stanley brouwn

born 1935

died 2017

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

stanley brouwn, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2023

stanley brouwn, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

stanley brouwn, Dia Beacon, NY, USA

stanley brouwn, The Art Institute of Chicago, Loop, Chicago, IL, USA

2021

stanley brouwn, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

stanley brouwn: Distance = Length, Length = Distance, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

stanley brouwn, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

2018

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

2016

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2015

stanley brouwn, Art and Public, Geneva, Switzerland

2014

stanley brouwn, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, Italy

haubrok projects/ Fahrbereitschaft, Berlin

2012

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp, Belgium

Sammlung Haubrock, Berlin

IAC, Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhone-Alpes, Villeurbanne, France

2011

Galerie Tschudi, Zuos, Switzerland

2010

Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp, Belgium

2008

Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp, Belgium

2006

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus, Switzerland

stanley brouwn - Bücher und Ephemera, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany

2005

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Macba, Barcelona, Spain

Cenro andaluz de arte contemporáneo, Sevilla, Spain

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2003

Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg

2002

Documenta, Kassel, Germany

books, Christine Burgin, New York, US

2001

Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Stedelijk Museum voor actuele Kunst S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium

1998

Frac, Bretagne, France

1997

Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Brussels, Belgium

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Museum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy

1996

Kunsthalle Krems, Wenen, Austria

1995

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Villa Arson, Nizza, France

Museum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

1994

Le Channel, Calais, France

Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Arc, Paris, France

Sous sol, Geneva, Switzerland

1992

Chateau d'Oirion, Oirion, France

1991

Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium

Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

1990

Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

Musée d'art Moderne Andre Malraux, Le Havre, France

Musée d'art Contemporain, Montréal, Canada

Biennale Sydney, Australia

Fundacion de Pensiones, Madrid, Spain

1989

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

Arc, Paris, France

Bilderstreit, Cologne, Germany

Clocktower Gallery, New York, USA

Museum Pompidou, Paris, France

1988

Akademie der Künste, Berlin

1984

Castello Rivoli, Turin, Italy

1982

Documenta, Kassel, Germany

Biennale Venedig, Venice, Italy

1981

Westkunst, Cologne, Germany

1980

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Museum voor Moderne Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium

1978

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

The Contemporary Arts Centre Cincinnati, OH, USA

The Forth Worth Art Museum, TX, USA

The San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art, San Fransisco, CA, USA

The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA

1977

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

White Chapel Gallery, London, UK

1976

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

1973

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

1972

Documenta, Kassel, Germany

1971

Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst, Aachen, Germany

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sonsbeek, Arnhem, Netherlands

1970

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach, Germany

Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum, Düsseldorf

Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, Netherlands

Michel Claura, 18 Paris 4 IV, Paris, France

1969

Schloß Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

1968

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

Extreme Tension: Art Between Politics And Society 1945–1990, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany

If the Berlin Wind Blows My Flag. Art and Internationalism Before the Fall of the Berlin Wall ,Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin, Germany

Delinking and Relinking, Van Abbemuseum, Netherlands

Stanley Brouwn & Matthew Peers, Rob Tufnell, London, UK

2022

Line Up, Galerie Tschudi, Zurich, Switzerland

From The Bank To Beuys, Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark

Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2021

Sub/dominium, Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Sonsbeek 20 - 24 Force Times Distance, Arnhem, Netherlands

Stanley Brouwn, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

Such A White Afternoon, Nighttimestory, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Structures Of Radical Will, Fondation CAB Brussels, Brussels, Belgium

Structures of Radical Will, Fondation CAB Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Saint-paul-de-vence, France

2020

Lines, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Untitled, 2020. Three Perspectives on the Art of the Present, Palazzo Grassi, Venizia, Italy

From Nan Goldin to Roni Horn: Intimacy in the Collection Lambert, Avignon, France

2019

Concerning Superfluities: Shaker Material Culture And Affinities, Maxwell Graham, Lower East Side, New York, USA

Sampler #3. Anti-books ,MACBA, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Words Are Very Unnecessary, ARTER, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

FurkArt ephemera, MHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

Now Is The Time: 25 Years Collection Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

Manzoni in Holland, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, Netherlands

2018

Gegen die Strömung - Reise ins Ungewisse, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany

Towards Infinity: 1965 - 1980, Simon Lee Gallery, New York, USA

Beyond Dada and De Stijl, part 2, Museum Drachten, Drachten, Netherlands

A Measure of Humanity, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, Columbus, OH, USA

2017

Amsterdam Art Weekend, Eenwerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Three Crossings, Vigo Gallery (Mason's Yard), Amsterdam, Netherlands

