Output details

The Life of Anton Lesseman. An exploration and fabrication of an imaginary artist and the role of fiction in art making. The project involved production of original art works, artist’s archive (photography, unpublished autobiography, letters etc.) culminating in a publication by the HMI in Leeds.

Becker’s collaboration with the Henry Moore Institute, begun during his 2011 Henry Moore Research Fellowship, examined whether a fictional artist could act as hypothetical ‘research tool’. By associating ‘Anton Lesseman’s’ imagined life with the real lives of neglected artists already present in the archive (e.g. Gertrude Hermes, Clare Sheridan, Betty Rea, Heinz Henghes), could new avenues for potential research be revealed? Through ‘Lesseman’s’ acceptance into the Henry Moore Institute Archive of Sculptors’ Papers, Becker raises questions about the nature and use of archives.

The fictional artist is a significant area of art making and research. From recent imaginary artists or artist collectives, like The Atlas Group, ‘Reena Spaulings’ or ‘Johan Riding’ to historical fictions and alter egos like ‘Bruno Hat’ or ‘Jevel Demekov’, artists have used the strategy of the invented artist in various ways. In this case, ‘Lesseman’ was accepted into the archive with the collusion of the Henry Moore Institute in order to activate the imaginative potential of ‘lost’ history, with the archive no longer conceived as inactive historical repository but living and mutable phenomenon. According to the Henry Moore Institute, the acceptance of Becker’s ‘Lesseman’ sets a world precedent in artistic/archival interaction.

In close collaboration with the HMI, Becker painstakingly constructed ‘evidence’ of the fictional artist’s life via family photographs, letters and a 200 page hand-typed ‘autobiography’. This formed the basis for commissioning a body of work spanning several decades (early/late periods) that would represent ‘Lesseman’s’ oeuvre. The artists commissioned to make a range of sculpture, paintings, sketchbooks etc. worked from themes taken directly from the writings. ‘The Lesseman Archive’ then entered the HMI archive. A publication in the Essays on Sculpture series followed which included essays by Lisa Le Feuvre & Dr. Jon Wood, Director of Sculpture Studies & Director of Research at HMI respectively.

http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi/news/my-life-by-anton-lesseman