Robert Breer was born in 1926 in Detroit, he died in 2011 in Tucson.
For fifty years, Robert Breer has eluded labels. His work in different media including sculpture, painting, drawing and film, is characterized by a dialogue between each of these processes.
After Art education at Stanford University, Robert Breer started his career in painting. In 1949 he moved to Paris and began to introduce elements in his paintings which broke with the neo-plastic orthodoxy, introducing free and floating lines. He decided to make a Flipbook of a small painting; this first Flipbook became the basis for his first film in 1952. Since the very begining, his films are not narrative in structure; they include photograms, drawings, collages, sound and photographs. In 1959 Robert Breer decided to cease painting and began making mutoscopes and folioscopes, giving new legibility to those objects, precursor to filmmaking, as real sculptures.
Back to U.S., he settled in New York and exhibited his first moving self-propelled sculptures. They are geometric modules, moving extremly slowly on the ground, almost imperceptibly. These works test the thresholds of perception and challenges the limits of the definition of sculpture, and its new relation with the exhibition space. Robert Breer’s ‘Floats’ reveals an unstable and individual present that is part of acontinual flow. His work puts man at the centre of a changing world that is subjective and ruleless. Robert Breer initiated and participated with E.A.T Group in the American Pavilion for the 1970 Worlds Fair Exhibition in Osaka, Japan.
His first retrospective at the Whitney Museum, New York was held in 1980. Robert Breer has been awarded several times among others in 1969 the Max Ernst Prize at the Oberhausen Film Festival, and in 2005 Stan Brakhage Vision Award in Denver. His film ‘Fuji’, is registered in 2002 in the permanent film collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Art Fair
Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris
October 18-22, 2023
Group show including the work of Dove Allouche, Robert Breer, Mark Geffriaud, Tirdad Hashemi, Pratchaya Phinthong, Roman Ondak and Chloé Royer.
gb agency, Paris
October 14 - November 10, 2023
Art Fair
Messe Basel, Basel
June 13 - 18, 2023
Group show including the work of Robert Breer
The Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine
From June 23, 2023
Group show including the work of Robert Breer and Jirí Kovanda
Deichtorhallen Hamburg: Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg
May 13, 2022 - August 27, 2023
Group show including the work of Robert Breer
FRAC Franche Comte, Besançon
June 3 - September, 2023
Rehanging of the collection, including the work of Robert Breer and Ryan Gander
Carré d’art-musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes
Spring - Summer, 2023
Group show with the work of Robert Breer
Art Explora, Hangar Y, Meudon
March 21 - August 9, 2023
Group show with the work of Robert Breer
École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris
February 8 - April 30, 2023
Group show including the work of Robert Breer and Jirí Kovanda
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
October 13, 2022 - February 25, 2023, extended until April 10, 2023
Touring group show, including the work of Robert Breer
Tate Modern Touring Exhibition, Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai
September 28, 2022 - March 19, 2023
Conference and book release
Cinémathèque québécoise, Québec
September 19-20, 2022
Group show with works by Robert Breer and Roman Ondak
Aichi Triennial, Aichi
July 30 - October 10, 2022
Group show with works by Robert Breer
Museum Brandhorst, Munich
June 2, 2022 - January 13, 2023
A collective exhibition by Yann Sérandour
gb agency, Paris
March 26 - May 7, 2022
Group show with works by Mac Adams, Robert Breer
MAAT, Lisbon
March 12 - August 8, 2022
Group show with works by Robert Breer
La Villa Médicis, Rome
March 3 - May 22, 2022
Group exhibition
gb agency, Paris
October 19 - November 13, 2021
Art Fair
Messe Basel, Basel
September 21 - 26, 2021
Group show with works by Robert Breer
Gianni Manhattan, Vienna
September 4 - October 23, 2021
Group show with works by Robert Breer
Château d’Oiron, Oiron
June 27 - October 3, 2021
Group show with works by Cally Spooner, Robert Breer and Roman Ondak
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
May 15 - Aug 8, 2021
Group show with works by Robert Breer
Musée d’arts de Nantes
February 12 - May 24, 2021
Solo show
Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bolzano
September 12, 2020 - July 17, 2021
Group show
gb agency, Paris
From November 30th 2019 to January 11th, 2020
Art fiere
OVAL Lingoto Fiere, Torino
October 31 - November 3, 2019
Group show
Grand Large – Hauts-de-France (FRAC) and Lieu d’Art et Action Contemporaine, Musée de France (LAAC), Dunkerque
May 4, 2019 - January 5, 2020
Solo Exhibition
gb agency
from March 9 to May 4, 2019
Group show
The Collection of the Fondation. A vision for painting
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
February 20 - August 26, 2019
Exhibition
Arco, Madrid
Feb 22-26, 2017
Group Exhibition
Level One, gb agency
From December 3rd, 2016 to January 14th, 2017
Solo Show
The Flying Saucer, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharja
Oct 1st , 2016 - Jan 9, 2017
A solo show by Robert Breer
gb agency
From May 19 to July 16, 2016
Art Fair
Grand Palais, Paris
23 - 26 October 2014.
Group exhibition
Kunsthalle Wien.
27 June - 12 October 2014.
Frieze Art Fair
New York
May 9-12 2014
Group show
M HKA in Antwerpen
Untill May 11, 2014.
Group exhibition
M HKA, Antwerpen
21st February - 11th May 2014.
Solo show
gb agency
September 7 - October 17, 2013
A solo show by Robert Breer
gb agency
From November 20th, 2010 to January 15th, 2011
Group show
gb agency
From June 25 to July 25, 2009
Group exhibition
gb agency
From 1 December to 19 January 2008
Group show
gb agency
27 January to 10 March 2007
Group exhibition
gb agency
10 September to 29 October 2005
a solo show by Robert Breer
gb agency
From April 24 to May 29, 2004
Group exhibition
gb agency
13 September to 8 November 2003
A solo show by Robert Breer
gb agency
From September 8 to October 20, 2001
Group exhibition
gb agency
17 February to 6 March 2001
Robert Breer
Robert Breer, 2011
Catalogue
Size: 24 x 28 cm
Language / Edition: English, 168 Pages, paperback
Author(s): Ute Holl, Andres Pardey, Laurence Sillars
Publisher: Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld
Date of Publication: 2011
ISBN: 978-3-86678-531-4
Robert Breer
Films, Floats & Panoramas, Robert Breer, 2006
Book
Texts by Brigitte Liabeuf, Laura Hoptman, Juliette Singer, Lionel Bovier, Yann Beauvais
204 pages
Published in 2006
Editions de l’Oeil
ISBN 2-35137-022-8