Black & White, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy

I am you, you are too, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Optional Art Activity: Letters, Take Ninagawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Mene Mene Tekel Parsin, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK

The Absent Museum, WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium

Legible – Visible: Between the Film Frame and the Page, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain

Variable Dimensions: Artists and Architecture, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon, Portugal

2016

Wolke und Kristall - Die Sammlung Dorothee und Konrad Fischer, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

WITH A TOUCH OF PINK - WITH A BIT OF VIOLET - WITH A HINT OF GREEN -

Dorothee Fischer in memoriam, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Archiv Block 1964-2014, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz (March 18 - June 5), Linz, Austria

2015

Ich kenne kein Weekend. Aus René Blocks Archiv und Sammlung, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin

Invisible Lines, SAFN, Berlin

Walking Sculpture 1967 - 2015, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, NB, USA

In/visible, IKOB, Eupen, Germany

Adam, Eve & the Devil, Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, Netherlands

Serial Attitudes: Repetition as an Artistic Method Since the 1960s, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

2014

Impulse, Reason, Sense, Conflict: Abstract Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, CIFO Art Space, Miami, FL, USA

Fahrbereitschaft - haubrok projects, Berlin

Propganda für die Wirklichkeit, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany

Some Artists' Artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, USA

2013

La Fabrique des Possibles, FRAC - Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Marseille, France

2012

Une histoire de la performance sur la Cote d'Azur de 1951-2011, Villa Arson, Nice, France

Sammlung Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

Espèces d'espaces, Christophe Daviet-Thery, Paris, France

2011

En Obras. Colecío Teixeira De Freitas, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Les mille rêves de Stellavista_Commissaires associés Berdaguer et Péjus, Centre d'art contemporain la Synagogue de Delme, France

The Talent Show, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, USA

Faster and Slower Lines - From the Collection of Pétur Arason and Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Listasafn Reykjavikur Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

Forms and Inflections, Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA

I WAS A MALE YVONNE DE CARLO - El arte crítico puede ser sofisticado, incluso entretenido, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain

The Talent Show, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA

ATLAS. How to Carry the World on One's Back ?, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany

Art, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

Sculpture In So Many Words: Text Pieces 1960-75, ZieherSmith, New York, USA

2010

The Talent Show, MoMA PS1, New York City, NY, USA

Verortungen - Die Frage nach dem Raum in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Curated by Erik Verhagen and Jocelyn Wolff, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France

Je mehr ich zeichne - Zeichnung als Weltentwurf, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen, Germany

Taking Place, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

25 Jahre Galerie Tschudi, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz, Switzerland

The Evryali Score, David Zwirner, Inc., New York, NY, USA

Group Show, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp, Belgium

Starter Works from the Vehbi Koç Foundation, ARTER - space for art, Istanbul, Turkey

In-between Minimalisms - Play Van Abbe, Part 2: Time Machines, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

In-between Minimalisms & Free Sol Lewitt, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

The Talent Show, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA

FIINE LINE, Georg Kargl Fine Arts & Georg Kargl Box, Vienna, Austria

It is it, Espacio 1414, Santurce, Spain

2009

time, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Wo ist der Wind, wenn er nicht weht ? - Politische Bildergeschichten von Albrecht Dürer bis Art Spiegelman, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany

VOIDS- eine Retrospektive über leere Ausstellungen, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland

In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art 1960-1976, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Brancusi and Co, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

15 Jahre Sammlung Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg - Gegen den Strich, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

Konzeptuelle Kunst auf Papier, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany

2008

Made in Munich, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

Genau und Anders. Mathematik in der Kunst von Dürer bis Sol LeWitt, MUMOK, Vienna, Austria

Person of the Crowd, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, USA

2007

MACBA im Frankfurter Kunstverein, Kunstverein Frankfurt a.M., Frankfurt, Germany

Mapping the City, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Plug In #36, Van Abbermuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2006

Eye on Europe, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

MACBA COLLECTION, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain

Inventur. Sammlung Herbert, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

Galerie mit Bleistift Fischer - Papierarbeiten aus den 60er und 70er Jahren, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2005

Stanley Brouwn / Hans-Peter Feldmann, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Big Bang - Destruction and creation in 20th century, art Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Leporello, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2004

Minimale Konzepte / Minimal Concepts, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany

Minimal Artists and Conceptual Artists, Yvon Lambert, New York, USA

70/90. Engagierte Kunst, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, Germany

Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam at Usce Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrad, Kosovo

Treasure Island, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany

2003

Ready to Shoot - Fernsehgalerie Gerry Schum, Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf

