerri, Dick Higgins, and others. He taught at Rutgers University and took part in many of the Fluxus and Happenings activities there, including Yam Festival. He worked with artists such as John Cage, Ray Johnson, Ken Friedman, Alison Knowles and Robert Filliou. One of his most cited works is 'Drip Event' (1962) - instructions for a performance/event (Event Score) involving 'a source of dripping water and an empty vessel.. arranged so that the water falls into the vessel' (January 1962).

He left New York in April 1965 for Rome; from there he moved to Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, to start a shop, "La Cédrille Qui Sourait", with the french artist Robert Filliou, also a member of fluxus. The shop wass intended to explore ideas about the 'obtuse relationship(s) to the institution of language.' [George Brecht Events; A Heterospective, Robinson, Walter König p318] After the shop closed in 1968, Brecht moved to London where he organised the "Book of the Tumbler on Fire" exhibition, an ongoing series of assemblages representing 'pages' of a fictitious book, Cologne and Stuttgart, 1969. He continued to exhibit widely throughout the seventies and early eighties. Since then, his work has been included in a number of important retrospectives, including major shows about fluxus.

In 2006 he won the prestigious Berlin Art Prize.

He lives in Cologne.

External links

* [http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=BEE75BAB-5D01-4E9D-9BAB74E1E15FEE96 George Brecht at the-artists.org]
* [http://www.kunstbus.nl/verklaringen/george+brecht.html Dutch Biography of Brecht]
* [http://www.transordinator.de/g_b/exit.html Practice George Brecht's Word Event]
* [http://www.theartwolf.com/brecht_macba.htm George Brecht retrospective]
* [http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/flux_files/brecht.html George Brecht Resources]
* [http://www.ubu.com/sound/tellus_24.html George Brecht + James Tenney with George Maciunas, Entrance... (excerpt) 1:46] published on the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine

Notes