Robert Heinecken, Photographist: A 35-Year Retrospective

About the Exhibition

One of the major artists of our time, Robert Heinecken is often thought of as a photographer, yet he has rarely used a camera. He is more correctly seen as an image manipulator and scavenger who, along with John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, and Douglas Huebler, has been an important influence on the current generation of artists. Unlike his contemporaries, however, Heinecken’s artistic production and his influence on today’s younger artists have not yet been explored through a major exhibition of his work. From the beginning of his career in the early 1960s, Heinecken has been interested in the mass media, creating ongoing, interrelated bodies of work, including photographic sculptures and artists’ books. This major survey exhibition will include work from the artist’s continuing series as well as examples of his most recent work: relief collages of advertising images to create contemporary versions of Hindu deities.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by organizer MCA Curator Lynne Warren.