Lawrence Weiner

Born in New York on February 10, 1942, and died December 2, 2021, he was a central figure in the formation of Conceptual Art in the 1960s, proposing language as a sculptural medium that could travel across cultures without fixed material form. His 1968 Declaration of Intent—stating that a work may be constructed by the artist, fabricated by others, or simply not built at all—became foundational to the movement. Works appeared as wall declarations, printed texts, film, and spoken utterances. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ludwig Museum's Wolfgang Hahn Prize in 2015, and the Roswitha Haftmann Foundation Prize in 2017.