Robert Beck, Robert Buck
In 2008, American artist Robert Beck changed his surname by a single vowel to Buck. This act of artistic self-nomination was precipitated by what he had achieved as Beck, an oeuvre often autobiographical in content and persistently diverse in form.
Authored by James Voorhies
Robert Beck, Robert Buck
Rennie Collection, 2013
Contributing essay “‘How am I to sign myself?’ On the Art of Robert Buck”
Working in various mediums (drawing, sculpture, photography, and video) the artist has returned repeatedly to the universal themes of family, memory, identity, authorship, and loss. While his own experiences are central, the artist deliberately withholds information to solicit the viewer's own unique associations.
Several works discussed herein are again relevant in the wake of recent shootings in the United States, with the images of teen shooters in Beck’s Thirteen Shooters, 2001 echoing Andy Warhol's 1964 mural Thirteen Most Wanted Men.
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