Athena Tacha (; b. 1936 in

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

), is a multimedia visual artist. She is best known for her work in the fields of

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

public sculpture and conceptual art. She also worked in a wide array of materials including stone, brick, steel, water, plants, and L.E.D. lighting. photography, film, and artists’ books. Tacha's work focused on personal narratives, and often plays with geometry and form.

Early life, education, and academic career

Tacha was born in 1936 in Greece. She received an M.A. in sculpture from the

Athens School of Fine Arts The Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA; , ΑΣΚΤ) is a Greek higher education institution, specializing in the visual arts. History The Athens School of Fine Arts was established on 12 January 1837, known as the ''School for the Arts''. In the ...

in Greece (1959); an M.A. in art history from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, Oberlin, Ohio (1961); and a Doctorate in aesthetics from the Sorbonne in Paris (1963). After her studies, she worked as the curator of modern art at the

Allen Memorial Art Museum The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) is an art museum located in Oberlin, Ohio, and it is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, the collection contains over 15,000 works of art. Overview The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum and is aimed at ...

, organizing contemporary art exhibitions (including ''Art In The Mind'', 1970). She has published two books and various articles on

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

, Brâncuși, Nadelman and other 20th-century sculptors. From 1973 to 2000, she was a professor of sculpture at Oberlin College. Since 1998, she has been an affiliate of the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

, and lives in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

Artwork

One of the first artists to develop environmental site-specific sculpture in the early 1970s, Tacha has won over fifty competitions for permanent

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

commissions, of which nearly forty have been executed throughout the U.S. One of these public works was a two-acre sculptural landscape in downtown

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

entitled ''Connections'' within

Matthias Baldwin Park Matthias Baldwin Park is a public park at 423 North 19th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1991, the park was dedicated as Franklin Town Park as part of the 50-acre development called Franklin Town. The Franklin Town Development Corpo ...

. She has had six one-artist shows in New York—at the Zabriskie Gallery, the Max Hutchinson Gallery,

Franklin Furnace Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, and manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (o ...

, the Foundation for Hellenic Studies, and the Kouros Gallery—and has exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the world, including the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. She produced a body of textual and photographic conceptual works and poetic studies, many of which were published as artist's books. Athena Tacha's artist books were printed between 1970 and 2005. An interactive online display of the artist books and other printed materials can be found at

Printed Matter, Inc Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit grant-supported bookstore, artist organization, and arts space which publishes and distributes artists' books. It is currently located at 231 11th Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of N ...

.The pocket books series are small folded books, similar to a zine that were often sold in a plastic sleeve. In ''The Way My Mind Works,'' Tacha writes about her schizophrenic mind, her ruminating mind, her orderly mind. Others in the pocket series examine everyday life. The larger artist books focus on geometry, space, and minimalism. ''A Dictionary of Steps'' displays diagrams of steps. In addition, Tacha explored self portraiture, in works like ''Gestures'' and ''Expressions''.

Exhibitions

In 1989, a retrospective of more than 100 of Tacha's sculptures, drawings and conceptual photographic pieces was held at the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

in Atlanta. It included large color photographs of her executed commissions and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog, ''Athena Tacha: Public Works, 1970-88'' (introductory essay by John and Catherine Howett). The same year, she had an exhibition of new work, over 50 sculptures and drawings, as well as two large temporary installations, at the

Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (abbreviated to moCa) is a contemporary art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in Metropolitan Cleveland. The organisation was founded by Marjorie ...

, also accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog (with an essay by Thalia Gouma-Peterson). Her most recent museum solo show, ''Small Wonders: New Sculpture and Photoworks'' at the American University's

Katzen Arts Center The Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center is home to all of the visual and performing arts programs at American University and the American University Museum. It is located at Ward Circle, the intersection of Nebraska Avenue and Massachusetts Aven ...

, Washington, DC, 2006, had a fully illustrated catalog with essays by

Anne Ellegood Anne Ellegood (born 1966 or 1967) is an American curator and museum director who is the executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ellegood joined the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as a curator in 2009, and embarked on ...

and Brenda Brown (reinstalled in New York at Kouros Gallery in 2007). Since Tacha moved to Washington, DC, she has had two solo exhibitions at the Marsha Mateyka Gallery (2004 and 2008). A 40-year retrospective (over 100 works), "Athena Tacha: From the Public to the Private," opened at the Contemporary Art Center (

State Museum of Contemporary Art State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

) in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, Greece, Jan. 16 - April 11, 2010. It presents for the first time all aspects of Tacha's art—from large outdoor commissions, to "body sculptures" and photoworks, to conceptual art and films—with a bilingual catalog (164 pp., 113 color illustrations). It is scheduled travel to Larissa and Athens through 2010.

Tacha's sculptures and photo-works are in many American museums and private collections, including the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

, the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

, the

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art gallery, art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of A ...

