Robert Wilson: Space / Time

by Robert Wilson

Few contemporary artists have spanned the varied horizon of the arts as broadly as Robert Wilson (born 1941). His legendary Video Portraits, incorporating lighting, costume, make up, choreography, gesture, text, voice, set design and narrative, are perhaps the most complete synthesis of media that Wilson has undertaken. Among their subjects are Isabelle Huppert, Brad Pitt, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Jeanne Moreau, Winona Ryder, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Isabella Rossellini and even an entire zoo. Wilson’s video portraits reveal the essence of his theatre. Here as on stage, action is the outcome of disassembled, atomized gestures, achieved by reducing the languages of words, gestures and behaviors to their basic grammar. This volume reproduces a wealth of the portraits, and includes essays by Achille Bonito Oliva, Robert L. Pincus, Francesco Casetti and Carmelo Marabello, together with an interview with the artist.

168 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Robert Wilson was an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who was described by The New York Times as "[America]'s – or even the world's – foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'" He also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer.
Wilson is best known for his collaboration with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach, and his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits. In 1991, Wilson established The Watermill Center, "a laboratory for performance" on the East End of Long Island, New York, regularly working with opera and theater companies, as well as cultural festivals. Wilson "has developed as an avant-garde artist specifically in Europe amongst its modern quests, in its most significant cultural centers, galleries, museums, opera houses and theaters, and festivals".