Joshua Neustein

Joshua Neustein (born 1940) is a contemporary visual artist living and working in New York and Tel Aviv. He is known primarily for his environmental installations and Post Minimalist torn paper works, as well as his series of large-scale map paintings. He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of Environmental, Conceptual Art into the Israeli scene. He was a teacher at Bezalel Art Academy.

Early career (1964-1971)

Neustein was born in Danzig, Poland. After studying painting at the Pratt Institute in New York, Neustein immigrated to Jerusalem in 1964. He began to show regularly in Israel and the UK, but it was his ambitious 1971 Jerusalem River Project (collaboration with Gerry Marx and Georgette Batlle) action, a site-specific “sound sculpture” in which speakers installed across a desert valley played looped sounds of a river, that earned him more widespread recognition. Photo documentation of the piece was shown at the Israel Museum, Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MOCA Los Angeles, Tokyo Museum of Art, MAK Vienna and MAKBA Barcelona Spain. During the same period, Neustein built an oeuvre of large torn paper works that receievd broad critical attention (see Joseph Mashek, Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe, Noel Frackman.

Major work, 1971-78

From 1971 until 1998, Neustein showed at the Bertha Urdang Gallery in Jerusalem and New York. Bertha Urdang served as his dealer until her retirement in 1998. From 1998 to the present Wendy Shafir has produced and curated many of Neustein's projects.- began carbon series- installations–haybales, territorial imperative-

New York, 1978-1990

Neustein returned to New York in the late 1970s and opened a studio in Soho, where he continues to live and work today.- map paintings-

Archives and Ash Cities, 1990-1999

- Venice Biennale, 1995–Neustein represented Israel in the Venice Biennale with "The Possessed Library", curator Dr. Gideon Ofrat, assistant curator to the Project Wendy Shafir.- Ash Cities: SECCA North Carolina, curator Jeff Flemming; ICC Warsaw, Poland, curator Krukowski; ICC Cleveland, Ohio, curator Jill Snyder; Gropiusbau, Berlin, curator Amnon Barzel; Herzilyah Museum, Israel, curator Wendy Shafir. Wendy Shafir assisted in developing all of the Ash City projects.

Recent work, 2000-present

- Video pieces- Bronze Tree- Bubble Wrap Maps

hort list–major works

Rainwater (1968), Boots 1969, Jerusalem River Project(1971, Road Piece (1971) Hay Bales an Hay Bindings(1972,'73, '99, Dead Sea Journey film made from 3 postcards(1971), Mobile Landscape (1974), Territorial Imperative (1976,77,79), Where Are the Miami Indians (1983), How History Became Geography (1990), Still Life (1983), Still Life on the Border (1993), Possessed Library (1995), Five Ash Cities(1996,97,98,2000), Blind Library (1998), Fanning the Fear (2003), What Did I Forget (2004),

Painting and Drawings Earliest works: Oil pastel paintings; torn folded drawings; carbon copy series; text by Barry Schwabsky. Albright Knox Gallery 1992; Grey Art Gallery NYU 1993. Jeremy Gilbert Rolfe essay Torn Grey Impermanent. Artforum Summer 1978

Was part of an art movement called Epistemic Abstraction by Robert Pincus-Witten see "Eye to Eye: 20 Years of Art Crititicism", Robert Pincus-Witten, Paperback 1984)

Installations:
* Neustein's Rainwater 1968 in which water trickled down a suspended metal tube from roof onto a pan on the floor. Boots Gallery House Jerusalem 1969.
* Boots 1969 (collaboration with Gerry Marx) piles of military boots from armies that passed through Ottoman, Palestine and Israel
* Jerusalem River Project 1971 (Collaboration with Gerard Marx and Georgette Batlle.) Sound sculpture of taped water sounds in a dry valley (wadi). Was exhibited in Boston Museum of Fine Arts Earth Air Fire Water in 1971 Neustein was the first to introduce environmental/installation art into the Israeli scene.
* Photo strategies Barrier Piece Israel Museum 1971, Photo Triennale Israel Museum 1975, Arkwright Arts Centre London 1972. Listening to Hay Gallery House London 1972, Sound Sculptures Goethe House London 1972
* Hay Bales 1971 bales of hay and sound tapes of highway traffic, Tel Aviv Museum 1971
* Hay Bales and Hay Bindings Gallery House London UK 1971
* Photo Strategies Israel Museum 1971 Camden Arts Centre London UK
* Sound tapes and video pieces Gallery House London. 1971
* Territorial Imperative Golan Heights, Krusa Denmark, Kassel Germnay (comisisoned then rejected by Dokumenta 1977) realized in Belfast, Northern Ireland 1976-79
* Still Life 1983 Burnt Airplane; Lebanon/Israel Border. How History Became Geography 1990 Barbicam Arts Centre, London. Possessed Library Venice Biennale 1995 made of soot, books, cranes, alphabet, glass, scaffolds, whistling sounds. 5 Ash Cities 1996- made of tons of ashes and chandelier; SECCA North Carolina; CCA Cleveland; Gropius Bau Museum Insel, Berlin, Germany 1998; Ujazdowsky Palace CCA Warsaw, Poland; Herzeliya Museum Israel. 2 Essays by Arthur Danto Unnatural Wonders Farrar Strauss Geroux 2005; Blind Library Tel Aviv Israel 1998;

Bibliography

The authors, curators, and critics who have written about Neustein's work include: Maia Damianovic, Arthur Danto, Yona Fischer, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolf, Dr. Moti Omer, Robert Pincus-Witten, Dr. Irit Rogoff, Raphael Rubinstein, Barry Schwabsky, Wendy Shafir, Manon Slome, Dr. Kristine Stiles, Yigal Zalmona

External links

* [http://www.joshuaneustein.com Joshua Neustein official site]