, the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, and the Agnes Gund Collection.

Latest executed commissions (2001–09)

* ''Victory Plaza'', 2000–02, a plaza with fountains in front of the

American Airlines Center The American Airlines Center (AAC) is a multi-purpose List of indoor arenas, indoor arena located in the Victory Park, Dallas, Victory Park neighborhood in downtown Dallas, Texas. The arena serves as the home of the Dallas Stars of the National ...

(in collaboration with SWA),

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* ''STOP & GO: to Garrett Augustus Morgan'', 2001–04, a plaza for Metrorail's Morgan Blvd. Station,

* ''Hearts Beat'', 2002–04, a long ceiling of animated LEDs for a sky bridge between Grosvenor Metro station and the Strathmore Music Center, N.

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

. * ''Riding with Sarah and Wayne'', 2004–06, a mile-long trackbed pavement for the Light Rail,

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. * ''Waterlinks II'', 2006–08, a 16x28 ft. granite water wall at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

’s Business School,

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

* An amphitheater and two fountains for the

Muhammad Ali Center The Muhammad Ali Center is a non-profit museum and cultural center dedicated to boxer Muhammad Ali in Louisville, Kentucky. Ali, a native of Louisville, and his wife Lonnie Ali founded the museum in 2005. The six-story, museum is located in t ...

Plaza (ca. 5000 m2), 2002–09, in collaboration with EDAW, AGA and Color Kinetics,

Louisville, KY Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

. * A plaza pavement with a ''Light Obelisk Fountain'' in front of Bloomingdale's; an arcade ceiling, ''Light Riggings,'' with RGB animation; and a LED sculpture, '' WWW-Tower'', 2001-09—in collaboration with Arrowstreet Inc., CRJA and Art Display Co. -- for Wisconsin Place, a development at Friendship Heights Metro station,

Books, catalogs, and articles

Books on Tacha's work: *''Athena Tacha: Public Sculpture'' (1982), with introductory essays by Ellen H. Johnson and Theodore Wolff *''Forms of Chaos: Drawings by Athena Tacha'' (1988) *Elizabeth McClelland, ''Cosmic Rhythms: Athena Tacha's Public Sculpture'' (1998), in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title at the

Beck Center for the Arts Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, Ohio, is a non-profit, performing arts and arts education organization. It is the largest theater and arts center An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre ...

in Cleveland *''Dancing in the Landscape: The Sculpture of Athena Tacha'' (2000), with an introduction by Harriet Senie and over 200 color reproductions. *''Visualizing the Universe. Athena Tacha's Proposals for Public Art Commissions, 1972-2012'' (2017), ed. Richard E. Spear, introduction by Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer. *''Fifty Years Inside an Artist's Mind: The Journal of Athena Tacha'' (2020), 780 pp., edited with introduction by Richard E. Spear, Washington, D.C., 2020, . *Richard E. Spear, ''The Art of Athena Tacha. A Complete Catalogue'' (2022), 200 pp., introduction by Syrago Tsiara, Washington, D.C. . Main solo exhibition catalogs: *''Athena Tacha: Public Works, 1970-88'' (2009), with an introductory essay by Catherine M. Howett and John Howett,

, Atlanta, GA *''Athena Tacha: New Works, 1986-89'' (1989),

, with an introductory essay by Thalia Gouma-Peterson *''Athena Tacha: Small Wonders - New Sculptures and Photoworks'' (2006), with introductory essays by Anne Ellegood and Brenda Brown, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, Sept.6-Oct.29, 2006 *''Athena Tacha: From Public to Private'' (2010), a bilingual catalogue for a traveling 40-year retrospective, with essays by Katerina Koskina and Syrago Tsiara, CACT (State Museum of Modern Art), Thessaloniki, Greece Several of Tacha's New York exhibitions have illustrated catalogues -- ''Massacre Memorials'' (Max Hutchinson, 1984), with an essay 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. ...

; ''Vulnerability: New Fashions'' (Franklin Furnace, 1994), a conceptual art piece critiquing the fashion industry; and ''Athena Tacha: Shields and Universes'' (Foundation for Hellenic Culture, 2001).

References

External links

Athena Tacha official WebsiteOutdoor sculptures in Ohio
Sculpturecenter.org

*The ttp://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/t/Tacha3518.html Athena Tacha papers consisting mostly of early correspondence, education materials, publications, and artwork, are available for research use at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

* Archives of American Ar

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tacha, Athena 1936 births Living people People from Larissa Greek emigrants to the United States Greek artists Oberlin College alumni University of Paris alumni American contemporary artists Postmodern artists Photographers from Washington, D.C. Greek women photographers 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers 20th-century Greek photographers 21st-century Greek photographers

Early life, education, and academic career

Artwork

Exhibitions

Latest executed commissions (2001–09)

Books, catalogs, and articles

Further reading

References

External links