Andrea Robbins and Max Becher
Encyclopedia
Andrea Robbins and Max Becher (born 1964 in Düsseldorf) are U.S.-based visual artists. They have worked collaboratively since they met at the Cooper Union
in New York in 1984. They married in 1988.
at Rutgers University
.
, a neighborhood in Havana
, Cuba that resembles Wall Street, Germans who dress as Native Americans
; descendants of freed American slaves in the Dominican Republic
; a Brooklyn Hasidic headquarters building
that has been copied and rebuilt around the world; the relocated London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona
, the replication of Venice at the The Venetian, Las Vegas, and the enduring culture of African American
cowboys.
,(New York, NY and Bilbao, Spain), the Whitney Museum of American Art
, (New York, NY), the Jewish Museum
(New York, NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art
(Chicago, IL.), the Museum of Contemporary Photography
(Chicago, IL), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, Los Angeles, CA, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
(Barcelona, Spain),Maison européenne de la photographie
(Paris, France), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
, Museum Kunstpalast(Düsseldorf, Germany), and the SK Stiftung Kultur (Cologne, Germany). Their work has been reviewed or featured in publications such as Artforum
, Art in America
, Art News, Blindspot Magazine,October
, Art on Paper
, The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Zeit
, Welt am Sonntag
, and many others.
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
in New York in 1984. They married in 1988.
Education
Andrea Robbins received her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art and then attended Hunter College School of Art, both in New York City. Max Becher received his BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art, and his MFA from Mason Gross School of the ArtsMason Gross School of the Arts
Mason Gross School of the Arts is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is named for Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers...
at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
.
Work
Robbins and Becher employ photography, video and other digital media to document what they term "the transportation of place," situations in which one place or culture strongly resembles another distant one. Their conception of place often includes such notions as location in time, positions of ideology and cultural identity. Past subjects of their work have included German colonial towns in NamibiaNamibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, a neighborhood in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba that resembles Wall Street, Germans who dress as Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
; descendants of freed American slaves in the Dominican Republic
Samaná Americans
The Samaná Americans are a cultural sub-group of descendants of African American freed people who, beginning in 1824, immigrated to the Samaná Peninsula in Hispaniola—then under Haitian administration—benefiting from the favorable pro-African immigration policy of president Jean Pierre Boyer...
; a Brooklyn Hasidic headquarters building
770 Eastern Parkway
770 Eastern Parkway is the street address of the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, in the United States of America...
that has been copied and rebuilt around the world; the relocated London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona
London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)
London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is the reconstruction of the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the...
, the replication of Venice at the The Venetian, Las Vegas, and the enduring culture of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
cowboys.
Exhibitions and Reviews
The work of Andrea Robbins and Max Becher has been exhibited and collected by art museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
,(New York, NY and Bilbao, Spain), the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, (New York, NY), the Jewish Museum
Jewish Museum (New York)
The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
(New York, NY), the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
(Chicago, IL.), the Museum of Contemporary Photography
Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography was founded in 1984 by Columbia College Chicago. It is well known for an active program and curating which discovers many emerging and mid-career artists...
(Chicago, IL), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, Los Angeles, CA, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, Spain. The museum opened to the public on November 28, 1995. Its current director is Bartomeu Marí . Previous directors were Daniel Giralt-Miracle , Miguel Molins , Manuel J...
(Barcelona, Spain),Maison européenne de la photographie
Maison européenne de la photographie
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, situated in the historic heart of Paris, is a major centre for contemporary photographic art. Since February 1996 it has housed an exhibition centre, a large library, an auditorium, and a video viewing facility with a wide selection of films...
(Paris, France), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, Museum Kunstpalast(Düsseldorf, Germany), and the SK Stiftung Kultur (Cologne, Germany). Their work has been reviewed or featured in publications such as Artforum
Artforum
Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
, Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, Art News, Blindspot Magazine,October
October (journal)
October is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in contemporary art, criticism, and theory, published by the MIT Press.-History:...
, Art on Paper
Art on paper
Art on Paper was a bi-monthly art magazine published from 1996 to 2009. The magazine's editorial scope included limited-edition prints, artists' books, drawings, photographs, and ephemera.-History:...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, Welt am Sonntag
Welt am Sonntag
Welt am Sonntag is a German national Sunday newspaper published by Axel Springer AG, and established in 1948. Its head office is in Berlin, and it has local editions for Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf....
, and many others.
Books
- "Portraits," with essays by Maurice BergerMaurice BergerMaurice Berger is an Americancultural historian, curator, and art critic.- Biography :Maurice Berger is a cultural historian, art critic, and curator. He is Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A student of...
, and Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, 2008, Publisher, University of Maryland Baltimore CountyUniversity of Maryland Baltimore CountyThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County is an American honors public research university, located in Baltimore County, Maryland, mostly in the community of Catonsville, Maryland...
, MA. ISBN 978-1890761110 - "The Transportation of Place," with essays by Lucy Lippard and Maurice BergerMaurice BergerMaurice Berger is an Americancultural historian, curator, and art critic.- Biography :Maurice Berger is a cultural historian, art critic, and curator. He is Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. A student of...
, 2006. Publisher: Aperture Press, New York. ISBN 978-1597110105 - "Brooklyn Abroad." with essays by Nora Alter and Rupert Pfab, May 2006. Publisher Sonnabend Gallery and Museum Kunstpalast.
- "Contact sheet 98: Andrea Robbins and Max Becher: German Indians and Bavarian by Law," with essays by Gary Hesse and Jolene Rickard , 1998. Publisher: Light Work, Syracuse, NY. ISSN: 1064-640X
- "Andrea Robbins and Max Becher," with essays by Benjamin Buchloh, Catherine de Zegher, Everlyn Nicodemus, and Luc Lang, 1994. Publisher: Kanaal Art Foundation, Kortrijk and de VleeshalVleeshalThe Vleeshal is a historical building dating from 1603 on the Grote Markt in Haarlem, Netherlands.-History:Vleeshal means meat-hall; it was the only place in Haarlem where fresh meat was allowed to be sold from 1604 to the 18th century. The ox-heads on the front of the building indicate the...
, Middleburg, The Netherlands ASIN: B001QC688Y
Residencies and Awards
- Artist-in-Residence, The Altos de ChavónAltos de ChavónThe biggest attraction in La Romana, Dominican Republic, is Altos de Chavón, a re-creation of a medieval European village conceived from the imagination of Roberto Copa, a former Paramount Studios set designer, and Charles Bluhdorn....
Cultural Center Foundation, La Romana, Dominican Republic (affiliated with Parsons School of Design, New York) summer 1999. - Grant Recipient Artists-in-Residence, Light Work Foundation, winter 1995.
- Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Award, 2005
- Cooper Union President's Citation for Art, 2011.