Dennis Oppenheim
Extended Expressions, 1971, Photographic Documentation of performance, lithographic print
Dennis Oppenheim's art career grew and changed from a legendary scarcity of objects and refusal of the gallery system; to oversize and overwhelming motorized installations; to a contemporary turn towards large-scale Surrealism, with his life size "architectural mirages". He was an integral figure in advancing the definition of art - as idea, intervention, fleeting moment, large monument - and expanding the realm of art outside the gallery. More than any other contemporary artist, Oppenheim was pivotal in contributing to the foundational and defining moments of multiple art movements, most notably Performance, Conceptual, and Earth Art. Throughout his career, Oppenheim jumped between movements, materials, styles, and themes; maddening critics who tried to define him. Oppenheim stated, "I've always wanted to operate within the entire arena. Signature style has been suspicious to me; it reads as a limitation.”
Throughout his career, Oppenheim's work critiqued elitist art institutions. He once stated, "A museum is not a place I am dying to visit in any city. My interest in art is in an art that is yet to be made." This aversion to working inside the white cube of the gallery is an idea that has continued to influence significant artists working in Land art and Public Art including Alan Sonfist, Christo and Jean-Claude, and Maya Lin.
Oppenheim was part of the early generation of Land artists, along with Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, Nancy Holt, and Michael Heizer. They pioneered this new form of art in the 1960s, in which the earth itself served as medium. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Oppenheim's early interventions into natural landscape took the form of removal, returning to the ancient sculptural principle of carving, by, in the artist's own words, "taking away rather than adding".
COLLECTIONS
Akron Art Institute, Akron, OH, U.S.A.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, AustraliaArt Gallery of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A
ArtPark, Lewiston, NY, U.S.A.
Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) Center for Visual Arts, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, U.S.A.
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, U.S.A.
Beuhl Foundation, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Bonner Kunstverein, Artothek, Bonn, Germany
Boymans-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Brainerd Art Gallery, State University of New York at Potsdam, NY, U.S.A.
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.
Bundesgarten, Berlin, Germany
Cargo Centre International d Arts Visuels, Marseille, France
Cedarhurst Sculpture Park, Mount Vernon, IL, U.S.A.
Centre d Art Plastique Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Chiba City Museum, Chiba City, Japan
The City of Valladolid, Spain
The City of Palma de Mallorca, Spain
The City of Leoben, Austria
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, U.S.A.
Danforth Museum of Art, Farmingham, Massachusetts U.S.A.
Denison University, Granville, OH, U.S.A.Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IW, U.S.A.
Detroit Art Institute, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Canada
Emanuel Hoffman-Stiftung, Basel, Switzerland
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, U.S.A.
Fattoria di Celle, Pistoia, Italy
Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A.
Florida International University Art Museum, Miami, FL, U.S.A.
Fonds National d Art Contemporain, La Defense, France
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A.
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, TX, U.S.A.
F.R.A.C. Nord pas-de-Calais, Lille, France
F.R.A.C. Picardie, Amiens, France
F.R.A.C. Aquitaine, Aquitaine, France
Fundacao der Serralves, Porto, Portugal
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY, U.S.A.
Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.
Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of of Art, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A.High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.
Hiroshima City Museum, Hiroshima City, Japan
Houston Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.
Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, NY, U.S.A.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Jewish Museum of Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
L Art Contemporain au Musee Departementl des Vosges, Epinal, France
Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MS, U.S.A
Musee d Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France
List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.,
U.S.A.
Montclair Museum of Art, Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
Ludwig Museum, Koln, Germany
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.A.Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Mot, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, U.S.A.
Musee d Art Contemporain Entrepot, Bordeaux, France
Musee d Art et d Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland
Musee d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Musee d Art Moderne et d Art Contemporain, Nice, France
Musee de Toulon, Toulon, France
Musee Grenoble, Grenoble, France
Musee National d Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, France
Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Museum Ludwig, Koln, Germany
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, U.S.A.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Museum of Modern Art, Heide Park, Melbourne, Australia
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium
National Gallery of Art, Ottawa, CanadaNational Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyungkido, Korea
Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY, U.S.A.
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, U.S.A.
Niagara University, Castellani Art Museum, Niagara, NY, U.S.A.
Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, U.S.A.
Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH, U.S.A.
Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, U.S.A.
Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, U.S.A.
Oulu Art Museum, Oulu, Finland
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.
Pori Taidemuseo, Pori, Finland
PS1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, NY, U.S.A.
University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Reina Sofia, Madrid, SpainRijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, MA, U.S.A.
Samsung Foundation of Art and Culture, South Korea
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, U.S.A.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, U.S.A.
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Skulpturen Museum der Stadt Marl, Marl, Germany
Sohio Development Company, Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.A.
Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, West Germany
Stadtischer Museum Abteiberg Monchengladbach, Germany
Stadtisches Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tate Gallery, London, U.K.
Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Tel Hai, Upper Galilee, Israel
Total Art Museum, South Korea
University of Alaska, Anchorage, AL, U.S.A.
University of California Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
University of Illinois Art Museum, Normal, IL, U.S.A
University of Massachusetts, University Gallery, MA, U.S.A.University of Minnesota, Tweed Art Museum, Duluth, MN, U.S.A.
University of Nebraska, Sheldon Memorial Art Galleries, Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.
Ville de Thiers, Thiers, France
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, U.S.A.
Walker Hill Art Center, South Korea
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, U.S.A.