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from taxes and partial funding of their programs could equally create problems. Often, however, there exists in fact ifnot by design a tolerance or even a congruence ofthe respective ideological persuasions. In principle the decisions ofmuseum officials, ideologically highly determined or receptive to deviations from the norm, follow the boundaries set by their employers. These boundaries need not be expressly stated in order to be operative. Frequently museum officials have internalized the thinking oftheir superiors to a degree that it becomes natural for them to make the “right” decisions and a congenial atmosphere reigns between employee and employer. Nevertheless it would be simplistic to assume that in each case museum officials are faithfully translating the interests oftheir superiors into museum policy, particularly since new cultural manifestations are not always recognizable as to their suitability or opposition to the parties concerned. The potential for confusion is increased by the fact that the convictions of an “artist” are not necessarily reflected in the objective position his/her work takes on the sociopolitical scale and that this position could change over the years to the point ofreversal. Still, in order to gain some insight into the forces that elevate certain products to the level of“works ofart” it is helpful—among other investigations—to look into the economic and political underpinnings ofthe institutions, individuals and groups who share in the control ofcultural power. Strategies might be developed for performing this task in ways that its manifestations are liable to be considered “works ofart” in their own right. Not surprisingly some museums do not think they have sufficient independence to exhibit such a portrait oftheir own structure and try to dissuade or even censor works ofthis nature, as has been demonstrated. Fortunately art institutions and other cultural power agents do not form a monolithic block, so that the public’s access to such works might be limited but not totally prevented. Bertolt Brecht’s 1934 appraisal ofthe “Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth” is still valid today. They are the need for “the courage to write the truth, although it is being suppressed; the intelligence to recognize it, although it is being covered up; the art to use it as a weapon; the judgement to choose those in whose hands it becomes effective; the cunning to spread it among them.” There are no “artists,” however, who are immune to being affected and influenced by the social-political value-system ofthe society in which they live and ofwhich all cultural agencies are a part, no matter ifthey are ignorant ofthese constraints or not (“artist” like “work ofart” are put in quotation marks because they are predicates with evaluative connotations deriving their currency from the relative ideological frame of a given cultural power group). hans haacke all the “art” that’s fit to show 303
304 So-called “avant-garde art” is at best working close to the limitations set by its cultural/political environment, but it always operates within that allowance. “Artists” as much as their supporters and their enemies, no matter ofwhat ideological coloration, are unwitting partners in the art-syndrome and relate to each other dialectically. They participate jointly in the maintenance and/or development ofthe ideological make-up of their society. They work within that frame, set the frame and are being framed. This text was initially published as an untitled catalogue statement in Art into Society, Society into Art (London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1974). It has been reprinted in Museums by Artists, ed. A. A. Bronson and Peggy Gale (Toronto: Art Metropole, 1983), pp. 151–152.
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Conceptual Art: A Critical Antholog
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conceptual art: a critical antholog
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contents ILLUSTRATIONS xii PREFACE
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Rolf Wedewer, Introduction to Konze
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Adrian Piper, On Conceptual Art 424
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16. General Idea, Orgasm Energy Cha
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have chosen to include are not mean
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elements of the artwork as equal co
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guistic act of asserting their “a
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model of conceptualism posits an un
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ody else fabricating or describing
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an isolated circuit, these works cl
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communication, integrating the work
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always already constructed. In othe
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Atkinson refers to it, compiled in
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the things only on a verbal informa
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escape it. The museum can assess in
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ognition: Representation, Power, Cu
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and, thereby, of society as a whole
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In the late sixties and early seven
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and from the language of painterly
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transformation”—had been underm
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out, conceptual art had little of t
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12. Gregory Battcock, “Painting I
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in the Labour Movement,” Dialogue
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eduardo costa, raúl escari, robert
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a media art (manifesto) eduardo cos
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4 This text was written in Buenos A
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compositions for audio structures c
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the attributed signifiers are unant
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2 Mel Bochner and Robert Smithson,
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Conceptual art is not necessarily l
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can be measured. The intervals and
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excerpt from placement as language
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3 Brian O’Doherty, Scenario for B
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1 — The derivation of the terms o
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subtracting each number in turn fro
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the visual evidence that they do me
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uren, mosset, toroni or anybody mic
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emarks on air-conditioning: an extr
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34 NOTES 1. “Other maps are such
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“reductive” art—simply corrob
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general scheme of the new objectivi
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42 large-scale, not for an elite re
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II 1968
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an “empty” work, or one with a
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ultra-conceptual. When works of art
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concerningthe article “the demate
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54 can never be created or destroye
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56 rather, questions of true or fal
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58 and myself worked particularly c
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statement yvonne rainer The choices
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statement to lucy lippard hanne dar
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7 John Baldessari, Everything Is Pu
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gallery or museum signified “this
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function. It may happen that the ob
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G. B.: At this stage, art would bec
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ual. It forces him to have the same
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8 Martha Rosler, Bringing the War H
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The recognition of this new concept
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The artists worked in collaboration
