DOUGLAS HUEBLER 1924 1997 ABOUT THE ARTIST Douglas

DOUGLAS HUEBLER 1924 - 1997

ABOUT THE ARTIST Douglas Huebler was an American Minimal Sculptor and a pioneer of Conceptual Art. He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and served in the US Marine Corps in World War II. He studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, at Cleveland School of Art and at the Académie Julian in Paris. e then taught at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, then at Bradford Junior College, Bradford, Massachusetts, and most recently at the Carpenter Center, Harvard University. His first one-man exhibition was at the Phillips Gallery, Detroit, 1953. He initially began as a painter, then turned to making Minimal sculpture in formica on wood and was included in the Primary Structures exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, 1966. After he made his first experiments with map pieces in 1967, and in 1968 -9 gave up making sculpture and began to make series of 'Duration Pieces', 'Variable Pieces' and 'Location Pieces' by treating everyday activities in such a way as to produce documentation in the form of photographs maps, drawings and descriptive text.

VARIABLE PIECE NO. 44 The themes of this work are changing human appearance, and the owner's own responsibility to complete the piece. It existed as a work in progress for ten years and was not complete until 1980. As the instructions printed on it show, it is a collaborative work between the artist, the current owner and the owners of the works directly proceeding it and directly following it in the series. This example belonged to the artist until it was sold to the Tate so he appears as an owner until 1974. The Tate is represented by a photograph of the current Chairman of the Tate Trustees during the six remaining years.

LOCATION PIECE, NO. 2, 1969 In one famous piece set in Central Park (Duration Piece #5, New York), the artist shot a single photograph in the direction of a birdcall, then walked toward the source of the sound until he heard another, at which point he turned and made a picture facing the new birdcall, until twelve photographs had been created.