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Cover: ForPeterandKnin
Keith Arnatt
Sef'Burial (leln s on
Intnfrenre Pmjr)
r969
(detail of fig.29)

Frontispiere:
Vctor Burgin
Possession
1976
(detail of fig.54)

rsrx r 854373854

A cataloguerecord
for this book is
available from the
British Library

Published by order
of Tlte tustees
byTate Publishing,
a division of Tate
Enterprises Ltd
Millbank, London
swlP 4RG

tL/ I ete 2002

All righ* reserved.

PaulWood has
assertedhis motal
right to be
identified as the
author of this work

Cover designedby
Slatter-Anderson,
London.
Book designedby
IsambardThomas.
Printed in Hong
Kong by South Sea
International
PressLtd.

Measurements
afe glven ln

centimetres,

height before width,

followed by inches
in brackets.
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 AppnoncH
rNG Anr
Gorcrpruru
As befits an art of the mind,'Conceptual art'posesproblems right from the
start.What was it?When was it? (Is it still around or is it'history'?)Where was
'X'
ir ?Who made it ? (Are we to consider a Conceptualartist or not?)And of
course,the umbrella-question: whyl Why produce a form of visual art
premised on undercutting the two principal characteristicsof art as it has come
down to us inWestern culture, namely the production of objects to look at,
and the act of contemplative looking itself (fig.r)?
This is not just a rhetorical device with which to open a book on the subject.
These are real questions. It is not at all clear where the boundaries of
'Conceptual
art' areto be drawn, which artists and which works to include.
Looked at in one way, Conceptual art gets to be like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire
cat, dissolving awayuntil nothing is left but a grin: a handful of works made
over a few short yearsby a small number of artists, the most important of
whom soon went on to do other things. Then again,regardedunder a different
aspect,Conceptual art can seemlike nothing lessthan the hinge around which
the past turned into the present: the modernist past of painting as thefine art,
the canon from C6zanneto Rothko, versusthe postmodernist present where
contemporary exhibition spacesare full of anything and everlthing, from
sharks to photographs, piles of rubbish to multi-screen videos - full, it seems,
of everything exceptmodernist painting.
Moreover, Conceptual artt legacy is exceptionally argumentative.Most of
the major players are still living, and matters of status and priority are jealously
guarded.In the mid-r99os, members and ex-membersof the English group Art
& Languageconducted a war of words in print about the history of their

6
 uerfrsnu pue Jatrur aqr lq paloydrua tsJUuaag aleq ol tno suJnt,tre tdaruo3,
asuqd aqt tng '.rry pnrdaruo3 go pu.rno{ aq1,'Surptaq-gns ?qt re^or
slr uo parntealaSan?uuT-lty '596rur osyy'696r
letrpouad rl{t Jo rnssl tsry llt
ur rtrv pnrdaruo3 uo saru?tuas,slq lyruonbasqnsput L96r w,uv Intderuo3
uo sqder8rrrd, srq paqsrTqndrrr,4&a'IIoS lsnre ueruaruv *lI'usIIErIpEr
prnrlod put IrJnllnr SursearlurJo arerurll E uI 'Jrtlto oqt uo ruslurapotrAl
Jo uortntrtsul aqr qrl^{ puq auo aqt uo sarrtrerd,lruJo;-ItrrE,snoIJEA
PUElrE lEurrurtrI Jo uorsrllof, aq] ruoS lno-llJ Jo Pull E :solll^IltrePasEg
-ssarord pur -lqdr.rSoroqd '-a8en8url go 'fiar.re,r ot rgar ot arurt llt tE prsn
Surag'6ua;rnr Flrrotsrq perl turet aqa'sol,6r pur so96rrtEI aqt ur p?qsrrnog
leqr arrtre;d apreS-tuerre Jo tuJo; Iruolsrq e ot JaJaJot,trr yrntdaruo3,
asuqd aqt pasn trpea4ea^rq I'rualgo.rd e;o Surqtaruossluasardarueullt ua^E
srlirvN
'l.rorsrqrre
Jo r)grpr ll) otur
pare^al ag leru r.repnrdaruo3 Jo tunol paqsru5 {1n3 e tpg,u uror3 lurod
ueparurrlrrv ?qt patetrol stq loog luasa.rdeqt tqt arunsseot ollu rg plno^r
tr s^raraSurtsr.rtuor qlns Jo DEJ rqt uI'suortntrtsur IrJntlnJ go anbrlrD e seru
arrtrr:d,tsrpntdaruor, rlgrsugrp lluo agr 'qogtrng.roglasald pursnpur-lsod
'pua8eueu str ur usryelrdf,uJatsal\Jo saJn]rnJlsaq1SuuoJnu se 'sr lql
',uorteJtsrurupE rrlaqlsar rrt, urql ssalSunpou ag ot sJauortrrrerdSurpeal
Jo
s,t.reyentdaruo) Jo auos tsal lE Jo ryo,n arll pa8pnl rloglng unue(uag 'tred
srq roJ 'ltrrtrrltrtu rnq Sunltlur a.rraruapuadrpur rrtaqtsar pur lrrurapour
'ulg roC'aruepuedapurprrtur s,tr spuno.r8
Fnos qtr^r tuarua8r8uaue Jo
?qt Jo uortliluJo;-ar f.lrssarau r sEtnq ',bru.rapourIrrf,os qtr,&{luarua8r8ua
-ar E atueu aqt ur saldnuud tsrurapour qtr.tl >learge se ]ou'dno.r8 a8en8uel
Jo
E ]rV llt Jo >lro.{rarlt ll.relnrrued'ue pnrdaruo3 spreSa.ruosrrreH srlrerl3
uer.rotsrgpu frtrr) eq1'ra.uod ufrJeruv Jo sarntfnJls Japr.treqr ot tuar]J
tr1a?rc1aq or plaq Jlrstr 'usrurrpour Jo sloroto.rd Suruguor pur rrterf,ntarnq
oqt Jo aeg >le?rqot 'stsrtJuetrrJarsvuD-I put uauro,r lg rsraytou 'suoga
Jo las r papruoJqtr podso.rta.rsp.reddrl'snsuosuof e JoJo llor.rers po8rauraa,rer1
Irrlt tre pnrdaruo3 Jo stunorr Irrrotsrqeqr'sarndsrpqlns ol uortrppe uI
'lrraJa^roq,u suerJotsnl s.&arlJraoaartetrJoqrnellpasoddns lll Jou 'eJ-aql
Jo
arJ^roq.{{ asorll Jo sarJoruauraqt Jeqlrau palsnJl aqs ltl{f 6urlu^r 'aJuetJodrxr
slr urrldxa or dn panonb ^rou oq.&{asoql uo rrq8rr ra.l tas Jlasrrrl p.reddll 'aprs
;o(eur e uo palernr ag or ue8aguE Inldaruo),lerJrotsl{, uar1.u'so55r agt
ur 'r?rBIgen141'pauaddeg llpntre tq.&rJo,lpo.red, e uqt arour ?ptrl ul patlnsar
ter{t ,tllJJpeq Jo )te ,we ' ,,{tetfrgr, pue ,8ursn;uor, st,tr lunof,f,Es p.reddrl
'Jauqrog rog 'pouad atlt
7o awze7erul.re Surpealatlt'uwofily 3o sa8edarp ur
uoltturuapuol qrurg pue toor e qr;'t 'sn^xts looq ntqu zL6r or 996r uro;;
l.rr Fntdatuo] ur sluaudolalap anSoprer or tduranr spreddrl ,{tnltyt:.
arp paroar8rrurllog IatrI rsrrru)rraruv arlt'f L6r sefy.reasy'uouaurouaqd
^rau r tou sr stt1tpuv 'sur8uo s,tuaur?oru aqt ur alor srq 8ur'frspg
Jo wtqpesn:opeq qolqrng raUE serqpue drqsuesn.redjo rlo1llng urureluag
utlrotsry eqt pasnll qtnso) qdaso{ tsrtrt arlt 'uouaurouaqd Itrrrotsnl
E s tr FntdlluoJ la.Lrns ot uortrgrqxa ro(rur ts.rgillt 'suEd ur noprduro6
artual at4tte prydatuolua.I ot:nSoptrr 696r arp u1 'sol,6r-pnu aqt ur sartrlrtrr
Henry Flynt ase:irlyas196rin the conrextof activitiesassociated wjth the
Fluxus grorrp in NewYork.In an essaysubsequer.rtlv published ir.rthe Fluxtrs
Anthologl1961'),Flynt wrote that "'Concept Art" is first of all an art of which
the materialis "colrcepts"',going on to mrke the point that,'since"conce;rts"
arecloselybound up with lalrguage, conceptart is a kind of llt of rolrichthe
r.naterialis lar.rguage'.
Yet, as central a figrrreas Lucy Lippard has commented
flatly that Flynts Fluxus-inspiredsenseof'Concept Art'had ljtrlc ro clo wirh
what sheunderstood as the key activities of tlre Conceptrral art r':rngrrar.lin
'few
NewYork in the mid- to late-r96os: of the artists with whorn I ir',rs

1
JosphKosuth

ldea) [Meaning]196T

1 1 9 . 4x 1 1 9 . 4
t,47x 47)
Thelveni Colection,

involvedknew about it, and in any caseit wasa differentkird of "cr,trcc1-..

The point here is rol that a discussionof antecedentsshould be exclu.{,:.1tion.r
a study of Concel'tualart, brrt that, in wriring historiesof :rrt,ne h;u.' r,r L'c
wary of making plausible-soun.ling art historicalconnectionsrhar mar harc
had lessimpact on the actualmakino of art acrhc trmc rh-rLr rctr..'L.ccrrvc
genealogists would like.
It is with srrchissuesin mincl that we haveto be awareof a thircl rerm rhar
'conceptu:ilisn'.
hascone into increasingcurrency.The term is and ir hasrnore
than one inllection. On the or.rehand, rhere is a use of this word f:rvour.t'.1L'r'
2

2
fhzimirMalevich

PnrconomoNs
nnoPrnsPEcnvEs BlackSquare1915
Oiloncanvas
80 x 80 (31%x 31%)
The relationship between Conceptual art and modernism is a fraught issue.
TretyakovGallery,
What we can say with some certainty is that modernism in the dominant form Moscow
it had come to take in the Anglo-American world at least, that is to say as
theorised by the critic Clement Greenberg and frequently dignified with a
'IVl,
capital went into deep, arguably terminal, crisis in the late r96os.This was a
spectacularfall. But it was not the first. The modern movement underwent an
earlier crisis, from which it recovered,and from which modernism in the so-
'Greenberqian
called senseemergedto become dominant. We need to establish
a view of this M/modernism, tf,. b.m.. to comprehend Conceptual artt
challengeto it. In doing so, we also need to encounter early modernismt'other':
the historical avant-garde(a distinction I owe to the German historian Peter
Brlrger).

