Eduardo Costa
Born in 1940, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chronology
| 1956-7 |  | Studies drawing and painting with Maria Bonomo |
| 1958 | | University of Buenos Aires. Studies Literature and Art History. |
| 1959 | | Editor of Airón magazine, with a group of writers including
Mercedes Alvarez Reynolds, José María Bottaro, Madela Ezcurra,
Marta Fernández, Ángel Núñez, Basilia Papastamatíu,
Marta Teglia, Alicia Dujovne Ortiz and others. Airón
exchanges issues with El techo de la ballena (Caracas,)
Temas (Montevideo,) and El corno emplumado (Mexico City,)
among other publications.
Takes courses with Jorge L. Borges and Ana María Barrenechea
|
| 1964 | |
Works with Oscar Masotta, a brilliant drop-out who privately
teaches and writes about art,
philosophy, literature, and psychoanalysis.
|
| 1965 | |
Graduates with an MA equivalent. |
| 1966 | |
With Raul Escari and Roberto Jacoby creates First Mass-Media
Art Work and writes A Media Art (Manifesto.)
With Jacoby and Juan Risuleo creates First Audition
of Works Made of Spoken Language, presented at the
auditorium of the Instituto Di Tella, and writes the Manifesto
for an Oral Literature.
Travels to New York, invited by Masotta. Meets Octavio Paz,
and a correspondence ensues. A phrase by Paz is widely quoted,
"There is no more esthetic contemplation because esthetics
dissolve into life."
Creates Fashion Fiction I, with the help of Juan Risuleo.
|
| 1967 | |
Fashion Fiction I at Osvaldo Giesso Gallery, BA
Participates in Change in Our Time, a symposium organized by the
Rockefeller Foundation in Caracas, Venezuela. Meets a number
of Latin American and US intellectuals and artists in the
symposium: Nicanor Parra, Rubens Gerchman, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth
Hardwick, Frank Stella, Barbara Rose, and Henry Geldzahler.
In Caracas meets some of the writers of El techo de la ballena,
among others Adriano González Leon, Edmundo Aray y Juan Calzadilla.
Also meets Clara Sujo and visits several important art collections,
among them the impressive Otero Silva collection of contemporary art.
Travels to NYC, and shows Fashion Fiction I to Leo Castelli. Castelli
is very enthusiastic about the work and arranges for Costa to meet
Alexander Liberman of Vogue. Liberman calls the work, "The most
exciting thing I've seen in recent years." He loves Costa's props
and ideas although he thinks Costa's text (which imitates fashion
copy) is perhaps inappropriate since, "This is what we are about."
Liberman sends Costa to Richard Avedon's studio, where he is allowed
into the photographic sessions, first with model Marina Schiano
and then with Marisa Berenson.
Happenings! by Oscar Masotta and others, among them Costa,
is published in Buenos Aires.
|
| 1968 | |
Fashion Fiction I is published in Vogue. Lawrence Alloway's opinion
on the work is quoted in the credit line.
On his way to New York, Costa stops in Rio de Janeiro, where
Rubens Gerchman introduces him to Helio Oiticica.
In NYC is invited by Julian Cairol to participate on a panel
organized by WRVR radio where he meets Anne Waldman
and the poets of the Saint Mark's Church on the Bowery
Poetry Project.
Meets Vito Acconci, Scott Burton, John Giorno, Lucy Lippard,
Bernadette Mayer, Lewis Warsh, John Perreault, Carter Ratcliff,
Marjorie Strider, Hannah Weiner, Carolee Schneemann, among
other US artists and writers. Also meets Luis Camnitzer,
Beba Damianovich, Leandro Katz, Marcos Margall, Cesár Paternosto,
Rolando Peña, Susana Pesce, Liliana Porter, Alejandro Puente,
Carla Stellweg, and Susana Torre among others.
Lita Hornick, a well known collector of American art and founder
of Kultur Press and Kultur magazine commissions ears of gold. Costa
makes the jewelry from a mold of Hornick's own ears, attaches findings
to the back of the objects, and the fiction becomes actual. Fashion
Fiction I is given a Harper's Bazaar's cover, photographed
by Hiro. Meets Bill Cunningham, Charles James and Salvador Dali.
