Hans Haacke facts for kids

Hans Haacke, born on August 12, 1936, is a famous artist from Germany. He lives and works in New York City. Haacke is known for his "institutional critique." This means he often questions and comments on how museums and art galleries work, especially their connections with businesses and powerful people. He is seen as one of the strongest critics of museums among artists of his time.

Hans Haacke's Early Life and Art Beginnings

Haacke was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied art at the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel, Germany, from 1956 to 1960. In 1959, he helped out at a big art show called the documenta, working as a guard and tour guide. He also learned from Stanley William Hayter, a famous English artist.

From 1961 to 1962, Haacke studied in Philadelphia at the Tyler School of Art. He received a special scholarship called a Fulbright grant. Later, from 1967 to 2002, Haacke taught art as a professor at the Cooper Union in New York City.

Joining the Zero Art Group

When he was younger in Germany, Haacke was part of an international art group called Zero. This group was active from about 1957 to 1966. The artists in Zero wanted to bring people and nature closer together. They also wanted to give art a deeper, more spiritual meaning. They tried new ways to create art without using old-fashioned methods.

Even though their styles were different, many of their artworks used only one color. They often featured geometric shapes, moving parts (kinetic art), and bold brushstrokes. Most importantly, they used unusual materials. These included industrial items, fire, water, light, and things that moved. The Zero group's ideas and materials clearly influenced Haacke's early art. His paintings hinted at movement, and his first art installations were simple. They used natural elements as materials.

Early Artworks: Systems and Processes

Haacke's early installations focused on systems and processes. For example, his work Condensation Cube (1963–65) shows a real physical event. It displays the cycle of water condensation happening right before your eyes. Other artworks from the 1960s explored how physical and biological systems interact. He used living animals, plants, and different states of water and wind. He also experimented with land art, which involves creating art in nature. By the end of the 1960s, his art became more focused on specific ideas.

Condensation Cube, (1963-1965); made of Plexiglas and water. It is now at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Hans Haacke's Art: Looking at Social and Political Systems (1970–Present)

Haacke's interest in how systems work led him to criticize social and political systems. In most of his art after the late 1960s, he focused on the art world itself. He looked at how museums, businesses, and their leaders interact. He often showed how these connections affect specific places or situations.

Haacke has always spoken openly about showing the true relationship between museums and businesses. He wants to make their practices clear to everyone. He believes that businesses give money to art, and in return, they get a better public image. This improved image helps them in a real way. Haacke thinks both sides know about this exchange. As an artist, he wants viewers to understand this relationship clearly.

MoMA Poll: Asking Tough Questions

In 1970, Haacke created a piece for an exhibition called Information at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. He proposed that visitors vote on a current social or political issue. His idea was accepted, and he prepared his artwork, called MoMA Poll. Just before the show opened, he revealed the question. It asked, "Would the fact that Governor Rockefeller has not denounced President Nixon's Indochina Policy be a reason for your not voting for him in November?"

Visitors put their answers into one of two clear plastic boxes. By the end of the exhibition, there were about twice as many "Yes" votes as "No" votes. Haacke's question directly commented on Nelson Rockefeller, a major donor and board member at MoMA. This artwork is an early example of "institutional critique" in the art world. In 2019, The New York Times called MoMA Poll one of the artworks that helped define the modern age.

Exposing Real Estate: The Shapolsky Work

One of Haacke's most famous works is Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971. In this piece, Haacke investigated the property holdings of a major landlord in New York City. He used careful documents and photographs to show the questionable deals of Harry Shapolsky's real estate business from 1951 to 1971.

This artwork was supposed to be part of Haacke's solo show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. However, the museum's director canceled the show six weeks before it opened. The director said the work was not artistically proper. The cancellation was a big moment in how artists and museums in the United States worked together. It showed how their relationship could become difficult.

After his show was canceled, Haacke started working with other galleries, especially in Europe. Ten years later, he included the well-known Shapolsky work in his solo exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Understanding Gallery Visitors

In 1972, at the John Weber gallery in New York, Haacke conducted a study. He asked gallery visitors to fill out a questionnaire with 20 questions. These questions covered their background and their opinions on social and political issues. The results were shown later in the gallery using pie charts and bar graphs. They revealed that most visitors worked in art, art teaching, or museums. Most also had liberal political views.

Art and History: The Manet and Seurat Projects

In 1974, Haacke proposed an artwork for an exhibition in Cologne. This work would show the detailed history of a painting by Manet called Bunch of Asparagus, which was in the museum's collection. It would also reveal the activities of one of its donors during the Third Reich (Nazi Germany). The museum rejected the work. Instead, it was shown in another gallery with a color picture of the painting.

In 1975, Haacke created a similar piece at the John Weber gallery in New York. This time, he showed the history of Seurat's painting Models. Like the previous work, this installation showed how the painting's value increased as it was sold from one owner to another.

