Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

the ’sixties: crisis and aftermath (or the memoirs
of an ex-conceptual artist)
ian burn
How has official history dealt with the 1970s? There were no new “isms” generated, no rapid
turnover of styles to which we were made accustomed during the 1950s and 1960s. Is the art
of the 1970s to suffer a fate similar to that of the 1930s, which has so often been presented as
innovatively dull and empty, not worthy of much consideration? The real character of the art
in many countries during the Depression years is made up of the production of vital and
socially creative imagery—but the political sympathies explicit in much of the work made
it too “impure” for the art historians of the book publishing industry during the Cold War
and afterwards.
It has not been difficult to observe the falsification of the history of the 1970s, even
while that history was taking place. The ever-prolific art magazines were filled with revivals of
1950s and 1960s styles, incorporating minor modifications to satisfy a market need for
“change.” That same work filled the galleries, was displayed and acquired by the museums,
supported by the state funding bodies and bought by the modern Medicis. In Australia, it has
been little different—the magazines, the various survey exhibitions and institutional purchasing
policies, together with recurring events like the Sydney Biennale, have constantly set out
to convince us that nothing else was going on.