Galeria SENDA is pleased to present the first exhibition of works on paper by Robert Wilson in a Barcelona gallery on the occasion of his stage production of Der Messias at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Although he has achieved universal fame for his work as a stage director and playwright, Robert Wilson’s work is firmly rooted in the fine arts. This accomplished draftsman, painter and video maker is one of the few artists who works in different artistic media without being driven by a single method of creation.

The artist works on his compositions before, during and after the conception of a production. On this occasion, the works capture what Wilson imagined for an act, scene or interlude of The Messiah. Rendered in subtle shades of black and white, they capture on paper ephemeral moments from his latest production. The originals move away from the realistic representation of set design and depict currents of energy, echoing Wilson’s use of light to define the space on stage.

These originals, which are usually presented in sequence, offer subtle variations on the same motif and act as records of his creative process throughout the rehearsals. Created in Berlin and Salzburg and closely related to the evanescence of a moment, it is possible to appreciate them independently of his theatrical work as purely poetic objects.

The strict structure of The Messiah, determined by the alternation between individual numbers for the four vocal soloists and the same number of choral sections, constitutes for Wilson the starting point for a staging that works with surreal images and tries to create a container for the music.

«For me, The Messiah is not just a religious work, but a kind of spiritual journey»

– Robert Wilson

ABOUT ROBERT WILSON

Born in Waco, Texas, Robert Wilson is one of the world’s foremost theatrical and visual artists. His stage works unconventionally integrate a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music, and text. His images are aesthetically stunning and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned him global public and critical acclaim. After completing his academic training at the University of Texas and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Wilson founded the New York-based performance collective «The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds» in the mid-1960s and developed his early masterpieces, including Deafman Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-1975). He wrote the influential opera Einstein on the Beach (1976) in collaboration with Philip Glass.

Wilson’s artistic collaborators include a number of writers and musicians such as Heiner Müller, Tom Waits, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Lou Reed and Jessye Norman. He has also left his mark on masterpieces such as Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Goethe’s Faust, Homer’s Odyssey, Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Verdi’s La Traviata. Wilson’s drawings, paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions worldwide, and his works are in museums and private collections around the world. Wilson has been the recipient of numerous awards for excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination, two Ubu Awards, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale and an Olivier Award.

He was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as of the German Academy of Arts, and holds 8 honorary doctorates. France awarded him the distinction of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2003) and Officer of the Legion of Honor (2014); and Germany awarded him the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (2014).

Wilson is the founder and artistic director of The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the arts in Water Mill, New York.