On Social Grease: Business and Art

Also in 1975, Haacke created a memorable installation called On Social Grease. The title came from a speech by a leader of a major oil company. The artwork featured broken plaques with quotes from business executives and important art figures. These quotes shared their thoughts on how museums and businesses exchange favors. They spoke directly about how important art is in business practices.

Criticizing Corporations and Politics

In 1978, Haacke had a solo exhibition in Oxford, England. It included a new work called A Breed Apart. This piece openly criticized the state-owned company British Leyland. The company was exporting vehicles for police and military use to apartheid South Africa. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and discrimination.

His 1979 exhibition in Chicago featured paintings that copied and changed print ads for big companies like Mobil and Tiffany & Co..

Hans Haacke's Art in the 1980s

Throughout the 1980s, Haacke continued to research and target corporations and museums in his art. He used larger installations and paintings. In 1982, at a big art show called documenta 7, Haacke showed a very large artwork. It included oil portraits of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in an old-fashioned style. On the opposite wall was a giant photograph of a protest against nuclear weapons. This protest was the largest in Germany since World War II. Haacke suggested that these leaders were trying to bring their countries back to the old, less fair policies of the 19th century.

Haacke became an even stronger critic of museums. In 1984, he wrote an important essay called "Museums, Managers of Consciousness."

In 1988, he had an exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London. There, he showed the portrait of Margaret Thatcher again. This time, it included small pictures of Maurice and Charles Saatchi. The Saatchi brothers were famous art collectors who greatly influenced the art world. They also managed Thatcher's successful political campaigns.

Hans Haacke's Art in the 1990s

Haacke's 1990 painting Cowboy with Cigarette was controversial. It changed Picasso's painting Man with a Hat into a cigarette advertisement. This artwork was a response to the Phillip Morris company sponsoring a 1989–90 exhibition about Cubism at the Museum of Modern Art.

Haacke has had solo exhibitions at major art museums around the world. These include the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

In 1993, Haacke won the Golden Lion award for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, sharing it with artist Nam June Paik. Haacke's installation, Germania, directly referred to the pavilion's history during Nazi Germany. Haacke tore up the floor of the German pavilion, just as Hitler had once changed the building. In 1993, viewers looking through the pavilion doors saw the word "Germania" on the wall. This was Hitler's name for Nazi Berlin.

Blue Sail, photographed by Ed Schipul at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Hans Haacke's Art in the 2000s

At the 2000 Whitney Biennial in New York, Haacke presented a piece that directly responded to art censorship. The artwork, called Sanitation, featured six anti-art quotes from US political figures. These quotes were displayed on each side of mounted American flags. The words were written in a Gothic style typeface, which was once used by Hitler's Third Reich. On the floor was a part of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. Lined up against the wall were a dozen garbage cans with speakers playing military marching sounds. Haacke explained that "freedom of expression is the focus of the work."

Public Art Commissions

In 2000, Haacke created a permanent artwork called DER BEVÖLKERUNG (To the Population). It was placed in the Reichstag building, which is the German Parliament building in Berlin. In 2006, he finished a public artwork honoring Rosa Luxemburg in the center of Berlin.

In 2014, it was announced that Haacke would create a work for the annual Fourth Plinth commission in London. His winning idea, called Gift Horse, was a bronze sculpture of a horse's skeleton. It has an electronic ribbon on its front leg that shows live prices from the London Stock Exchange. This artwork was installed in 2015.

Hans Haacke's Writings

Haacke has said that being called a "political artist" makes him uncomfortable. He believes that such a label can make people understand an artist's work in only one way. He also thinks that all art has a political side, whether the artist means for it to or not.

Jack Burnham, an art critic, noted that Haacke's political ideas grew from the time of political unrest in the US during the Vietnam War. Burnham also pointed to Haacke joining the Arts Workers Coalition and boycotting the São Paulo Bienal in Brazil in 1969. These events helped push Haacke's art in a political direction.

Haacke has published books that collect his writings and document his artworks. His first book, Framing and Being Framed, was about the ideas behind his and other conceptual art. In 1995, he published Free Exchange, which is a conversation between Haacke and French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. They met in the 1980s and found they had a lot in common.

Notable Artworks in Public Collections

• Condensation Cube (1963), found at the Generali Foundation, Vienna; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and Tate, London.
• Blue Sail (1964-1965), at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• Condensation Wall (1963/1966), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
• Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971 (1971), at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City.
• Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971 (1971), at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City and Tate, London.
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Board of Trustees (1974), at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
• A Breed Apart (1978), at the Tate, London.
• Thank You, Paine Webber (1979), at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
• Oil Painting: Homage to Marcel Broodthaers (1982), at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
• MetroMobiltan (1985), at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
• The Saatchi Collection (Simulations) (1987), at The Broad, Los Angeles.
• Mission Accomplished (2004-2005), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
• News (1969/2008), at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

See also

In Spanish: Hans Haacke para niños

• Systems art