Serge Spitzer Romanian/American, 1951-2012

Serge Spitzer was born in Bucharest and moved to New York in the eighties, he is considered one of the most important artists of his generation. Since the late seventies, many of Spitzer's most demanding works have been realized as large permanent or temporary installations in important international exhibitions, such as Documenta 8 and the Venice Biennials of 1999, Istanbul of 1994, Lyon and Kwangju in 1997. Both when he uses compact materials like a steel beam, and when he uses apparently weak like a wire, his work is animated by a sculptural sensibility for precarious equilibrium and by the imaginative and physical complicity of the spectator. Even when he uses industrial products or experimental technologies his works maintain an everyday, normal and somewhat ironic aspect. Very complex processes of development find solutions that are deeply familiar, strongly evocative and conceptually allusive in the physical dimension, but also sensitive to the social and political context.

 

Spitzer's work was exhibited internationally in numerous museums and art institutions, among them were Folkwang Museum Essen, 1979; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1983; Kunstmuseum, Bern, 1984 and 2006; Magasin, Grenoble, 1987; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1992; Kunsthalle and Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, 1993; IVAM Centro Julio Gonzales and Centro del Carme, Valencia, 1994; Henri Moore Institute, Leeds, 1994; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, 1995; Kunsthalle, Bern, 2003; Museum fur Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt, 2006; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, 2008; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2010 .

Spitzer participated in many international art exhibitions and biennials such as, Documenta VIII, Kassel, 1987; Istanbul Biennial, 1994; Biennale de Lyon, 1997; Kwangju Biennial, 1997; Venice Biennale, 1999, Sydney Biennial, 2010.

 

He has contributed works to many group and thematic exhibitions curated among others by Harald Szeemann, Rene Block, Rudi Fuchs, Udo Kittelmann, David Elliott, Vicente Todoli, Manfred Schneckenburger, Jurgen Harten, Robert Hopper, Franz Kaiser, Bernhard Fibicher, Stella Rollig, Tilman Osterwald, Heinz Liesbrock, Zdenka Badovinac, and Raimund Stecker.

 

Spitzer's works are represented in many public and private collections including: Brooklyn Museum, New York; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge MA; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Kunstmuseum, Bern; IVAM Instituto Valenciano d'Arte Moderno, Valencia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon; Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Staatliche Museen Neue Galerie, Kassel; Staatens Museum for Kunst, Kopenhagen; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Menil Collection, Houston TX; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT.