Haim Steinbach

Haim Steinbach, b. 1944 in Rehovot, Israel. Lives and works in New York. 

Haim Steinbach’s art is a staging of objects in formats that underscore their presence both anthropologically as well as aesthetically. These objects come from a spectrum of social and cultural contexts and are put together in a way that is analogous to the arrangement of words in a poem, or to the musical notes in a score. Steinbach often refers to the structures he builds for the objects he presents as “framing devices”. The prototypical wedge-shaped shelf that he conceived for the presentation of the objects he selects is a structure employing a geometrical system based on three angles – 90, 50, and 40 degrees – of a triangle. The shelf is a device since it functions like a level or a musical instrument, and may be enlarged or reduced proportionally to the three angles of its cross-section, and in relation to the objects on it. Regarding colour, a term also used in music, a layer of plastic laminate skin may set the tone for an object when applied to the section on which it is placed.

Steinbach has had solo exhibitions at Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2019); Museum Kurhaus, Kleve, Germany (2018); Museum and Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel (2018); The Menil Collection, Houston (2014); Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland (2014); Serpentine Gallery, London (2014); CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale on Hudson, New York (2013); The Artist’s Institute, New York (2012); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2000); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2000); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (1997); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (1995); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1993); Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (1992); and CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France (1988).

His work has been included in group exhibitions at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2018); WIELS, Brussels (2018); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2017); Jewish Museum, New York (2016); The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2015); The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); La Triennale, Paris (2012); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2011); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France (2009); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2008); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Museum fur Gegenwarts Kunst, Basel, Switzerland (2005); New Museum, New York (2005); The Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2004); Tate Liverpool, UK (2002); Biennale de Lyon, France (2000); 47th Venice Biennale (1997); Documenta 9, Kassel, Germany (1992); 9th Biennale of Sydney (1992); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1990); and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1988).