Traces of Friday, ICA, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Kunstenaarsboeken et al, Neues Museum, Weserburg, Bremen, Germany

Projection, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2002

documenta 11, documenta, Kassel, Germany

2001

steirischer herbst 2001, steirischer herbst, Graz, Austria

Lost and Found - René Block, apexart, New York, USA

1999

Word Volume, Galerie Schüppenhauer, Cologne, Germany

Oh cet écho !, Mamco - Musée d'art moderne et contemporain Genève, Genf, Switzerland

1982

documenta 7, documenta, Kassel, Germany

40. Biennale Venedig 1982, Venice, Italy

1977

documenta 6, documenta, Kassel, Germany

1972

documenta 5, documenta, Kassel, Germany

2005

Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum / Museu d'art Contemporani: A distance of 312 feet and an imagery distance of 587 feet intersect each other in such a way that the intersection divides each distance in two equal distances on monday 24 january 2005 at 13.18 in africa. Eindhoven / Barcelona

2004

Neues Museum Nürnberg: 70/90 - engagierte Kunst, Nürnberg

2001

Harry Ruhe: Stanley Brouwn. a chronology. 100 Exemplare, Amsterdam, Tuja Books

1993

Portikus, Frankfurt, Main / Witte de With, Rotterdam: 1 m x 1 m ... 10 feet x 10 feet / Stanley Brouwn. Frankfurt am Main

1992

Gevaert, Y.: Books, prints, objects by Stanley Brouwn. Eindhoven

1977

Whitechapel Art Gallery: Stanley Brouwn. London
Kunsthalle, Bern / Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum: Stanley Brouwn. Bern

1976

Stedelijk Van Abbe-Museum: Stanley Brouwn. Eindhoven

1974

Kunstverein Braunschweig: Concept Art. Braunschweig

1972

Zdenek, F.: Konzept-Kunst. Basel

1971

Dimitrijevi, B. & N.: In another moment. Beograd

Gegenverkehr e.V., Aachen: Stanley Brouwn : Afghanistan - Zambia. Aachen

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam: Stanley Brouwn : steps. Amsterdam

Addison Gallery of American Art: Formulation : [a special exhibition of work by ten European artists selected by

Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf and Gian Enzo Sperone, Turin. Andover, Mass

1970

Lamelas, D.: David Lamelas : publication [texts by Keith Arnatt, Robert Barry, Stanley Brouwn]. London

1965

Köpcke, A.: Happenings (& actions). Düsseldorf

1964

Schmit, T. / Vostell. W.: Actions, Agit-Pop, De-collage, Happening, Events, Antiart, L' Autrisme, Art total, Refluxus: Festival der neuen Kunst. Mülheim

Vostell, W.: Happenings. Frankfurt am Main

ARTIST BOOKS

2001

On 2 march 2001 Stanley Brouwn will walk a total distance of x feet. Luxembourg

An imaginary column of 30 feet on Place Guillaume in Luxembourg. Luxembourg

The total distance of all my steps during 60 minutes mesured in feet = La distance totale de tous mes pas durant 60 minutes. Straßbourg

2000

A distance of ... / Stanley Brouwn. Part [3]: A distance of 2444601 feet. Amsterdam

A distance of ... / Stanley Brouwn. Part [2]: A distance of 2232 ells. Amsterdam

A distance of ... / Stanley Brouwn. Part [1]: A distance of 336 steps. Amsterdam

1999

1 x 1 royal cubit. Köln

1998

Stanley Brouwn. Editions Micheline Szwajcer & Michéle Didier. Antwerpen

1995

1 pied, 1/2 pied, 1/4 pied, 1/8 pied, 1/16 pied, 1/32 pied. Nizza

1978

Stanley Brouwn : 1000 mm 879 mm. Amsterdam

1977

100 this-way-Brouwn-problems for computer I.B.M. 360 model 95 / Stanley Brouwn. Köln / New York

1975

100.000 mm. Brussels

1971

One step 1X-100X. Brussels

This way Brouwn : 25-2-61 / Stanley Brouwn. Köln / New York

frieze, Issue 91, May 2005
Aaron Shuster

Stanley Brouwn
Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Normality is, more or less, a well-managed form of what is usually regarded as its opposite. Thus, sanity is a kind of gentrified madness; madness not simply being an accidental derangement of reason but an essential, original possibility of human existence never fully overcome. Likewise, so-called ‘normal’ sexuality is only a precarious organization of impulses that remain fundamentally perverse. And the same could also be said for walking. What is walking but, as the German psychiatrist Erwin Straus once put it, ‘a continuously arrested falling’, a propulsive act in which one constantly throws oneself off-balance while managing to catch oneself just in time – and a little further ahead – with the other foot?

