William Leavitt
William Leavitt (born 1941) is a conceptual artist known for paintings, photographs, installations, and performance works that examine "the vernacular culture of L.A. through the filter of the entertainment industry..drawing on 'stock environments' and designs of films as well as the literature of the place." A critical figure in the West Coast conceptual art movement of the late 60s, Leavitt himself has managed to maintain a low profile. "Over the last 40 years, William Leavitt has made a name for himself as an influential artist while staying so far out of fame's spotlight that his hard-to-categorize works have been all but invisible to the public," wrote the LA Times. While his work is collected by high-profile artists such as John Baldessari and Mike Kelley (who donated Leavitt works to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), Leavitt himself has eschewed celebrity.
William Leavitt
- Born
- 1941 · Washington and D.C.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- photographer · draftsperson · artist
- Education
- Claremont Graduate University · University of Colorado Boulder
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William Leavitt (born 1941) is a conceptual artist known for paintings, photographs, installations, and performance works that examine "the vernacular culture of L.A. through the filter of the entertainment industry..drawing on 'stock environments' and designs of films as well as the literature of the place." A critical figure in the West Coast conceptual art movement of the late 60s, Leavitt himself has managed to maintain a low profile. "Over the last 40 years, William Leavitt has made a name for himself as an influential artist while staying so far out of fame's spotlight that his hard-to-categorize works have been all but invisible to the public," wrote the LA Times. While his work is collected by high-profile artists such as John Baldessari and Mike Kelley (who donated Leavitt works to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), Leavitt himself has eschewed celebrity.
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Personal life
Personal life
Born in Washington, D.C., Leavitt moved to Los Angeles in 1965. There, he shuns the spotlight—living and working with his wife, also a painter, in two small cabins near Silver Lake, atop a hill accessible only by foot. In addition to painting, photography, and installation work, the multi-talented Leavitt writes plays, builds theatrical sets, and handcrafts cellos on which he performs with local groups.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1941
William Leavitt was born on 1 January 1941.
Awards and honors
Leavitt received a BFA from University of Colorado, Boulder and a MFA from Claremont Graduate School. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1965 his work evolved, increasingly referencing themes endemic to the city such as the line between reality and fantasy and the nature of illusion. Leavitt is a contemporary to artists like Allen Ruppersberg, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Bas Jan Ader, Guy de Cointet, and William Wegman, a generation that "distinguished their work from most melancholic Minimal/Conceptual art made in New York and Europe by using deadpan humor, slapstick comedy and the cliche as a way to, as Baldessari put it, 'take conceptual art off of its pedestal, so to speak.'" Leavitt was given a significant survey exhibition by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2011, titled Theater Objects. Despite Leavitt's long history of exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, and abroad, the Theater Objects retrospective was described as "a revelation" by art critic Christopher Knight. Leavitt is represented by Greene Naftali Gallery, New York.
William Leavitt studied at Claremont Graduate University and University of Colorado Boulder. Work by William Leavitt is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, J. Paul Getty Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art.
Leavitt received the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for New Genres in 1991, the J. Paul Getty Fellowship in 1993, a Guggenheim Grant in 1998, and a United States Artists fellowship in 2012. among other awards.
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Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Goldstein, Ann. William Leavitt: Theater Objects. Museum of Contemporary Art. 144 and 18. 2011. 978-1-933751-18-4.
- 2.MOCA, LA. William Leavitt: Theater Objects.
- 3.Pagel, David. William Leavitt: Multi-tasker at heart. LA Times. March 6, 2011.
- 4.Margo Leavin Gallery. William Leavitt C.V.
- 5.Griffin, Jonathan. California Dreaming (Art Monograph). Frieze magazine.
- 6.Klonarides, Carole Ann. William Leavitt, Allen Ruppersberg, and Mungo Thomson. X-Tra.
- 7.Knight, Christopher. Art review: 'William Leavitt: Theater Objects' at the Museum of Contemporary Art. LA Times. March 16, 2011.
- 8.MOCA, L.A. Previewing William Leavitt: Theater Objects. The Curve. February 1, 2011.
- 9.Finkel, Jori. Artists Alison Saar, Kerry Tribe, William Leavitt are USA fellows. Los Angeles Times. 2 December 2012.
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William Leavitt is recorded with the occupation visual artist. Recorded as photographer, draftsperson and artist.
Recognition and collections
Work by William Leavitt is
Museum of Modern Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, J. Paul Getty Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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