Fonn
Early modernism was transcultural and transhistorical in its sweep.The
Bloomsbury critics Clive Bell and Roger Fry famously isolated the essential
featureof art as'form':'significant form'for Bell,'expressiveform'for Fry. For
Bell and Fry and others, modern art as it had been establishedby Ctzanneheld
out the promise of escapingfrom the weight of academictradition through this
emphasison pictorial form.This, it was clairned, could affect the emotions of
the sensitivespectator in away comparableto the effectsof sound in music; that
is, independently of what the forms may happen to depict. It is easyto seehow
this kind of thinking coincided with practical movestowards a fully abstract
 slualgord tlrl]Blp l rnuatod Poo,!\ Ptre a.rl,4tto 'PrtoqPrEtr 'Ieraru Jo Dafqo
uE sPrur PErlre^eoq { .ro urltBf rruIIPE]A'osstlld olqd sruo 'reqr s.'l'luDIgoJo
ar{I'txaluof, IJE lle :lxaluol u3rle u3 olw asnJo lxaluotr rrulou llaql ulog
ruaqt tueldsu"rt ot pur 's8uqr urrerrpn dreulpro slng'srafqo ue st aptur
uaaq lltuuo rou peg regr sna(qo aler or urBag druegrnq't16r selyrta sy
.DSrN0C
',sapeulpra.r,arp :r:e pudaruo3 arpst passeawr
go s.rossarapard
llapur uaaq arurs aatq uoDsanbut sryo r aqf Jlalr uortlt$sqe go erurS::ur:
aqt quu dlsnoawrlmurs 'p:lg8rlq8rq llarnre durerpng larwyq ra.p rualqord
Jo PuDI sqr $ rI T1 sfaluoP or Perr qsnrq t dg aPPuId tnDt ,3uEuIEd,
tlrsge uE ra^o plrll 3wre,u olur rnur e 3uryul jo a1o[ lsrprc3-lurae
l1.reaaql arua11'uoodue1;o3 adu ruarsls t ,{1:ta1coslt s ,,huorpneprlrrrtr
uo lu:puadap uarsls y ')ulJf,
uE aqt dlpslurod arour ro 'lsrtJE
aql Jo PJo,4{3rp 01 u,4{oPalutr srql
r.rrue:d u; aosop or sle1rrlJlpJl-l^r
:o -,llrplol ruaqlset, ue ',luoruwrl
IEIUTOJr r s.tntnsuor srnolor PUE
sadals 3o uonern8guor :tprrued
e ;aqraq,u&s or lrrroqtnr 3ql
serloql6'a)uolsrx? slr lnoq8norgl
]ft Derrsq Paruneqa^q
:eq: sra8uep'sr;8uepurErrrJl r.pr,,lr
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ruoPaag lwlrurotruotr r Pu 'atruassa
Jruourd.royq:.rcase.1oelods
uon-rer.rsqy paroldxa pw pJreJoqeJJ
'padola,rapaq uaqr uer grrq,r
'a8en8uey,neu e ur p:o,,!l tsrg ar{t rll
Surqlaruosse spwls uanbgyqg a,qt
'leu srp ur papr8aa 'stuauoduror
3o
las lre.nsqe dla.rnua ue ruog Suuurtd
e dn Supynq ;o rnq 'p1;o,u aqr ;o e8eurr ue urog a.rnDrd e u.aop Suqeo:q
'6{rqlssqd 3ql or dr:I e,meurStur ue sEpaquf,s?paq lluo uEt 'slsrlrc
3o rou
qtog roJ rpaAoIIoJt"ql!\.pFo.{1 3prs]no alqe .rrsqo uE 01 aruaJajalJo uroqs 'u
rcurrsqe/1ry e;o 6{lglnod aqt qs{gets. ot se { la^e^torl'3uop a^qor uaas saop
tr rtqlA e;rl ]lns puE alnlrct;od ':derspuel serpns sa:ua8ur paroo; rls rnq
'frrpar ruorglarrr.rrsqE, lr ur ur Sunlnsar 'JEJos luo^{ l1uo srslpur pnsr.r
3o
ssaro:d srqt lng's8unultd:taqt uro.r;p]ro,,!raqt Jo samta;alqesruSorar&,tt
rr.nsgr ot un8:g ptg'ir /tr6r noqe ytun zr/t6r punote t qt { sratunolua tsJU
ruog 'pur rusrqn3 lg aptru Suruado aqr uo pazFs peq uupuotrAl pue qtrr,ralEtl
qtog '(z BU) 516rraqurarag ur pe.rSoaadw pairqrgxatlobbs {rrlg s,qtrl^.JIi\l
nursE) sE,&'olsajrrreurfnsr^ Jo PuDJr al{ 'tJ tJErlsgeJo p1:o,,[aqr uado
p?.ltpap a^qot sruaas'ttradsortarw'teqt )ro,,!raql',trrsnul pnsu, t ayl.roltr*ds
eql uo Sunre pue 'saruEal a^ndlDsap Jo a^nrrreu Jo .p.gr.rnd, tre ue lur
:uose irbout its identitl'.There was no precedentfor such a thing being regarded
as a r.vorkof :rrt.With benefit of hindsight, it is easyto seehere how a crucial
slippagecanoccur betweer.r
t'stablishrng
the i,,lenriq:of ron,ethrnga' a work of
, r rt . , c c o r d i ntgo 1 1 .P o . : c r s r u .rrt i - , r n
essentialformal guality',and the vell
opposite of that: treating it as art
not becauseof its ineluctablyright
'essence'
formal to which we all
assent,but bcc:ruse of contingcnt
contextual factors, such as beir-rg
displayedin an art exhil,itionor
product'dbv someoneuIon w'hom
'artisr'
the idcntitl' hrs :r]rc;r.{r, been
3
confcrrc.l. I)rrcharnl'-s6rst MafcelDuchamp
'Unassiste
d Rc;r.i ma.lc rr as a urct:rl Batuerack 1914,
bottlerack(lig.3,'.Dcspit.'his clairn r e p l i c1a9 6 4
that the sclectiorrrvls arbitrarr,,onc Metal
Editonof e ghtrep cas
cannotbllt;lssulnchc chosc e a c h6 4 . 2( 2 s r ) h g h
somcthinglust.los.' cntrughto th.' MarceiDuchamp
krn.l' of rhinqsth.rr*.rt bc!'innrn,'
Schwarz
Edillons,
M lan
to !'1Ilcrgc .ls sctr11.tt113l
aonstrLlatrons.to lcllll force tht-
4
issrreof l hat * ls 1n,.1lvasn't art, of MarcelDuchamp
rr'lrcrcthc rcalrn of the:resthetic
cn.lc.l an.l * here Lrtilio began. repica 1964

Thc rcal rausrrlllt ceme a few

3 8x 4 8x 6 1
\'.itrs l:rtcr n ith L)uchamp'-s Io,,ta,r (15x19x24)
Tate
.fic.+1.Th" .to.), i. well knou,n.
Drrcharnp,with his identity asa
\';urgLr:uLl artist well established,was 5
Jean-L6on
G66me
on rhe st-lection comnittee for an
0 Pti Cien7902
ol-.cnsculptrire exhibitior.rin New
0 i o nc a n v a s
\brk. He bought a urinal from a 87x66(34%x26)
l l u r , l ' .r s . l r " p a n d. t ' h n r i t t cidt r . r
scrrlpture, crudelysignedwith the
'R.
1'., ' r J o n l
r n M u t t . I I r " w , ' rk u a '
rejectedbv the jLrrv despitethe
srr;'posecloper.nessof the exhil,ition
to ar.r1,one who had paid their lrc
arid wasnot exhibired.Duchanp
proceededto run rings round thc
jtrdgcs'published reasonsfbr
excludingthe udnal: that it wassomehow'immoral',that it u,as'merel)/
plunbing, and so or.r.Thc point wasm:rde evenmore seriouslvfunny bl tht-
actuallyvery closeformal resemblance betweenthe urinal:rnd Constantrn
Branctsi'.sorganicallvshapeclabstractsculptures,some of whicb haclalrcadv
beenexhibiteclin rhe United States.
pasrrsalof pu sund 'ryo.u s drueqrnq u1 '(5'3y) p le ,l:e, seurq lq paararuor
rou ssrpqnop se,4{ aug:ag uo91-uea{ :arured rruapery-qlt aqr lq e8t p1o
srq ur patJnrtsuol u8rs-doqsSuruund aga'etr.rtdas ppoar sts:r:d q3n1alp req,n
:eqt:3ot sar.ro;:dueqrnq 'srurpourruor l:eurpro 3o e8uery q8no.rqr,rre w
Ienruros aqt, PaIIe] A>lsurPuE)lErl,r Jo uoDEurlrluol srq sEI]4,4{s oPuanuur
Fnxas stq qlly]oo; lyoq .ro .raaslrruorsr,r ;o a1o.rpa;rdsurlpruururoX
ar1:;o stsr:relq uoudrunsseaqt *.u rusru:aporul1:ta 3o sarttsodwod
er.p3o au6 '8uryspu xasJo sgreg aqr qrr^{ rolpne rusnr eqr Jo pue uoutl aql
Jo senuouos orlt qJrnsp p asaql'(,a;rl s,trql l,rrya5 aso;X
'soro, ,l Jsa,:'so-r.r)
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^{ou prrt atsrrp-aJuo aqr Suruonder (,sse*r1e lo? s,ar1s,1w nv ynutpv
,ll, alrT spunospnol rno pea.r3r qrrqar) DOOH1, arll snql'sund (1rypearp
:o) :aaap ssey.roarour Jo sarrrs ritl,lr 3uq:a3 :ygrgaur 3o plro^{ aqt traJur
ol sr,usar8atrrssdrueqrnq
'.Fsro^run,
arou.r'lErnlru
Jo auo
aroru 'sPro?[uEq] ffu.urEPury
aJoulr{oqauos seP3^ratruol
eJ? JellI 3s3rl urJJerI,4{
'uouorua pue 8urle:;:
3o araqds
ole,llrd e spre,tol 'aarte:.rtu pue
a8tnSwl pe.ra.1syo uqte.r cqqnd
e ruog leare 1rt u.rn1 o1 u:;q
Prq uoBnlo^al s ursru.raPour Jo
lftd 'laa; ot paag Suraqaro;aq
&o:lp lq p:uor:rsod '1eadso:
os 'sr :otet:ads ag1!l Jo >l.to,t!
pue roreDads _,1io :arunorua
Fuonoul? arlt Jo surJal
aql Suules 'aue:; 3o puDI e Jo
tErlt sr tJE uJapou ot ?Stn8uel
;o drqsuonela.raqt ;r st sr lr
'p:aua8 u1 'sa,lpsruaqrs:8e1or
pue s8unured agr ur wodde
dpuanba.r;sp.ro,u'usrqn3
u1 'uon*.nsgr ;o d.roarp
arp uo dysnordor :lo.r.n p llsurpur; lysslqpu uupuotr^{ tald 'rltrl,laletr l
;rurrse;1 a8rn8ueylq p.tunri sr rusrulopou 'asuasJaqlout ut lng 'pasltuor:d
:.re uorloura pw SurTaaJ 'prats str uI 'p:Sundxe sl 'Juo[ua^uo] aqt pu
'a8en8ury qrrq,,rl ruo:; ureruop e ol dn ppr
IeuoDer Jr.lt Jo suonetouuof, sl qlu{
'alol^L sJnutr lsru.rapourralrl sr 1o
,auo1tlq8tsa,{aor, qeadde teg: lre ue 3o ,ala
luatrouulraql Jo suoloN 'uonlauuof srlt s.rJ^esusruJaPoy{ 'sa^Dtl.IuFltlqtq
ptrt prrsseyrlylueururopa.rdgo sru.rarpnsr,l ur Suuunora: aql uo 'JJntelJtrJ
pw rrr 3o &nurxo;d :ql uo pa.uuer se,,lrpue 'pasuoaqrdlq8rg uaaq ptl1
ur rrurapery 'a8tnStrelgo ue pa8:nd prl usrufapou 'l?^sl auo tV 'snounJ sr
r:e u.repou ol aSen8uelJo uonElar aqll:e 3o anbrlln t w aStnSuelpasn oqr
?rl tnq 'Fuun E pue I3^or{s,,lrous 'prallog t glr,u srurod srq apwr dureqrnq
t0v00Nrl
serjolrsqr.stiol-lsabout * hcrerhc bound;uicsol- art lar'.
C)tht-r.rr'aLrt-gltlists
conLinuccl t,r pJ.r\rhc .r rl..rl \I.r11,,
,rr m'r.lcln aLr
L.cc:irne
srrlficirntlycsLaLrlishc.l;rn.1
sLrlJicienth (selfl,)inrl-ort,rntto wilrr.lrirrts
,, i ,.,
or,vnrrrnning conunentlr\' fto1)r withir-rr]re r:rrrks.Thus thc f)'icl;iist Ilr:rncrs
Picrbi:r pllvr.l r'itlr tlr. notion o1-l:rngulgt an.l vjsrral art as.listirct btrt rel:rte.l
represent:rtionills\'stcnrslvhcn hc 1.r-,r.lrrccd r pirnting m:1dcuf:ilDrost cnLirclt
of sign:iLLrlcs ifi-g.(r't.l-att'r, thc Srrlrcalist I{crt1 Magrirrc m.r.lt a l;rl lt.rchinq
l,oint lltoLrr r iso:il .tn.l vcrLralt-c;r-cscntrtior. abouf repr-escnr:rtionlncl rcllitr',
ll irlr his painting o1-a pipe c.rptionccl C,ii u tstyds ttn pipt,'.'This is lor r I'11'.'
Sirril:irh, in his painting of a hrr,,l rnirr,rr tlicre:rp;rclrs, insre.i.l o1-thc
rcllecriono1-l hrrrr.rnlro,,lr', thc
cqLriralf nt linglrisricl\hris.,f rJrj
l:t,tntt t Lt,,-:. \lrno rrrrh rhc
L);rtlrisrs;ur.l Srrrrt.rlists. rll.cit in a
.l i1l,'r'cnt r',.in.the Soviet
(lorstructilists .lror. LhfoLLgh a
criticlLrc o1-thc ,icsrhcticrlh'
nutot-tomous rvork of alt an.l th.'
lbrn of lifi that Lurdd\vrot. ir.
\\Iith tlicir rotion of Art inrcr
Plocluction.thel' lbjrrre.l:rrt .rs:i
svnrLrtor]r of bolrrgcoissocietl th;rt
ha,.1 to bc r.'pllcc.1b,, 1'mcticrl
corltribLltions to thc clr]lstrllctio ol
socialisrr.l-hjs critiquc of botugroir
in.lilitiulism rnirn.rtcdthc x\':rnt
gar.lein l::isrlrtl \Vcst:rlikc,.lcsfitc
r l r . d d c l r r ! l r j u l l l . L . u r arLr .\ \ l r i . l .
Dldarsts,Srrn,..llisrs u.l
Clonstrucriyists lirun.l thcrnsr-lvc.s.