Cunningham writes about Costa for the Chicago Tribune, and
commissions ears of gold.
|
| 1969 | |
Costa with Hannah Weiner and John Perreault create
The Fashion Show Poetry Event, a post-happening work that
includes fashions by James Lee Byars, Enrique Castro-Cid, Allan
D'Arcangelo, Rubens Gerchman, Alex Katz, Nicholas Krushenick,
Les Levine, Marisol, Claes Oldenburg, Roberto Plate,
Alfredo Rodríguez Arias and Juan Stoppani, Jim Rosenquist, Susana
Salgado (now Pesce), Sylvia Stone, Marjorie Strider, Andy Warhol,
and the artists/poets. This conceptual work is "pop" in its most visible
aspects and is wildly reported in the mass media. The three
organizers write the text for the show mimicking the style of fashion copy.
Harper's Bazaar, in its literary pages, publishes the poetry. Les Levine
makes the video.
Edits and publishes with John Perreault Tape Poems, an anthology
of works made specifically for stereophonic tape by artists and poets
(300 copies.) The issue is offered to main libraries
in the US and abroad, entering major collections. Included are works
by Vito Acconci, Michael Benedikt, Scott Burton, Leandro Katz and
Ted Castle, Joseph Ceravolo, John Giorno, Dan Graham,
Bernadette Mayer, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Costa and Perreault.
Street Works I-IV take place in the streets of NYC. Perreault and Costa
organize the events.
Artists, poets and critics are invited. Among them Acconci, Arakawa,
Gregory Battcock, Scott Burton, James Lee Byars, John Giorno, Les
Levine, Lucy Lippard, Meredith Monk, Mr. T, Luis Wells,
and Lil Piccard. Street Works IV is sponsored by The Architectural League.
Costa's First Useful Art Work is presented as part of Street Works III
and he writes a position paper for the press and friends.
Participates in Theater Works at Hunter College. Costa's contribution
is Six Absences, an autobiography in 18 lines on as many file cards,
read on the stage by the other participants.
The text in the first person, which starts "My name is Eduardo Costa.
I was born in Buenos Aires in 1940," is read on different days by Vito
Acconci, Scott Burton, Bernadette Mayer, John Perreault, Anne Waldman
and Hannah Weiner.
Teaches Spanish, and Spanish and Latin American Literature
at City College.
Rubén Santantonín passes away in Buenos Aires. A talented friend
and informal art teacher, Santantonín had introduced Costa to the work
of Lucio Fontana and to his own, brilliant work.
Santantonín's Cosas (Things,) a group of rounded hollow objects
shown hanging from the ceiling at the Lirolay Gallery in BA, were made of
chicken wire and covered with burlap on which paint
was applied. These were the first paintings on a volumetric support.
|
| 1970 | |
Participates in 4 Theater Pieces at The Wadsworth Atheneum,
organized by Scott Burton.
The other participants are Burton, Perreault and Acconci.
Participates in Art in the Mind, curated by Athena Spear at Oberlin College.
Visits Puerto Rico with Scott Burton.
|
| 1971 | |
Returns to Buenos Aires. Correspondence with several US friends,
notably with Scott Burton.
|
| 1972 | |
Receives a fellowship from the University of Buenos Aires to study
new American poetry. Works on the project for two years,
includes Afro-American poets, translates all into Spanish.
|
| 1974 | |
Costa creates Row of Ants Bracelet, which is meant to generate
Fashion Fiction II, and Diamonds of Gold as actual jewelry.
|
| 1975 | |
Costa travels to Europe and then to NY. Scott Burton shoots
at his place on Thompson Street, Portrait of Eduardo, a series
of 5 frames where he experiments with partially out-of-focus
images of his friend.
Discovers Marcel Duchamp¹s bathtub at Duchamp¹s last address,
24 W. 10th Street in Manhattan, where Donald Droll then lived.
Duchamp's Bathtub is the actual bathtub of the artist, which he had
"assisted" by replacing some of the original surrounding white tiles
with decorated ones, showing motifs related to his work. Costa has
the bathroom photographed.
Introduces Helio Oiticica to Scott Burton.
|
| 1976 | |
Writes Duchamp's Bathtub for La Opinión, Buenos Aires.
Attempts to reconcile his media work, which is initially meant to exist
in the media, with the exhibition space of galleries and museums. Makes
several drawings for mass media works in the gallery.
Irving Penn photographs Row of Ants Bracelet for Vogue. The photograph
is extraordinary, a close up of model Iman's face, looking horrified as
gold ants crawl on it, bathed in Penn's light. The shot is never published
because it is thought to be too aggressive towards women, hence Fashion
Fiction II is aborted.
