Athena Tacha
Encyclopedia
Athena Tacha is best known in the fields of environmental
public sculpture and conceptual art, but has also worked extensively in photography, film and artists’ books. The best statement on her artistic philosophy, "Rhythms as Form", was first published in Landscape Architecture, May 1978, pp. 196–205.
in Greece; an M.A. in art history from Oberlin College
, Oberlin, Ohio; and a Doctorate in aesthetics from the Sorbonne
in Paris (1963). After her studies, she worked as Curator of Modern Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum
of Oberlin College
, organized contemporary art exhibitions (including Art In The Mind, 1970), and published as A. T. Spear two books and various articles on Auguste Rodin
, Brancusi, Nadelman and other 20th century sculptors. She married art historian Richard E. Spear in 1965. From 1973 to 2000, she was Professor of sculpture at Oberlin College. Since 1998, she has been an Affiliate of the University of Maryland, College Park
, and lives in Washington, DC.
commissions, of which nearly forty have been executed throughout the U.S., including an entire city-block park in downtown Philadelphia
. She has had six one-artist shows in New York—at the Zabriskie Gallery, the Max Hutchinson Gallery, Franklin Furnace
, the Foundation for Hellenic Studies, and the Kouros Gallery - and has exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the world, including the Venice Biennale
). Concurrently, she produced a body of textual and photographic conceptual works, many of which were published as artist's books.
In 1989, a retrospective of more than 100 of Tacha's sculptures, drawings and conceptual photographic pieces was held at the High Museum of Art
in Atlanta. It included large color photographs of her executed commissions and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, Athena Tacha: Public Works, 1970-88 (introductory essay by John and Catherine Howett). The same year, she had an exhibition of new work, over 50 sculptures and drawings, as well as two large temporary installations, at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, also accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue (with an essay by Thalia Gouma-Peterson). Her most recent museum solo show, Small Wonders: New Sculpture and Photoworks at the American University’s Katzen Arts Center
, Washington, DC, 2006, had a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Anne Ellegood and Brenda Brown (reinstalled in New York at Kouros Gallery in 2007). Since Tacha moved to Washington, DC, she has had two solo exhibitions at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery (2004 and 2008).
A 40-year retrospective (over 100 works), "Athena Tacha: From the Public to the Private," opened at the Contemporary Art Center (State Museum of Contemporary Art
) in Thessaloniki
, Greece, Jan. 16 - April 11, 2010. It presents for the first time all aspects of Tacha's art—from large outdoor commissions, to "body sculptures" and photoworks, to conceptual art and films—with a bilingual catalog (164 pp., 113 color illustrations). It is scheduled travel to Larissa and Athens through 2010.
Tacha’s sculptures and photo-works are in many American museums and private collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
, the Cleveland Museum of Art
, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
, and the Agnes Gund Collection.
Main solo exhibition catalogs:
Several of Tacha's New York exhibitions have illustrated catalogues -- Massacre Memorials (Max Hutchinson, 1984), with an essay by Lucy Lippard; Vulnerability: New Fashions (Franklin Furnace, 1994), a conceptual art piece critiquing the fashion industry; and Athena Tacha: Shields and Universes (Foundation for Hellenic Culture, 2001).
The most extensive articles on Tacha's art have appeared in Landscape Architecture (May 1978 & March 2007), Artforum
(Jan. 1981), Arts Magazine (Oct. 1988), Art News (Sept. 1991) and Sculpture
(June 1987, Nov. 2000 and October 2006).
Environmental sculpture
The term environmental sculpture is variously defined. A development of the art of the 20th century, environmental sculpture usually creates or alters the environment for the viewer, as opposed to presenting itself figurally or monumentally before the viewer...
public sculpture and conceptual art, but has also worked extensively in photography, film and artists’ books. The best statement on her artistic philosophy, "Rhythms as Form", was first published in Landscape Architecture, May 1978, pp. 196–205.
Early life, education, and academic career
Tacha was born in 1936 in Greece. She received an M.A. in sculpture from the Athens School of Fine ArtsAthens School of Fine Arts
The Athens School of Fine Arts , is Greece's premier art school whose main objective is to develop the artistic talents of its students.-History:Athens School of Fine Arts was established on 12 January 1837, known as the School for the Arts...
in Greece; an M.A. in art history from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Oberlin, Ohio; and a Doctorate in aesthetics from the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris (1963). After her studies, she worked as Curator of Modern Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum
Allen Memorial Art Museum
The Allen Memorial Art Museum is located in Oberlin, Ohio and is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, its collection is one of the finest of any college or university museum in the United States, consistently ranking among those of Harvard and Yale...
of Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, organized contemporary art exhibitions (including Art In The Mind, 1970), and published as A. T. Spear two books and various articles on Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, Brancusi, Nadelman and other 20th century sculptors. She married art historian Richard E. Spear in 1965. From 1973 to 2000, she was Professor of sculpture at Oberlin College. Since 1998, she has been an Affiliate of the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, and lives in Washington, DC.
Work, exhibitions and museums
One of the first artists to develop environmental site-specific sculpture in the early 1970s, Tacha has won over fifty competitions for permanent public artPublic art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
commissions, of which nearly forty have been executed throughout the U.S., including an entire city-block park in downtown Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. She has had six one-artist shows in New York—at the Zabriskie Gallery, the Max Hutchinson Gallery, Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
, the Foundation for Hellenic Studies, and the Kouros Gallery - and has exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the world, including the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
). Concurrently, she produced a body of textual and photographic conceptual works, many of which were published as artist's books.
