Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

408
16. As a dealer in the late 1960s, Seth Siegelaub held “exhibitions”of his artists in which the
exhibition consisted solely of a catalogue of the works being published. Siegelaub’s own history
is not without interest: he moved from being a fairly straight dealer to a shrewd promoter of a
group of New York Conceptual artists (Barry, Weiner, Huebler and Kosuth), to an involvement in
artists’ rights and art politics, to a subsequent role within a group in Paris publishing a range of
left cultural critiques. In this fashion, Siegelaub parallels the history of many artists who moved
through Conceptual Art to more direct engagements with “real-world”issues. By comparison,
the Conceptual artists he was promoting have proven to have far more conservative ideals and
histories.
17. For example, many people involved in the various protest movements advocated using the
media all the time. But one of the most divisive techniques of the mass media is over-exposure.
The Situationists criticized the deliberate use of the mass media: “The revolt is contained by
over-exposure. We are given it to contemplate so that we shall forget to participate.”
18. For example, Lippard, in the “Postface”to her book, Six Years, complains that her earlier
hopes were shattered by the rapid commercial success enjoyed by Conceptual artists. At that
time, she chose to acknowledge only that work which had broached the market.
This essay was first published in Art & Text, 1:1 (Fall 1981), pp. 49–65.