Christopher Wool

Was born into the family of intellectuals, grew up in the vicinity of Hyde Park in Chicago; was raised together with his younger brother Jonathan. The family lived for a while in Cambridge, England.

Started to study painting and photography at Sarah Lawrence College in New York (class R. Pusset-Darth). Having dropped out of the school in less than a year, he entered the studio of Jack Tworkov and Gabriel Cramer, where he became acquainted with abstract expressionism in the field of technology and style.

Leaving formal studies, he rented a studio and began experimenting with his style, plunging into the world of underground films and music. During 1980-84, he worked as an assistant at the studio of Joel Shapiro.

His first solo exhibition was held at Cable Gallery (New York); two years later the shows were carried out at the same gallery, the Robbin Lockett Gallery (Chicago) and the Luhring Augustine Gallery (New York).

Together with his colleague Gober, he presented a joint exhibition at Gallery 303 (New York), which, in particular, included the original text painting “Apocalypse Now”. The first overseas show took place at the Galerie Gisela Capitain (Cologne). He prepared his “Black Book” for the publication (it was published in 1989).

He was elected a member of the American Academy in Rome. The “New Work: Christopher Wool” show was held at the Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco); the Monotypes vernissage was presented at the Edition of Julie Sylvester (New York) and Galerie Max Hetzler (Cologne). The following year he presented the “Works on Paper” exhibition at Luhring Augustine (New York), the Daniel Weinberg Gallery (Los Angeles) and the Galerie Christian Stein (Torino).

Acted as a DAAD producer in Berlin and received the Wolfgang Khan Award. His exhibitions, apart from permanent ones in New York, were held in Los Angeles, Vienna and Cologne. A year later, his album of photographs “Absent Without Leave” was released – 160 black-and-white images taken during travels. After successful exhibitions in Cologne (Galerie Max Hetzler, 1993) and Berlin (Bruno Brunnet Fine Arts, 1994), he first exhibited his works alone at Galerie Samia Saouma in Paris (1995).

Married artist Charlene von Hail. His exhibition activities took place in the USA and Europe, as well as at the Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. A year later, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Los Angeles, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland, the Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin) and the Ophiuchus Collection (Hydra Workshop, Greece).

Participated in the Vienna Secession, exhibited his creations in London, Antwerp, and supported the project “Crosstown” (Scotland). In the following years, his shows were held in Tokyo, Milan, Zurich, Berlin, Strasbourg and other cities of the world.

A limited edition of 1000 copies of his book “Can your monkey do the dog”, co-written with J. Smith, was published. A year earlier, he completed the cover design for the album of the music band Sonic Youth “Rather Ripped”.

Collaborated with punk creator R. Ad; the big opening day “Warhol. Wool. Newman. Painting Real” was held in European cities; the artist visited the exhibition in Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Germany).

Received the AmFAR Award for Artistic Contribution in the fight against AIDS. He became a co-organizer of the exhibition by J. Powett-Dart at East River Studio, where the works of R. Pussett-Dart, one of the early teachers of Wool, were also presented. Two years later, he contributed to the design for Moving Parts (part of B. Millepid’s dance project, Los Angeles).

The works he created over the few years of his career were presented at a large retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), which was later held at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2017, at an exhibition in Aspen, Colorado, an unknown man destroyed his painting “Untitled, 2004,” previously valued at nearly $ 3 million.