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
in Atlanta. It included large color photographs of her executed commissions and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, Athena Tacha: Public Works, 1970-88 (introductory essay by John and Catherine Howett). The same year, she had an exhibition of new work, over 50 sculptures and drawings, as well as two large temporary installations, at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, also accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue (with an essay by Thalia Gouma-Peterson). Her most recent museum solo show, Small Wonders: New Sculpture and Photoworks at the American University’s Katzen Arts Center
Katzen Arts Center
The Katzen Arts Center is home to all of the visual and performing arts programs at American University and the American University Museum. Located at Ward Circle, the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, the Center sits atop Embassy Row in Washington, DC, one of the highest...
, Washington, DC, 2006, had a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Anne Ellegood and Brenda Brown (reinstalled in New York at Kouros Gallery in 2007). Since Tacha moved to Washington, DC, she has had two solo exhibitions at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery (2004 and 2008).
A 40-year retrospective (over 100 works), "Athena Tacha: From the Public to the Private," opened at the Contemporary Art Center (State Museum of Contemporary Art
State Museum of Contemporary Art
The Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art is a state museum based in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was founded in 1997, at the occasion of Thessaloniki's year as European Capital of Culture. The museum was established by a law passed in the Greek Parliament by then Greek Minister of Culture,...
) in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, Greece, Jan. 16 - April 11, 2010. It presents for the first time all aspects of Tacha's art—from large outdoor commissions, to "body sculptures" and photoworks, to conceptual art and films—with a bilingual catalog (164 pp., 113 color illustrations). It is scheduled travel to Larissa and Athens through 2010.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is an art museum located in Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. The gallery is a major showplace for modern art and contemporary art. It is located directly across the street from Buffalo State College.-History:...
, the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its neoclassical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art....
, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
, and the Agnes Gund Collection.
Latest executed commissions (2001-09)
- Victory Plaza, 2000–02, a 40000 sq ft (3,716.1 m²) plaza with fountains in front of the American Airlines CenterAmerican Airlines CenterThe American Airlines Center is a multi-purpose arena, located in the Victory Park neighborhood, near downtown Dallas, Texas.It is home to the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, and the Dallas Stars of the NHL....
(in collaboration with SWA), Dallas, TexasDallas, TexasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
- STOP & GO: to Garrett Augustus Morgan, 2001–04, a plaza for Metrorail's Morgan Blvd. Station, Washington, DC
- Hearts Beat, 2002–04, a 350 feet (106.7 m) long ceiling of animated LEDs for a sky bridge between Grosvenor Metro station and the Strathmore Music CenterStrathmore (Maryland)Strathmore is a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Strathmore was founded in 1981 and consists of two venues: the Mansion and the Music Center....
, N. Bethesda, MarylandBethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
.
- Riding with Sarah and Wayne, 2004–06, a mile-long trackbed pavement for the Light Rail, Newark, New JerseyNewark, New JerseyNewark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
.
- Waterlinks II, 2006–08, a 16x28 ft. granite water wall at the University of Wisconsin’s Business School, Madison, WisconsinMadison, WisconsinMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
.
- An amphitheater and two fountains for the Muhammad Ali CenterMuhammad Ali CenterThe Muhammad Ali Center, a museum and cultural center built as a tribute to the champion athlete and his values, is located in Louisville, Kentucky's "Museum Row" in the West Main District of downtown....
Plaza (ca. 5000 m2), 2002–09, in collaboration with EDAW, AGA and Color Kinetics, Louisville, KY.
- A plaza pavement with a Light Obelisk Fountain in front of Bloomingdale's; an arcade ceiling, Light Riggings, with RGB animation; and a LED sculpture, WWW-Tower, 2001-09—in collaboration with Arrowstreet Inc., CRJA and Art Display Co. -- for Wisconsin Place, a 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) development at Friendship Heights Metro station, Bethesda, MarylandBethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
.
Books, catalogs, and articles
Books on Tacha's work:- Athena Tacha: Public Sculpture (1982), with introductory essays by Ellen H. Johnson and Theodore Wolff
- Forms of Chaos: Drawings by Athena Tacha (1988)
- Elizabeth McClelland, Cosmic Rhythms: Athena Tacha's Public Sculpture (1998), in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title at the Beck Center for the ArtsBeck Center for the ArtsThe Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, is a non-profit, performing arts and arts education organization. It is the largest theater and arts center on Cleveland's West Shore, educating and entertaining over 65,000 people per year...
in Cleveland - Dancing in the Landscape: The Sculpture of Athena Tacha (2000), with an introduction by Harriet Senie and over 200 color reproductions.
Main solo exhibition catalogs:
- Athena Tacha: Public Works, 1970-88 (2009), with an introductory essay by Catherine M. Howett and John Howett, High Museum of ArtHigh Museum of ArtThe High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
, Atlanta, GA - Athena Tacha: New Works, 1986-89 (1989), Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, with an introductory essay by Thalia Gouma-Peterson
- Athena Tacha: Small Wonders - New Sculptures and Photoworks (2006), with introductory essays by Anne Ellegood and Brenda Brown, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, Sept.6-Oct.29, 2006
- Athena Tacha: From Public to Private (2010), a bilingual catalogue for a traveling 40-year retrospective, with essays by Katerina Koskina and Syrago Tsiara, CACT (State Museum of Modern Art), Thessaloniki, Greece
Several of Tacha's New York exhibitions have illustrated catalogues -- Massacre Memorials (Max Hutchinson, 1984), with an essay by Lucy Lippard; Vulnerability: New Fashions (Franklin Furnace, 1994), a conceptual art piece critiquing the fashion industry; and Athena Tacha: Shields and Universes (Foundation for Hellenic Culture, 2001).
The most extensive articles on Tacha's art have appeared in Landscape Architecture (May 1978 & March 2007), 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...
(Jan. 1981), Arts Magazine (Oct. 1988), Art News (Sept. 1991) and Sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
(June 1987, Nov. 2000 and October 2006).