26 Facts About Edward Kienholz

Edward Ralph Kienholz was an American installation artist and assemblage sculptor whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life.

Edward Ralph Kienholz was born in Fairfield, Washington, in the dry eastern part of the state.

Edward Kienholz grew up on a wheat farm, learning carpentry, drafting, and mechanical skills.

Edward Kienholz's father was strict, and his mother was a religious fundamentalist; the rebellious son longed to escape this constricted environment.

Edward Kienholz studied art at Eastern Washington College of Education and briefly, at Whitworth College in Spokane, but did not receive any formal degree.

In 1956, Edward Kienholz opened the NOW Gallery, for which Michael Bowen designed the sign; that year he met grad student Walter Hopps, who owned the Syndell Gallery.

Edward Kienholz continued to participate in activities at the Ferus Gallery, mounting a show of his first assemblage works in 1959.

In 1961, Edward Kienholz completed his first large-scale installation, Roxy's, a room-sized environment which he showed at the Ferus Gallery in 1962.

In 1966, Edward Kienholz began to spend summers in Hope, Idaho, while still maintaining studio space in Los Angeles.

Edward Kienholz would sell these works of early Conceptual Art for a modest sum, giving the buyer the right to have Kienholz actually construct the artwork.

Edward Kienholz sold a number of Concept Tableaux, but only The State Hospital progressed to a completed artwork.

Edward Kienholz occasionally incorporated defunct or operating radios or televisions into their works, sometimes adding sound and moving images to the overall effect.

In 1981, Ed Edward Kienholz officially declared that all his work from 1972 on should be retrospectively understood to be co-authored by, and co-signed by, his fifth wife and collaborator, former photojournalist Nancy Reddin Edward Kienholz.

In 1974 Edward Kienholz performed with Jannis Kounellis, Wolf Vostell, and other artists in Berlin at the ADA - Aktionen der Avantgarde.

Edward Kienholz died suddenly in Idaho on June 10,1994, from a heart attack after hiking in the mountains near their home.

Edward Kienholz was a chronic smoker who had been struggling with diabetes, which progressively impaired use of his extremities.

Retrospectives of Edward Kienholz's work have been infrequent, due to the difficulty and expense of assembling fragile, literally room-sized sculptures and installations from widely dispersed collections around the world.

Edward Kienholz work has often been difficult to view, both because of its subject matter, and the logistics of displaying it.

The diverse and freely improvised materials and methods used in Edward Kienholz works pose an unusual challenge to art conservators who try to preserve the artist's original intent and appearances.

From May 6 to June 19,2010, Edward Kienholz's Roxy's was meticulously reconstructed and visible through the aperture of two panoramic windows at David Zwirner Gallery in New York City.

In 2011, Edward Kienholz's work was visited with renewed attention in Los Angeles partly as a result of the Pacific Standard Time series of exhibitions, which saw his powerful 1972 installation Five Car Stud reinstalled at LACMA.

Edward Kienholz's work entitled The Jesus Corner is on display at the Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington.

Edward Kienholz is acknowledged as a pioneer, as early as 1960 with Roxy's, of what came to be known as installation art and assemblage art.

Edward Kienholz produced early works of conceptual art with his Concept Tableau series in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Ed Edward Kienholz's carefully documented and self-consciously outrageous behavior in what has been called the "TWA Incident" revealed aspects of what would later be called "performance art".

In spite of his claims to be merely a rough working-class carpenter and mechanic, Edward Kienholz was well aware of his position in the contemporary art scene, and acted assertively to shape his image and legacy.