Abraham David Christian

Abraham David Christian is among the most renowned artists of his generation. Since his participation at the Documenta 5, his work has been widely shown internationally. Christian's sculptures were included in Documenta 5, when he was only nineteen years old, and he had his first one-person show at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, in 1973. Abraham David Christian was invited to participate in documenta 6 in 1977, but rejected this invitation.[1] His work was included again in Documenta 7 in 1982.

After his first inclusion in Documenta, in 1972, he went on to have one-person exhibitions at the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld (1978), at the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf (1983), at the Sprengel Museum, Hannover (1985, 1994), at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais (1988) and at the Tallinna Kunstihoone, Estonia (1998). The Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg exhibited 2000 his drawings and sculptures in an important international presentation. This exhibition was accompanied by a book published by DuMont Verlag, Cologne. Exhibitions at the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst Bremen and at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal followed in 2003/2004. Kehrer Verlag in Heidelberg published a book for these exhibitions. An extensive collection of works by the artist were shown in the exhibition 'Abraham David Christian – 道 – The Way' 2010 at the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum Küppersmühle Duisburg. The book for this exhibition was published by Kerber Verlag (Bielefeld-Leipzig-Berlin). 2020 the Kunstmuseum Bochum showed earth sculptures from the 1970s in the solo exhibition 'Abraham David Christian ERDE'.

Abraham David Christian's work was shown at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Hayama, at the CAFA Art Museum in Peking, at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, at the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin and at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin . He has also had one-person exhibitions in such galleries as Gallery m, Bochum (1979, 1986), Gallery Friedrich, Bern (1980, 1992), Gatodo Gallery, Tokyo (1986, 1988), Diane Brown Gallery, New York (1987), Elke Dröscher Gallery, Hamburg (1990), Shigeru Yokota Gallery Tokio (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019), James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica (1992), Herbert Meyer-Ellinger Gallery, Frankfurt (1993), Annina Nosei Gallery, New York (1999), Michael Haas Gallery, Berlin (2002), Gallery Löhrl, Mönchengladbach (2006), Gallery Utermann, Dortmund (1993, 2009, 2011, 2012), Gallery Rothamel, Erfurt/Frankfurt (2008, 2010), GALERiARTiST Istanbul (2011), annex14 Bern (2012), Sabine Schmidt Gallery, Cologne (2012), GALERiARTiST Ankara (2012), André Kirbach Gallery, Düsseldorf (2014, 2015), Susanne Albrecht Gallery, Berlin (2017), Gallery Scheffel, Bad Homburg (2018), annex14, Zurich (2018), Gallery Haas, Zurich (2018), Michael Haas Galerie, Kunst Lager Haas Berlin (2019). His work is included in many important public and private collections in Europe, Asia and America, including the Grothe Collection in Berlin and the Ströher Collection in Duisburg.

Important book publications include '[Selbst] Abraham David Christian' (Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, 1978); 'Abraham David Christian; Forty Years of Work' (Sprengel Museum Hannover 1985), 'Abraham David Christian, Mississippi' (Tallinna Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia, 1998); 'Abraham David Christian, La Salle des Pieds Perdus': Drawing / Zeichnung (Edgewise Press, New York, April 1999); 'Abraham David Christian, Nebraska' (Kulturzentrum Sinsteden, Rommerskirchen, 2000); 'Abraham David Christian, THE WAYS OF THE WORLD' (Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, 2000) published by DuMont Verlag, Cologne, 'Abraham David Christian, Bronze Sculptures' (Kehrer, Heidelberg, 2003). Another important monograph on his work was published by Kehrer in 2003, in conjunction with his museum exhibition, 'Abraham David Christian. The Language of Man', at the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen and Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal in 2004, with essays by Thomas Deecke, Peter Friese, Hans-Jürgen Heinrichs and Richard Milazzo. In 2006, Christian published "Along the Hudson", a book of drawings, with Tokyo Publishing House. 2010 the book for the exhibition 'Abraham David Christian – 道 – The Way' 2010 at the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum Küppersmühle Duisburg was published by Kerber Verlag (Bielefeld-Leipzig-Berlin). 'Abraham David Christian, SchwarzWald' was published by Tokyo Publishing House in 2015. 'Abraham David Christian, Silva Nigra' was published by Kehrer, Heidelberg, 2016.