HrsroRY
In rhe crllr'.lccl.leso1-rhc nlcnti,..th
ccDtLlr\'thcn, rrrodc tisnt ]t:r.l
bccornccsL.rblisht.l ii ith rhc
echie\.cnrtnt of ltr lltl()lt()ltl()trs,
fLrllr:rL,str'.rct
.rrt,brrrbcirirrJrlrc
rlpfirrcnf:iutlroritl ln.l sclflstrfhcrt'no lnrke.l ,r conccptual ilsrrLrilirr', lhiclr
tlre ctitica] alirlr-qilrJes inrnrc.liutcl', highlightc.J. M.rr\'of tlrc r-ecrrr-r,r.nt
th.-mr'sol-Lhc c:rr-]tirllr)t-g.lrde. snch .rsthc rJ,..rtitr of tlrt- rvolk o1-;rft, rh.
lrlrtionship of :l t lncl Ilngrnge, thc r..l;rrionshrI ot rrr ro :r rlrrlJ o1:
conrrro.ltt pro,.lucLionsct rgrinst rn i.leologl Lrl:in.1cpcr.l,..rct-.ru.lsfrir.itn:r]
lrhr('. irnd u,h,rt it rvrs thlt tlrr.:rrtist ,lal.can rll bc sccn ro prtligLrrc lltr.r
(ionccpttr.rl rrt.\\'hit is
fcrhrps mosr srrr.pr.ising is the rrpiLlirr t,irlr r'hich rhc
options w.r'(' fillo\r'.'.1 rhrougb. Lll thc Firsr \\irlLl \\'rr', r.r'ithrbstr':rctrr r ,rr thc
onc hlnJ ;rnJ the |t'lr1\n.r.le on thc orhcr. titc cclrrctpru,rl Iirr jts ol l.oth
csscntielisrDa J contexruilisDr ]tl.l:rlre.r.lt bccn skctchr.l. t\ fi.rv rt-ars l:ircr,
.rliclthcBolshoikllcnrlrrtiLrn.rhr-{,.,,r,,,,.,'r'',.ircrr-r11.crinq.rrr.r'such.
 'os f,uoP r?,{ rou 'rusr^!rnPo:rcl
Pcrl tr Prnr
JpEurlpt.l aql JrdsJC ltnuJlod sr II! drl Prsn J^trl ot rs.lu Ptriluslul3Poru
'p.r8uaJItr[](Jr, '.{ltrurtu)
fr]ool )q or JpErusr rit ltrir ,uorrrpuor Flprorur.rd,
slr prlpr prul IJeq)rtr^ltrq^\ J,\rq ot 'prprs;odns ,{1t:r8oy Jq or.:rrpro ur Jr sn sr
r1 p:qsl-r8uuxr :o ;,JrEurproqnsrJLpn l:ar sopreS-rut,reoqr :yrq.,t'rruoroa8:q
'Jlotl,{{ Jql uo lng 'Glsl,\llllulr^uoJ
lrlurEutJJurslulJPoru Put ruslltJlllls
tpr:q;o s:p.rcF-ru,\r Ierurrl Jqt -]o.deL1s aqr ur 'rronclorutstt uro:3 ln:u.rt,r
',sr:Llto,str pcq rusru.rrpoulsnououolry
Jl.)sl Jo Put ur rFpr ytrrlt:: t stg
rrt rurpua.lapuroe 'drgs:orer:rppur rusr.:sr:g go do:pytq r rsurcFy Juuu.rro.J
l:otr:dnutur: ut prlrtrl: ursruJJpoul'::nt:unlteqt tr::srcp.r1r1 oor:sanb
lno -rr,rsur Jeru rr11'lrr: Lr.rrpour-]o Jfnrerd orp:o; pr:pur s:rt1c{ayrtsorl
fta,r .lur:r:q ,uorsot^l puE urpJ[J
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nssJI r ol 'sr.rt,1,i11tdrrutrcl) aclo:nE
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p:rdnr:oun - p::ur,rpt so!6r:qr '!V urapon ^ia
to le!
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'suuoj J-rndrr.rlit ur struulrLrIos 6a6t tantry staen o4l
a]luBe guaU
'rusr1ta11
1elro5pue usrp:e8 L
tut,4.trulsrurJPoluJo suortrlo
rqr lc1puclnSul:l]] urrq r^tLI srd
'noprdruois3aooe
O I S L U J J \I . I f U I J I \ r ' L r r J O J J I l J P I J
ar]!l - aurspo!\
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(79'xx8s)
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onb snlt1srql 'rz f16r; :;ntclnr N LII X9 gNI
1o 33eloO
rLll J.Ut lng'!t6I Iuurl PJ^losJl p u es e ^ u eu! o r 0
tou sE,,!l. teqt srsr.rfr :626r ur urtSr: lz6t aleupacectta0,1
srsr::p.rSuoyord orur oE o1d1uo elqecldg3ueJl
'soz6rJrlt ur pJsrTrqetsiJ sE,{r tr6r I
ol llede IIg reql ,\lllluJl qlLIJ.liulu
J r ll u r o r j p J l u J r l u r u ' ' l . { s t . r l e r r J c . r
aq1'u:.1dr:qrou prp rusrTerlos
IeuoueurJtul rJPro PFod,,!{JLrt ur Jnssrtou prp ftntu.rr qDrtua,nt,{Fta IP
'tno pJurnt tr sV'uouentrs
-1osrsu: pruqod:qt IEluotsrqstr lc1p:qro"-urnr.ur
f,JeJtrru Juo luE tE lrr ol alqepr,rr s8urutrur tr]qlssodJo e8uel Jqt pur '.rnrerd
Foos rrJ ru sr lI uoDrrgru8rs;o uarsls ru:po:do;rurue ll.r.!u rou sr r.rE
ttqt uouru8olJr E s.^lo^ur lJ,^rsu!aqlisol,6r :qr ur pul: 996r puoo.rr:1optarsut
'so?6r aql ul ro '816rpunorr Jsur l.rt puda:uo3 pa3p.H dlpjl t t,osaoplq,lr
',{1:r: os p:qsqqels:;raar rusrp;r8 tue^e pu? ursrul.poru;o s:1od rqt;1 q8uol
os r>pl lrc pntda:uoJ prp lq.,r'puorrs ir^r^rns usrurf,pollr prp / oq 'ts.rrl'ruo
Surn8ulur ue sr 'u:as tsnl J^ELIa,,!\rrq,\{ ua^rB'oslEtng Ja.l{sutor :lqrssodun
tr
'uor1s:nbllpsr srlr
la^a[auotV urrlt 31astrstduro;duous:nb rlcpop y
'tuJurour
Jl:llrolsrq aurrs
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Avnrur-enRDrsM
Resumeo
The epochal political crisis of the r93osloomed over the modern movement 1n
art and the possibilities availableremained circumscribed by it. Not until the
reconfiguring of the world after the late rg4os,with the defeat of Fascism,the
inception of the nuclear age,and the beginning of the ColdWar, did the
ground rules alter.After the initial period of post-war reconsrrucrion,by the
mid-r95ospictorial realismhad becomeidentified with artistic conservatism
and repressivepolitics, while modernism spectacularlydrew breath and issued
in the NewYork school. JacksonPollock, Clftrord Still, Barnett Newman,
Mark Rothko and others produced abstract art on a scaleand with a
confidence that seemedto per-it something new, something unavailableto
Piet Mondrian, JoanMir6 and other European abstractartists.Modernist
theory moreover becamehighly develop.d, -ort notably in the writings of
Clement Greenberg and, later, Michael Fried. Another {actor to take into
account is that, behind this intensified achievernentat the levels of both
practice and theory, the institutional ground of modernism was burrressedin
an expanding range of galleries,museums and publications. The relationship
between modernist art and its institutional support is not straightforward,
however.In the r94os and early r95os,the stanceof Pollock, Rothko and others
was determinedly oppositional. Their art can hardly be said to havebeen made
Jor the world that consumed it; if anything it was made despite ir, or as part of
an attempt to survive it. Yet later historians have often blurred the distinction,
reacting againstthe claims for artt independenceby associatingmodernist arr
with American power. By the r96os,in the changedcircumstancesof opposirion
 '(arr.ur 'saaJto.4{t;o ildtrSoroqd auo iarr.atl'sra,{toqu?srg tuaprsa.rdo.lrt :atrtl.l
's8urppnq Sururng oar) ure8era^o pu .ra,ropole:da.r 'Suqgnop
3yosrr Jo tr aql
q8noqr lpred 'sqde.rSoroqd3o uonr.rodrorur aql q8no.rgr trpwd'ue Jo >po^\
otll ;o ssauanbrunoqt 3o uonsanb rqt ssarppelyreap so.rnDrdrqf 'tsapour
fla,trrtlar arr'II wulalI pur-I wnpa:I'suortrnpord r?tel sn{ Jo aruosJo sptepuets
arp lg ',8urrurcd ad.,{r-ueruauv paller S;aguaarg rq.{ pue ltrurapour
ufrraurv pal-Erparu'fsuarunsuo) 'uegrn ue uaa.&tagde8 arp turur a^eq
ot sruaasqrlrl^t 'aJI pue tr uaaalag dt8 aqr ur ate.radoor rq8nos er{ 'spro.ll
u.no sS.raguaqlsnUuI 'sntrrtap aarlourotnr pue spuilur pjgnts Jo llarrc'r
e Sulpnpur srra(qopaprersrp'sradeds,nau'sqde.rSoroqd :Sulturedtsrurrporx
Jo lrPgnads-umrpeur ar{rra^o poqsgSno.rSurpu'so56r-pFuaqr ur,sSunured
aurguror, Sunleur un8aq peq S.raguagrsneA'$lro.r xaldruor a.re(6-g's8y)
II whpal P]o,e I wwflI'arr,ut Surql aruEsaql slurrd llaterogrlaP Pur llsnoDsuor
rH (op S.raguarpsneauego1 saopreq.lt og'3ur1aa33o aueld Iesraarun
e ot spuarsepur bua8urluor sadnsa 'anbrun put anlt os Suraglg llasoa.rd
'aluetsrun)rn .relnrrt.redleqt 01 asuodsarur
Fnprlrpur reprrt:ed teqt Jo arJl
;elnrrtred reqr Jo lrur1n8urs aqr rqr uorlrrluor r :>lrtru rrqdr:8orne agr;o
'llrssarau arp 'frnrruaqtne tlg rr{t 'olqlo1
Jo uorllrluor rno uodn puadop il
>lretrAlua^a 'aurl) zurC lryog rlrqsrv'Suruoo;1 ap turllrlA'lln5 p.ro3d13
'llollod uosrye{'uortlerlsqe p.rnrsa8
Jo Iooqls r lgelruassa s,t{usrurrporx
IIlrf,IrauIY.Ilt{-lsocl'uEIu^{rN llruJeg Jo uolloelxo rlglou sLIfqrUA
9utsNtHcsnvu
'tq8q agt otur uraqt Sur8urrg pu sturpalalur s1rSur.ra,rorsrp ssaro.rdaqr
ur pue '(rusrptrder jaurnsuor lueqdurnur r pue) usrurepour turldrunrrt Jo
oJ orlt ur saaourIerrtrJr u^ro str 8urryur uorlr.raua8terlt ueqt 'uorle;aua8.uau
t Sur.rrdsursaprtS-tue.tepur8r.ro aqt Jo ratttru E ssrl 'I[EJrdo'sEt{ ]J 'drur orll uo
peg drutqrnq rnd'pue18ug ur uotlrrurH prflltl1 pue'rrrrruv ul o8e3 uqo{
pue S.raguagrsnUilrgo1 'suqo{.radse{'so56r-pru arp;o apreS-tur,reluaS.raura
fy.nau arlt lq snroy otur >lrtg rq8norq lyacrraga se.trdruerpnq ua^E'plro.{r
Suqeods-gsl13ugarp ur u.4{orrTunlla.rrrua rurrt terlt le prureruar'rq8nogr
Ielrlrn sry or slal ur.4{taqt ara.4{rusrlllslog pue rusrparrns trqt pa>lJerurr
pq oq.,!tpur 'stsrpnldaruor paSe8ua uorte.rrua?e f,qpa>lo^urlyssaypuauaaq
Jo
'so96raleyaqt ur uorttlsueJt str aJurs'srl
,uorrxpo.rdaX Flruq)aW;o a8y
aqt ur trv Jo lro,{A., asoq,rt'urtur(urg rJtllA'.ue Surllrs-tsaq pu tsrurroJuof,
.traur Jo stua8earue,rpe,pur ,rsedFrrlrl Jrlt jo sralrleJ, ag ot stsrtJetsrlearJns
pa8pn( S.raguaa.rg'pa:ou8r se,erusrplrpr Ierruqlat s,tsurg xetr l pue 'tsure
rreltsge tsrurrpour e se p:p.re8:.rse^rorrtrAJ 'ar:r.r8e141
JurU pue r[ECIrope^Fs
go l.ra8eurrurrrp aqt or sala rsruraporu ur polpur,!\p peq usrle?rrng 'rua.redde
aruorrg rusrlrtrnJtsuo3 3o adors llt Jo asuasauos prp 'uawudxT luat3 aq1
slerg qpruea y z96r ur uouer{gnd arp yrun toN'pateratrlgo lldurrs alrnb
sen p.ren8ue,rtar^os lll'Jpre8-tue^e aqt parrng pEq ,plor puE toq qtog ,sr,r
'araqertr
Jo alggnr rqf IDdaruoJ pa8pagl1p; e ;o spaasaql'sartrlnre
trc rgnads-runrparu-uou p '{etw ue ur aprrS-turle aqt Jo uorte rur8ar e aruer
osl aJarlt'so56ragt ur rusruJapourJo afuatse.ropa aqt rltra lltuaJJnluoJ
::.trod Ief,rtrrf,str Jo paurlp u*g tou peq tre lsrurrpour'portod.re.n-tsod
aterparururaqt ur tng 'uars rg ot rurJ s8urqr,noq rl teqt 're.,!rurtutarn aqt ol
 But mole particularly, the narks of art itself are doubled in the repeateddaubs
of Abstract Expressionrstpainting. These :rretolersof spontaneity; authenticrty
is placedir.rqrrotatior.rlnalks.The works'subjectn.ratteris the institutionalisation
of spor-rtaneitr'.
FdttwnI and FdctumlI need eachother.The meaning of rhe work elnergcsin
thc'sp:rcebetwecn the two pictur-es,or betweenthat spaceancla thir.l element:
the description,or type,'gesturalabstractpainting'.B)i the laterr95os,with so-
called'second generation'Absffact Expressionism, the strugglefol authentrcrty
h:rd becone a style. Four yearsearlier,Rauschenberghad taken a dilferent kind

::1.t.-r '
. .,,:

J}

:;;, it i

,. ;rit

iils
I tit! il: I

of .listancefron gesturalabstraction in the iconoclastic-Cra seddeKooning

Drawirg(fig.ro). Rauschenbergobtained a drawing from de Kooning (with the
latter's support be later said he chosea good one to make its erastrredilicult)
and then set to work laboriouslv rubbing it out. As a kind of critical symbol,
the erasedde Kooning could hardlv be more economical:rrsinggestureto eiTacc
gesture,using the samedeviceof meaning making to un-make one set of
r-r-rear-rings
ar-rdinstitute xnorheri returning the achievedaestheticunity of the
finishc.-lwork of art to the primordial unity whence it came- the blank canvas
or sheetof paper (albeit visibly r.r,orlr{.In their dillerent ways,both these
 &ap8,{rd.ua llaraydruor :.,olrlqlqxa,rqr arrrrrua&age8 arp
:r.tJ
raao uretrnf anlg ural) FuorteuJrtul uE qdnoJqt passd'uorsello rqt JoJPaJrq
pueg l.relpru e lg.paraa.r8'Suruado aqt ot srotrsrn'(pto,tr,{1-) aylArl paplt
'srred ur trtaye?uel3 srrl rrlt tE uortrgrqxa 956r s,qary qtl.{t errrer stroJta asaql
'a.rylg apeu s8unured :sorpog
;o pnldaruo3-orord tryealt lsoru rr{t Jo ruo
pararus-lured-an1gJo srlert lq aprur s8urturrd jstunorue lueraglp ro; plos
rprqlt's8urlured aruo.rrpouoru(anyg urrry Ieuorteuratul sr palualed ruaur8rd
arp) anlq Frrruapr Jo sarJase :sa.rua8JrtsrtJIeuortualuor Jo IelrlrJr sarntsa8
Jo srrrrsE prrenrul ulrD{ sr^A'a)ueJl ul'tg8notp pue uollre tuo-r1alge-redasur
Sururorag'Irn arp ur grT Ierlos qrr.u lprarrp aS.raruppogs lre,(petsul 'leql
pue ,8ur1urqt Pue ltrrrrteaJf JoJrunlParu ssalasnE st.u tJe InsI^,lql JaITagaql
uo pasrtuerdaJe r serlrarlrerrtsrlle rraqt teqt rtor.{ JrtEI'sdnor8 qtog uI alrlle
]senDeS qtrurs
'u.ro{ ra8sy 'LS5t w 'gt6t w papuno; s.t{
lEuorteuratul lsruorturs aql pue lpjequrau asrno'l pue
dno.r8e.rgo3 ar{I'se^rterlrur Iraaesro; turod Surtrets arp papr,tord usrlerrns yB snou-ri{uoue uepue
eseqcindIJoA/r aNUV
go 6e8a1 aq1('adornE ot uaag peq Sraquaqrsne1pue suqo{ rpog 'paapul) ujopollro unssn!\l0l.ll
'lJE uJaPou ruaJlsureru suorlurauor aql o1 rPntrttE
Jo IelrlrJJ Jo sPeaJr{l \%98xy,79)
arp dn prd or Suruur8agosle ara^rrrlupv aql Jo eprsrer{to aqt uo 8un1.ro,u 2 0 6x 6 ' s s l
se ueS
srsrrrB'Si-l aqr ur S.raguarltrsnEu pue suqof ;o arrrre.rd aqr qlr.4tllsnoauerprur5 uorededpelured
pue su0Dcnp0.r00J
NVdVroNV]dounf 'cuqe]
ladeds/r\au
leded'uo^erJ'Iul
' ; r o : B u r l u reeudr q u o 3
(ue roj
asr arll rg ot osp tno surnt terp Jr ursrurapou o1 suaddegreq16'a8en8uel L96l il wnt?eJ
rpr,u lqd ar'rsarue8agr q8norqr 'suorlurluor Jo stasgo 8ur1.ro.atarp q8no.rrp fuequeqcsneg yaqog
6
paxpord sr 8urueay41 'parann a.relagr qrlq.,!rq slxeluor ar{t qtr.{r dn punog
sr spro^r ;o Sururaur arp des ot sr tql',asn aqt sr Suruearuar1t,:uratsua8rrr,11
u0Nall0c
31.upn1yo lqdosopqd rarel aql ruog pa^rrap SuruearuJo .der^e go rq8q arp ezuedaql'salaFuV sol
ur tre ur >lro r pu lrr ot un8ag peq suqo{',a8en8uel ag ot Surtured Surrra4ag 'uV {JeroduetuoJ
ur,I, runtrrp srq ur srql uorS le.ue palla^er] peq larp aruetsrp arlr dn paturuns ,0 urnosnneql
PAgtxy,tg)
suqof .radsrftsnr-.lrolle; pu puau; s.Sreguarpsnta 'uonualuor pue a8en8uel z'06 x 6'99tr
qlauag aJa.{ se araqdse 'arrueu ueunq otur uol}ua^uot q8nolp Surtsrng se
1I seAuec
'uolJe)Iunururor, Surlnlapun s uorssaJdxa,.tres uoJadsdpalured
l;oarp tsruJapotrl 'J?rpo ql? pue suo[cnpuoer
rodedsmeu 'cuqej
punor Suryr.rnllruapuadapralur srerunsuol pue srotngrrlsrp 'srarnpord qlur
ledpd'uo^eJc 'Iul
'uortrnpord Surueau;o uarsls pasrFuortntrlsur u sepate.radosurJoJsnorJ ' l ! o : t u l l u l eadu l q u o C
stl ur tre lrertsg 'uorleryru8rs Jo srrstg aqt ol u^rop Surrra8pur aErSSeg
L96t I wnlce!
'uorrelprsrp pue uortngr:nd go lSoloapr pasreaqrr
Ierntlnr agt Suruosrlla(3o Froquoqcsneu
Uoqou
-lle,.uaqt alrdsaq 'tuatsls se tJ;o Surpurts.IapunuB sE.r{srusruJrporu 8
a,lrDadsarrleql urog aluetsrp lefrlrJf ,suortelaua8rpog Surur.ro;uruorldar.rad
Irluar aql'rel11plro1\]srrC aqt Jo r^r arlt uo duerpnq Sulrr; asorp
ruou soJuetsurnrJrfluaragrp fta,r ur tragle 'usruJaporu puolag ft.tl e Surlaas
se^lasuaqt 'stsrtJeJo uorteJaua8ta8unol e qlr.,lruJnt ul prterfosse ourfag
6e8a1 s,drueqrnq 'a8e3 uqo{ rasodruoJ lp r{tr,lt drqspuau; srq q8norgl
'sesuasaqt ot 'punu
fiErqr ur ]re ue Jo suorttnu1 arp lg parog aruo)?g 3ur,u1
llt Jo all^tas aqt ot tJe uJntal ol se&rJarl.rtr l.rntuar-.ret.renbe sapeur{pea:
aqt qtr.4{papuatur peq aq lerlr\ leql sof5r arp ur pa>lreuar peq durerpnq
'rrrsls^sotw
PaSlPol
arrrorag 'ralorJour pue 'peqreJueag sq uorssardxalenprlrpur Jo tnu{ aql
aJuo,(uo oB or ^roH, uorrsanb aqr or sJa,r{sue SroguarpsneXlg sryo.u
luasa.rda.r
 Elsewhere,the Grrtai grorrp in Japanembarkedon a seriesof performance-
tlpt' :rctivitiesin r955/56,inclrrding a walk along a white line and the collection
of water ir.rthe depressionsof plastic strips Ioosely slung betrveentrees(fig.u).
The journal that had printecl the Gutai mar.rifestoin r956,CeijutstrShincho, also
developedlinks with the ltalian avant-garde,put lishing Piero Manzoni's essav
'Free
Dimelrsiori,in which he commented:'Expression, imagination,
abstraction, are they not in thenselvesemptv ir.rl'entions)'.L.r ltaly, Malrzoni
essayed the transfbrnation of living peopleinto'works of art'bl signingther.n

10
RobenRauschen
be

Drawing1953
Tncesofinkand
crayonon paperwiih
handlettercdinklabel,
n god]eafframe
6 4 . 1 x5 5 . 3
l25 tx,2I7)
S a nF r a n c s cM
ou s e u m
offulodern Art,
Purchased lhrougha
gft of Phyis Wattis

11
Sadamasa
l otonoga
Water1956
Asreconstructed lorthe
1 9 8 7 V e n i cBee n n a l e
(AkiraKamayama's

theforeground
befeath
Watel

12
PiercManzoni

1961
[1eia andpaper
4 . 8x 6 . 5( 1 r lx 2 r )
Prlvate collecllon, [4 an

(painting) and standingther.non portablcplinths (sculpture).ln r959,he

'r'isuality'
produced :r seriesof u'orks further challengingthc of visual art.The
'Lines'were
producedon rolls of paperturning on:r machine,e:rch:rction
havilrg a particular duration, and the completed drawing consistir.rgof rhe
length of p:iper coveredbi' the line in tl.rattine. The rwist is that the lined
scroll is then encasedin a cardboarclcylir.rder,with a srnall section stuck to the
outsideand henceactingasa label,amplifiedby a written clescriptionincluding
the length of the line, tht' clate,t-tc.The drawing itself remainsinvisible.Tl.re
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Fluxus
One of the most immediately obvious featuresof the range of avant-garde
practicesbroadly opposedto modernism wastheir abrogationof medrum-
specificiry.Allan Kaprow wrote:'The young artist of today needno longer say
"I am a painter" or "a poet" or "a dancer".He is simply an "artist". A11of life
will be open to himlThis kind of affitude tended to createa very open
situation, quite distinct from the exclusivityof modernist art. That openness
was exemplified by Fluxus. As we have alreadynoted, the first use of the term
'Concept
Art'occurs in the writings of Henry Flynt in r95r. Flynt's article arose
out of Fluxus activity in NewYork, but the group had a wider catchment,
embracing artists from Asia and Europe, as well as the United States.Yoko
Ono had taken up residencein NewYork and was involved in many Fluxus
'instrucrion
activitiesboth there and in her nativeJapan.These rangedfrom

Yokoono
CutPiece7964
Photograph
of
performance
in Kyoto

74
GeorgeMaciunas
FluxusManifesto7963
-\ Offseton paper
:: 2 0 . 3x 1 5 . 2( 8 x 6 )
G i l b e rLte i l a
Silverman
Fluxus Collection

(concrete
paintings',to vocalisationsat music' events,to performances.Some of
these,in her use of her own bodp a,ndthe evocationof extremelyedgy
male/female power relations, prefigure later more overtly feminist work. One
resonant example was the Cut Piecein which Ono knelt on sragewhile male
membersof the audienceone by one cut awaypiecesof her clothing wirh a
largepair of scissors(fig.t;).
The prevailing ethos of Fluxus was a mixture of sharp criticism and whimsy,
capturedby Dick Higgins'remark that many arrisrsin the late r95osand early
r96osbeganto believethatl'coffee cups can be more beautiful than fancy
sculptures'.Thissenseof the potential beauty of the overlookedand the
ordinary chimes with a long tradition of avant-gardistactivity, keeping irs
'high
distancefrom the pomp and protocols of cuhure',which it roundly
identified with the bourgeoisie.A photograph of 1963showsHenry Flynt and a
 sursrapuv slao;a'(SI'8y) slnag qdeso{ st,ttluerurag uI sllxnlC uI pr^lo^ul
lurog osp orl.4{rsorlt Suoruv'srrrotrAllg rxar t s]lJ^\ sE'rrrrd,tJV tdJluoJ,
s,rudlg prurtuor y:rtu,u'GoptltrI,. snxnlC all Jo rotlpr oslt st.lt 3uno1'sr"r.ro7g
'o96t ',otq uorlrsodulo,
?og% PaFrlqnss.{Lput P3ltrt sr.n srqa'Suno atuotr{ e'I
lg a.rors Flrsnru e ol ';odrd ralu.ltadll rrJ^rTO Jo IIor t Suop '1utr:dur poddry
rptaq srLIpaSSerp rLI qlg^{ ur'yuag.toguaz parnroJrad1t4 '296r uI urptqsol1\
ur F^nsr; snxn]C rLIr rV 'ryr6 aun{ urtN rsDre uraro) rLIt s.uLIlr.4{pr>lro,{\
'slur^a
Pue trrrr JtI rsoLlt Suoruy Prsnq-sruErrr;o3.rad pue lrsnlu Jo Jrgrunu
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description of Beuys'-Errasiaperforrnancefrom 1966,reprinted in Lippard's Srx
is
hars antholoey, worth quoting at length:

whichwerelyingon the floor

Kneeling,Beuysslowlypushedtwo smallcrosses
towards a blackboard; on each cross was a watch with an adjusted alarm. On the
board he drew a cross which he then half erased;underneath he wrote'Eurasia'.The
remainder of the piece consisted of Beuys manoeuvring along a marked line, a dead
rabbit whose legs and ears were extended by long thin black wooden poles. When the
rabbit was on his shoulders, the poles touched the floor. Beuys moved from the wall
to the boatd where he deposited the tabbit. On the way back, three things happcned:
he sprilrHei white powder betweerr the rabbit's legs, put a thermometer in its mouth,
and blew into a tube. Afterwards he turned to the board with the erased cross and
allowed the rabbit to twitch his ears while he himself allowed one foot, which was
tied to an iron plate, to float over a similar plate, on the 11oor.This was the main
content of the action.The symbols are completely cleat and they are all translatable.
The division of the cross is the split between East andWest, Rome and Byzantlum.
The half cross is the United Europe and Asia, to which the rabbit is on its way.The
iron plate on the floor is a metaphor - it is hard to walk and the ground is frozen.