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III 1969
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etween the artist and his public re
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In October 1967 at the Fifth Paris
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fact eliminated the artist’s “e
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or listening to gurgling or popping
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art workers’ coalition open heari
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94 take pictures of each other just
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introduction editors of art-languag
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100 and the U.S.A. does not, if the
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102 The question of “recognition
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104 in various ways stressed the ro
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10 — Ideas alone can be works of
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11 General Idea, The Garb Age Colle
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1 — Language suggests, through th
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note: start write up of piece when
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“element” missing from this dia
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Aug 8, 69 Kent Cunow. Told a great
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only one who’s not staying in N.Y
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“maintenance art manifesto: propo
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124 II. THE MAINTENANCE ART EXHIBIT
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patron’s statement for “when at
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politics and the avant-garde piero
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130 brought into being a climate of
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132 Emilio Prini states: “creativ
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134 obstacles continue to call for
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art tamed and wild jean clay May 19
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138 In a period of gigantic ephemer
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140 There has been a noticeable inc
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jects waiting to be turned into an
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We can distinguish [four] different
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The points to be examined are descr
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art that one might think that inner
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which concerns us is therefore fund
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the effacement involved is of inter
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would have us believe that what tak
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White and blue vertical stripes wer
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Traditional philosophy, almost by d
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The one thing to say about art is t
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But in the philosophic tabula rasa
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qualities seen in a specific painti
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But an empirical proposition, or a
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eration of it as an art work is nec
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the idea ofinventing. It is nothing
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Lawrence Weiner, who gave up painti
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pop paintings of John Baldessari al
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23. Ad Reinhardt:Paintings, p. 12.
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The experiences and motivations of
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Photography is a product of the non
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task of discovering underlying orde
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But the artist has that same obsess
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IV 1970
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as any kind of art; it can’t clai
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excerpts from speculation (1967-197
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194 (One dividend of such an approa
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196 In the context of visual art wh
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on exhibitions and the world at lar
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200 is common property, the same wa
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202 to other artists (3) access to
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notes towards art work charles harr
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206 objects, or to pretend that cer
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208 remarkable to pick up the ball
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introduction to art in the mind ath
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introduction to information kynasto
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214 artists use the mail, telegrams
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alice’s head: reflections on conc
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218 reproduce some recent objects w
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de-aestheticization harold rosenber
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222 taken place are, one earthworks
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contemporary colonial art luis camn
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226 The achievements of the Metropo
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228 class, thus consuming those tra
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230 the movement’s pure political
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Style, whether of the hands or of t
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V 1971-1974
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M.C.: Academicism and repetition ap
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19 Allan Sekula, Meat Theft/Disposa
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university departments. It is one s
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Such things go beyond established h
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ules of thumb victor burgin . . . a
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250 are required to recognize unequ
Page 307 and 308: 252 Ifwe imagine, by way ofanalogy,
Page 309 and 310: 254 conceive ofa “semantic thresh
Page 311: 20 Adrian Piper, page from Foodfor
Page 314 and 315: tions.” Each of the arts is, in f
Page 316 and 317: natural. Roughly, where Pinacotheca
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Page 325 and 326: 270 For though he may be very const
Page 327 and 328: 272 For our commerce with art may g
Page 329 and 330: 274 effective way for the artist to
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Page 333: 22 Fred Lonidier, 29 Arrests, 1972,
Page 336 and 337: in the physical world, and not end
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Page 341 and 342: l’art conceptuel michel claura an
Page 343 and 344: 288 1 — The work can be reproduce
Page 345: 290 THE POLITICS OF CONCEPTUAL ART
Page 349 and 350: postface, in six years: the demater
Page 351: 24 Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing,
Page 354 and 355: thing, or talk; or find ourselves b
Page 356 and 357: are hit by the social and political
Page 361 and 362: sarah charlesworth, ian burn, josep
Page 363 and 364: a declaration of dependence sarah c
Page 365 and 366: 310 regarding patterns of legitimat
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Page 369 and 370: 314 naive preoccupation, a romantic
Page 371 and 372: 316 medium, a methodology, and not
Page 373: 25 Mary Kelly, Daily Schedules (1 o
Page 376 and 377: Given this, shouldn’t we be scrut
Page 378 and 379: But this sort of manipulative marke
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Page 382 and 383: ernism, but also most issues of Art
Page 384 and 385: Finally, we must not forget to emph
Page 386 and 387: function more efficiently? I find i
Page 388 and 389: 7. For discussion of this era, see
Page 390 and 391: With the door to politics closed by
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Page 394 and 395: e described as a formalism of anoth
Page 396 and 397: of mouth circulation, until the mom
Page 398 and 399: The historically evolving unconscio
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Page 402 and 403: 3. I count curators, dealers, and h
