Baird Cornell

 

First Years

W.B. interview with B.C. in 2016

 

In 1943 Baird became the second son of his mother from Washington, D.C. and father from the Boston area.

By the age of 12 he had lived at 11 addresses on three continents and had changed schools 10 times in his first six years of ‘education’. That may have helped motivate him to live as an adapting foreigner in Europe since finishing St. Lawrence University in 1966.

After studying English literature and philosophy he decided that stepping back for a year to observe from a distance was intuitively important for whatever direction he might take.

Between 1966 and 1975 he studied painting and sculpture at the art academies of Rome and Munich. The identity challenge of post-war Germany, combined with the power of physical realism expressed in Renaissance Italian art, gave his art the seeds to metaphorical as well as metaphysical meaning. This became a backbone for his art.

Baird says that he learned more about the potential complexity and motivation of art outside the academies than inside. But he also learned how to use many of the tools of art inside the academic walls while being more motivated by the critical tool of observation needed outside the walls.

His studies of English literature gave him insights for observing people, while philosophy nudged him to co-ordinate the observations onto a larger stage. It is a process that has defined itself by the rapid evolution of contemporary globalization.

Travel was always less a matter of entertainment than an opportunity to work with people of different cultures, and thus to use observation based on experience to focus on a rapidly changing world beyond the self.

The world he perceives and engages in is dependent on an expansionist rather than a non-representational reductionist point of view. He believes the reduction of references beyond the self contributes to a self-inflicted solipsism.

The Berlin Wall came down on 9 November 1989. At that moment he knew that the world was likely to change at all levels. Politics, Religion, and Economy -the three pillars of every society- would be dramatically affected.

Identity issues of individuality and community would stimulate a expanding and evolving space for creativity, especially in Europe, beyond the dictates of a conventional ‘signature art’ market.

He also mentioned how coincidental it was to later find out that in the same year the wall came down and he had begun with his lasting theme of Globalization, the proposal outline was made at CERN for a ‘global hypertext system that would lead to the World Wide Web’ six years later.

 

 

One Person Exhibitions

2015 Raisting Kulturhaus
2012
Raisting Kulturhaus
2009 Leonardo, Hotel Savoy, Room 601, Munich
2008 AK-Bildungshaus Gallery, Linz, Austria-conxept (2 person)
2007 Bezirk Oberbayern Gallery, Munich
2007 Murnau Culture Center, Murnau, Gr. Interactiv concept
2005 Threshold Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Deloitte, Munich
2003 Deloitte & Touche, Stuttgart
2002 Hansa Studio Gallery, Munich
2000 Hansa Studio Gallery, Munich
1998 The Residence, New Delhi, India
1995 Westend Gallery, Munich
1989 Hof Gallery, Tutzing
1985 Pfister Mühle, Munich
1983 Galerie Schwennenbach, Schwennenbach
1981 Gallery Paulus, Albstadt
1979 Kunst-Salon, Berlin
1978 Gars Institute, Gars
1978 Schlosshof Gallery, Kisslegg
1972 American Consulate, Munich
1972 Amerika-Haus (R. Hall), Munich
1970 “M” Street Gallery, Washington, DC

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2008 AK-Bildungshaus Gallery, Linz, Austria (2 person)
2004 Ephesus, Ephesus, Turkey
2000 Townhall, Tutzing
1995 Westend Gallery, Munich
1994 Kunst der Zeit, Dresden
1985-88 Gallery Schwennenbach, Schwennenbach
1987 Ero Kunst Gallery, Munich
1986 Rosenheim Kunstverein, Rosenheim
1985 Landsberg Austellung, Landsberg
1984 Gallery Poech, Trostberg
1982-83 Schlossgraben, Wertingen
1981 U.N. International Art Exhibition, New York
1979 Gallery Busch, Berlin
1972-74 Mostra Internationale di Scultura, Milan

 

Art in Public Places

2001 City of Munich-Mathilde Eller Schule, Munich, Germany
1998 Holocaust Memoria, Tutzing, Germany
1996 Förderschule Finsterwalde, Germany
1993 Upton Memorial, Alassio, Italy
1992 Dolomiten, Dolomiten, Switzerland
1992 Capital Storage, Washington, DC
1990 Labuff-Lamb Hutton & Williams, Washington, DC

 

Issues

Curatorial

2004
Invitation to International “Tononton Symposium” in Ephesus Turkey- Artists from different countries work three weeks independently and together in a ceramic factory. In addition, social and educational programs are initiated with the community and carried on after the project.
1992
“DDR – To Those Who Begin Again” – A traveling exhibition of ten leading East German artists (Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig). Works of painting, graphics, video and photography. Exhibitions in Germany and United States.
1989
“Kilian: 689″ – Mainfränkisches Museum, WürzburgCuratorial, restoration, installation responsibility for part of this major historical exhibition.

Directorship

1984 Co-organizer of Int. Aluminium Workshop Gartner Aluminium Works, Gundelfingen
1983 Co-organizer of Int. Steel Workshop Süd-Stahl, Mertingen
1980-85 Manager of commercial art foundry Neu Kunst Giesserei

Lectures  & Teaching (selected)

2011 Goethe Institute Workshops, New Delhi & Mumbai, India
2010 Goethe Institute Workshops
2009 Goethe Institute Workshops
2007 Völkerkunde Museum, Munich (with exhibit work)
2002 Goethe Institute “Documenta XI”, Washington, DC
1998 Goethe Institute “Documenta X”, Calcutta, New Delhi, Bangelore, India
1998 Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
1998 U. of N. Mexico Graduate Sch., Albuquerque, NM
1997 Cortona, Italy
1994 Tribhnyan U. –Fine Arts Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal
1992 Lafayette College, Easton, PA
1987 & 90 Mass. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
1990 Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH
1990 Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
1990-91 Pacific N.W. College of Art, Portland, OR
1990 Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
1990 Art in Public Places, Veil, CO
1990 & 2000 Montomery College, Rockville, MD
1987 Berlin Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin, Germany
1986 St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
1987 Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH
1984 Kißlegg Kunst Akademie, Kißlegg, Germany

 

Medium  & Print

press articles

09.12.09 Süddeutsche Zeitung, “Von der archaischen Gesellschaft mitten ins IT-Zeitalter”
02.08.98 Sunday Herald, “Weighing Up The Idea”
25.06.97 Süddeutsche Zeitung, “Von Aufsteigen und Stürzen”
02.01.94 Süddeutsche Zeitung, “Ein Heer von Dilettanten”
08.10.93 Süddeutsche Zeitung, “Der Künstler und Philosoph Baird Cornell”
08.03.89 Süddeutsche Zeitung, “Im Fallen innerlich Weiterkommen”

Television / interviews

09.09.98 STAR TV, New Delhi, India
1984 Baden Württemberg Fernsehen, B. Württemberg
1983 Bavarian Fernsehen, Munich
1978 Baden Württemberg Fernsehen, B. Württemberg
07.09.78 Südwest Funk (Radio), Stuttgart