ART & ARTISTS: Christopher Wool

Saturday, 9 July 2011

Christopher Wool

Christopher Wool was born in 1955 in Boston. In 1967 Wool studied photography at University High School in Chicago. In 1972 he studied painting with Richard Pousette-Dart at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. In 1973 he moved to New York City and enrolled in the Studio School where he studied with Jack Tworkov and Harry Kramer. In 1980 Wool became a studio assistant to Joel Shapiro part-time for following four years.

Wool’s first exhibition was held in 1984 at Clarissa Dalrymple and Nicole Klagsbrun's Cable Gallery. Also in 1984 he produced first book – a photocopied edition of four: 93 Drawings of Beer on the Wall. Two years later, Wool started producing his first pattern paintings, and in 1987 he joins the Luhring Augustine Gallery. 1987 saw Wool’s first ‘word paintings.'

In 1988 he had his first European shows in Cologne and Athens. The following year in 1989 he exhibited at Museum Group shows in Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich, as well at the Whitney Biennial. In the same year he took a one-year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. 1989 also saw the publication of Black Book, an oversized collection of 9-letter images, and the first retrospective of his work mounted at Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. His book Cats in Bag Bags in River was published to coincide with the show. In 1992 Wool undertook a DAAD residency in Berlin. Absent Without Leave was published in 1993: 160 black-and-white images from travel photographs taken over the previous 4 years. In 1998 the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles mounted a mid-career retrospective of Wool’s work. Christopher Wool lives and works in New York and Marfa, Texas.

I'm afraid I don't have dates for many of Wool's artworks shown here, so they won't be in strict chronological order.