Art Institute, Part Two: Hanne Darboven.

So I think my favorite in the Modern Wing is Seven Panels and Index by Hanne Darboven, 1973. Difficult to photograph – it's under glass. The first time I saw it, I went home and googled her. I don't know, then I really loved her completely.

An excerpt from one article:

"Anyone who visited her at her family's estate just south of Hamburg has a story to tell--about, for example, her cohabitation with Piephans, the canary, and the various Mickeys, several generations of identically named miniature goats. Each morning at 4:00, Hanne would bring them the same type of cookie. She worked until 11:00 A.M., then granted one hour when she could be visited or reached over the phone. Regularity, discipline, austerity, asceticism and obsessiveness were among her idiosyncrasies--both in her work and her life--since she regarded 'being and doing [as] one.' "

Via DB Art Mag.

I mean, she kept miniature goats? Named them ALL Mickey? How awesome is that? And she smoked, made no apologies for it, and apparently continued to do so until it ultimately killed her last year. One thing I read was that if she was awake, she was smoking. What a unique person. Making thousands of annotative deliberate hand written collections, her work apparently fills barns and buildings on her family's estate.


The majority of the piece at the AI looks like sheets of ledger paper with a cursively written "u". Filling whole pages, all with distinct yet seemingly random meaning.

With the google search I came up with a pic of the artist:

Via When the Helicopter Comes.

All the links provided offer more information, but for still more, click here.