Christopher Wool

born Chicago, IL (USA) 1955

Studied at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York; New York Studio School; New York University Lives and works in New York, New York The reductive painting made by Christopher Wool pares down artistic expression not in order to reveal an essential truth but rather to make the viewer aware of his or her expectations.

The paintings orchestrate an elaborate refusal to do what is expected of the medium, thereby turning the whole process of making images inside out. In Why? Wool's image is a quote pulled from a popular funk song by George Clinton. The black block letters, painted not on a tactile canvas but on a cool white metal surface, drain the phrase of any nuance or liveliness. At the same time, soupy imperfections in the edges of the letters offer a hint of vulnerability. The stark visual strength of his images as well as their overlapping and sometimes paradoxical meanings make a powerful impact.

Wool's word paintings draw fragments from lines from movies or rap lyrics, and weave them into a critique of the limiting, repetitive patterns of perceptions and expectations that pop culture tends to reinforce. Wool was in the midst of making paintings that used not words but patterned imagery when a very ordinary experience---seeing a truck outside his studio, freshly painted white expect for black graffiti spelling out the words "sex" and "luv"---inspired his use of text.

Most of Wool's mature work stresses an intermediary device either in the form of words written by someone else, or a technique, such as the use of patterned rubber paint rollers, not traditionally associated with painting. His work has been displayed in numerous museums in the United States and Europe, and the Foundation currently includes eleven of his paintings in its collection.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 1984 - Chill Out New York Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
• 1984 - Drawings Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York
• 1984 - Sex Cable Gallery, New York
• 1985 - Apfelschnitt, Bills, Chamberlain, Lucas, Nares, Wool Anne Plumb Gallery, New York
• 1986 - Cable Gallery, New York
• 1986 - Robbin Lockett Gallery, Chicago
• 1986 - Inaugural Exhibition Robbin Lockett Gallery, Chicago
• 1986 - The Gallery Show Exit Art, New York
• 1986 - The Hidden Surface Middendorf Gallery, Washington D.C.
• 1986 - Signs of Painting Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
• 1986 - Fortuyn/O'Brien, Lemieux, Mullican, Wool Luhring, Augustine & Hodes Gallery, New York
• 1986 - Fabricated, Not Found Loughelton Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Painting, Abstraction Rediscovered Rosa Esman Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Jamie Wolff Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Ange Leccia, Christopher Wool Cable Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Alexander, Bolande, Ebner, Kane, Wool Robbin Lockett Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Johnson, Tasset, Wool Kuhlenschmidt/Simon, Los Angeles
• 1987 - Facture Laurie Rubin Gallery, New York
• 1987 - Industrial Icons University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, USA
• 1987 - Drawn Out Kemper Gallery, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City
• 1987 - Luhring Augustine & Hodes Gallery, New York
• 1988 - Jean Bernier, Athens
• 1988 - Luhring Augustine & Hodes Gallery, New York
• 1988 - Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
• 1988 - James Casebere, Stephen Prina, Christopher Wool Robbin Lockett Gallery, Chicago
• 1988 - Robert Gober and Christopher Wool, An Installation 303 Gallery, New York
• 1988 - Six Americans Bleckner, Halley, Levin, Taaffe, Wool, Welling, Galerie Lelong, New York
• 1988 - A Drawing Show Cable Gallery, New York
• 1988 - Een keuze/A Show Amsterdam
• 1988 - Information as Ornament Feature Gallery, Chicago; Rezac Gallery, Chicago
• 1988 - The Light from the Other Side Monika Spruth Galerie, Cologne
• 1988 - The Binational - American Art of the Late 80's ICA & MFA Boston, USA;
• 1988 - Bickerton, Gober, Halley, Koons, Prince, Vaisman, Wool Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1989 - Abstraction in Question John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, USA; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami
• 1989 - Horn of Plenty Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 1989 - Repetition Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
• 1989 - Prospect 89 Frankfurt Kunstverein, Frankfurt
• 1989 - Herold, Oehlen, Wool The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago
• 1989 - Whitney Biennial Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• 1989 - Drawings Forg, Herold, Ruscha, Wool: Karsten Schubert, London
• 1989 - A Decade of American Drawings 1980-1989 Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1989 - Monotypes Edition Julie Sylvester, New York
• 1990 - Michael Craig-Martin, Gary Hume, Christopher Wool Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
• 1990 - New Work: A New Generation San Francisco MoMA, San Francisco
• 1990 - Stephen Prina, Sam Samore, Christopher Wool Galerie Ursula Schurr, Stuttgart
• 1990 - Drawings Luhring Augustine Hetzler, Santa Monica
• 1990 - In the Beginning... Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland
• 1990 - American Artists of the Eighties Palazzo delle Albere, Trento, Italy
• 1990 - At the end of the day Randy Alexander Gallery, New York
• 1990 - 51st Carnegie International Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
• 1990 - Museum of Natural History Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam
• 1991 - New American Art: Mary Beyt, Greg Colson, Christopher Wool Ho Gallery World Art, Hong Kong
• 1991 - Strange Abstraction The Touko Museum of Art, Tokyo
• 1991 - Herbert Brandl, Albert Oehlen, Christopher Wool Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna(group)
• 1991 - Drawing Acquisitions, 1980-1991: Selections from the Permanent Collection Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York
• 1991 - Druckgrafik Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
• 1991 - Carnegie International 1991 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
• 1991 - Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Kunsthalle Bern, Bern
• 1991 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1992 - Eli Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles
• 1992 - Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna
• 1992 - Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
• 1992 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1992 - Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1992 - Works on Paper: Forg, Gonzalez-Torres, Kilimnik, Kippenberger, Nares, Oehlen, Pensato, Prina, Wool Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1992 - Herold, Oehlen, Wool: Works on Paper Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco
• 1992 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1992 - Documenta IX Kassel