Starts working on Media Cross, a medium size work made of magazine
pages from the 1968 issue of Vogue, which contained Costa's work,
and is meant to be exhibited in a traditional art space.
Meets Jeff Weinstein, who will become a friend, and later writes
about Costa for The Village Voice.
|
| 1977 | |
Participates in Homenaje a Marcel Duchamp, curated by Álvaro
Castagnino at Galería Arte Nuevo, BA, with a model of The
Duchamp/Costa Wheel.
Completes Media Cross and develops plans for a series of
"mass-media works in the gallery."
|
| 1978 | |
Indignent after repeatedly being detained during police background
sweeps, Costa leaves BA and moves to Rio de Janeiro.
Runs into Helio Oiticica in the street. Unknowingly to Costa, the Brazilian
artist has just returned to Rio after several years in New York. They
meet almost daily until Oiticica's sudden death in 1980.
Through Oiticica, Costa meets and befriends a most interesting
group of artists, musicians, and intellectuals: Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape,
Ferreira Gullar, Mario Pedrosa, Antonio Manuel, Macalé, Esther Emilio
Carlos, Jimmy Bastian Pinto, Sonia and George Salomao, Waly Salomao,
Ney Matogrosso, Marcos Bonisson, Glauber Rocha, Marcos Rodrigues,
Suely Rolnick, Jorginho Guinle, Ferreira Gullar, Oscar Ramos, Luciano
Figueiredo, Regina Vater, Neville D¹Almeida, and Caetano Veloso.
Meets Mestre Didi (Deoscoredes Maximiliano dos Santos) the artist-priest
from Bahia, and his wife, anthropologist Juana Elbein dos Santos, who
become close friends, introducing Costa to Afro-Brazilian culture.
Costa starts working on The Duchamp-Costa Bicycle, an assisted
bicycle based on The Duchamp/Costa Wheel, which is meant as
a model for industrial production.
|
| 1979 | |
Federico Moura, later on the lead singer of the Argentinean rock
group Virus, works with Costa on business ideas. Costa sees the
Argentinean writers Manuel Puig and Reynaldo Mariani.
Participates in Esquenta Pro Carnaval, organized by Oiticica
at the Morro da Mangueira.
Linda Shearer, then curator at the Guggenheim Museum, visits Rio.
Scott Burton refers her to Costa, who introduces Shearer to Oiticica
and other Brazilian artists. Barbara London, video curator at MOMA,
also visits Rio and is introduced around by Costa.
Lygia Clark gives Costa one of her legendary art-therapeutic sessions.
Years later, Costa describes the experience in an illustrated letter
to Guy Brett.
Travels to São Paulo with Oiticica and Vater to attend the
International Jazz Festival.
|
| 1980 | |
Helio Oiticica passes away. The scene that thrived around him declines.
Costa, who steadily corresponds with Scott Burton, writes to him about
Oiticica's death. Burton extends condolences and offers to help with
Oiticica's work in New York.
The Duchamp/Costa Bicycle is completed.
|
| 1981 | |
Costa returns to New York, with Laminated Butterflies, meant to
generate Fashion Fiction III.
He meets Jade Hobson, a young and talented Vogue editor
who supports his projects.
Usable Art opens, an exhibition curated by John Perreault at the
Queens Museum where Costa's work is shown. Other artists in the show
are Scott Burton, Chris Burden, and Marjorie Strider. The exhibition travels
to the San Diego, El Paso, and Danforth Art Museums among others.
|
| 1982 | |
Fashion Fiction III is published in Vogue, generating another "beauty shot"
with King as the photographer and Shari Belafonte as the model.
Costa tries to design and commercialize some real jewelry, as opposed
to his jewelry fictions. Is hired by Carolina Herrera, creating pieces
specifically for her shows. Through Herrera, sells commercial versions
of his designs to Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel, and major stores
nationwide.
Costa meets Ana Mendieta. A close friendship follows. Later on, when
Mendieta travels to Cuba and then to Rome for her Residency at the
American Academy, a correspondence develops.
Recent Editions, curated by Carla Stellweg, presents Laminated
Butterflies As Christmas Tree Ornaments at The Americas Society.
|
| 1983 | |
Works for designers Geoffrey Beene and Fabrice. Through Beene
Fashion Fiction IV is shown to Harper's Bazaar.
