Juan Downey
| Juan Downey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 11, 1940 Santiago, Chile |
| Died |
June 9, 1993 New York, NY |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Training | Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile |
| Movement | Video Art, Kinetic Art |
Juan Downey (May 11, 1940 – June 9, 1993) was a video artist.
Biography
Juan Downey was born in Santiago, Chile. His father David Downey V. was a distinguished architect in Chile and following in his father’s footsteps Juan Downey studied and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. From a young age, he immersed himself in studying different forms of art, including painting, dance and writing. In 1961, to further his studies and develop his artistic practice, Downey traveled to Europe. He spent a few months in Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Paris where he lived for a period of three years during which he studied printmaking at Stanley William Hayter’s legendary Atelier 17. During this time, he befriended the artists Eugenio Téllez, Roberto Matta, Julio Le Parc, and Takis.
In 1965 Downey travelled to Washington DC at the invitation of The Organization of American States to have a solo show of his work. It was in Washington DC Downey would meet his wife Marilys Belt. He stayed in Washington DC for a couple of years before moving with his family to New York City in 1969 where he lived until his death in 1993. Downey taught at Pratt Institute in New York from 1970 until 1992.
He is recognized as an early adopter of video art; however, during his artistic career Downey created an extensive body of work that also includes electronic and video sculptures, photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, performance, installation and writing. Downey’s drawings are especially remarkable and remained a constant practice for the artist. All of his major works were accompanied by drawings. They not only reflect his “sureness of hand” as the curators David Ross and James Harithas noted (Juan Downey: With Energy Beyond These Walls, p. 329), but also serve as compelling documents of his ideas and visions, and reveal this sustained practice of drawing over a lifetime.
Career
The early period of Juan Downey’s artistic practice consisted of painting, drawing, writing and printmaking. After moving to the United States in 1965, he began to experiment with numerous forms of art that included creating interactive electronic sculptures, performances, happenings, and in the late 1960s video art. He wrote, “The universe is not an assemblage of independent parts, but an overlapping, interrelated system of energy. All my work relates to this vision.” These media permitted Downey to investigate ideas about invisible energy as well as invite for active participation of the viewers with his work.
Two seminal series in Downey’s career were Video Trans Americas, begun in 1971 and The Thinking Eye, begun in mid-1970s. Video Trans Americas (V.T.A.) is often divided into two groups: the first group was developed between 1973 and 1976, and the second between 1976 and 1977. The two series stress his preoccupation with political discourse, the self, history of art, western civilization, and Latin American identity.
Solo exhibitions featuring Juan Downey’s work include Juan Downey: Audio-Kinetic Electronic Sculptures, The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC; With Energy Beyond These Walls, Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY, (1970); Video Trans Americas, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX, (1976); Juan Downey: Video Trans Americas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, (1976); Video Trans Americas, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (1977); Juan Downey: New American Filmmaker Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1978); Juan Downey, Matrix/Berkeley 16, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA (1978); Une Forêt 'Videoformes': Retrospective Juan Downey, Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France (1993); Juan Downey: Instalaciones, Dibujos y Videos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (1995), Chile; Juan Downey: Con energía más allá de estos muros, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Centre del Carme, Valencia, Spain (1997–98); Retrospectiva de Video Arte de Juan Downey, Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloé, Castro, Chiloé, Chile (2000); Plateau of Humankind, Honorable Mention: “Excellence in Art Science and Technology,” 49th Venice Biennale Chilean Pavilion, Venice, Italy (2001); and Juan Downey: El ojo pensante, Sala de Arte Fundación Telefónica, Santiago, Chile (2010); Juan Downey: The Invisible Architect, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (2011-2012).
His work was included in numerous group exhibitions including Involving Technical Materials and Processes, organized by Experiments in Art and Technology, in collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum, Brookly, NY and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1968); New Learning Spaces & Places, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (1974); Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1975, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991); Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany, (1977); Venice Biennale, US Pavilion, Venice, Italy, (1980); Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia, (1982); II Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba, (1986); The Thinking Eye, International Center for Photography, New York, NY, (1987); Passages de l’image, Musée national d'Art moderne- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, (1990); Video Art: The First 25 Years, The Museum of Modern Art, and The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY, (1995); Info Art ’95, Kwangu Biennial, Gwangju, Korea, (1995); Electronic Highways, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, (1997); and Rational/Irrational, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, (2008-2009).