Through activities like this, Beuysrapidly becameone of the most

prominent artists in the international avant-garde.His incorporation of
animals into his performances, and activities such as the planting of ffees,
15
combined with extensivefree-forrn'teaching'sessions, also led to his being seen
JosephBeuys
as a significant figure in the politics of culture, particularly in respectof the Eurasia1966
emergenceof the'Green'movementin Germany.But it is worth recognising Photograph
of
that howeversuggestiveand uncanny they rnay havebeen, Beuys'activities performance
at theTate
Gallery
remain somewhat ambivalent.Thus, while the Eurasiaperformance may well
function allegorically, it is quite wrong to say that its symbols are'completely
clear'.They arenol Part of what has happenedin moderniq' hasbeen the
fracturing of public symbolism, or its etioladon into the terms and themes of
the massmedia. Allegories such as the one performed here require assentto
stipulativedefinition if they areto work ('The erasedcrossmeans...';'The
deadrabbit means...';'Fat signifiesX';'Felt signifiesY'; and so on). And that
requires assentto authority, namely the authority of the artist conceivedas
shaman.Beuysmay offer a critique of the materialism of the consumer society,
and of power relations in the world.Yet while speaking a languageof enabling
and opportunity on the one hand (as in his argument that'Not just a few are
called, but everyone'),he relied on the exerciseof charismatic authority to
establishhis platform. One thing we can perhapssaywith'complete .iarity'i.
that Beuyscan be positioned within an irrationalist tendency in German
thought and art with its roots in the late eighteenth century, in the Rornantic
critique of Enlightenment rationalism.
As with many other kinds of performance-basedart, this raisesquestions of
the kind we posed at the start: about the nature of Conceptual art, and its
r e l a t i o n s h i tpo c r i t i c i s ma. n a l y s ias n d t h e d e m y s t i f i c a t i oonf a r t ' ss u s r a i n i n g
ideologies. How one conceivesFluxus activities in general,or Beuysin
particular, in relation to Conceptual art is largely a matter of definition. If we
restrict our senseof Conceptual art to a language-basedinvestigation of the
 qJrq,4{ alrlos rJJurxsuuo^ qtr.,!\:Fo,4{PJsrq-arurcr.roj.lJd()1uoElPPe
Jo
cJ so96rl]r"r rr.Jturo.r-J
srrror l traqo; -lo ).ro,,rlrLIl lq p3pl^o:d sr ,rodo:dr.rt
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sruu01^|
I
'JEluautPunj sr snxnll uJql ^rrtr5rtracls-runrPJur
;o uorreSo:qerreqr lq dyuo11ere 3r pf,yrun srur^uf,E-+opurq pEo.lqE apnllur ol
ursrS:uda:uor ;o asuasrno puatxJ J,,lrJI'erLuorloq Fuor]eu::tur;o puno:3le1d
e 'lJuuErp ?ql uo Jsroujo pull t st s.:rl?addt
snxnlg 'rusrunpour 3o suortdunsst
included the modular elementshe later developedinto his Minimalist
sculpture,during the early r96osMorris was also making a range of enigmatic
'Duchampian'
objects.Some of theseinvolved quotidian items (such as a bunch
of keys or a ruler) cast in lead; one employed a photograph of the artistt body;
there were castsof body parts and traces(a fist, footprints); and marry involved
words. Some were highly self referential,seemingto parody the modernisr
obsessionwith the autonomy of the art object.With one foot in the camp of
the read),tnade,CardFib tecorded the processof its own production through
the written entries in an alphabeticallylisted seriesof forty-four file cards:ftom
Accidents toWorking, from the moment of conception ('whilst drinkrng

coffee in the NewYork Public Library') to goilrg out to buy the file itsell
A key areaof contention betweenmodernism and the more diversified
avant-gardeconcernedthe statusof the aesthetic.For modernists, it is not too
much to say that the aestbeticwasthe be-all and end-all of arr, irs unigue and
proper areaof competence,In the caseof Fluxus, it waslessa question of
rejecting the notion of the aestheticas of broadening its range of reference,
outwards from the medium-specific,formally achievedharmony of a
modernist painting to, potentially, anything, an object, a sound or an action. In
later Conceptual art, the question of the aestheticwas strategicallyput rn
 'Surre,ugr;se,,r,r
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+

t7
FrankStella
SixMile Bottom7960
Anrnslorl painton
l\4etallic
canvas
Conceptual art grew in a spacecreatedby the avant-garde,and used it to mount 300x782.2
(778x 77%)
a far-reaching critique of the assumptions of artistic modernism, in particular
Tate
its exclusivefocus on the aestheticand claims for the autonomy of art. The
modernist critic Clement Greenberg,discussingthe origins of modernism in
the late nineteenthcentury,had spokenof a processof'dialectical inversion'.
He was referring to the paradoxical development wherein modern artists had
set out to try to find adequatelynew ways of representing their unprecedented
modern world of boulevards,caf6-concertsand railway stations, and had ended
by producing an art of autonomous visual effects.It can be argued that the
reversehappenedwith Conceptual art. Claims that painting'appealedto
eyesightalone', that visual art's'primordial condition was that it is made to be
looked at, themselvesbecarnethe subjectsof a new kind of reflection.And the
paradox this time was that raising questions about autonomous art opened up a
register of far wider issues;the modern world began to return to the agendaof
a modern art. This is, of course,to overstateits absence.No lessa figure than
JacksonPollock had said of his abstract art that it was a responseto the
demands of a new age.But low abstract art did that, and what the nature of its
responsewas,had becomelessand lessclearasmodernism had turned into
'post-painterly
abstractiori.In the rapidly changingconditions of the r96os,
many artists grew sceptical of what was beginning to look like a modern
incarnation of art for art's sake.As Claes Oldenburg put it:'I am for an art that
does something other than sit on its assin a museum'.The title of a later
retrospectiveexhibition of ry95 encapsulatedthe new agenda:Conceptual art
 'IIt,4\trlP or ]elnduellJl LLrroJIunr r{11,{\ JuoP rq Plnol. qlnlll os
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rlyerg ',:deqs ;taurd:p, srr pue Surrurrd :rqr go,rdtqs pnr4, rql uaa,tlaq de8
:qr Sursop lq reqr p:n8:r peug',u.rroq se :deqg,Iesse aqr '3unurcd rsruraporu
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l,llsrlvllrNrll 0Nvvr'Ers
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:re ;o sl,tapo-rd:r1:
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Jo Jo r::196 :qr Surr:prsuotJu, tnocl? se,,!\
Stella's emphasis on the literfiess of the painting's support through his deep
sffetchers and shaped canvasespointed to something else: to getting the work
offthe wall and into three-dimensionalsoace,The result was an art of what
Jr,rddcalJedSpecificObjecrs, and what the world hascome ro krow as
Minimalism.
For Fried, this was tartamount to a dedaration of war on modernism - the
'theatricality':
invasion of art by what he called a kind of stagedperformance
encounteredin literal spaceard in real time by an embodied spectator,tot the
'presentness'.
elevationout of that condition into an instant of aesthetic For
Fried, modernist art defeatedtime, the realrn of contingency,and to reduceart
to the condition of eveq/thingelsewassomething like treason.For many in the
generationof the mid-r96os, however,it was not; it was a sudden and
fundamental opening up of art. It was another of those chargedmoments of
the kind we havealreadynoted c.r9ro-r5, when abstractart, all form arld
trarshistorical essence,issuedin the readyrnade,all contingency and context,

The Minimal object, literal thing in real space,shorn of composition and

handicraft, the endgame for the modernist preoccupation with form, went
through the looking glass and in no time at a1lgaverise to Antiform: the work
'things'
of art as anything, bits of waste, felt, rurdifferentiated stuff, and even no
at all but actions and'ideas'. Once again,as at tle beginning of abstraction, it is
as if the pararneters of the field were rnapped in a mornenlThat extended
'moment',
from the beginning of the decadeto the mid-r96os, when
modernism gaveonto Minimalism, whidr in nrrn gaveonto Antiform, may be
regarded as the gestation period of a full-blown Conceptual art.

PArNflc
A kind of testcasewasprovidedby the paintingof KennethNoland andJules
Olitski (fig.r8). For Michael Fried, this work wasexemplaryof that to which
modernistart couldaspire.As with Stella,it'cornpelledconviction'.What it
 uo pJlrrPordir 's)ooallxr:) uotttlrsrdde-tie ruo.:g.:losJltlD llu uro]J suollulonb
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tdal rr1 ol art ru:tuof Jrlt -Jo suoIsuJuIrP Purl.IJlrtrtrir Jrlt :JIqrsr,\LIl
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rtqr anbrrsiur:til 1':rpo:eclosp peq rq'.r:r1:t.r lprlF4q tr/.Ltstlv %)aat PigqnP
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Lro sri\utl r pa:opord u:psrue; p1,,q '996r ur 1:o1.u:g u1 s::c;:ns untl:r:r1r
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Jrlt -Jol^DrtuJslrdli rlll ]ou 'JlllolJq PtrJrusru.IJPoul-Ir se se,lllr '.iLmrLI
ol rrJpprq pJureluJrJ]Jsl rrrp Jrnrlnrrs ri.lrod t or rulrll su,^{r.r1ru.lJporu
Irqt rurrll 1luouelrldcn lc1 snqt se,uryznru Jrns_r,\ sr lrt l:^rurJpourJJscll
'uortc]run.^uol ol Dtnllpt ur 'puJ uE ot sueJlu E st rrslrru sr srql staytur.rr.lns
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Lrur 5^trodrrr
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'Jrsnlrrot tuJIe,{InDJ
Iensr]\e,Io Jdorl Jqt Pf,r$ro uortlt.rtsqv J,\rltlruu ^.ltirlrl
Jo Jrr^rJs Jrlt uro! lrr Jo uontlJcl] e':og ul.luts rq ot FurLirlruosst,{\ rlsrltu
:lo uorlrPuor JLI]'s_lsD.m Put slllr.rl tsrrrr;pour ,{143]6; 13rll ErJr IIr,t\ S-IJPEJX
'8ur:oq onar irqt teqt Surirs urrll Jroru lJqtrr ot slLmorqr srLlI',)tznrlr
rri,r siurrurecls,r1srr19.rr,r.r,no11 'p:tddr1 .irnl .roJ LIrrrp put ,{tlrll
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'.rtuu ',a:tr3,1o :rtls e olrrt 1t ,{q p:trrcr
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Jq plnol JUoteqt:tsrd:r1t 1o t:c lerruouer.lp ic1p-r.rpr,ro,rd rr,qtot t.opnnrb..
'3uqog p:prsrp pue prss::clxr ,{1:suuurut sr,,r'r;lo uortrr,tuor p:11:duror
the scalcof modernistabstractioo(fig.zo).Not all Gernan :rrt rl:rsI.rostage ro
mysticism eithcr: in r969 Siglnar Polkc parodicclthc gcnre rvith Ilr lJglrr-l'or"rr:
Connnad:Painttlx Righttlanl Corntr Bluk (frg.zr).

IDEAs
One gesturesumsup the changecl clir.natc.
In Augrrstr966,the Englishartisr
John Latharr, employed:rsa part-tiDrelecturerat St M:irtins Schoolof Art rn

COMPOSING
ONA CANVAS.
20
STUDYTHECOMPOSITION OFPAINTINGS.ASK lohn Baldessad
YOURSELF QUESTIONS WHEN STANDING INFRONT CanpasingonCanvas
OFA WELL COMPOSED PICTURE.WHAT FORMAT 1 9 6 68

ISUSED2 WHAT ISTHE PROPORTION OFHEIGHTTO 2 8 9 . 6x 2 4 3 . 8

WIDTH? WHAT ISTHE CENTRAL OBJECT? WHERE IS ( 1 1 4x 9 6 )

ITSITUATED? HOW ISITRELATEDTOTHEFORMAT ? fuluseum

Contemporary
of
Art,San
WHATARE THEMAINDIRECTIONAL FORCES ?T}|E DlegoGjftofthe arris!

MINORONES? HOWARETHESHADES OFDARK

ANDLIGHTDISTRIBUTED ? WHEREARETHE DARK 27

SPOTS CONCENTRATED ?THELIGHTSPOTS ? HOW SigmarPolke

ARETHEEDGES OFTHEPICTURE DRAWNINIOTHE

PICTUREITSELF ? ANSWER THESEQUESTIONS FOR
YOURSETF TOOKINGATA
I'VHILE FAIRLY
UNCOM - Btack!1969

PLICATEDPICTURE. 1 5 0x 1 2 5 . 5
(59i49I)