Costa makes first Electric Painting and Electric Installation, works
using electrical wires and light bulbs.
|
| 1984 | |
Fashion Fiction IV is published in Harper's Bazaar. Costa starts working
on A Portable Monument, a 8 ft x 12 ft sculpture in screen format which
used 64 original pages of Fashion Fiction IV. On the other side of Costa's
full-color page, where a laughing model wears his fictions, the deeply
troubled face of Tennessee Williams is seen. Photgraphed by Scavullo,
this was Williams last photo session as he commited suicide
shortly thereafter.
|
| 1985 | |
Ana Mendieta passes away.
Designs jewelry for Christophe de Menil's fashion shows. Collaborates
with the designer on some of the pieces.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires Gold Diamond Ring, Row
of Ants Bracelet and Laminated Butterflies.
|
| 1986 | |
Eminent Immigrants, curated by John Perreault, at The Snug Harbor
Cultural Center, S.I. includes Costa's The Duchamp-Costa Bicycle, Media
Cross, and Media Lingam. Other artists in the show are Christo, Ana
Mendieta, Les Levine, Naoto Nakagawa, Sylvia Sleigh, Bernar Venet.
Mestre Didí and his wife come to New York for his sculpture exhibition
at the Schomburg Center.
Federico Moura asks Costa to write the lyrics for a song. Costa composes
Luna de miel (Honeymoon,) based on a concept by James Joyce. The song
is released and becomes N°1 across Latin America.
|
| 1987 | |
Burton introduces Costa to Richard Martin and Harold Koda, who are
working on the final stages of Fashion and Surrealism. Costa is included
in the show (too late for the catalog.) Fashion and Surrealism, opens
at FIT in NYC. Costa shows Branch Bracelets, Row of Ants Bracelet,
Laminated Butterflies, and Gold Diamond Ring.
Costa writes the lyrics of another song for Moura, Encuentro en el rio
musical (Encounter in the Musical River,) which also becomes a N°1 hit,
and generates a popular video.
|
| 1988 | |
Fashion and Surrealism travels to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Costa goes to London for the opening. Meets Guy Brett and a
correspondence follows.
The Latin American Spirit, organized by Luis Cancel opens at The Bronx
Museum of the Arts.
Costa's Fashion Fiction I is included in Magnet: New York, the
contemporary section curated by Carla Stellweg.
A third Fashion Fiction III presentation is photographed for and appears
in Vogue Magazine, Jade Hobson, editor.
|
| 1989 | |
Scott Burton passes away.
Daniel Melgarejo, a talented Argentine artist and friend from the 1970's,
who works as an animator for Disney in NY, passes away.
Fashion Fiction IV: A Portable Monument, the large sculpture
of Costa's Bazaar pages is completed.
Pervasive Symbiosis, curated by Carla Stellweg at the Carla Stellweg
Gallery, presents the Torsos series, a group of semi-flat representations
of male torsos using only stretched canvas.
|
| 1990 | |
Begins collaboration with Marta Chilindron on various projects. Vertical
Extensions, Horizontal Extensions, Vogue Blocks, and Talking Paintings
involve laminated magazine pages.
Other collaborations include City Gardens, Touched by Light,
and Paint Clothes.
|
| 1991 | |
Vogue Blocks, a temporary, outdoor installation at Queensborough
Community College, curator Faustino Quintanilla.
|
| 1992 | |
The Art Mall: A Social Space, (group) curated by Brian Hannon
at The New Museum. Vertical Extensions are presented.
Small Street Gardens in several street locations in Manhattan.
Costa writes an article on Hélio Oiticica for Flash Art, editor
Francesco Bonami.
Dissimilar Identities, curated by Berta Sichel at the Scott Alan
Gallery, NYC, presents magazine paintings and sculptures.
|
| 1993 | |
Starts writing for Art in America. Editor Elizabeth Baker, whom
Costa had met year earlier through Scott Burton, becomes a
mentor and friend.
ABC, (group) curated by Berta Sichel at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery,
Baruch College, NYC, present a large magazine painting.
|
| 1994 | |
First "Volumetric Paintings" (a name given by Carter Ratcliff.)
Talking Paintings are shown at IBEU Copacabana (Rio de Janeiro.)
The "paintings", made of laminated magazine pages on wood, are
equipped with tape recorders, and tell the audience about their own
characteristics and problems. Two of them talk to each other.
Dreams is an installation using Vertical and Horizontal Extensions
shown at IBEU Madureira. The viewers have to lay on
beds to see the images in the Extensions. Both shows are curated
by Esther Emilio Carlos.