The June 2001 issue of Art in America, featured an article by Janet Koplos on his work. Abraham David Christian has been described as an "international artist whose work cannot be confined to any one country or defined by any one culture. Geometrical and shape-of-life forms reference the traditions of Eastern, Western, African and American cultures, even as they remain perfectly unique unto themselves. His paper and bronze sculptures convene the spirits of Renaissance art (Donatello and Michelangelo), the Classical abstract art of the avantgarde in the twentieth century (Giacometti, Brancusi, and David Smith), the most (so-called) ‘primitive’ objects from the smallest villages in Africa, and the most (so-called) ‘refined’ goddess or Buddha from India, Southeast Asia, or Japan. It is work that is both irrepressible and restrained, libidinal and Minimal, fragile and, of late, monumental. Before the term ‘multicultural’ ever existed, Christian's sculptures and drawings took for their most basic premises the ‘language [or languages] of man’ and the ‘ways of the world.’

Work by the artist is represented in permanent collections worldwide, including the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst Bremen, the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, the Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst Duisburg, The Museum of Modern Art New York City, the Busch-Reisinger Museum Cambridge, MA, the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Musée des Beaux Arts, Calais, the FRAC Collection, France, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Japanese Sword Museum Tokyo, the Tokyo Bijutsu Club, Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, Fukuyama Museum of Art, Fukuyama, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Takasaki and in company collections including the Fuji Xerox Collection, Tokyo, the Obayashi Corporation Collection, Tokyo, the Sammlung Nationalbank, Essen, the Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt/M, the Munich Re Art Collection, Munich.

Abraham David Christian has lectured at Keio University, Tokyo; Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi-Shi, Japan; China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China; the National university, Seoul, Korea; and extensively in Europe and the United States.

Abraham David Christian lives and works in New York City, Düsseldorf and Hayama, Japan.

• 1978 Villa Romana prize

• documenta 5 Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute; Bd 1: (Information); Bd 2: (Exhibition catalogue); Kassel 1972
• documenta 7 Kassel ; Bd. 1: (Biographies of the artists); Bd. 2: (Exhibition catalogue); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6
• Storck, Gerhard (Editor); [Selbst]; ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN; Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Exhibition catalogue, [Selbst] ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Haus Lange Krefeld, 29. – 19 January. March 1978; Krefeld 1978
• Honisch, Dieter (Editor); Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland : 1945 – 1985 ; Exhibition catalogue: 'Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland : 1945 – 1985', Nationalgalerie Berlin 27. September 1985 – 21. January 1986; Berlin 1985 ISBN 3-87584-158-1
• Milazzo, Richard (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, LA SALLE DES PIEDS PERDUS, ZEICHNUNG / DRAWING; New York, Paris, Turin, Louisville 1999 ISBN 1-893207-01-3
• Brockhaus, Christoph (Editor); Abraham David Christian, die Wege der Welt; Exhibition catalogue, Abraham David Christian, die Wege der Welt, Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum Duisburg 20. – 30 February. April 2000; Köln 2000 ISBN 3-7701-5051-1
• Friese, Peter (Editor); Abraham David Christian – Die Sprache des Menschen; Exhibition catalogue: Abraham David Christian – Die Sprache des Menschen, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, 16. November 2003 – 29. February 2004, Von-der-Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, 16. März – 18. Mai 2004; Heidelberg 2003 ISBN 3-936636-10-9
• Smerling, Walter (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, THE WAY • DER WEG, Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, THE WAY • DER WEG, MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst Duisburg 11. – 29 June. August 2010, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld/Leipzig/Berlin ISBN 978-3-86678-412-3
• Forstbauer, Nikolai B. / Metzger, Rainer / Milazzo, Richard; ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, TIEFENBRONN; Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, TIEFENBRONN; St. Maria Magdalena, Tiefenbronn, 21. – 9 October. November 2014, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86828-526-0.
• Yokota, Shigeru (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, SchwarzWald; Tokyo Publishing House, Tokyo 2015
• Kunstmuseum Pforzheim (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Silva Nigra; Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Silva Nigra; Kunstmuseum Pforzheim, 23. Oktober 2016 – 19. März 2017, Heidelberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-86828-755-4
• Költzsch, Erika (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Zeichnungen und Skulpturen / Drawings and Sculptures; Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Zeichnungen und Skulpturen / Drawings and Sculptures, Galerie Haas, 1. June – 17. July 2018, Zürich 2018
• Yokota, Shigeru (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, 三十; Tokyo Publishing House, Tokyo 2018
• Haas, Michael (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN; Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, Galerie Haas & KUNST LAGER HAAS, 26. April – 15. June 2019, Berlin 2019
• Jung, Jörg (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN · EISEN; Cologne 2019
• Golinski, Hans Günter (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN · ERDE; Bochum 2020; Exhibition catalogue: ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN · ERDE, Kunstmuseum Bochum, 5. July 2020 - 11. October 2020
• Yokota, Shigeru (Editor); ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN, 百八; Tokyo Publishing House, Tokyo 2020

• Abraham David Christian in the German National Library catalogue
• Artist's website