• 1992 - Fifth Anniversary Show Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
• 1992 - Somewhere Between Image & Text Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
• 1992 - Prints in Portfolios Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York
• 1992 - Landscape Untitled: Halley, Oehlen, Wool Galerie Senda, Barcelona
• 1992 - Drawings Stuart Regen Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1992 - Robbin Lockett, Chicago
• 1992 - Slow Art: Painting in New York Now P.S.1 Museum, New York
• 1992 - Dirty Data: Collection of Wilhelm Schurmann Ludwig Forum fur internationale Kunst, Aachen
• 1992 - Ars Pro Domo: Contemporary Art from Koln Private Collections Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• 1992 - Oh! Cet Echo Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris
• 1992 - Plakate Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
• 1993 - 20th Anniversary Exhibition Part II Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1993 - Black & White Schmidt Contemporary Art, St. Louis
• 1993 - Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
• 1993 - Drawing the Line Against AIDS The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; The Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York
• 1993 - The Language of Art/Die Sprache der Kunst Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
• 1993 - New York Painters Sammlung Goetz, Munich
• 1993 - Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne
• 1994 - Bruno Brunnet Fine Arts, Berlin
• 1994 - The Museum of Modern Art, Syros, Greece
• 1994 - Gallerie K, Oslo
• 1994 - Lousy Fear Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago
• 1994 - Ossuary Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1994 - Contemporary Art from the Collection of the Migros Cooperatives Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
• 1994 - Gift The InterArt Center, New York
• 1994 - Supershadows of Understatement: Christopher Wool and Ulli Strothjohann Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens
• 1994 - Some Like It Cool Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
• 1994 - Herbert Brandl, Albert Oehlen, Christopher Wool National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
• 1994 - On Paper Schmidt Contemporary Art, St. Louis
• 1994 - Ground Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• 1995 - Pittura Immedia Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum und Kunstlerhaus, Graz
• 1995 - Articulations: Forms of Language in Contemporary American Art The Whitney Museum, New York
• 1995 - James Nares & Christopher Wool Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1995 - 25 Americans: Painting in the 90s Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin(group)
• 1995 - XL Galerie Borgmann Capitain, Cologne
• 1995 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1995 - Malerei Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
• 1995 - Wallpaper Works Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
• 1995 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1995 - Galerie Samia Saouma, Paris
• 1996 - Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne
• 1996 - New Art on Paper, 2 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
• 1996 - Screen Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
• 1996 - Kingdom of Flora Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1996 - Fellows of the American Academy in Rome The Equitable Center, New York
• 1996 - The Sense of Order Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 1996 - Gray Matter Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1996 - Peinture - Peinture Galerie Samia Saouma, Paris
• 1996 - Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-95 Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1997 - Birth of the Cool: American Painting From Georgia O'Keeffe to Christopher Wool Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland, travelling to Hamburg
• 1997 - Painting Photography Drawing Anton Kern Gallery, New York
• 1997 - Serial Imagery (Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool, Philip Taaffe) Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
• 1997 - American Realities, Views from Abroad, European Perspectives on American Art 3 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• 1997 - Family Values Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
• 1998 - Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
• 1998 - Real Stories Marianne Boesky Gallery & Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
• 1998 - Exterminating Angel curated by Joshua Decter, Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
• 1998 - Exploiting the Abstract Feigen Contemporary, New York
• 1998 - Double Trouble: The Patchett Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
• 1998 - Elements of the Natural Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1998 - Die Parkett-Kunstlereditionen im Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• 1998 - Six Americans Skarstedt Fine Art, New York
• 1998 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 1999 - Free Coke Greene Naftali, New York
• 1999 - Art at the End of the Century - Contemporary Art from the Milwaukee Art Museum Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama(group)
• 1999 - Multiplicity Angles Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1999 - Silent Treatment: Projecting Narrative Curated by Thea Westreich, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
• 1999 - Collection Frac Nord-Pas de Calais
• 1999 - Visualizing Digiteracy: Considering Current Technologies Memphis College of Art
• 1999 - The Passion and the Waves 6th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul
• 1999 - The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• 2000 - On Language Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
• 2000 - La Prima Idea: Aktuelle Malerei auf Papier Graphische Sammlung der ETH Zurich
• 2000 - Mixing Memory and Desire New Museum of Art Lucerne, Lucerne
• 2000 - The Swamp: On the Edge of Eden
• 2000 - To Infinity and Beyond Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
• 2000 - Counter Editions at the Chelsea Hotel, New York
• 2000 - Art at MoMA since 1980 MoMa, New York
• 2000 - A Way with Words Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris, New York
• 2001 - Secession, Vienna
• 2001 - Luhring Augustine, New York
• 2001 - 9th Street Run Down 11 Duke Street, London
• 2001 - 9th Street Run Down Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
• 2002 - Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
• 2002 - Le Consortium, Dijon
• 2002 - Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee
• 2002 - A New York Renaissance: Masterworks from the Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art Palazzo Reale, Milan
• 2002 - Painting on the Move Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst Basel
• 2003 - crosstown crosstown Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee
• 2004 - Christopher Wool 2004 Camden Arts Centre, London
• 2004 - Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp

Select Artwork

• Three Women - 2006
• #6, from the series Incident on 9th Street - 1997
• You Said Tomorrow Yesterday II - 2005, Silkscreen ink on linen
• She Smiles For The Camera I - 2005, Enamel on linen
• Who Loves You - 2003, Silkscreen ink and enamel on linen
• Minor Mishap - 2001, Enamel on linen
• Apocalypse Now - 1988, Alkyd & flashe on aluminum & steel
• Lesters Siter (My Brain), 2001
• MyFucking Brain, 2001

Quotes

Publications

• Pass the Bitch Chicken: Christopher Wool & Harmony Korine - by Harmony Korine, Christopher Wool, Holzwarth Publications (April 1, 2002)
• Weather - by Richard Hell, Christopher Wool, C U Z Editions (July 27, 1998)
• Hartung: 10 Perspectives - by Jennifer Mundy, Christine Mehring, Christopher Wool, John C. Welchman, Franz-W Kaiser, Annie Claustres, Rainer Michael Mason, Chantal Eschenfelder, Laurence Bertrand Dorleac, Anne Pontegnie, 5 Continents Editions (August 25, 2006)
• Parkett 33: Rosemarie Trockel, Christopher Wool - by Christopher Wool, Rosemarie Trockel, Parkett Publishers (September 15, 1992)
• Christopher Wool - by Christopher Wool, Calif. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ann Goldstein, Scalo Publishers (July 1998)

Quick Facts

• In 1981 Christopher Wool returned to work in painting after a two year hiatus
• In the early eighties he began utilizing paint rollers and rubber stamps in his paintings

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