Biography

Roni Horn

Roni Horn was born in New York in 1955 and grew up in Rockland County, an early suburb north of the city. In 1975 she graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, also the year of her first visit to Iceland. With no set plan, almost at random Iceland became Horn’s first venture outside the United States. In 1978 she graduated with a masters in sculpture from Yale University. Horn was awarded the Alice Kimball Traveling Fellowship from Yale. It was used to return to Iceland for an extended journey by motorcycle. Over the years her mostly solitary experiences in the more remote landscapes of Iceland have become a key influence in her life and work. In 1982 Horn spent two months in a lighthouse in Southwestern Iceland where she produced the Bluff Life drawings and Untitled (Dyrhólaey) series presently in the collections of MOMA, NY and Kunstmuseum Basel, respectively. Horn’s earliest work is conceptually based sculpture with a minimalist edge. Literature has been a strong influence in her work, one that is especially evident in her sculpture. Emily Dickinson (Key and Cues, 1994-2004) and Clarice Lispector (Rings of Lispector (Agua Viva), 2004) are prominent among them.

From the early 80’s Horn has also worked in photography and drawing. Initially her photographs were dedicated exclusively to her on-going multi-volume publication To Place (1990—present). In 1994 You are the Weather became her first photographic installation. This was followed by Pi, (1998) a work based on imagery taken along the Arctic Circle of Northern Iceland.

Her photographic portraits are often large installations using sequenced or grouped images. There are 5 to date: You are the Weather, 1994, This is Me, This is You, 2000, Cabinet of, 2001, Portrait of an Image, 2005. The 5th portrait is a book: Index Cixous, 2005.

Her sculpture is often paired, as are her photographs and drawings. The early sculpture installations, known as Pair Objects, 1980-1986, were first shown at the Clocktower in NYC in 1980.

Pairing plays a prominent role in Dead Owl, 1997, This is Me, This is You, 2000, Becoming a Landscape, 2001, Untitled series, 1998-present, and Doubt by Water, 2004.

Over the years Horn has received many awards. Among them are three NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990 and the Alpert Award in 1998.

Among Horn’s recent museum exhibitions are the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, 1998; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris 1999; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 2000; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 2000; DIA Center for the Arts, NY 2001; Centre Pompidou, Paris 2003; Fotomuseum, Winterthur, 2003; Art Institute of Chicago, 2004; Folkwang Museum, Essen, 2004. In 2009, Tate Modern, London, will open a retrospective of Horn’s work, traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY in 2010. The circumstantial and mutable nature of identity, the paradoxical closeness of the unknown and the familiar, and equating the meaning of each work with the experience it offers are basic to much of Horns work.

Bibliography

A Selection of Books and Catalogues about Roni Horn

Schwarz, Dieter. Rare Spellings,Selected Drawings: 1985-92; Richter Verlag, Dusseldorf; 1993.

Howard, Jan. Inner Geography,
Maryland: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1994: 32pp.

Tillman, Lynne. Gurgles, Sucks, Echoes,
Jablonka/Marks, New York and Cologne, 1995.

Koepplin, Dieter. Roni Horn/Drawings,
Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Germany, 1995.

Kellein, Thomas, Horn, Roni.

Making Being Here Enough: Installations from 1980-1995, Kunsthalle Basel and Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, 1995.

Gonzalez-Torres, Felix, Horn, Roni, et al. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, 1995.

hooks, bell, Gonzalez-Torres, Felix, et al. Earths Grow Thick, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 1996.

Horn, Roni. You are the Weather, Scalo Verlag, Zurich, 1997.

Schorr, Collier, Gunnarsson, Styrmir, Gorovoy, Jerry, Lewis, Diane, Spector, Nancy, Parkett, No.54, Zurich, 1998-99: 26-73 and inside front and back cover.

Schulz-Hoffmann, Carla. Roni Horn: Pi, Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Munchen, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1999. 128pp.

Bossé, Laurence, Bernadac, Marie Laure, Spector, Nancy. Events of Relation, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and capc Bordeaux, 1999.

Horn, Roni. Point d’ ironie, Published by Agnes B., Paris, March 2000. (Artist Project) Cooke, Lynne, Neri, Louise, de Duve,Thierry, Lispector, Clarice, Horn, Roni.

Roni Horn, Phaidon Press, London, May 2000.

Horn, Roni, Gehry, Frank, Herzog, Jacques, Irwin, Robert, Oldenburg, Claes et al, Art and Architecture, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, 2000: 59-80.

Avgikos, Jan, Merrill-Campagnolo, Kathleen. Still Water, Lannan Foundation, Sante Fe, 2001.

De Duve, Thierry, Herkenhoff, Paulo, et al. If on a Winter’s Night… Roni Horn…, Fotomuseum Winterthur and Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, 2003. (English/German)

Herkenhoff, Paulo; Storsve, Jonas. Roni Horn, Drawings, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2003: 80pp. (English/French)

Lingwood, James; Frida Björk Ingvarsdóttir. Some Thames / Haskólínn á Akureyri, Steidl Verlag, Germany, 2003, 48pp. (English/Icelandic)

Eskildsen, Ute. To Place: Postcards from the 1st 8 Books, Museum Folkwang, Essen & Steidl Verlag, 2004. 47pp.

Dean, Tacita. Vettesse, Angela. Angie and Emily / Dickinson, Inverleith House, Edinburgh and Museion, Bolzano, 2006. 96pp.

Cixous, Hélène. Roni Horn: Rings of Lispector (Aqua Viva), Hauser& WirthSteidl, Zurich and Göttingen, Germany, 2006.120pp.

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