Remembering Lawrence Weiner, 1942–2021

Weiner had shown A BIT OF MATTER AND A LITTLE BIT MORE, in the year of its making, on the entrance door of PS1 when the art center opened in Long Island City. In all the intervening years—during which MoMA and PS1 became one institution—it remained on view. As a result, today the same work, installed by the artist in very different ways 43 years apart, welcomes visitors both in Queens and Manhattan.

 

Despite the apparent simplicity of his work, Lawrence made revolutionary contributions to the art of his time. Among them is the capacity for a piece to simultaneously exist in multiple locations, while each time completely changing form according to its context of presentation. For Weiner, art is not bound to a support—wall, piece of canvas, video, computer screen, or sheet of paper. It is not the materials but the “little bit more” that makes all the difference. And each time I install one of his works, it’s the image of the pages of Statements scattered in front of me that comes back to my mind. The panicked feeling is, thankfully, gone, but the excitement of experiencing a great work of art remains. Weiner taught me that art cannot be confined in even the most beautiful book. 

 

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