(b Beaumont, TX, 9 Aug 1939). American percussionist and sound sculptor. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music. In the course of his career as a soloist working with an avant-garde repertory, Neuhaus began in 1964 to amplify certain instruments. In 1965 he started to use acoustic feedback, and in 1966 he produced a special electronic circuit to be connected to a domestic hi-fi system; this was manufactured as Max-Feed by Mass Art in New York. In the same year he presented Public Supply, in which he mixed and modified sounds phoned in to a local radio station over ten lines by members of the public. The concept of Public Supply was expanded to a national scale in Radio Net (1974–7), and, on a global level, Audium (1992–).
Neuhaus’s first semi-permanent sound installation, Drive-In Music, ran for six months (1967–8) in Buffalo, New York; 20 low-powered radio transmitters, spaced out along a mile of straight road, broadcast electronic sounds that changed according to weather conditions and were audible only over car radios. He abandoned his activities as a percussionist in 1968 to concentrate on building sound installations, which he described as ‘sound works’ after around 1990. Since 1971 several installations have explored underwater sounds, especially Water Whistle, in which whistles are sounded in a swimming pool by jets of water under pressure. His other environments have featured electronic sounds: in Times Square, an installation below a ventilation grill on a traffic island in Times Square, New York (1977–92), a large loudspeaker emitted a rich low sound, the timbre of which was affected by temperature and wind; this is in marked contrast to the delicate clicks heard from loudspeakers distributed in a subway station in Walkthrough (Jay Street, Brooklyn, 1973–7), and in Untitled, high up in a large tree in a wooded park at the Documenta 6 exhibition (Kassel, 1977). In each context the sounds are only minimally obtrusive, are well matched to the environment, and make an illuminating statement about it. When an installation involves a location along which the public walks, such as a passageway, tunnel or stairwell, Neuhaus often features a gradual progression in the sound design, sometimes affected by changing levels of light; other installations involve subtle uses of acoustic reflections. The loudspeakers and circuitry are always concealed. In 1978–80 Neuhaus developed a ‘multi-synthesizer’ to assist in the design of more complex sound structures; it makes use of a light pen to operate a microcomputer system by remote control. In the mid-1980s he began a series of sonic explorations of gallery rooms, including Two ‘Identical’ Rooms (1989), in which the sounds in each room are apparently identical but gradually assume very different characters. He was granted a US patent in 1991 for his research into more effective sirens for emergency vehicles.
|
Installations: Drive-In Music, 1967 [Lincoln Parkway, between the Albright-Knox Museum and Soldier’s Circle, Buffalo, NY, extant 1967–8]; Southwest Stairwell, 1968 [Ryerson U., Toronto; extant 1968]; Walkthrough, 1973 [subway entrance, Jay Street, Brooklyn; extant 1973–7]; Times Square, 1973–7 [traffic island between 45th and 46th streets, New York, extant 1977–92]; Drive-In Music, 1974–5 [Artpark carpark, Lewiston, NY; extant 1975]; Untitled, 1977 [Dokumenta 6, Kassel, Germany; extant 1977]; Untitled, 1978 [Sculpture Garden, Museum of Modern Art, New York; extant 1978]; Untitled, 1978–9 [stairwell, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; extant 1979–89]; Untitled, 1980 [Como Park Conservatory, Minneapolis; extant 1980–83]; Time Piece, 1983 [Sculpture Garden, Whitney Museum, New York; extant 1983]; Untitled, 1983 [wooded hillside, Villa Celle, Santomato di Pistoia, Italy; extant 1983–90]; Untitled [Centre d’Art Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan, nr Locminé; extant 1986–8]; Infinite Lines from Elusive Sources no.1 [Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris; extant 1988–90]; A Bell for Sankt Cäcilien, 1988 [Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; extant 1989–91]; Two ‘Identical’ Rooms [Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; extant 1989]; A Large Small Room [Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne; extant 1989–92]; Time Piece [Kunsthalle, Berne; extant 1989–93]; Two Sides of the ‘Same’ Room [Dallas Museum of Art; extant 1990]; Infinite Lines from Elusive Sources no.2 [Galleria Giorgio Persano, Milan, extant 1990]; Three ‘Similar’ Rooms [Galleria Giorgio Persano, extant 1990–]; Three to One, 1991–2 [Palast AOK, Kassel; extant 1992–]; Untitled [Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; extant 1993–]; Untitled [Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Castello di Rivoli, Turin; extant 1995–]; other works |
|
Underwater works: Water Whistle I–XVII, 1970–75 [13 North American cities; extant 1971–5]; Underwater Musics I–IV, 1975–8 [I, Bremen; II, New York; III, Berlin; IV, Amsterdam; extant 1976–8] |
|
Sound objects: Maxfeed, 1967–8 [edn of 50, private collections]; Bluebox, 1970–74 [edn of 10, private collections]; Untitled, 1974–5 [unicum, Christophe de Menil]; Time Piece, 1979–81 [edn of 31, private collections] |
|
Broadcast works: Public Supply I–IV, 1966–73 [I, WBAI, New York; II, CJRT, Toronto; III, WBAI; IV, WFMT, Chicago]; Radio Net, 1974–7 [NPR, 2 Jan 1977]; Audium, 1992– [international broadcast and TV project] |
|
Sound events: American Can [in 2 realizations: Central Park, 1966, and Lincoln Center Plaza, 1967, New York]; By-Product [in 2 realizations: Town Hall, 1966, and Park Place Gallery, 1967, New York] |
|
Telephone Access, 1968 [New York; individual interaction by telephone, with sound-responsive elecs] |
M. Neuhaus: ‘A Max Sampler’, Source, no.5 (1969), 48–56
J. Rockwell: All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century (New York, 1983/R), 145–53
J.-Y. Bosseur and others: Le sonore et le visuel: intersections musique/arts plastiques aujourd’hui (Paris, 1992), 147–53
G. des Jardins, ed.: Max Neuhaus: Sound Works (Ostfildern, 1994)
E. Belloni, ed.: Max Neuhaus: evocare l’udibile/évoquer l’auditif (Milan, 1995) [exhibition catalogue]
HUGH DAVIES (work-list with JOHN ROCKWELL)