B. Wurtz
Visual artist B. Wurtz takes us on a personal history, with music from every phase of his life beginning at childhood and culminating in his 2020 album “Some Songs.” I have loved B.’s artwork since I first encountered it—specific, precise, sometimes uncomfortably honest—and his stories of childood and of his process of making his album were truly illumunating to my understanding of his sensibility and his sculptures. We get to hear some gen-u-ine historical gems as well as a number of B.’s own songs!
Complete playlist below; tracks in yellow were cut for time.
- The Shady Road, B. Wurtz, 2020
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Tennessee Waltz, Patti Page, 1950
- Shadrack, The Golden Gate Quartet, 1947
- Mule Train, Frankie Laine, 1949
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Minuet in G Major, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Alessandro Deljavan), 1761-2
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Für Elise, Ludwig von Beethoven (Nelly Kokinos), 1810
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El Jarabe Loco, Los Pregoneros Del Puerto, c. 1960s
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Nottamun Town, Jean Ritchie, c. 1950s
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Movin’ on Down the River, Jean Ritchie, 1965
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The Last Time, The Rolling Stones, 1965
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Days of Long Ago, B. Wurtz, 2020
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Today, B. Wurtz, 2020
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October Song, The Incredible String Band, 1966
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I’m Going Home, The Sacred Harp Singers, date of recording unknown; collection released on CD by Bibletone in 1994
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The Bridge, B. Wurtz, 2020
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Rakim, Dead Can Dance, 1994
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Tumbling Dice, The Rolling Stones, 1972
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A Love so True, Sunny War, 2021
- Water, B. Wurtz, 2020
- Music (Playing the Machine), Particle Kid, 2017
- The Clock, B. Wurtz, 2020
- Purple Green Ice, Milo Gonzalez, 2019
- Little Birds, B. Wurtz, 2020
- Start Here, B. Wurtz, 2020
- The Statue, B. Wurtz, 2020
- Minuet in C, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Dinara Klinton), 1761-2
B. Wurtz was born in 1948 in Pasadena, California, and lives and works in New York. He opened a major solo exhibition This Has No Name at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2018 while simultaneously presenting his first public commission, Kitchen Trees, through the New York City Public Art Fund. In 2015 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom. In 2016 the exhibition traveled to La Casa Encendida, Madrid. He has had additional solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Freiburg; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; and Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago. His work has been included in group exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon.
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