Hanne Darboven belongs to the first generation of conceptual artist alongside Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth. Darboven formulated her Konstruktionen during her initial visit to New York in 1966, a process using the neutral language of numbers as a means of marking time. Her works on paper are meticulously kept records of notation, graphs, photographs and objects. The German artist sought in her seriality a universal language with which she incorporated historical narratives and figures. Art historian Lucy Lippard comments on the extreme solitude of the artist, who without knowing anyone, moves to New York to work on her own personal index of the world. This obsessive activity draws comparison with On Kawara's Date Paintings. Yet the numerical and linguistic system with which Darboven categorised her universe is itself a kind of fiction.
Read MoreHer works have recieved recent international attention with large retrospectices at the Reina Sophia, Madrid, 2014; Leo Castelli Gallery, 2013; Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, 2013; and P420, Bologna, 2012. A major show will be mounted at the Haus der Kunst, Munich in late 2015, in the city of her birth. Darboven's work was also included in major group exhibitions like the Guggenheim International, 1971; Documentas 5, 6, 7 and 11 (1972, 1977, 1982, and 2002), São Paulo Bienal, 1973; Venice Biennale, 1982; Lyon Biennale 1997; and Carnegie International, 1999–2000. Darboven died on March 9, 2009 in Hamburg, Germany.