Page 404 and 405: 26 Fred Lonidier, The Health and Sa
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a concept of history as involving c
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Don’t think that artists are some
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to be bien pensant ...ornottobe.tob
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documentary and corporate violence
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362 Looking backward, at the art-wo
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364 disease, hospitalization, and e
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to argue for a video of representat
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368 make explicit the connections b
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notes on reading the post-partum do
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372 THE DISCOURSE OF WOMEN’S PRAC
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374 ognitions.” See Jacques Lacan
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moments of history in the work of d
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378 the miserableness of everyday i
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380 The component units possessed n
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382 in later notes on Schema: “Bu
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384 (1969), goes further than the p
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386 EPILOGUE OF THE IDEA OF USE VAL
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388 14. Dan Graham in a letter to t
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VII memoirs of conceptual art
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It is well accepted that capitalism
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a supervisory role. While the execu
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industries of art history departmen
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sion was “voiceless,” incapable
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outside of the expected precincts o
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emphasis on material aspects (uniqu
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But each of the above attitudes con
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9. To give one instance, consider t
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statements cildo meireles I remembe
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412 work with an object, because th
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wall language becomes an object to
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A nonvisual abstraction such as “
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with the art that these “proto-Mi
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In addition, Duchamp saw the proble
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on conceptual art adrian piper I tu
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statement robert barry If there was
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In the early 1970s, in response to
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working with shadows, working with
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434 They were l’air du temps you
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436 careful not to withdraw the obj
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438 it was possible to do a show in
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440 S.S.: I think all art movements
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we aimed to be amateurs art & langu
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444 as to how this amateur might fi
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446 To be sure, these Indexes did n
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448 The facts of who did what, how
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was to work on the concept of art,
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M.K.: For me, the impossible object
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cerns around 1980. Sometimes it see
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M.K.: But her work amounts to much
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intention(s) joseph kosuth INTENTIO
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462 the distance between the art hi
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464 the question remains, does the
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466 objects. Just as the grunts and
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468 7. Rosalind Krauss, “We Lost
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such an assessment. According to An
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(create) the conditions . . . we ha
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Try and imagine Rockefeller and his
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DOCUMENT VI, 1975 The Anti-Imperial
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6 — What is,who constitutes the
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lated mainly by Corris, Heller and
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Corris, Heller and Menard re-groupe
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NOTES 1. See my “The artist out o
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to Duchamp. It brought me an infusi
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from its inception for New York art
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“dada—situationism/tupamaros—
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494 the ownership imperative and d)
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496 following (Marta Traba for exam
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498 were the economic circumstances
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500 ism was a matter of coincidence
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VIII critical histories of conceptu
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to build a critical memorial to tha
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ately around this dynamic, display
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endeavored above all to come to ter
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post-1945 American art is symptomat
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it managed in the process to drive
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on the study of visual objects—ca
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to be given primacy over the visual
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some of the crucial foundations for
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systematically as the representatio
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virtue of the artist declaring the
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early work of Robert Barry (such as
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Wall of Plaster or Wallboard from a
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acts of petit-bourgeois anarchist r
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Mallarmé—in which the first Engl
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experience. In that process it succ
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to the thing at all. There is a cer
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15. Michel Claura, at the time the
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The avant-garde of the late 1960s a
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Modernism. The first assumption is
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Such rewritings are understandable
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the early work of Art & Language an
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political subject matter—was demo
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modernism by restoring distanced se
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For Marchán Fiz, the distinguishin
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ment of New York would play a pivot
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analysis of the self-reflexive or s
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vesting reality with meaning. The r
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5. A glance at the catalogues that
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15. The constitutional government o
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unwritten histories of conceptual a
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566 of visuality” or “suppressi
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568 In Jeff Wall’s view, that iso
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