Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

In addition, Duchamp saw the problem of value and meaning in art as a simple binary
opposition, inside the gallery or outside in the world. He failed to link this opposition of art
and so-called “non-art” to more ambiguous phenomena such as the reproduction of the art
object by the media, which was mediated upon by the critic Walter Benjamin in the 1930s
and was even earlier an important aspect of Constructivist art.
Through the actual experience of running a gallery, I learned that if a work of art wasn’t
written about and reproduced in a magazine it would have difficulty attaining the status of
“art.” It seemed that in order to be defined as having value, that is as “art,” a work had only to
be exhibited in a gallery and then to be written about and reproduced as a photograph in an
art magazine. Then this record of the no longer extant installation, along with more accretions
of information after the fact, became the basis for its fame, and to a large extent, its economic
value.
From one perspective, the art object can be analyzed as inseparably connected to the
institution of the gallery, or museum; but from another perspective it can be seen as having a
certain independence, as it belongs also to the general cultural framework which the magazine
is a part of. Magazines specialize in a way which replicates other social and economic divisions.
Any magazine, no matter how generalized, caters to a certain market or a specific audience in
a particular field. All art magazines are directed to people who are involved in the art world
professionally in one way or another. Furthermore, the art magazine itself is supported by
advertisements which, with one or two exceptions, come from art galleries that are presenting
exhibitions. It follows that in some way the advertisers have to be taken care of in that their
shows have to be reviewed and made a matter of record in the magazine. Thus these shows and
works are guaranteed some kind of value and can be sold on the market as “art.” The fact that
sales do take place yields enough money for the gallery to purchase more advertisements in art
magazines and to sustain the art system in general.
Art magazines ultimately depend upon art galleries for their economic support, just as
the work shown in galleries depends on photographic reproduction for its value in the media.
Magazines determine a place or are a frame of reference both outside and inside. Magazines
specialize in a “field” in a way which replicates other social and economic divisions—for instance,
the specialized “world” of art and artists termed the “art” world. Each magazine, no
matter how generalized, always caters to a certain market or a certain audience in a certain
field; Sports Illustrated caters to those who are interested in sports, the American Legion magazine
caters to members of the American Legions. All art magazines cater to people who professionally
or institutionally are involved in the art world—either as artists, dealers, collectors,
dan graham my works for magazine pages 421