Max Neuhaus

Special reception Sundays, October 11 and 25 from 2-5pm or by appointment.
As part of the Checkered History exhibition, Outpost presents a reconstruction of artist Max Neuhaus’ 1979 sound installation, Five Russians, originally made for the tower chamber of the legendary Clocktower Gallery in Tribeca. Widely known in New York for his permanent sound installation in perpetual play under a subway grating in Times Square, percussionist Neuhaus (1939-09) was a renowned interpreter of contemporary and experimental music widely credited as the father of “sound sculpture”. Free and open to the public.

This installation incorporates four tuned and interlaced electronic tones selected to match both the architecture and the human body and is extremely gentle and meditative. The piece has been recreated at Outpost during the Checkered History exhibition with the expert assistance of Paul Geluso and Matthew Ostrowski.

Max Neuhaus was born in 1939 in Texas, and spent his childhood in Fishkill, New York. In 1958, he met John Cage, and this encounter determined his decision to become a professional percussionist. After a solo tour in Europe in 1965, Neuhaus started developing projects that went beyond the strictly musical realm; among them were site-specific pieces that he was the first to call “sound installations.” In 1968, as he started a research residency at the Bell Laboratories, Neuhaus ceased performing as a musician and fully devoted himself to sound art. In 2008, an exhibition of Neuhaus’s drawings was organized by the Menil Collection, Houston, which coincided with the inauguration of a new installation, Sound Line. Neuhaus passed away in February 2009 in Italy.