Abstract
Rebecca Horn is a German artist who was born on March 24, 1944. She grew up in Germany during the post World War II era, but her parents were wealthy enough to hire a governess and send Horn to boarding schools for most of her young life. At the age of 19, Horn decided to study art and began attending the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts; the year was 1963. Shortly after beginning her studies, she became severely ill from working with glass, and recovered slowly over several years during a period of intense isolation. After this time, Horn created some of her best known works. Horn is a sculptor most known for body modifications, installation art, and later in life, film directing. Some common themes in her sculptures, and particularly in her body modifications, include the interactions between people and objects, and the environments in which these interactions occur. Horn gained widespread recognition for her art in the 1980s, and today lives in Berlin.
Annotated bibliography
- Diana Bularca (2019). Rebecca Horn: Devising intersubjective connections, World Art, 9:3, 329-349. https://doi.org/10.1080/21500894.2019.1637639
This paper examined how the events of Horn’s life influenced her work and attempted to derive meaning from specific pieces, including Finger Gloves and Cockatoo Mask.
- Lucy Watling, et al. Rebecca Horn, Tate.org.uk. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rebecca-horn-2269
The Tate website had a summary page on Horn, including a brief bio, as well as separate pages for several of her selected works. Each chosen piece included a high quality image of the art as well as a brief description of the work, including direct quotes from Horn herself.
- Turisme de Barcelona, L’Estel Ferit, The Wounded Shooting Star, Rebecca Horn. https://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/page/1955/l-estel-ferit-the-wounded-shooting-star-rebecca-horn.html
This website is an official tourism guide for Barcelona, where L’Estel Ferit is located. I used this website because it was difficult to find much information about this particular sculpture, though it was one I very much wanted to include in my presentation.