In honor of Robert Wilson and the 50th anniversary of his opera Einstein on the Beach, a trio of sculptures by the artist are on view in the gallery’s vitrine space. Einstein on the Beach was first performed at Festival d’Avignon in July 1976. The premiere was followed by a tour of Europe and two performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in November of 1976. 

In the early 1970s, Wilson began a collaboration with Philip Glass on what would be his most technically advanced theatrical project yet. The artists used Albert Einstein as an open-ended cipher to evoke key themes of the late twentieth century: technology, the compression and extension of time, nuclear apocalypse. The four-act opera is a loose portrait of Einstein connected by five shorter interludes called “kneeplays.” Lacking linear narrative or biographical elements, the work moves circularly, presenting repeated themes that expand and contract the audience’s perception of time and space.

Robert Wilson’s Einstein Chairs, from “Einstein on the Beach” (1976) are slender tower-like constructions of galvanized steel pipes with knobby joints. The trio of sculptures are stylized variations of the chair used as a witness stand in the trial scenes of Einstein on the Beach; their skeletal forms speak to Wilson’s austere, industrial sets. Chairs were a beloved form of Wilson’s. Although many were made as props for his plays, Wilson viewed them as sculptural objects, outliving the temporary nature of the sets.

From April 29 – May 3, Robert Wilson’s Moby Dick will be performed at the Howard Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In anticipation, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will also be programming a film series, Robert Wilson and the Moving Image, from April 17 – 23.