Robert Wilson, the celebrated theatre director and visual artist, has died aged 83, the Watermill Center has announced.
Born in Waco, Texas, Wilson studied business administration at the University of Texas before earning a degree in architecture from the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1967, he founded the performance group the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds that mounted numerous experimental plays until the mid 1970s including the lauded silent operas Deafman Glance (1970) and The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973). In 1976, he co-produced one of his most well known works, Einstein on the Beach, with Philip Glass. Throughout his career, he worked with several prominent collaborators such as Lucinda Childs, Allen Ginsberg and Lady Gaga.
Wilson was also a recognised visual artist. His drawings, set designs, furniture and sculptural installations where exhibited throughout his lifetime, including at Haus der Kunst, Munich; the Whitney, New York; and the MoMA, New York. In 1993, the Venice Biennale awarded him the Golden Lion for sculpture.
