Vito Acconci

Artist

Vito Acconci (1940-2017) was an influential American artist who was one of the founders of the Performance Art movement. Acconci was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1940. He studied literature at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, and received an MFA in creative writing from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1964.

He began his career as a poet being particularly interested in the objectification of language, a trend which began to dominate the New York art scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Acconci cut, spliced, moved and displaced words on a page, turning the process of writing into a performative practice. From here, Acconci moved into performance, where he produced some of the most influential art works of the twentieth century including Seedbed, Jump for a Broad and Claim. In the early 1970s his performances were supplemented by film and video; thereafter his practice became centred on installation; and at the end of the 1980s he moved into design and architecture and formed Acconci Studio. This collaborative group, which included designers in addition to Acconci, continues to develop public artworks and architectural projects annually.

Acconci taught at numerous institutions, among them the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax, San Francisco Art Institute, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, School of Visual Arts in New York, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yale University in New Haven.

Starting with his first solo show in 1969, at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Acconci participated in numerous exhibitions. Retrospectives have been organised by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, with print retrospectives mounted by Landfall Press in New York and the Gallery of Art at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Acconci’s achievements were recognised with several awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and American Academy in Rome. He was also the recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and two New York City Art Commission Awards for Excellence in Design.

Vito Acconci (1940-2017) was an influential American artist who was one of the founders of the Performance Art movement. Acconci was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1940. He studied literature at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, and received an MFA in creative writing from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1964.

He began his career as a poet being particularly interested in the objectification of language, a trend which began to dominate the New York art scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Acconci cut, spliced, moved and displaced words on a page, turning the process of writing into a performative practice. From here, Acconci moved into performance, where he produced some of the most influential art works of the twentieth century including Seedbed, Jump for a Broad and Claim. In the early 1970s his performances were supplemented by film and video; thereafter his practice became centred on installation; and at the end of the 1980s he moved into design and architecture and formed Acconci Studio. This collaborative group, which included designers in addition to Acconci, continues to develop public artworks and architectural projects annually.

Acconci taught at numerous institutions, among them the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax, San Francisco Art Institute, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, School of Visual Arts in New York, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yale University in New Haven.

Starting with his first solo show in 1969, at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Acconci participated in numerous exhibitions. Retrospectives have been organised by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, with print retrospectives mounted by Landfall Press in New York and the Gallery of Art at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Acconci’s achievements were recognised with several awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and American Academy in Rome. He was also the recipient of the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and two New York City Art Commission Awards for Excellence in Design.

Links
Back to top