Howard Fried (born June 14, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional Aesthetics, aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes ca ...

who became known in the 1970s for his pioneering work in

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

. He lives and works in Vallejo, California.

Biography

Howard Fried attended

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

from 1964 to 1967, received his B.F.A. from the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

in 1968 and his M.F.A. from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, in 1970. He founded the video and performance department (currently the New Genres Department) at the

. Fried is associated with the first generation of conceptual artists in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, along with

Terry Fox Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958 June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated due to cancer, he embarked on an east-to-west cross-Canada run to raise money ...

Lynn Hershman Lynn Hershman Leeson (née Lynn Lester Hershman; born 1941) is a multimedia American artist and filmmaker. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new me ...

, David Ireland,

Paul Kos Paul Joseph Kos (born December 23, 1942) is an American conceptual artist and educator, he is one of the founders of the Bay Area Conceptual Art movement in California. Kos incorporates video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installa ...

, Stephen Laub, and

Tom Marioni Tom Marioni (born 1937, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) is an American artist and educator, known for his conceptual artwork. Marioni was active in the emergence of Conceptual Art movement in the 1960s. He founded the Museum of Conceptual Art ( ...

, among others. His early works addressed such issues as decision making, conflict situations, control, predictability, learning, and cognitive processes. Fried has participated in numerous group exhibitions including the 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1983

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;

documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

V, Kassel Germany; Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco; the Berkeley Art Museum, University of California; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco. Fried has held solo exhibitions at the de Saisset Art Gallery and Museum, University of Santa Clara, California; Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; and/or, Seattle, Washington; the Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley; and apexart, New York, among others. A mid-career retrospective was organized at Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley in 1983.

Selected works

*''The Seven States of Openness'' (1969–70) – installation, objects, drawings, text *''All My Dirty Blue Clothes'' (1969) – installation *''Spectral Analysis'' (1969) – installation *''Studio Relocation''(1970) – photo and text *''1970'' (1970) – Super 8 film installation *''Chronometric Depth Perception'' (1970) – Super 8 film, photo and text *''Inside the Harlequin: Approach-Avoidance III and II''(1971) – Double Super 8 film installation *''Synchromatic Baseball'' (September 5, 1971) – performance action, 16 Rose Street, San Francisco *''40 Winks'' (December 10, 1971) – performance action, University Art Museum, Berkeley *''Fuck You Purdue'' (1971) – videotape *''Sea Sell Sea Sick at Saw Sea Soar'' (1971) – videotape *''The Schizophrenia Projects'' (1970–71) – installation with text *''Drawings 1-9'' (1971–74) - drawings *''Which Hunt?'' (1972) – videotape *''Indian War Dance / Indian Rope Trick'' (July 24–25, 1972) – performance action, documenta V, Kassel, Germany *''Fireman’s Conflict Resolution'' (1972, 1978, 1979) – installation *''Seaquick'' (1972) – performance, installation, videotape *''Long John Servil vs. Long John Silver'' (1972) – performance documentation *''Interaction'' performance/installation, April 20, 1973, ''All Night Sculptures'', MOCA and ''Ghost of the Creamer'' (1974) – videotape *''Sustatense'' (1974) - videotape, KQED *''Derelict'' (1974) - installation *''The Burghers of Fort Worth'' (1975–76) – performance action, 16mm film transferred to video *''Clock of Commercial Significance'' 1976-80 – photo and text documentation of ''Synchromatic Baseball'', ''40 Winks'' and ''Portrait by Rumor (Chainsmoke).'' *''Vito's Reef'' (1978) – videotape *''The Museum Reaction Piece'' (1978–82) – video installation *''Condom'' (1979–80) – videotape *''Making a Paid Political Announcement'' (1981–82) – videotape *''Sociopath''(1983) – installation *''The Edge of the Forest'' (1983) – installation *''Pattern Maker'' (1984) - installation *''Atomic +- Control'' (1985) - video installation *''Commercial Explosion #3'' (1986) - installation *''Watershed D'' (1989) - installation

Selected bibliography

* Richardson, Brenda. "Howard Fried: The Paradox of Approach-Avoidance," ''Arts Magazine,'' 45 (Summer 1971) * Bear, Liza. "Howard Fried; The Cheshire Cat," ''Avalanche'', no. 4 (Spring 1972) * White, Robin. ''Interview with Howard Fried at Crown Point Press'', ‘’View’’. Oakland, California: Crown Point Press, 1979. * Roth, Moira. "A Star is Born: Performance Art in California," ''Performing Arts Journal'', Vol. 4, No. 3. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1980. * Foley, Suzanne. ''Space Time Sound, Conceptual Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: The 1970s''. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1981. * Lewallen, Constance. ''Howard Fried: Works from 1969 to 1983''. Berkeley: University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, 1983. * Albright, Thomas. ''Art of the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945 - 1980''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. , * University of Massachusetts Amherst, University Gallery. ''In site: five conceptual artists from the Bay Area: Terry Fox, Howard Fried, David Ireland, Paul Kos, Tom Marioni: University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, February 2 March 17, 1990.'' Amherst: University Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1990. * Hall, Doug, Sally Jo Fifer, ed. ''Illuminating Video: An Essential Guide to Video Art''. New York: Aperture Foundation/BAVC, 1991. *Schimmel, Paul, author. ''Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979''. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1998. * Verigne, Lea, ed. ''Body Art and Performance: The Body As Language''. Skira Editore S. p. A., Milan, 2000. * Fried, Howard. "Structuring Inside the Harlequin; Watershed; Patternmaker," ''New Observations,'' (Fall/Winter 2000) * Montano, Linda. ''Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. * Phillips, Glenn, ed. ''California Video: Artists and Histories''. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008, * Bishop, Janet, Corey Keller, and Sarah Roberts, eds. ''San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 75 Years of Looking Forward.'' San Francisco: SFMOMA. * Anker, Steve, Kathy Geritz, and Steve Seid, eds. ''Radical Light: Alternative Film & Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000'' University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2010. * Hoffmann, Jens and Paul McCarthy, eds. ''Paul McCarthy's Low Life, Slow Life'', Hatje Cantz, 2010. * Schimmel, Paul and Lisa Gabrielle Mark, eds. ''Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981'', Prestel USA, 2011. * Lewallen, Constance, Karen Moss, Julia Bryan-Wilson, and Anne Rorimer. ''State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970'', University of California Press, 2011.

References

External links

UbuWeb Anthology of Conceptual Writing: Howard Fried ''The Cheshire Cat, Part I''SFMOMA - About the ArtistHoward Fried in ''Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life: Part 2'' exhibition
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

apexart exhibition brochure
''Howard Fried / MATRIX 54''
Berkeley Art Museum exhibition brochure
"One on One"
SFMOMA Open Space blog
The Burghers of Fort Worth at LA MOCA
Happenstand - stance artist profile

1984 UCSD lecture

Limbo artist portrait
An Institutional Approach to the Collections Care of Electronic ArtDaily Serving: "Howard Fried: The Decomposition of My Mother's Wardrobe at The Box"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fried, Howard 1946 births Living people American conceptual artists American installation artists American video artists American performance artists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Artists from California Artists from Cleveland San Francisco Art Institute alumni San Francisco Art Institute faculty University of California, Davis alumni Artists from Vallejo, California