Andrea Robbins (born 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts) and Max Becher (born 1964 in Düsseldorf) are U.S.-based visual artists. They have worked collaboratively since they met at the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

in New York in 1984. They married in 1988.

Education

Andrea Robbins received her BFA from the

Cooper Union School of Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

and then attended

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

School of Art, both in New York City. Max Becher received his BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art, and his MFA from

Mason Gross School of the Arts Mason Gross School of the Arts ("Mason Gross" or "MGSA") is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mason Gross offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, design, dance, filmmaking, music, and theater. Ma ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

Work

Robbins and Becher employ photography, video and other digital media to document what they term "the transportation of place," situations in which one place or culture strongly resembles another distant one. Their conception of place often includes such notions as location in time, positions of ideology and cultural identity. Past subjects of their work have included German colonial towns in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

; Germans who dress as

Native Americans Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

; descendants of freed American slaves in the Dominican Republic; a Brooklyn Hasidic headquarters building that has been copied and rebuilt around the world; the relocated London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona; the replication of Venice at

The Venetian, Las Vegas The Venetian Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino resort located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Apollo Global Management. It was developed by businessman Sheldon Adelso ...

; and the enduring culture of

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

Exhibitions and reviews

The work of Robbins and Becher has been exhibited and collected by art museums such as the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

, (New York, NY and Bilbao, Spain), the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, (New York, NY), the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

(New York, NY), the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...

(Chicago, IL.), the

Museum of Contemporary Photography A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

(Chicago, IL), the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Los Angeles, CA,

Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (, , MACBA, ) is a contemporary art museum situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval neighborhood, Ciutat Vella district, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The museum opened to the public on 28 Novem ...

(Barcelona, Spain),

Maison européenne de la photographie Maison (French for "house") may refer to: People * Edna Maison (1892–1946), American silent-film actress * Jérémy Maison (born 1993), French cyclist * Leonard Maison, New York state senator 1834–1837 * Nicolas Joseph Maison (1771–1840), M ...

(Paris, France),

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

Museum Kunstpalast The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf. History The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmus ...

(Düsseldorf, Germany), and the

SK Stiftung Kultur Die Photographische Sammlung is the photography museum of the , the cultural foundation of the bank in Cologne, Germany. The full name is usually stylized Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur. The collection includes an archive of th ...

(Cologne, Germany). Their work has been reviewed or featured in publications such as ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

'', '' Art in America'', ''

Art News ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

'', ''Blindspot Magazine'', ''

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

'', ''

Art on Paper ''Art on Paper'' was a bi-monthly art magazine published from 1996 to 2009. The magazine's editorial scope included limited-edition prints and artists' books, drawings, photographs, and ephemera. History The magazine was founded in New York City ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

'', ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

'', ''

Welt am Sonntag ''Welt am Sonntag'' (German for ''World on Sunday'') is a German Sunday newspaper published in Germany. History and profile ''Welt am Sonntag'' was established in 1948. The paper is published by Axel Springer SE. Its head office is in Berlin. ...

'', and many others.

Books

* "Portraits," with essays by

Maurice Berger Maurice Berger (May 22, 1956 – March 22, 2020) was an American cultural historian, curator, and art critic, who served as a Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimo ...

, and Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, 2008, Publisher,

University of Maryland Baltimore County The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Catonsville, Maryland named after Baltimore County. It had a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs ...

, MA. * "The Transportation of Place," with essays by

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. ...

and

, 2006. Publisher: Aperture Press, New York. * "Brooklyn Abroad." with essays by Nora Alter and Rupert Pfab, May 2006. Publisher Sonnabend Gallery and

. * "Contact sheet 98: Andrea Robbins and Max Becher: German Indians and Bavarian by Law," with essays by Gary Hesse and Jolene Rickard, 1998. Publisher:

Light Work Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications. History The organization is housed at Sy ...

, Syracuse, NY. * "Andrea Robbins and Max Becher," with essays by

Benjamin Buchloh Benjamin Heinz-Dieter Buchloh (born November 15, 1941) is a German art historian. Between 2005 and 2021 he was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art in the History of Art and Architecture department at Harvard University. Education and ...

Catherine de Zegher Catherine de Zegher (born Marie-Catherine Alma Gladys de Zegher Groningen, April 14, 1955) is a Belgian curator and a modern and contemporary art historian. She has a degree in art history and archaeology from the University of Ghent. From 1988 ...

, Everlyn Nicodemus, and

Luc Lang Luc Lang (born 1956 in Suresnes) is a French writer, born into a working-class family. Biography Lang attended literary preparatory classes: Upper Letters (Hypokhâgne) at the lycée Honoré-de-Balzac, then Upper First (khâgne) at the lyc� ...

, 1994. Publisher: Kanaal Art Foundation, Kortrijk and de

Vleeshal The Vleeshal is a historical building dating from 1603 on the Grote Markt in Haarlem, the Netherlands. History ''Vleeshal'' means meat-hall, as it was the only place in Haarlem where fresh meat was allowed to be sold from 1604 to the 18th centu ...

, Middleburg, The Netherlands ASIN: B001QC688Y

Residencies and awards

* Artist-in-Residence, The

Altos de Chavón Altos de Chavón is a tourist attraction, a re-creation of a 16th-century Mediterranean–style village, located atop the Chavón River in the city of La Romana, Dominican Republic. It is the most popular attraction in the city and hosts a cultu ...

Cultural Center Foundation, La Romana, Dominican Republic (affiliated with

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

, New York) summer 1999 * Grant Recipient Artists-in-Residence,

Foundation, winter 1995 * Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Award, 2005 * Cooper Union President's Citation for Art,Cooper Union President's Citation for Ar
"PRESIDENT'S CITATION: ART"
Accessed July 9, 2011 2011

References

External links

*
Robbins/Becher at Sonnabend Gallery

Robbins/Becher at Artnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Andrea And Max Becher Living people American photographers Art duos Married couples 1963 births 1964 births