Dennis Oppenheim

A pioneer of bringing landscape closer to people and regarded as one of the most important conceptual artists in the world, U.S. sculptor Dennis Oppenheim-born in 1938 in Electric City, Washington-died on January 22, in New York, at the age of 78. Oppenheim explored several forms of artistic expression: writing, video installation, body art, conceptual art, photography and sculpture. He became internationally known for his works based on architectural constructions that currently are part of the collections of some of the most important museums around the world, such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, among others. Oppenheim was a member of the generation of artists that developed Land Art, a cross between architecture and sculpture that use nature as their canvas and that originated during the 1960s. It was an artistic movement that became one of the most important expressions of public art; a current that avoided traditional spaces in favor of open outdoor spaces. A California College of the Arts and Stanford University graduate, Oppenheim moved to New York in 1967 as this city was experiencing one of the most productive artistic periods of contemporary art in the U.S. There he met important Twentieth Century artists and became one of the precursors of conceptual art, as well as a pioneer of performance art. He gained public recognition as part of a generation of artists that used the natural landscape as a medium for artistic expression. In 2005, Oppenheim exhibited at the Museo Nacional Centro de Reina Sofía, in Madrid, and in 2004 a retrospective of his work was presented at the Fundación Cristóbal Gabarrón in Valladolid that was later also presented in Madrid, Valencia, and Murcia. In 2007 he received an award from the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale, in recognition of an entire artistic trajectory dedicated to recontextualizing everyday objects into monumental and sculptural constructions. In his most recent works, Oppenheim presented a combination of superimposed or contradicting elements that supported and strengthened his ironic take on current social and controversial themes.