Downey’s work can be found in private collections and in the collections of major museums. Selected museum collections include Tate Modern, London, UK; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Centre Pompidou/Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, among others.
Selected video works by Juan Downey
Fresh Air, 1971
Plato Now, 1972
Three-Way Communication by Light, 1972
Monument to the Charles River, 1973
Rewe, 1991 (video- installation)
Video Trans Americas (V.T.A) Series
Video Trans Americas video-installation comprises videos recorded with a portapak during Downey’s travels from North to Central and South America between 1973 and 1976. The first complete screening of the V.T.A video-installation was in the exhibition Landscape Studies in Video curated by David Ross at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1975. The V.T.A video-installation in subsequent exhibitions at other museum institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (1976) was exhibited differently. This was largely due to the spatial component entailed in the presentation of the work, a key concern for Downey, as well as his own artistic liberty to make changes or integrate other components in the installation. Therefore, there are a number of different versions in the way the V.T.A video-installation was exhibited. The following videos are included in the installation (this may vary):
Rumbo al Golfo, 1973
Zapoteca, 1973
Yucatán, 1973
Guatemala, 1973
New York/Texas I & II, 1974
Lima/Machu Picchu, 1975
Cuzco I & II, 1976
Inca I & II, 1976
Uros I & II, 1975
Nazca I & II, 1976
La Frontera I & II, 1976
Additional videos that are part of the V.T.A series:
Moving, 1974
Publicness, 1974
Central Zone, 1975
Videodances, 1975
Inca Split, 1976
Bi-Deo, 1976
In the Beginning, 1976
Guahibos, 1976
Yanomami Healing I, 1977
Yanomami Healing II, 1977
The Circle of Fires, 1978 (video installation comes in 2 versions)
More Than Two, 1978 (installation)
The Abandoned Shabono, 1978
The Laughing Alligator, 1979
Chiloe, 1981
Chicago Boys, 1982–83
About Cages, 1986 (installation)
The Motherland, 1986
The Return of the Motherland, 1989
The Thinking Eye Series
Las Meninas (Maids of Honor), 1975
Venus and Her Mirror, 1980 (video-installation)
The Looking Glass, 1981
Information Withheld, 1983
Shifters, 1984
Sinage, 1984 (video-installation)
Obelisk, 1985 (video-installation)
J.S. Bach, 1986
Bachdisc, 1988 (interactive video-disc)
Hard Times and Culture: Part One, Vienna fin-de-siecle, 1990
Selected Bibliography
Valerie Smith, ed. Juan Downey: The Invisible Architect. Leipzig: MIT List Visual Art Center & The Bronx Museum, 2011.
González, Julieta, Nicolás Guagnini, Carla Macchiavello, and Valerie Smith. Juan Downey: el ojo pensante. Santiago: Fundación Telefónica, 2010.
Arévalo, Antonio, Marilys Belt de Downey, Juan Downey, José Goñi Carrasco, and Luisa Ulibarri Lorenzini. Juan Downey: La Biennale di Venezia, 49 Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte. Milan: Rodrigo Figueroa Schirmer, 2001.
Bonet, Eugeni, Douglas Davis, Juan Downey, Nuria Enguita, Coco Fusco, Juan Guardiola, John G. Hanhardt, James Harithas, and David Ross. Juan Downey: With Energy Beyond These Walls (Con energía más allá de estos muros). Valencia: Institut Valencià d’Art Modern and Centre del Carme, 1997-98.
Hanhardt, John G., and Ann D. Hoy. Juan Downey of Dream Into Study. Santiago: Editorial Lord Cochrane, 1987.
External links
- Linkedin for Marilys B. Downey
- Juan Downey in the Video Data Bank
- Juan Downey auf culturebase.net
- Juan Downey at the Museum of Modern Art
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