artist

Peter Downsbrough

Citizenship United States of America
Born 1940 In New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America
Works in
Brussels, Belgium
Lives in
Brussels, Belgium
Website https://www.moma.org/artists/36251
Notes American-Belgian sculptor, photographer and conceptual artist.

In the early 1960s, Downsbrough studied architecture and art at the University of Cincinnati and Cooper Union in New York City.

Since 1972, he has used books to present his work (as have Robert Barry, Sol LeWitt, Edward Ruscha and Lawrence Weiner). At first Downsbrough limited himself to texts and lines, later he also integrated maps and photos of urban spaces.

Peter Downsbrough works with the connection between architecture, typography and linguistics. His highly reduced vocabulary consists of short and concise conjunctions and prepositions such as: and, as, or, to, if, but, from, with, here, there, maar, op, en, et, ou, mais. These have a double function: on the one hand, they are iconographic signs that describe the space and, on the other, they give the viewer the opportunity to move from one thought to the next and to establish a connection between individual sentences or parts of sentences. Downsbrough uses a number of verbs and nouns.

Peter Downsbrough's material consists of letters, lines, cuts and spaces.

In interior spaces, he uses adhesive letters, which he places on walls, floors and/or ceilings. Lines drawn with adhesive tape, usually black, emphasize architectural elements. Metal pipes, which stand freely in the room and are sometimes attached to the wall, set accents.

Downsbrough's sculptures, interventions in public space, consist of horizontal and vertical black bars on which words or fragments of words are arranged.

Downsbrough's black and white photographs of urban environments are also characterized by spatial rhythms and linear geometry. Peter Downsbrough also produces models, videos and drawings.

Peter Downsbrough is represented by the Barbara Krakow Gallery in Boston, the GDM in Paris and the Galerie Thomas Zander in Cologne.
Art Book Shows Offset
Artists’ publications: analogue – digital!
Behind the Glass – Quotes about Books from Books about Books
Exhibitions FLIP – About Image Construction
COPY CONSTRUCT