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INVENTORY OF THE PAPERS OF DAVID LAMELAS,
1964-1997
2005.M.12
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Title: Papers of David Lamelas
Dates: 1964-1997
Collection Number: 2005.M.12
Creator:
Lamelas, David 1944-
Extent:
4.5 linear ft.
(5
boxes)
Repository:
Getty Research Institute
Research Library
Special Collections and Visual Resources
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688
Abstract: The personal and professional papers of Argentinean sculptor and filmmaker David Lamelas provide an overview of Lamelas’s
artistic practices and the development of his work from sculpture to architecture, film, and conceptual installations. Drawings,
sketches, notes, plans, photographs, correspondence, sketchbooks, and other papers produced or collected by Lamelas document
selected work from his early period in Buenos Aires, through his projects in Europe and North America and his latest work
in the 1990s.
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Language: Collection material is in
English and Spanish
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions
Papers of David Lamelas, 1964-1997. Research Library, The Getty Research Insititute, Accession no. 2005.M.12
Acquired in 2005.
Jennifer Osorio processed and arranged the archive in March 2006, under the supervision of Jocelyn Gibbs.
Argentinian artist David Lamelas is one of the pioneers of Conceptual Art. The son of Spanish immigrants, Lamelas was born
in Buenos Aires in 1946 (or 1944?). While in his teens, he studied art at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, with an early
focus on sculpture; he began exhibiting his work in Buenos Aires around this time. At the age of 21, he represented Argentina
at the 1967 Bienal Internacional de Sáo Paulo, with a work of architectural intervention, Dos Espacios Modificados (Two Modified
Spaces). That same year, Lamelas created his important installation, Situación de tiempo (Time situation), in Buenos Aires.
He represented Argentina at the XX Venice Biennale with the installation piece "Office of Information about the Vietnam War
at Three Levels: The Visual Image Text, and Audio."
In 1968 Lamelas left Argentina for London, where he studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art. During his time at St.
Martins he developed an interest in film.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s Lamelas continued to work and exhibit in Europe. He was a pioneer in the radical repositioning
of sculpture at this time, using new materials and modes of production. Lamelas moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and
currently makes his home in Berlin. He has continued to make films and videos, including works such as "Film Script," "To
Pour Milk Into a Glass," and "The Dictator." Among his better known non-film works are "The Other Side/El Otro Lado," an installation
project that was part of InSITE97 binational exhibition of art in public places, and "Publication," a book as art exhibition.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Papers of David Lamelas primarily comprise preparatory notes, sketches and drawings for installation and film works from
the period after he left Argentina in 1964 to 1997, when he was living in Los Angeles. The archive also contains a number
of photographs and negatives (including some personal images), manuscripts of film scripts, correspondence, and assorted ephemera
such as gallery invitations and publicity postcards. The archive includes several small journals that contain sketches and
notes, and writings on a variety of topics.
The sketches, drawings and notes give particular insight into the working processes involved in the creation of highly conceptual
art in a variety of mediums. The collection provides a portrait of his working processes and the development of his work from
sculpture to architecture, film, and conceptual installations. This fundamental period of Lamelas's artistic practice became
the basis of his future work, for which he has received critical acclaim.
Arrangement
Arranged in 8 series: Series I. Sculptural and installation works, 1960-2004
Series II. Films, 1969-2004
Series III. Textual works, ca. 1970
Series IV. Proposals and notes for unrealized works, undated
Series V. Correspondence, 1956-1977
Series VI. Personal documents and writings, 1967-1994
Series VII. Photographic materials, 1944-1997
Series VIII. Printed matter, 1967-1989
Lamelas, David, 1944-
Centro de Artes Visuales, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella
Bienal Internacional de Sáo Paulo
Conceptual art
Art—Modern—20th century
Artists—Latin American
Experimental Films—Argentina
Cinematography, Abstract
Installations (Art)
Drawings
Photographic prints
Photographs, original
Posters—20th Century
Screenplays
Sketchbooks—20th Century
Storyboards
Correspondence
Film stills
Bienal Internacional de Sáo Paulo
Centro de Artes Visuales, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella
David Lamelas: fifteen years: October 1978, Center of Art and Communication.