{{Short description|American artist (1943–2019)}} thumb|Description of Lutz Bacher's In Memory of My Feelings, 1990
'''Lutz Bacher''' (21 September 1943<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/obituaries/lutz-bacher-dies-at-75.html|title = Lutz Bacher, Conceptual Artist Who Hid Much About Herself, Dies at 75|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 26 May 2019|last1 = Cotter|first1 = Holland}}</ref> – 14 May 2019)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/lutz-bacher-1943-2019-79823|title=Lutz Bacher (1943–2019)|website=Artforum|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-16}}</ref> was an American artist. She was a neo-Conceptualist closely associated with Berkeley, California since the 1970s, and who lived and worked in New York City from 2013 until her death.<ref>{{cite web|title=Greene Naftali Gallery|url=http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artist.php?id=5348&jumpTo=bio|accessdate=1 February 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218225613/http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artist.php?id=5348&jumpTo=bio|archivedate=18 February 2014}}</ref> The name Lutz Bacher was a pseudonym, and the artist did not publicly reveal a former name.<ref name="Schwendener-2009">{{cite news |last=Schwendener |first=Martha |date=4 March 2009 |title=Lutz Bacher Gets Damaged| url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-03-04/art/lutz-bacher-gets-damaged/full | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203081858/http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-03-04/art/lutz-bacher-gets-damaged/full/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=December 3, 2013 |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York| accessdate=1 February 2014}}</ref> She was once considered a figure with "cult" status—known for being "legendary but elusive" in the California art scene.<ref name="Mac Giolla Léith-2013">{{cite news|last=Mac Giolla Léith|first=Caoimhín|title=Peculiar Galaxies|url=http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_article/peculiar-galaxies/|accessdate=1 February 2014|newspaper=Frieze Magazine|date=25 October 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203085716/http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_article/peculiar-galaxies/|archivedate=3 February 2014}}</ref> Since the early 2000s, her work increasingly gained mainstream recognition.<ref>{{cite news |last=Berardini |first=Andrew |date=1 March 2012 |title=Lutz Bacher |url=http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/lutz-bacher/ |newspaper=Art in America |accessdate=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203141628/http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/lutz-bacher/ |archive-date=3 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Herbert–2013">{{cite news|last=Herbert|first=Martin|title=Ten exhibitions on in November 2013 you won't want to miss|url=http://artreview.com/previews/november_2013_previews_by_martin_herbert/|accessdate=1 February 2014|newspaper=Art Review}}</ref><ref name="Sawyer-2013">{{cite news|last=Sawyer|first=Miranda|title=Frieze Art Fair 2013 – review|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/20/frieze-art-fair-2013-review|accessdate=1 February 2014|newspaper=The Observer|date=19 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="Institute of Contemporary Arts" />
Bacher was married to the astrophysicist Donald C. Backer for almost 40 years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |date=May 26, 2019 |title=Lutz Bacher, Conceptual Artist Who Hid Much About Herself, Dies at 75 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/obituaries/lutz-bacher-dies-at-75.html |access-date=2023-09-29 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==Themes==
Bacher's body of work has been described as "eclectic,"<ref name="Mac Giolla Léith-2013" /> "rough, open-ended,"<ref name="Schwendener-2009" /> and "disturbing."<ref name="Sawyer-2013" /> It consists of works in a variety of formats, including videotapes, photographs, and other mixed media.<ref name="Herbert–2013" /> Many of these works incorporate elements from popular culture, personal artifacts, and found objects, and address questions of identity as expressed through sexuality and the human body.<ref name="Institute of Contemporary Arts" /><ref name="Berkeley exhibition brochure" />
== Work == Among Bacher’s early work from the 1970s is ‘Men at War’ (1975), a series of photographs, based on a single image, of American sailors relaxing on a beach. The young men’s initial cordiality is eclipsed by a painted swastika on one sailor’s chest, turning the image into an allusion to incipient male violence. Bacher further examines the intersections of masculinity, violence, and power in ‘Sex with Strangers’ series (1986), which combines found pornographic images with captions written in the style of scientific study about rape. In these works, images designed to satisfy male pleasure are overturned to reveal their exploitation of the female body.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ocula.com/artists/lutz-bacher/|title=Lutz Bacher|last=Paik|first=Sherry|date=14 September 2021|website=Ocula|access-date=}}</ref>
Beginning in the late 1980s, Bacher began working in video art. Her time-based 'Huge Uterus' (1989) documented a surgical procedure to have fibroid tumors removed from her uterus.<ref name="Flash Art-2014">{{Cite web|date=2014-10-03|title=Everyday Instability. On the notion of the personal within Lutz Bacher's curiously-received art {{!}}|url=https://flash---art.com/article/everyday-instability/|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Flash Art|language=en-US}}</ref> Bacher's video work derives from her first-hand experiences but are not fully documentary or autobiographical.<ref name="Flash Art-2014"/> In 'Closed Circuit' (1997-2000), Bacher installed a closed-circuit camera above Pat Hearn's desk which transmitted a live feed of surveillance footage into the gallery. 'Closed Circuit' was first exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art after Hearn's death.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gangitano|first=Lia|date=April 2008|title=My Secret Life: Lutz Bacher|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/aft.17.20711681|journal=Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry|volume=17|pages=90–97|doi=10.1086/aft.17.20711681|s2cid=184307711|issn=1465-4253|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
