Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

conceptual art and critical judgement
charles harrison
In the short historical sight of postmodern culture, certain works of Conceptual Art are now
seen as having “stood the test of time”—a measure applied by the likes of Sir Ernst Gombrich
to distinguish the very different objects of their attention. The evidence for this assertion comes
with the staging of retrospective surveys, with the publication of tentative art-historical accounts
and, most tellingly, with the growth of a competitive market in “established” works of
the crucial period—a moment located between 1965 and 1975, or, for the less gullible, between
1967 and 1972. Coincidentally, a consensus appears to be forming around the thesis
that Conceptual Art was a movement of critical significance in the development of modern
art. For Benjamin Buchloh, for instance, writing in 1989, “Conceptual Art truly became the
most significant paradigmatic change of post–World War II artistic production. ...”
It should occasion no surprise that the curatorial and commercial ratification of individual
works and careers coincides with art-historical establishment of the movement as a whole.
It does not follow, however, that retrospective views are now readily organized into a consensus.
Some awkward questions remain to be addressed—questions concerning the relationship between
historical representation and qualitative assessment.