Co ection,Stufrart

London, where rno.lernisln rv:rsa powertirl ir-r{1rrer-rce

on thc tcaching,u,ithcJrer.r,
a cop1 o1'Crecnberg'sArt anrlCulturc{ror.nthe collegelibrarl'. Ht- then inlrtcd
'chew-in' 'teach-ins'
like-mindcdArtistslu.r(1 stu(lcnrsto a (mimicking the rnd
'sir-ins'of
tl.rctime), which involvcdsclcctinga page,rc:rringit out, rna.rrcrting
ir, and spittir-rgthe resultsinto a recepr:rclc
providcd.Larh:rrrsrrbsequentlv
brokt'clorvnthc;'ulf into liclLridwith a concotion ol'cht-micalsir.rtowhiclr
yeastr,vasintro.1ucc.l. \Vhcr.rthe librerl rcqucsredirs book brck, it rcceive.l:r
 JP.m6-lur^r uol]r]J-trlo.rL1
-lo JLIlPut uIsru.IJPoruJo srsr.rlJLll-]o uortturquo)
rql Surl sE,^{ rrpJ rqt ,{lorppnq 'trJdsns ilSursra.rrur.rraddt or SutuutS:q sear
tlall.rur aqt tuo.r-l1.:lr:louorlElnlDJesrPJLI]'^{oN 'suonoulJ Jql -JoI.r^trItrLIllt
arntrratryput Surrr:tJI rnflJpun or pJrtc{sereqr Surqr.rruos'uolrtsurs Jo l.lt oe
uJJq peq ulsru.rJpour'sJ^nE:rru puno:r p.srurSro uJJq ptrl put JrllrplJllTrltl l
sJuruse sl uo pJpelr pcrl rrr lrruaprtrt 11 rrtld 3ur1t: se,,u:8utq:-eosy
',ilntuer qt:rtuo.,utotEIlit
,Io trr JLpjo launs srun:snur
i Ua J e Lll
zJ^4qls aIf,g a"{aqo 3trqcat : uslqeJaq uasoa a-IaqoH
Itql ot Jlm.uuJ.qt tt pt.{r1,1srpsr,n l oooz rr:d aqt ur trqt tnq 'yo
,!\JN ur trv urJPow Jo unJsl-rw Jrlt -]o uorllJIIo) f,Lltur JPTSJJ ^\olr Jsr)trns
srueqtr-1s:op,{1uorou trqt uou ot SuusJil}ursr I '::e yentd::uo3lq tq8noln
o8utqr :rr:nb:sqns aqt -'o ralrur E sV '(zz Bg) pssnusrp r.lrl sutrqtr-1 pue
3o
!slurrurlll pup slEr^ssel8rqt'1ooq ary:,yo,{dorr Fururrtrrolasttrrns- SurIool
-utrdruwpnq e go:drqs.l1t ur uo:r
lentcloruol e poturqur tre pue')res
:p :oF ipp utqrt j'ttt1li1) ltLpt.tv prlltsrp, pul urtrllr-1 :loqorp -Jo.)qm-tsJl
gambits meant questionshad to be askedabout'the object'of art; arrd crucially,
notby academics,critics, historiam, philosophers and other interpreters,but bv
artists themselves.Theory, so to speak,becamea practical matter.
Questions of representationand perception becamekey issues.TheDutch
artist JanDibbetts produced a seriesof'perspective corrections' by plotting
lines on a recedingwall, or landscapeplane, such that when photographed they
appearedto be a squareparallel to the picture plane (fig.21).\n Photopath,Ytctor
Burgin photographed a section of the floor of a room, blew the resulting
monochrome pictures up to life size,and laid them down over the original floor
'Proto-
(fig.;+). Jo""ph K"tuth's
investigations',including sheetsof
22
glass,neon lights, and compound JohnInfiam
works involving objects, Art and Cultarc1966
photographs and words, are said to Assemblagerleather
casecontainingbook,
havebeen realisedconceptually- as letters,photostats,
etc,,
'ideas'-
as early as 1965,though they andlabelledvlalsfilled
werenot exhibited until later. Be
llquids.
that as it may, the works are 1.9x28.2x25.3
representativeof early conceptual ( 3 % x1 1 %x 1 0 )
TheMuseum of lvoden
inquiry into the object of att.In One
andFive Clocks, OneandThru Chairs Blanchette
Rockefeller
Fund
and kindred works, Kosuth drew
attention to the relationship
betweena physical object and 23
JanDibbetts
diflerenrkinds of representation ol
PegpectiveConection
ic visual, in the caseof the 1969
photographs, verbal in terms of the Photographof
instalation
dictionary definitions (fig.24).
Kosuth's early work waspan of a
wider rendencythat had emergedin 24
New York. Ar exhibirionorganiseo loseph l$sufr

by Mel Bochrrerin late r966 staked

English/Latin
version
out some of the ground. A hundred 1965(bdibition
drawings of various kinds were veBion1997)

collected for an end-of-year show at Clock,photographsand

pintedtextson paper
the School of Vsual Arts. Tate
Bureaucraticobstruction meant thar
the drawings could not be
conventionallyfrained for display.Bochner'ssolution wasto usethe then new
Xerox technology to photocopy them, standardsize ar.rdfour times over,and
'display'them
in four large,looseJeaf notebooks placed in the gallery on the
kinds of plinth normally used for sculpture (fig.25).Out of a mixture of
accident and design,Bodrrer had ordrestraredan event that occupied the very
territory towards whidr vanguard activity seemed to be heading, the hinterland
where art met various forms of non-art, and it becamehard to tell the
difference.The problematic sratusof the installation was sustainedby the
interaction of its constituent elements:the variety of the 'drawings'themselves,
uE teq l 'tre Jo >1.10,^1
e sEtunof P]notrtttl,{{ Jo strrulT?q] Pf,uortsJnbteql lJo,,!l
Surxpo.rd 'qnrp8rrs qt.S raleoprqt qlr.'rlprlErlosse rurerrcl 'rrura,1\3f,uar^rrl
pue ::1qan11sey8noq (::eg rraqoa qrr.,tSuop'qrnso;q'so96r ::e1 :gr u1
tii0[vsnvtu]lvl4t0
Jrll .re tle Jo s)Fo { Fnttrr .qt, 'uortrqrllxJ
ulltouodo.Ltltuaualll ueduorrt salou srrl ur Jro.Lt{qrnso) sE'.r:q,4'\
aqr Su"sE.Pr
turod aq: :r 8ur.r::t s,{\uouturs aql'atrutrgu8rs Joulur d1:,rnep:go st,,lt
aqt Jo otsj aql ur ,uoutldurrruof,,
r:e,up:eq eql'sererd asaqr1e u1'(t:e 3o >l-ro,!{
Jo uoDur^uor.qt qrusrP ol uorlrfrTdull dq pue) uonrwro;ur ;o :3ueq:xa
rqr orur ,.{r4rqrssodpur uorsuot,tr;(ur or 8ur:q rurr rqr ',{rtTtqtp,r"Jo plo.prr.p
:rp.noyaq rsnlp:rp:rd spunos1:rg Surlqd:ep:o::: adtr t 3o Suusrsuor 1.ro,,w
r: 'adrydo5 p:rnpo:d peq urng url puu uapsrue1 lrl11 '996r sedpe sy (92'39)
aredsuonrqrqx::qt ur spunos:q: Surser.pue peg Surdqd'3urp:o:a:'doo1
snonunuol e ql,r rop:o::r:drt r pa:rqrqx. aqsralrl :ua.rrdswrr dlarelduror
ouo '1:qc1 rilor:lduror ruo 'ullg Jo sllo.ro,{t] 'puofrs II] ur pu :spunos
Suuuasa.rd:.r,s8ur,nerp, pardorotoqd's.r-rnuulgotyny.Lo{ suou;soduro3 p:,uoqs
Jqs rsrg:qr uI ulsllEnrdJluol ur srsu.rtuaruo,4{Jo alo.rlpea aqr llqdruaxa or
uJll uouo ?.rl suonnqr.uuof .sori.4 'lo1zo;1euu.r:r13lq pue JlJsrulq qtnso)
dq yo,,u papnpur s.rloqsqtog ):o ,!\ag ur sarrds patua: lpre:oduet ur y.ry
yutto1,trpue uy tqdtouodotllrouoltrsuot:lgrqxa :q: pesrueS.ro rJlr.rso)'/96r uI
.PaPE.rJ3J3,r\
s8urqrqrrq,,wur uorDJ.lp ?rit srtJrpur,{oqs srauqf,og 1nq ',tu:}rualour,p.ruEu
e se tsrx. tou prp ,l.reprudaruo3, 996r uI 'aurorrq prq ltrt Jo ]ro,,!{,rqt trql
Eurqt atturrur:t:pur Jql tsgruErlr 3le!u 01'ttv st lxwa4lq oi tuatytr Quassata1tr r1tr
s7a114qlsy1np6yuasSnnatq 7utyto14 'alru aqr 'rsEallou 'pue leydsrp epour
3o
,JlrT-trr, rqr ql,,!{ prurquror srql Jo II :tu:t1l rtrrqdnp or pasn rardororoqd aqr
go rur::3trp r pur ueld :oog sftole8 oqt Jo uorsllllur llt se1:,r sr 'a8r3 uqo{
,{q :rors r put 'suortEJnJIEtr IErDEuraqtru
's.lro,\ur or 'ppr-r{uoq pue ttrr11e1
1o5 seq:ns slsure dg s:rP::1s 8ur1;o,'vrpue surer8trp uorS pa8uer qrrq.t
exhibition was,and what it was that an artist d;1.Siegelaubchallenged
conventionalexpectationsby stagingexhibitions that reversedthe normal
relationship between the work on display and the catalogue.In theJanuarl
exhibition of ry59, while somephysicalexamplesof work wereshown rn
temporarily rented premises,the real site of the exhibition wasthe catalogue,
which in Siegelaub'sterms now became'primary'rather than'secondary' 25
information. In a notable shift, artwork wasnow being conceivedas MelBochner
'informatiori, WotkingDnwingsand
which could be circulated more e{ficiendy through the medium
otherVisibleThingson
of texts and photographs than through the transportation of physicalobjects. PapernotNecessarily
It was the work of such artists that stimulated the claim that the tendency Meantto be Viewed as
'dematerialisation'of Att7966
uniting the Conceptual avant-gardewas the the object of
Fouridentical looseleaf
artr a thesis advancedby Lucy Lippard and John Chandler in Arx Magazine in notebooks withthe
'dematerialisatron
February1968.The most literal exampleof this strategyof is same100Xerox copies
of studionotes,working
afforded by the rvork of Robert
drawings, anddiagrams
Barry.Barry beganwith small collected andXeroxed
monochrome canvases hung at bytheartist,displayed
onfoursculpture
disparatepoints on the gallery wall, sIan0s
which in exhibition therefore Binders: 30 x 28 x 10
( L L %7 xIx4\
appearedto bring into play the space Sculpture stands30.5x
betweenthem. From herehe moved 6 3 . 5x 9 1 . 4
(12x25x36)
to wires. (lntttledof 1968is a nylon
courtesy 0fthe
thread weighteddown with a steel Sonnaben Gda l l e r y ,
disc, hanging vertically, and almost NewYork

invisibly, from the ceiling. The wires

wereabout as far as solid matter 20
Christine
Koslov
could be taken into the realm of
lnformation
No Theory
transparency. The next step,logical1y 1970
enough,wasgas.The lnert GasSeries Taperecorder
and
of 1969took in gasessuch as neon, statement
Courtesy
oftheartist
xenon, and helium.The text for
Heliumreads:'Sometimeduring the
morning of March !, ry69, z cubic
RobertBarry
feet of helium wasreturned to the lnertGasSeries
atmosphere'.Tellingly, the event is (Helium)iFroma
recordedin a photograph (fig.27).Other, yet more'dematerialised'worksby Measured Volumeto
lndefiniteExpansion
Barry include TelepathirPlrrr,'somethingclosein spaceand time but not yet 1969
known to me', and the assertionthat'for the duration of the exhibition, the 0n l\4arch4 1969,in
gallery will remain closed', a work that was simultaneously'shown at several the lvlojave
Desertin
2 cubicfeet
California,
difrerent venuesin the USA and Europe. of heliumwasreturned
LawrenceWeiner made the point ,borrt th. obsolescence of physicalobjects t0 theatmospnere
Photograph courtesy
with tather more aplomb. He had originally been a painter,producing theartist
geometrically striped or monochrome, shaped canvasesin the early to mid
r96os,but he had also performed some more'exploratory'sculptural work
involving the removal rather than the installation of material by blowing holes
in the desertwith dynamite.From 1968Weiner beganpresentinga seriesof
enigmaticpropositions relating to similar kinds of actions.Theseincluded,
'One
hole in the ground approximatelyr'x r'x r'. One gallon water basedpaint
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aq tou prJu {ro.,!{;rll t p.reruqrj aq,,lrtllJo,{\ IiI'z lro,^1 aql Dn]lsuotr
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constructions and drawings alike are fabricated by assistantsworking within
the parametersof LeWittt instructions.The opening of LeWittt'Paragraphs'
has come to constitute the canonicalstatementof a generalconceptualist
approach:'In conceptualart the idea or concept is the most important aspect
of the work. When an artist usesa conceptual form in art, it meansthat all of
the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a
perfunctory affairl As he declared,'the idea becomesa machine that makes the
art', Lewitt was,however,careful to steer his notion of Conceptual arr away
from any suggestionof intellectual aridrty,by offering qualification. ,r.r.h
'Conceptual ",
art is not necessarilylogical', and'The ideasneed not be complex.
Most ideas that are successfulare ludicrously simple'. In fact for LeWitt, as he
emphasisedin the slightly later'sentenceson ConceptualArt' of ry69,
'Conceptual
artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to
conclusions that logic cannot reach.Rational judgements repeat rational 28
Lawrence
Weiner
AJO XJb removatn
the lathingor suppott
wallof plasterol
wallboad tom a wall
1968
photograph
Installation
althe January5-31
J969exhibition.
TheSiegelaub
Collection
andArchives
at theStichting
Egress
Foundation,
Amsterdam

29
KeithAmatt
Self-BuriaI (TeIevision
lnterferenceProject)
1969
Ninephotographs
on
board
Eachpanel46.7x46.7
(18%x78%)
Tate
judgements.Illogical judgementslead to new experiencejThissuspicionof the
rational should not be surprising. After all, rationalism in the guise of
planning, systemstheory and scientific analysis,was being enlisted ro prosecute
the war inVetnam. LeWittt exhaustivelyrepeatedvariations of lines, cubes
and geometry in generalseemat one level to do nothing so much as point to
the insanity inherent in the obsessivepursuit of the rational. As Rosalind
Krauss has argued,his strategiesowe more ro the maddeningly obsessive
repetitions of Samuel Beckettt characrersthan to scientific rationalism (let
alone to Pentagon planners).
This interest in repetitive, mantra-like strategies,pursued through and
beyond obsessionto a strangelysrill kind of meditation on rime, consrirures a
notable trend within the overall range of Conceptual art, a rrend which,
moreover,seemsto have spanned the continents. LeWitt was working in
America. Roman Opatka, an artisr of Polish descentresidenr in Fran-ce,began
i:
 to paint a canvasin 1965.Thecanvaswas painted blact, r95 cm high and r35cm
wide. In the top left hand corner, with a brush laden with white paint, he
'z'.
inscribed tlre 6gure'r'. Next to it he inscribed The sertesOneto injnitl
continues.By the time of the exhibitioo ClobalConceptualsrrr in r999, Opalkat
work featnred there bore the title ft96r76-t9t66t j.The artist speaksthe
numbers in Polish ashe paints them, and the audio tape is a component of the
work.The German artist Hanne Darboven, whose early careerreceivedsupport
from LeWitt, beganworking with number sequencesin the mid-r96os. Her
installations characteristicallytook the form of shelvescontaining large
volumes,the pagesof which were sorrtetimescoveredin hand-written number
sequences,oI sometimescontained
only one; as in the work consisting 30
SolLewitt
of all the days of a century: 365
volumes of roo leaveseach(fig.3r). Cubes/Haffoff 7912
The pagesof the first volume Enamella ed uminium
c o n t a i na l l t h c f i r s t - o f - J a n u a r irehsc, 1 6 0 x 3 0 5 . 4 x 2 3 3
( 6 3 x1 3 0 % x 9 1 % )
second,a1lthe second-of-Januaries, Tate
and so on up to all the thirty-first-
of Decernbers.In an exhibition at
the Konrad Fischergallery in HanneDaboven
Dtisseldorf during r97r, one volume Boals. A Centuryt97I
was displayed,open, in sequence, Installation photogf aph
of booksandbooi,shelf
eachday betweenr ]anuary and the Museum of lvodemArt,
end of December.
Bestknown of this'genre',
perhaps,are the dare paintings of 32
the Japaneseartist On Kawara, 0n fwara

begun on 4 Januaryr966.These too 3 DatePaintings:lan.

