The startling fundamental idea of my works is ... to remove sound from time and instead have it form place
— Max Neuhaus
Max Neuhaus (1939-2009) was the first artist to extend sound into the realm of permanent sculpture. As the originator of the term "sound installation," he fundamentally altered the perception of the medium, shifting the definition of sound from a time-based event to a spatial entity. While traditional plastic arts manipulate perception through shape and color, Neuhaus worked with the ear, sculpting the acoustic character of a site to alter how we apprehend place.
Neuhaus began his career as a virtuoso percussionist. After earning his Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 1962, he toured with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen and performed solo recitals at Carnegie Hall. The physical constraints of percussion practice led him toward electronic means and new sonic thinking; his 1966 realization of John Cage's Fontana Mix Feed is widely regarded as a landmark in electronic music, expanding the possibilities of feedback and sound color.
By 1968, Neuhaus abandoned the concert stage to work outside conventional cultural frameworks. Distinguishing his practice from music, he sought not to present sound as an event unfolding in time but to use it to articulate space. His works typically operate continuously, twenty-four hours a day, without obvious markers or signage, embedding themselves within the fabric of daily life.
This approach is exemplified by his iconic Times Square (1977), a resonant, immersive tone emerging from beneath a street grate in midtown Manhattan. Subtle yet pervasive, it invites attentive listening rather than spectacle. His early piece Listen (1966)-in which participants were guided through urban soundscapes-already articulated this shift from performing sound to cultivating listening.
Neuhaus realized permanent and temporary works throughout the United States and Europe, including installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, CAPC Bordeaux, Castello di Rivoli, Kunsthalle Bern, and sites in Geneva and Worblaufen. His work is held and presented by major institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Venice Biennale. He participated in documenta 6 (1977) and documenta 9 (1992). Over the course of three decades, he created a significant body of both permanent public sound works and temporary installations for museums and exhibitions, alongside numerous solo exhibitions of his drawings.