helmut lang in conversation
with executive director peter doroshenko
Daniel Trese, Helmut Lang. Courtesy of Helmut Lang.
What does your creative world look like today?
Very much the same. Art is immune to isolation. It is often required in order to fully concentrate on the journey in your head.
What is the most influential aspect to your current studio practice?
I am finishing my “broken hearts and other injuries” sculptures which have been sitting around for 2 years waiting for the final push. Ready to do so due to the current situation and the urgency I feel about our emotional and physical injuries.
Where do you source your materials?
Mostly local and found materials and the occasional trip to building supply stores.
What is the passion that gets you to the studio to make the art works?
The urge to stay sane.
How has your work changed over the last few years?
It seems it is getting more defined, although I am still working within the same categories like sculpture, wall-works, video and site specific-installations. It is the accumulation of works over the last 15 years that explain themselves more effective to the public.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, Sperone Westwater, 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, Network, Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery, 2019. Photo by Thomas Mueller. Courtesy of the artist and The Journal Gallery.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, MoCA Westport, 2020. Photo by Johnny Fogg. Courtesy of the artist and von ammon co., Washington DC.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, MoCA Westport, 2020. Photo by Johnny Fogg. Courtesy of the artist and von ammon co., Washington DC.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, Various Conditions, Stadtraum, 2017. Photo by Alexander Rosoli. Courtesy of the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York.
Helmut Lang, network #1, 2018, cotton, wax, resin, and tar on canvas. Photo by Thomas Mueller. Courtesy of the artist and The Journal Gallery.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, MoCA Westport, 2020. Photo by Johnny Fogg. Courtesy of the artist and von ammon co., Washington DC.
Installation view, Helmut Lang, MoCA Westport, 2020. Photo by Johnny Fogg. Courtesy of the artist and von ammon co., Washington DC.
about helmut lang
Born in Vienna in 1956, Helmut Lang lives and works in New York City and on Long Island.
Lang creates enigmatic sculptures through skillful mutations of form, volume, light and the material history of objects. His pieces explore and explode the fertile space between abstraction and figuration. Lang has stated he prefers materials “with a past, elements with irreplaceable presence and with scars and memories of a former purpose.” Lang’s work is process-oriented, and the residue of his experimentation is left visible in the final product. The objects he creates have an intense physicality that evokes the human body and human condition while remaining essentially abstract.
Lang has exhibited since 1996 in Europe and the United States, among others, at the Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy 1996; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, 1998; The Journal Gallery, New York, New York, 2007 and 2019; kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany, 2008; The Fireplace Project, Long Island, New York 2011; Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia, 2011; Mark Fletcher, New York, New York, 2012; DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece, 2013; Sperone Westwater, New York, New York, 2015 and 2017; Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas, 2016; Sammlung Friedrichshof, Zurndorf, Austria, 2017; Stadtraum, Vienna, Austria, 2017; MAK — Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, 2019; von ammon co., Washington DC, 2019; and MoCA Westport, Connecticut, 2020.