Robert Wilson, a visionary director and collaborator who worked with a diverse lineup of artists that included Philip Glass and Lady Gaga, died on Thursday. He was 83.
Wilson died at his home in Water Mill, New York, according to Chris Green, the executor of his estate and president of the Robert Wilson Arts Foundation.
No cause of death was given, although Green said that Wilson died after a brief illness. Wilson’s website also noted his passing.
In addition to Glass and Lady Gaga, Wilson also worked with Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and William Burroughs.
In his 1976 collaboration with Glass, the opera “Einstein on the Beach,” Wilson presented no plot -- but the production touched upon nuclear power, space travel and Albert Einstein’s love of the violin.
Wilson was born on Oct. 4, 1941, in Waco, Texas, and educated at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute.
Robert Wilson, the acclaimed theater director, playwright and visual artist died on Thursday at 83. Wilson upended theatrical norms with wildly imaginative stagings of works like “Einstein on the Beach.” https://t.co/Q2Qk3uudYC
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 31, 2025
He would become one of the world’s foremost theater and visual artists. Wilson pioneered the use of mixed media on stage, combining dance, lighting, sculpture, text and music.
He enrolled at Texas in 1959 but dropped out in 1962. Wilson moved to Brooklyn in 1963 and graduated from the Pratt Institute two years later.
He moved to Brooklyn in 1963 and studied architecture and interior design at Pratt Institute, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1965.
In 1969, Wilson created the plays “The King of Spain” and “The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud.”
Two years later, Wilson collaborated with Raymond Andrews, a man he met in 1968 who was deaf and mute, on “Deafman Glance,” which he called a “silent opera.”
Seeing WOYZECK, THE BLACK RIDER and EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH on stage were among the great experiences of my life. Getting to interview Robert Wilson early in my career was a thrill. I'm sad I never got to witness ALICE and so many of his other works. RIP to an extraordinary artist. pic.twitter.com/6LZXnlEFrA
— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) July 31, 2025
In July 1976, Wilson premiered “Einstein on the Beach” at the Festival d’Avignon in France. It has been recorded three times and has been on tour worldwide three times, most recently from 2012 to 2015.
The opera also inspired the 2003 hit by Counting Crows, “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman).”
Wilson and Glass reunited in 1984 for “The CIVIL warS: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down,” a proposed 12-hour opera commissioned for the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The full project was never realized due to funding challenges.
Wilson and Glass produced two more operas in 1998, “White Raven” and “Monsters of Grace.” In 2022, Wilson produced “H-100 Seconds to Midnight,” a work inspired by physicist Stephen Hawking.
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