Les Levine
Irish artist (born 1935)
Les Levine (born 1935) is an Irish-born American artist known as a pioneer of video art and as a conceptual artist working with communication media. In 1967, Levine won first prize for sculpture in the Canadian Sculpture Biennial. He collaborated with artists, critics, and poets, including Peter Schjeldahl, Jill Johnston, and Gregory Battcock, on artworks and publications in the 1960s and 1970s.
Life and work
A graduate of the Central School of Art and Design in London, Levine moved to Canada in 1960. He moved to New York City in 1964 and became a resident artist at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1973. Early in his career, Levine introduced the concept of disposable art and was given the nickname Plastic Man.
In 1965, Levine, with Nam June Paik, were among the first artists to buy and use portapaks. Thus, he was one of the first artists to try television as a medium for the dissemination of art. He has also used the telephone for this purpose.
In 1969 he exhibited White Sight at the Fischbach Gallery, a work consisting of a room as the inside of a featureless whitecube illuminated by two bright sodium vapour lights.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Les Levine” as irish artist (born 1935). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as irish artist (born 1935). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18023286. VIAF identifies the subject as 8199192. The Library of Congress control number is n80070738. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1967, 1960 and 1964.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Les Levine”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Les Levine primary sources, Les Levine archive and Levine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Les Levine”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Les Levine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.