15, 1966 (Ihis painting
havecontinued, all slightly different, itselfis January15,
all hand painted, eversince,each 1966);ian.18,1966

being accompaniedby a pagefrom a Jan.19, 1966 (Fton

newspaperof the day in quesrion 123 Chanbes SL to
405 E 13k St)t966
(fig.32).Related seriesby Kawara
Liquitexon canvas
include postcardsmailed to each20.5x25.5x4
individuals in the art world ( 8 x 1 0 x1 % )
staatsgalerie Stuttgan
recording the time at which he got
up ('I got up . . .'), or whom he met
on a particular day ('I met . . .'); and perhapsmost poignantly,'I am still alive-
On Kawara'.This is the kind of rhing rhar ffies the patienceof the sceptrc.
Ironically, in the face of such manifestarionsof Conceptual art, one can do
litde other than echo Michael Friedt claim made in respectof modernisr
painting: if someonedoesn'tfeel they are'superbpaintings', then'no critical
argumentscan take the place of feeling it', What it meansto feel convinced of
the significanceof ar endlessseriesof numbers, or a wall fuIl of closedbooks
that you know contain nothing but dates,or a minutely diferentiated seriesof
canvases, is a fair question,Insofar as there is an arswer, it perhapslies in the
realm of our responsesto the sublime, a senseof our hmitation in the faceof
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aqt pu? 'laaJtslto .qr ur s8urp:toq sr qxs '&i,rD:e r:e qtr,,r Patrloss
lou lJsnoraa:dsalrsur snrnesaqlaql ruor; sauruapareld pue s:elso:oqd
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 ,l ,,,''
33
', It,,.t,.:i,
v o l . 1n, 0 . 1l,v l a 1
y969
Published
in Coventry

England,"toi,hich addressall mssand let'terssnoiU besent.

Price 7s.6dUK, ff'l .50 USA All rights reserved
Printedin GreatBritain
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tprtr{uraU 'sJrtur urlS.raguaargagr lq parou8r galr,111o.16'ursru.rapou )rtsrtre
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 long seriesdevotedto investigatingthe implications of postulating evermore
'work
complex objectsaspossiblecandidatesfor the status of art'. The
important phrasein that last sentenceis'investigatingthe implications'. For the
'nomination
classicallyDuchampian strategyof had become,if not exactly
discredited,then redundant,otiose.After a certain point, there is no'point'in
claiming another snow shovel,anotherpile of twigs on rop of Ben Nevis,

34
WhenAftitudes
BecomeFom
photograph
Installation
of exhibition
at the
Institute
of
Contemporary Arts,
London, 1969(with
VictorBurgin's
Photopathin lhe cenlrc
foreground)

35
KeithAmatt
TrouserWordPiece
ts72
Photograph andtext
Eachpanel
1 0 0 . 5x 1 0 0 . 5
(39%x39%)
Tate
IfiOUSEN -WOqD flrcE

'li
is $!.ltlhought,5.d lda.e $y 6!.lry,ilitly $ougnttat wb
.ne njghr cr{ 6e .ttmdtug use ot a .o ts bsic - 6d. ro &de$d
'x;
* heed ro htrwhar i b to b Lsro b 6n Lad inat &Mq 36
thi3 apprises us ol whai h B not ro be x- nor to b a. x .8d wka leal
. . . . it b the rrgafve ss rhat w*6 rhe t@u3.6.ftai js, a deii.ie JohnHilliard
ssBe a{.chr. lo ihe a$e4io. &t sofr6ti.g i! cal, a real su4-ad
such. only i^ 1k ligat ot a specfic q in 6i.h ft migbt b6, or n:sht CameraRecordingits
bv beer. rol r1- A r*l dlck ditteB Irom be simob ? dud'o&!n
th6r n is lsed to elcluds Edoos *6ys ot being rct a rl dud - M a ownCondition
domry. a to, a pitui, decq, tc ; ad norwer I do.1*neiud
howro hke lheassedion 6at ia saldlducl u.l6ss l*.o*lutwtui-
(7 aperturcs,
10
on th.t oadi.ula.ocs'or, tle co@br hsd I i. nhd ro *dde.
-ral'
.. speeds,2mirrorc)
{fte) ludis ot is .ot ro @rtribda postilely b ffe 6@sa
sarion ol6rfhi.o. bd ro sdude p6d* ry d &d9 rot @l'ard 197I
rhese eys are bo6 nude.ds iq Fdicob. thds d fthgr. d li.ble
to be qul diftared tor lni4s ol d'flered hds I is mG ldediry d Photographs
on cardon
genoral l$..tion cohbined w$ immense die6iryin sFdic appli
tions which glv$torh6word'real'se, st ikst sigh!baffng teatu.e oi Perspex
'n3anins,'nor
havi.g .trer o.e sirgl Fi 6mbi9unt a .um&r ol
276,2x 183.2
Joh As!S.'Snse and tusibilb- (85%x72%\
Tate

another brainwave,as a work of art. Atkinson and Baldwin (the name Art &
Language'notyet being assignedas'author'of theseearlyworks) postulated
such'objects'in rather more systematicfashion,in ascendingordersof
complexity,to raisequestionsabout the ontology of art. The items in question
included: a column of air (r.e.matter, in gas-state);Oxfordshire (i.e. an
irregular, spatially bounded area;but what of the third dimension? How deepl);
the French Army (i.e. a complex entity made up of various men and machines,

44
 rnrturt 'sserutng ',lqdt.rSoroqd-t.re, tou pue lgdetSoroqd se.trasaqr
Suoun:tsouraroC',Jlrstl lrru.raporulg algtyt.te aptu srltllgt pue sanbturpat
uounuo) Jsor,[]uollultserurprtpet LIII.4{ateurlu ol JarllEJlng 'os oP ol
tou l;rssarau l]"rt]otg" s.&{ rI rrtJ uI, rtrit utqr arol d ',ltr.'rrsnpx: pyn8-ge:r
ur prroor sJrtrlgrsuaspue sllDISgo uorttstnbre arp g8no;rp :1doad aqt tuorj
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photography. ForWall, the important precursor here was Ed Ruscha,who had
begun his seriesof photobooks as early as 1961with Twentl-SixCasoline Stations
(fig.lZ), continuing wrth SomeLosAngebs Apartmentqand EueryBuildingonSunset
Strip.Photography increasinglybecameused to document the varieqzof
activities and performances that formed an evermore influential complement
to more narrowly'analytical' Concepfual art. Activities as diverseas those by
Gilbert and Georgeand Richard Long in Britain (fig.;S), and Robert Smithson
and Bruce Nauman in the United Statesall relied on the photograph to
establishtheir presencein the field, either in exhibitions or in the pagesof
books and magazines.The status of all these activities was markedly unstable at
the time of their first appearance.Nauman has commented on how he spent a
lot of time reassessingwhat it was that artists were supposed to do, and that his
early work was made out of just that activityl spilled coffee, pacing around the
studio, and the like (fig.39). As he said, the only way to find out whether it was
art was to do it. Nauman admitted that there was a great deal of confusion as it
becameapparent that art'doesnt require being able to draw, or being able to

paint well or know colours, it doesnt require anyof those specific things that
are in the discipline, to be interesting'. And yet without skill and
accomplishment of somekind,there would be nothing to communicate. As
Nauman put it, what was interesting was'the edgebetween'the two conditions.
In the mid-r96os, Dan Graham was producing works thar at the time had an
extremelyunstable identiqt, were hardly'art' at all, but which havesubsequently
been accorded exemplary status in the Conceptual canon. Graham was engaged
in the usual round of writing and reviewing, the hinterland of poerry and art
that constituted life in the NewYork avant-garde,forever struggling to get his
piecespublished.Marchjtst t966 consistedof eleven'lines'recountingthe
distance from the edgeof the known universeto Graham's own retina, via the
distancestoWashingron DC, toTimes Squarein NewYork, ro Grahamt own
front door, and the sheet of paper on the typewriter. The mixture of flat
literalism and quirkily imaginative meditation on the processof looking, or rhe
processof writing, is characteristic the economy of Graham'smeans belying
the sweepof the idea. In two nicely judged inversions of consumer culrure
 rril'usruJrPorrr Jo srsrJfaql Punlag uosrJ IErturssaaqt tno sdurrg rurrlBrD
'grl lrtsaruop l.rr.roduraluof, uaaauortrpuof, parntrr;ilrcru pue p?sr]rrtsnpur
Jo
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'srxr str uo plJo,{t
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rhetoric of self-expression,the valorisatjon of individual feeling, aboveall of
autonomy itself, simply do not accord with the forn of contemporary life,
wherein subjectivity itself is mass produced.In ellect, that is to say,modernism
is ideological with respectto modernity. It concealsthe absenceof its own
valuesfron lived social life. Rather than ofering a genuine transcendenceof
contingencl, institutionalised modernism functions aspart of the ideological
mask of a manipulative and disabling social order.
It goeswithout sayingthat no art can escapethe framing .onditions of rts
time. But the feeling was widespreadamong younger artists that the price of
medium-specificitv. and indeed of the related division of labour [tetwe".,
modernisfartist and rnodernist critic (painterspnfuta1), contributed to an art
that had become afirmative of - rather than critical of - its social matrix.
Robert Smithson, best known for his large-scaleearthworks of the early r97os,
also produced text/photograph piecesaround this time. Smithson'sinfluence
was powerful and fundamental to a
good deal of early Conceptual art,
though he himself came to dislike it
ar.rdto regardthe restriction to
languageas a medium as a form of
idealism.In TheMonurnents oJPassait
(r967), Smithson combined
narrative,quotation and
photogtaphy in a rranyJayered but
disarmingly limpid account of a
day'sactivity. He tells the story of
purchasinga film and heading out
by bus from NewYork with his
Instarratic camerato his birthplace,
the industrial town of Passaicin
New Jersey,Therehe proceedsto
photograph industrial sitesas if
they were anti-heroic monuments to
a dying industrial modernity (fig.4r).The banal photographs and the flat
descriptivetext, encompassingthe specificationfrom the box of fllm as well as
a smuggled in critique of modernist painting in the guise of a commentary on
a newspaperreview of an Olitski exhibition that he readson rhe bus, all
combine to produce a multiply transgressivework: transgressiveof the u..y
protocols Smithsont generationhad come to find limiting in modernisn.
Smithson conciselyarticulated the perspectiveinforming a wide range of
'conceptual'
loosely art practicesin a slightly later text of r972, written on the
occasionof the Documenta exhibidon in Germany.Dorame taV was^n
enonnous exhibition that has sornedaim to representthe bigh-water rnark of
early Conceptual arr, rhe point at which it moved from being an oppositional,
critical force, to a hegemonicpower on rhe international art scene.Smithson's
contribution included a short text on the rheme of'culnrral confinement',
noting how if the artist failed to look beyond the existing institutions of
culture, then the avant-gardeartist no lessthan the modernist-conservativc
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indeedbeyond.The effectswereregisteredin histories of art, of scienceand of
literature, in the emergentfield of cultural studies and in the social sciences,as
well as in the practiceof art itsellTwo aspectsin particular arenoteworthy.By
no means logical bedfellows, they were nonethelesshistorically powerfully
connected.On the one hand the period witnessedthe beginningsof the impact
of French theory on English-languagecultural studies. It is not overstating the
caseto saythat forms of analysisindebted to Ferdinandde Saussurettheory of
languagevia the work of Roland Barthesbecamedominant acrossthe atts.The
'signifiers'and'signifieds','signs','semiotics'(and
terminology of later a host of
'difference')
others from'deconstructiori to sin-rplybecamethe linguaJrnnm of
cultural debate.Accompanying this there was a leaning towards sociologism,
which involved a shift in the focus of interestfrom'text'to'context'.Thus the
socialhistory of art mounted a critique of modernism'sexclusivefocus on the
vtsual efectsof the work of art itself, emphasisinginstead the constellation of
social muses out of which it was made. At this time there also aooeareda scr-
c a l l e d ' s o c i o l o goyI k n o w l e d g eA
'.nd 4l
particularly significant was a developrnent RobertSmithson