On the humble subject of the walk there is a notable, albeit not terribly extensive, body of literature. One thinks of Balzac’s Théorie de la Démarche (Theory of Walking, 1833), with its acute physiognomy of the diverse forms of the gait; Robert Walser’s story ‘The Walk’ (1917); the aforementioned Straus’ phenomenological study of upright locomotion (The Upright Posture, 1949); Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts (1977) and Between the Woods and the Water (1986), in which he tells the tale of walking from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in the 1930s; Werner Herzog’s account of walking from Munich to Paris (Of Walking in Ice, 1978); and, not to be forgotten, the hilarious Monty Python sketch about the Ministry of Silly Walks. In the world of art there are quite a few artists for whom walking has been a major concern at some point, including Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, but there is one name that perhaps remains most indissolubly linked with this most basic of comportments: Stanley Brouwn. Indeed, one might argue that Brouwn’s stride merits a place alongside the stripes of Buren, Warhol’s soup cans and Flavin’s fluorescent light fixtures as one of the paradigmatic artistic gestures of the postwar era.

This remarkable retrospective of this peripatetic artist’s career afforded an opportunity not only to reconsider Brouwn’s often overlooked work, with its origins in 1960s Conceptualism, but also to reflect on the legacy of that tradition in an age that seems less concerned with that period’s major preoccupations. Among these could be cited: the dematerialization of the work; the impersonality of creative processes, or the disappearance of the author; and, like the experimental literary group Oulipo, an interest in contingent rules and the permutations of a simple pattern. All of these things also appear in contemporary work, but today the focus seems to be on the personal life and self-exhibition, a desire to be immersed in experience without mediation, and the flaunting of rules, systems and codes.

Brouwn’s habitual obsessions are with geography, distance and direction, scale, measure and dimension. He is a meticulous recorder, giving every indication of keeping his counter and measuring stick close at hand. Between 1960 and 1964 he produced the seminal series ‘This Way Brouwn’, asking passers-by to sketch for him on paper the way from A to B, then appropriating their drawing by adding his stamp ‘This Way Brouwn’. Whether the artist is dealing with his own meanderings, comparing different units of measurement –1 royal cubit: old egyptian measuring unit of length 2500 b.c. (1998) and division of 1m and 1 wari (kenya) according to the golden section (1994) – proposing short walks in the direction of world cities – walk 4m in the direction of havana distance: 7396584.7166m (2005), measured from the very spot where you standing in the museum – or detailing in exact terms what lies behind a square metre section of the museum wall – ‘a 28mm cushion of air separates brick from sand-lime brick’ (1x1m wall exhibition space van abbemuseum eindhoven, 1979-2005) – a cool passion for precision seems to reign.

As a creative strategy it seems oddly akin to that of a neurotic bureaucrat. The first room of the exhibition, with its rows of grey metal filing cabinets stuffed with index cards and its precise records of steps taken in various cities, appears to illustrate perfectly the ‘aesthetic of administration’ commonly associated with Conceptual art. Instead of a Ministry of Silly Walks, we have a kind of Silly Ministry of Walks – a phrase I mean not as flippant insult but as a way of trying to capture the very dry humour that pervades Brouwn’s idiosyncratic archives. And if we accept humour as the flipside of bureaucratic coldness, perhaps ecstasy constitutes the unlikely reverse of Conceptual detachment: there is in his work an invitation to lose oneself in the peculiar ecstasy of measurement, in the same way that the man Brouwn evaporates into the many leagues he has trekked. To paraphrase the artist: ‘I am become a distance….’ And to amble through the Brouwn exhibition is in a sense already to participate in this work, since each room is designated ‘Portrait of a Place, the surface of the floor on which you stand at this moment’, with the relevant dimensions, of course, carefully noted.

I found it particularly fitting that a few floors above the Brouwn exhibition, the alternating male and female voices of On Kawara’s One Million Years (Past & Future) (1970– ongoing), were solemnly counting down a seemingly endless succession of years. In a happy coincidence, between Brouwn and Kawara we are confronted with those two fundaments of the universe: space and time. On this occasion what struck me most was the parallel attempts of the two artists to render these pure conceptions of experience, as philosophers would say,as concrete, handy objects; namely, books. What to make of these supremely anti-literary monuments 10 Kilometres (1975) or ‘One Million Years’ (in its incarnation as a series of books)? No doubt the answer of a friend of mine when asked ‘What is your favourite book?’ would have pleased Brouwn. She replied: ‘The atlas.’

Aaron Shuster