Reunion with Lygia Pape, Antonio Manuel, Jimmy Bastian Pinto, Esther
Emilio Carlos, and others from the initial Brazilian group.
Costa and Chilindron travel to Chile invited by Roberto Edwards
to participate in Cuerpos pintados, curated by Luz Maria Williamson,
they contribute Paint Clothes.
|
| 1995 | |
Works on various volumetric paintings.
A group of seven representational volumetric paintings is shown at
Group Show, Elga Wimmer Gallery, NYC.
The Portrait Now, (group) presents Field of Poppies, a talking painting,
at the Elga Wimmer Gallery.
Soho Biennial, (group) curated by Abe Lubelsky, 450 Broadway
Gallery, NYC.
One of the Talking Paintings is presented.
Starts writing for ArtNet magazine, an internet art magazine,
Walter Robinson, editor.
Works for a year as a full-time editor of children's books for
Scholastic, Inc. (Spanish Language division.)
|
| 1996 | |
Works on volumetric paintings Covers the Guadalajara Art Fair for ArtNet.
|
| 1997 | |
Works on volumetric paintings. Lygia Pape and Esther Emilio Carlos visit
Costa in New York, and he takes molds of their faces as a basis for their
volumetric portraits.
Travels to Cuba to cover the Havana Biennial for Art in America.
Interviews Llilian Llanes, curator of the Biennial, and Achile Bonito Oliva,
Pierre Restany, Robert Loder and Norbert Nobis.Article is published
in 1998, editor Cathy Lebowitz.
|
| 1998 | |
Volumetric Paintings (solo) at ICI in Buenos Aires, curated by Laura
Buccellato (catalog,) José Tono Martínez, director. Reunion with
Argentinean group, including Roberto Jacoby, Raul Escari, Dalila Puzzovio,
Charlie Squirru, Mercedes Alvarez Reynolds, Edgardo Jiménez, Fernando
Bustillo, Marta Minujin, Luis Felipe Noé, Luis Wells, Rogelio Polesello,
Mercedes Robirosa, Osvaldo Giesso, Pier Cantamesa, and Ignacio Beola.
Lygia Pape and Esther Emilio Carlos, whose volumetric portraits are
in the show, travel to Buenos Aires for the opening.
Writes about the work of Magdalena Campos-Pons for Art in America.
Meets the artist and a friendship develops.
Ruth Benzacar offers to represent Costa, which he accepts.
|
| 1999 | |
The White Paintings opens at The Work Space, curated by Judy
Colischan, who brings together white works by both Perreault and Costa.
Publication of Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology, by Alexander Alberro
and Blake Stimson (MIT Press.) The early A Media Art (manifesto) by
Jacoby, Escari and Costa, is included.
Re: Duchamp (group), curated by Mike Bidlo, Abe Lubelsky Gallery.
Global Conceptualism (group) organized by Luis Camnitzer, Jane Farver
and Rachel Weiss opens at the Queens Museum. Costa is included in the
Latin American section, curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez. The show travels
to the Walker Art Center, The Miami Art Museum, and the List Art Center
at MIT.
En Medio de los Medios, curated by María José Herrera, Museo Nacional
de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires. A version of Fashion Fiction I is shown,
and recordings of The First Audition of Works Made of Spoken Language,
as well as Tape Poems, are made accessible to visitors.
|
| 2000 | |
Square Roots, (group) curated by Ladd Spiegel at Cecilia
de Torres, Ltd., NYC.
Travels to BA for the Buenos Aires Art fair, where he is represented
by Cecilia de Torres, Ltd.
Ruth Benzacar passes away.
Talk on his own work at the List Art Center, Boston, Mass.
A version of Fashion Fiction I is presented at the Centro Reina Sofía
in Madrid as part of Heterotopias: Half a Century Without a Place,
1918-1968, curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez and Héctor Olea (catalog.)
The considerably enlarged fashion spread begins with Costa's pages
from Vogue 1968, hanging from the ceiling in a "penetrable"
or walk-through format.
|
| 2001 | |
Volumetric Paintings: The Geometric Works (solo) at Cecilia
de Torres, Inc. (catalog.)
Pop Art (group), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (catalog.)
|
| 2002 | |
A traveling retrospective exhibition is organized with the Museum
of Modern Art in Buenos Aires (catalog.)
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