Jan Henle

“On a basic level, this is an endeavor to see what can happen through living the way I am living. I don’t want to think about what to do. I hope the work will happen through a certain discipline and effort and no Neffort at the same time – life drawn on film.”
Photograph by Dee Vitale Henle

Solo Exhibitions

2008

Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art

Herzliya, Israel

2007

Con el Mismo Amor

Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

2000-01

Jan Henle: Selected Works 1973 – 2000

Brent Sikkema, New York, NY

1999

Jan Henle: Sculpture of No Thing

SUNY at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY

1998

La Jíbarita

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (Catalogue)

1996

The La Jíbarita Film Drawings

Wooster Gardens, New York, NY

1994

No Thing

Wooster Gardens, New York, NY

1992-93

Pace/MacGill Gallery

New York, NY

1988

Jan Henle: Land and Stone

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (Artist’s book)

1983

Xavier Fourcade

New York, NY

1978

American Institute of Architects

Washington, D.C.

1970

Christiansted

St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Group Exhibitions (Selected)

2016-17

The Poetics of Place

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2016

Landed: Surveying New Geographies

Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

2015-16

Photographic Commissions of the Lhoist Group

Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium

2015

Framing Desire

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

2013

Figure and Ground

Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York

2012

Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2012

At the Edge: Recent Acquisitions

Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA

2009

Berkshire Museum

Pittsfield, MA

2008

Gwangju Biennale

Gwangju, South Korea

2005

Exposed: Thirty Years of Collecting Photography

Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

2004

Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Video: The Permanent Collection

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

2003

Why do we see what we see how we see?

K21 Düsseldorf, Germany

2002-03

110 Years: The Permanent Collection

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

2002

Curious Terrain

Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY

2002

Prophets of Boom

Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany

2001

Ordinary Grandeur

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

2001

Piqued Lands

Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA

2001

Michael Light/Jan Henle

Adamski Frehrking Wiesefofer, Köln

2001

Photographic Commissions of the Lhoist Group

Center National de la Photographie, Paris

2000

Deep Distance

Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland

1999

Views from the Edge of the World

Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY

1999

More Than Meets the Eye

Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

1998

Summer

Lennon Weinberg, Inc., New York, NY

1997

On Paper

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

1997

Making It Real

The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT

1996

Transformations in Landscape

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX

1995-96

The Abstracted Image in Photography

Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA

1995

Being There

Paolo Baldacci Gallery, New York, NY

1994

Carnegie Museum of Art

Pittsburgh, PA

1994

Inspired By Nature

Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

1990

Constructed Illusions

Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY

1989

Selections from Fifteen Years of Acquisitions

Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

1988

Landscape Photographs from the Permanent Collection

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1987

Drawings

Xavier Fourcade, New York, NY

1987

This Is Not A Photograph: Twenty Years of Large-Scale Photography

The John and Mabel Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL

1985

Photographs from the Sam Wagstaff Collection

International Center of Photography, New York, NY

1985

Black on White, White on Black

Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY

1983

Big Pictures

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

1982

20th Century Photographs from MoMA

Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

1982

Acquisitions Since 1975

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Screenings

2013

Con el Mismo Amor, ikono On Air Festival, Sept 6 – 29, 2013 on HDTV channels ikono TV and ikono MENASA reaching over 30 countries worldwide as well as on ikono online

Con el Mismo Amor, Ille Arts, Amagansett, New York

Public Collections

  • Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
  • Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
  • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
  • College of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Group Lhoist Collection, Belgium
  • International Center of Photography, New York, NY
  • Library and Museum of Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
  • Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX
  • The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
  • Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
  • Wilhelm and Gaby Schürmann Collection, Berlin, Germany

Selected Bibliography

  1. Rothfuss, Joan (Editor). Visual essay in Eiko & Koma: Time is not Even, Space is not Empty, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2011.
  2. Swartley, Ariel. Jan Henle: Art-Work/Work-Art, May 13, 2009, Ariel Swartley for Agency, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA.
  3. Falconer, Morgan. Artnews, November 2007, p. 218.
  4. Cotter, Holland. The New York Times, October 12, 2007.
  5. The New Yorker, January, 2001, p. 18.
  6. New York Magazine, December 4, 2000, “A Show About No Thing.”
  7. Princenthal, Nancy. “Jan Henle: Sculpture of No Thing,” Dove Bradshaw / Jan Henle (exh. cat.), California: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: 1998, pp. 5-15.
  8. Katz, Vincent. “Something on Jan Henle: An Interview,” The Print Collector’s Newsletter, March-April 1995, pp. 5-8.
  9. Maria Morris Hambourg. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Fall 1994, p. 77.
  10. Auping, Michael. Jan Henle: Topographical Film Drawings, Buffalo, New York: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1988.

Chronology

1948Born in New York City
1952Moved to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
1964-83Worked periodically in landscaping on St. Croix
1968Studied at the San Francisco Art Institute
1969Received grant from Virgin Islands Council on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts
1969-73Photographed women
1970Filmed dance performed on the beach and in the sea
1972-73Danced in concerts given by Theatre Dance on St. Croix; Studied Eastern thought; Traveled and worked in Ireland and Holland; First sand pieces
1974Worked on a trawler fishing off the Carolina coast
1975Received grant from Virgin Islands Council on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts to photograph Danish architecture on St. Croix
1976-79Worked with Eiko and Koma, two Japanese contemporary dancers
1977-79Headed the board of Theatre Dance and organized the company’s first outdoor concerts
1978Trip to British Virgin Islands; Continued sand work; Received grant from Virgin Islands Council on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts to continue work with Eiko and Koma
1980Made Drifting on Melody Smoke / A Flower Opening to the Moon, nine portfolios of work done with Eiko and Koma; Began land sculptures on St. Croix
1981Began aerial work, Fallen Jerusalem; Worked in Ireland
1982-84Continued land sculptures on St. Croix
1985-88Made book Jan Henle: Topographical Film Drawings, text by Michael Auping; Published as an artist’s book by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1987-91Worked in New York as an art handler and truck driver
1989Received National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in New Genres
1991-92Made land sculpture, La Jíbarita, in Maricao, Puerto Rico; Began negotiations to acquire 218 acre abandoned farm
1995Together with patron, purchased 218-acre farm as site for sculpture project
1992-98Fabricated La Jíbarita film drawings
1999-Working on living sculpture Con el Mismo Amor, related photography and film (Ongoing)
2006-07Co-directed with Vivien Bittencourt film, Con el Mismo Amor