Bob Wilson has just passed away at the age of 83 in the state of New York. This director, visual artist, and actor, often hailed as the father of experimental theater, leaves behind an immense body of work. For more than half a century, he fascinated the art world. Thus, his name immediately evokes a limitless creative freedom, fueled by a determination to live outside the box.
Born in Waco, Texas, in 1941, Robert Wilson grew up in a puritanical America. There were neither museums nor theaters in his town. It was said that the theater was a place of sin. However, this prohibition only sharpened the young boy’s curiosity. At 12, he staged his first plays in the family garage. Very early on, he dreamed of elsewhere.
The rise of a giant on the international stage
The career of Bob Wilson) is marked by ruptures. After studying architecture at the University of Texas and then at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he moved to New York at the end of the 1960s. Very quickly, he founded the collective Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds. This avant-garde group would shake up the New York scene. Their performances, often silent and visually striking, already anticipated the aesthetic revolution to come.
In 1971, he presented Deafman’s Glance at the Nancy festival. This seven-hour wordless show stunned the French audience. Thus, Louis Aragon, moved, wrote that he had "never seen anything more beautiful in this world." This recognition from France would never leave the artist, who later confided: "The French gave me a ‘home’."
A radical aesthetic: light, movement, and silence
Bob Wilson‘s stage work is distinguished by a refined aesthetic. The lights, codified gestures, and use of silence become his trademarks. He favors images, conceiving each scene as a moving painting. His creations, influenced by Japanese Noh theater, are also marked by American modern dance. Consequently, they leave ample room for the spectator’s imagination. Thus, he distances himself from classical narration to offer a sensory and meditative experience.
In 1976, Einstein on the Beach was born, the result of a collaboration with Philip Glass. This opera, which lasts nearly five hours, breaks with all conventions. There is no story, no characters in the traditional sense. Only rhythm, light, and repetition matter. This show, presented in Avignon and then at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, definitively established Bob Wilson as an extraordinary creator.
Collaborations and influences: an artist with many faces
Throughout his career, Robert Wilson multiplied collaborations. He worked with choreographers like Andy de Groat, musicians such as Tom Waits, Lou Reed, or David Byrne. He directed Isabelle Huppert in Orlando by Virginia Woolf, filmed Lady Gaga for video portraits exhibited at the Louvre, and directed the star dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
However, this diversity never alters the coherence of his work. He adapts both major repertoire texts, from Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape to Goethe’s Faust. Moreover, he is also interested in contemporary works. At the heart of each project, he finds this obsession with image, light, and suspended time.
His relationship with dance, crucial in the construction of his stage language, dates back to childhood. He long suffered from a stutter, overcome thanks to a dance teacher in Waco. This intimate relationship with the body and gesture would mark all his creations.
The Watermill Center: an avant-garde laboratory
In 1992, Bob Wilson founded the Watermill Center near New York. This place becomes a workshop for young artists from around the world. Moreover, it functions like a hive, where painters, musicians, dancers, or video artists meet. Wilson himself strolls there, corrects, advises, sometimes paints. He explains: "It’s a big workshop, like at Veronese or Rubens, where young people work for the master who passes by."
The center plays an essential role in transmitting his vision. It embodies his refusal of hierarchies, his desire to break down artistic disciplines, and to promote the meeting of cultures.
A recognized artist, especially in France
While America sometimes snubbed Bob Wilson, France never turned its back on him. From Deafman’s Glance, the reception was enthusiastic. In 1989, he created the opening show for the Opéra Bastille in Paris. His productions at the Opéra Garnier, the Théâtre de la Ville, or the Comédie-Française are events.
Many French artists, such as Patrice Chéreau, Roger Planchon, or Georges Lavaudant, acknowledge the influence of the American master. Critic Susan Sontag once stated: "Bob Wilson’s career bears the mark of major artistic creation. I see no other work as vast or influential."
The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati paid tribute to "a visionary artist." In her eyes, Wilson symbolized this special link between France and international creation.
Theater, opera, visual arts: a total work
Robert Wilson‘s career spans all forms of expression. He stages about fifteen major operas, from Pelléas et Mélisande to Madame Butterfly or La Traviata. Each time, he imposes his signature: minimalist sets, sculpted lights, inhabited silences.
But he doesn’t stop there. Painter, video artist, set designer, he also imagines installations and exhibitions. His video portraits, notably those of personalities like Lady Gaga, testify to a curiosity always awake. The term “theater of images” was coined for him. He conceives his shows as sequences of visions, where music, dance, and light dialogue without hierarchy.
The last years: Pessoa, Paris, and the tribute of the art world
In the 2020s, Bob Wilson lost none of his creative strength. He presented in Paris Pessoa, since I’ve Been Me, a poetic evocation of the famous Portuguese writer. This show, performed at the Théâtre de la Ville, mixes mime, poetry, and video. It illustrates the director’s attachment to the French capital. There, he is praised by the public and critics.
Until the end, he worked. Even weakened by illness, he prepared new projects. His death, announced by the Robert Wilson Arts Foundation, sparked a wave of emotion. The Watermill Center recalls that "his works for the stage, on paper, his sculptures and video portraits, as well as the Watermill Center, will remain his artistic legacy."
A living legacy
The disappearance of Bob Wilson marks the end of an era. Yet, his influence remains. He pushed the boundaries of theater, imposed a new way of thinking about the stage and image. He leaves an open work, constantly revisited by young generations of artists. Thus, the fascination he exerted on his peers, from Philip Glass to Isabelle Huppert, is explained by the unique ability to blend rigor and invention.
Through his creations, Bob Wilson opened paths. He showed that a show could be a poem, a painting, or a meditation on time. Moreover, he demonstrated that beyond borders and languages, art remains a space of freedom.
The light according to Bob Wilson
Today, as the curtain falls on the life of Robert Wilson, he remains a beacon for the contemporary stage. His blue sets, his hieratic characters, his play of light will continue to inspire. As Michel Guy, Minister of Culture, said: “Bob, when you die, be buried in France!” The wish is fulfilled. The work, however, remains alive, brilliant, always in motion.