== Career == In 2002, Bacher received the Anonymous Was a Woman award, and she was included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-05-16|title=Lutz Bacher, the Elusive Conceptual Artist Who Never Revealed Her Real Name or Age, Has Died|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lutz-bacher-obituary-1548001|access-date=2020-08-13|website=artnet News|language=en-US}}</ref> Bacher was represented by gallerist Pat Hearn of Pat Hearn Gallery in New York, City beginning in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-02-11|title=Portrait Lutz Bacher|url=https://www.spikeartmagazine.com/articles/portrait-lutz-bacher|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Spike Art Magazine|language=en}}</ref>
==Exhibitions==
Over a 40-year career, Bacher exhibited work in numerous solo and group shows around the world, including museums and galleries in her native San Francisco Bay area such as the Berkeley Art Museum<ref name="Berkeley exhibition brochure">{{cite web|title=Lutz Bacher / MATRIX 155|url=http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/155|work=Exhibition brochure|publisher=Berkeley Art Museum|accessdate=1 February 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219065819/http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/155|archivedate=19 February 2014}}</ref> and the Ratio 3 gallery in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite news|last=Wing|first=Liz|title=Lutz Bacher: ODO|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/12/artseen/lutz-bacher-odo|accessdate=1 February 2014|newspaper=The Brooklyn Rail|date=12 December 2008}}</ref> Museum solo exhibitions of her work took place at: Secession, Vienna (2016); "Lutz Bacher" at the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2014); [https://web.archive.org/web/20171107031913/http://www.smk.dk/en/visit-the-museum/exhibitions/lutz-bacher-into-the-dimensional-corridor/ National Museum of Denmark], Copenhagen (2014); and [http://camstl.org/exhibitions/main-gallery/lutz-bacher-spill/ Contemporary Art Museum], St. Louis (2008). In 2009, her multimedia works were featured in "MY SECRET LIFE", a retrospective, and her first museum survey exhibition, at MoMA PS1 in New York City.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://artabase.net/exhibition/1465-lutz-bacher|title=Lutz Bacher at P.S.1, New York|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|website=Artabase|accessdate=31 January 2014}}</ref>
Bacher was the focus of three European exhibitions in 2013: one at Portikus in Frankfurt, Germany; one at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK; and the third at Kunsthalle Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland. Those three institutions published an artist book presenting Bacher's complete oeuvre.<ref name="Institute of Contemporary Arts">{{cite web |url=http://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/lutz-bacher-black-beauty |title=Lutz Bacher: Black Beauty |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Institute of Contemporary Arts |accessdate=31 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204002028/http://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/lutz-bacher-black-beauty |archive-date=4 February 2014 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>
==Collections== Bacher's work is included in the following collections: *Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lutz Bacher |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/artists/45626 |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) |language=en}}</ref> *Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago<ref>{{Cite web |date=1943 |title=Lutz Bacher |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/48957/lutz-bacher |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |language=en}}</ref> *Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California *Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lutz Bacher: The Lee Harvey Oswald Interview |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283419 |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> *San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bacher, Lutz |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/lutz-bacher/ |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref> *Walker Art Center, Minneapolis<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lutz Bacher |url=https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/lutz-bacher |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=Walker Art Center}}</ref> *Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lutz Bacher |url=https://whitney.org/artists/13087 |access-date=2026-03-09 |website=Whitney Museum |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://lutzbacher.com Artist's website] * [http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artists/lutz-bacher Lutz Bacher at Greene Naftali] * [http://www.galeriebuchholz.de/artists/lutz-bacher/ Lutz Bacher] at Galerie Buchholz * [http://www.primaryinformation.org/projects/lutz-bacher-do-you-love-me/ Do You Love Me], a book by the artist
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacher, Lutz}} Category:1943 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century American women artists Category:21st-century American women artists Category:American conceptual artists Category:Artists from Berkeley, California Category:Artists from New York City Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area