in the philosophy of scienceassociated TheFountain

'paradignr Monument - Bitd's
w i t h T . S .K u h n ' sn o t i o n o f EyeView
revolutions'. fromMonuments of
Passaic1967
Kuhn argued that scientific knowledge
Photograph
did not progress cumulatively, brick by TheNational
lvluseum
brick, truth by truth, but through a series of Contemporary
Art,
0slo
of leaps.Certa:incrucial breakthroughs
w o u l d s c ra n a g e n d ar h a rs u b s e g u e n t
42
scientiststhen continued to explore.
Art& Language
Eventually however,anomalous
lndex01 1972
experimental results would appear,which
Photograph of
over time began to threaten the system's l n s t a l l a t iaotnt h e
overallcoherence.After a period of G a l l e rN i ea t i o n adl eu
J e ud eP a u m eP, a r i s ,
u n c e r t a i n tdyu r i n gw h i c hr h c s y s l c r n 1994
underwent fundamentalquestioning,a'paradigm shift'would occur.A new
agendawould emerge,and scientificpracticewould be rcconfiguredto provide
experimentalanswersto a new set of questions.Kuhnt theory thus introduced
a measureof relativisminto the field of scientificknowledge.As such,it was
immediatelysubjectto question and qualification in the philosophy of scrence
itself becauseof the powerful connectionbetweenscientificknowledgeand the
'truth'.
concept of However,in the cultural field Kuhnt theoreticalrevisionhad
a pronouncedimpact, seemingas it did to lend support to an emerging,and
pervasive,relativismof values.
Art & Languagetended to be scepticalof the fashion for French theory,
instead drawing heavily on the analytical tradition in philosophy. But Kuhnt
theory of paradigm shifts seemedto be instantly applicableto art, a liberating
deviceto tl-rink through the changethat Conceptual art was making to the
foundational assumptionsof previouslyexistingmodern art. An essayby
Atkinson and Baldwin, published rn StudioInternatlonal in t97o, exploredthe
consequences of Conceptual art's shift awayfrom what wasdefined asthe
 'tre ur Sul1laporuueqt rJour sarlnbrt {.torrq
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5

PolmcsnnoRepnEsENTATroN
There havebeen severalexamplesin the history of modern art of projects that
have attempted to imagine a transformed world. The most obvious are those
associatedwith the Soviet Constructivistsof the rgzos,though there havebeen
others. But international capitalism was not consigned to history after the
BolshevikOctober. Neither did the radicalismof the late r96osand r97oslssue
in any fundamental political transformation. Writing as earh as 1973,Lucy
Lippard lamented the absorption of the radical impulses of Conceptual art:
the way that evensheetsof typewritten paper were being exchangedas
commodities on the art market, and that leading conceptualists had built
successfulcareerswithin the existing market structure. Ian Burn wrote in r98r
that'perhaps the most significantthing that can be said to the credit of
'.
Conceptual art is that rtJailrd In that sense,how could it not, given the
generalisedfailure of the'counter-culture'of which it was a part?And yet
despitethe bedrock of capitalismremaining in place,history doesmove;social
and cultural changeoccurs. In a more limited sense,Conceptual art was part of
a significant change.One of the key featuresof the development of Conceptual
art in the r97os wasits increasingpoliticisation. For some,including Burn, this
meant that Conceptual art was transitional:transitional out of art as such, into a
wider field of engagedcultural practice beyond the structures of the art world,
in publishing, television, community or trade union-related activity. But for
others,the developingsenseof a politics of representationissuedin a changeto
the conception of art itself, a changesummed up in Hal Fostert remark that
the postmodernist artist waslessa producer of objectsthan a manipulator of
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range of objects,photographs, books and films. Begun in r968 and shown ur rts
final form at DorrnnntdV rn ry72, the deviceof the fictional 'Museum of Eagles'
was in essencesimple. Beginning with postcardsof nineteenrh-cenrury
academicp:rintings,Broodthaerspainstakingly amasseda repertoire of imagcs
drawn from popular culture and advertising.Selectingthe eagleallowed for a
myriad of representationsconnoting the rich culrural mythology srrrrounding

45
I\4amel
Broodthaels
Mus'e d AttModene,
D6panenentdes
Aigles,Section
Publicit67912
nstallatofat
DocunentaV,Kassel,
Germany

46
Janisfounellis

:,;,, ':., . Holses/1969

I n s t a l a t i oant G a l e i a
fAttico,Rome

47
lvladoI\,leE

bedone?)1969
iubes,gass,
l',4eta
plaster,bunchesof
twigs
150x250x320
(59 x 987.x 136)

the featheredpredator: national slmbol, martial symbol, symbol of fortitude,

of perceptior.r,metaphor for genius,etc. By collecting togerher thesevarious
representations,Broodthaersproduced, in efl]ect,a second-orderrepresenracion
- not of a lot of birds,but of a clas.ificrrorysysrcmar t4ork.Of course,eagles
connote various characteristics,as we haveseen:valoug power, etc.They also
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"uE trrtlaJ sy'.radtd'Pro gPrer
'poo.4{'sauots rs>irrrg:tJ r>lEruol qllq.{{
Jo lno slIJrllrl
;o a8ur; snoauaSo.rataq pIrE rpl^{ e polquro opteS-rutc
utIFtI aqr 'u ,ouy, Jo tlPaur FuoltrPtrt rql;o rusnrlda:s e lg ua.Luq 'qllr^l
'I>ls.ttotorDtrznf rcl:atp qsllod aql
Jo ursrrrtrrr E satouuo) Jo arltaql aql
nro# pr^rrap qrq.& 'arutu a'q1'L96r uI E:Iaod rlrv Jo ;auug aql raPun aPr6
-lue,e rua8raura ll.ttau e rarpaSor rqSnotg tuqa3 outurraD lltrrr rql lpll u1
'soprq lrqt:; rtgr s8urqr asoqt rurrl rufts aqt t
PU
frqta; qtog dse,r8ot nol s:ygtua uoltly ttql 'r)uoraglP ruo qll6'lla.lt se oP
Etuaurn)ocl alII suollnlllsul PU surflssilu Fllso llJ uI sI ti)ItllK'slua^r
lr1,4{
's-luJArrllsrlre 1o lpoled
Jt:rtrlod3o lpo.redrrtsrlJe uBJo lBLl)lrt.ltoueul
'uolllg t sr urnrsilu slqJ.:aloJ.4{
prrrrlod t Jo alor agf slqd lI luauroru auo uI
sraeqrpoorg 'uolre]ltrsur tuarunlocl arp Suiluedurolr lxsl t u1 llt;lrg;e
aqt uo 8ur8.re.L lq llosnold ssaull[]Jo.&{ urog Palts a.re,{l.uorluea.rrlul sll'[
'sJossJJfns lsauJtJ af,ourslq lueru puolog tI.4{Jo Jsurs t 3o a8true.Lpe
Jr sr 3o
aql sq'alurlrs Ierfos ot uegr so8rogot Jf,oursa.&to qrlq,u lpowd (srrtrllPoorg
tng 'salpnts IJntlnr ;o lSatt;rs ulo.&{-[o.4{t auro]ag lpuonbasgns stq urn?snur
arll SurlrntlsuoJec .stualuot Jraqt uo aJnlJnJlspue JspJoasodrur srllalsls
lrote:grssep wyt:7uryt[uuuarg a^EqPlnor ]r lqt osp sr turod aLIllng lSoloopr
saplrar tJt .&oq'Sutturtd llruaPtle Jo urnlPaur :rp q8no;rqr 'rlJlsuouraP
 that underlay much of the new art. The point, perhaps, is rol ro insist on
separatingthe fwo aspects:that Arte Poverat enduring inrerest lies precisely in
r h e i rc o m b i n a t i o n .

LmnAurnrcl
Artists active in placeswhere there actually was a guerrilla war going on found
the situation tended to demand rarher more directly political responsesthan
those that sufficed for the radical avant-gardesin North America andWestern
Europe. Lucy Lippard dated her own politicisation from a trip to South
America in November 1968whereshe encountereda group of artists in Rosario
working in conjunction with the Argentinian labour union, the CGT
(ConJederad6n CeneraldelTrabajo, or General Confederation of Labour). For
historical reasonsto do with the extremelyconstrictedspacefor proper
political debate,vanguard art in Latin America becamea forum for cultural-
political interventions. These ranged from the Media-AnManlfesto, published in
BuenosAires in July ry66, which promised to distribute misinformation about
art in the massmedia in order to underline the implication of arr in publicity
and news, to increasinglypolitical
demonstrations at maior exhibitions such as
the C6rdoba Biennale.Thoush the term
'Conceptual
a r r w a sn o r . - p l o y . d r o d e s c r i b e
it until the rg7os,nonethelessthis art has come
to be positioned retrospectivelyas a key part
of a'global conceptualism'.In the words of
Mari Carmen Ramirez, Latin American
conceptualismwasnot a'reflection, derivation
or replica of centre-basedconceptualart', but
lrf;r$ril
Tilr
represented,rather,a seriesof'local responses
to the contradictions posed by the failure of
post-WoddWar II modernisation projects and
the artistic models they fostered in the region'. Indeed, for Ramirez, thrs art was
oriented from the start upon issuesin the wider public sphere,rather than on
the institution of (modernist) art itself, and as such may be said to have'clearly
anticipated'the political turn in merropolitan vanguardart during the r97os.
The work that Lippard encounreredin Rosario is a casein point. Since the
mid-r95os,artistshad beenfacedby an apparentfailure of art institurlons to
addressa situation of increasingpolitical repressionand censorship.This came
to a head around eventsin the province of Tircamin, where government
econornic policies had resulted in massunemployment and hardship.
Conditions wereexacerbatedby the censorshipof informarion in rhe mass
media about conditions in the province.By 1968,about thirty arrisrswere
engagedon a joint project with the union ro researchand publiciseconditions
there.This work culm inated in the exhibitio n TummdnArde(Tircaman Burns),
installed in the CGT premisesin Rosario.It has been describedby Alex
Alberro as'an all-encompassinginterior environment',in which visitors were
conf,rontedby a multi-media installation of text-basedinformation in the form
of slogans,leafletsand posters,aswell aslarge-scalephotographs and film

60
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Sovrsr
Ururon
Unolicial artists in the Soviet Union had a dilferent, but equally cor.rtradictory
relationship to the Western avant-garde.Whereas in Larin America artrsrs
tended to be resistar-rt
to stylesof art that were deemedto be representativeof
Western imperialism, unoficial artists in the Soviet bloc tended to embrace
'expressionist'
Western individualism as part of their rejection of Socialist
Realism.This did not changer-rntilthe emergenceof the'Moscow
Conceptualisrs'in the r97os.Once again,the name was a retrospectivelabel
applied by the critic Boris Groys in 1979.Eric Bulatov and the Komar and
Melamid duo developeda hybrid form of painting, basedin equal parts on
Soviet Socialist Realism and American Pop, to probe the representational 50
conventionsof ofilcial Soviet ideology. Ilya Kabakov adopted a different ll! Kabakov
strategy owing more to developmentsin Western Conceptual art, mixed in with Caryingaut the Slop
Pail7980
E n a m e l oprl f r o o d
150x210
Pacnucouue \59%x82X)
EmanuelHoffmann
t mca n1Jr-,IHot|tetpt * totv-zt Bo0bpsr-6 Foundation,
Vtlt|o ',.X.fap,ufla tfttt' B Sacta c|tto p' a. on
P e r m a n e n t l 0 atnhte0
l\4useum of
Contem poraryArt,
Basel

Miedelademan
Ukeles
WashingTrccks/

7973
Photographof
performanceat
Wadsworth Atheneurn,
Hartford,
Connectcut
CounesyRonald

52
AddanPiper
catalysis]v 1970 I
StIeetperformance,
NewYorkCity
the experienceof his oficial careeras a children'sbook illustrator. In the early
'n7r,l'"proJ,,."J
,'."r'",of A]Lu,nr', of *hl.l'*". Luil'.rounJ
,
"r.L
ficdonal character,an artist. The deviceconferred an ability ro reDresenr
different avant-gardistschools,aswell as cticical commencaryupon rhern,
w i t h i n r l r es c o p eo f r h c w o r k :. r ni n \ t r n c co f a k i n d o f s e c . n d - o r d eprr r c r i c e ,
encompassingand going beyond first-order vanguardistgaml:its, not least
through the disruption broughr to the conception of the 'aurhenric'authorial
voice.The mix of image and text employedby Kabakov in the narratiye albums
wasfurther developedin a seriesof larger paintings made in dre later r97os.
These bore a resemblanceto ofilcial notice boards,or bureaucraticfornrs
blown up to a large scale.Carryingout theSkpPdll(fig.5o)parodiesthe command
 'spadsvpndiluoC ,tt?N rtll
luu J.tVpnidnuo3 uonrqlqxr.rrlur3 Itrnrln3 >lro
ot uonngrrtuor pasodo;d Jrq ,&tJrplitru.rodr6'ol,6t uI 'tunrd gtlm ro,r'rsrlllolr uI
sl:ey41 or Surddogs lua.u rlis 1/1 sp[1uu3ur :(zl'8y) q]norlr rrLI urog Surpn:rord
stsQuluSuI 'suoll]t
tpop rllr{.&t:3w1 t rpr.u tng 'sng rrit uo rPol or,[s111
Itnsnun Jo srrrrs e Sunuro;rad rllgar t.rodsutrr trlgnd uo Surpr.r.lo lrrJls
u.&\oP8uq1t.,lt se qfns suoltrlnlts prlos lrturplo ul Sulltdrlrlrtd .ro 'aturl
l:lnlrred tsrE 'te Suqooy srl.&lls leq.tr 'oldurtxa ;o3 'Surtuarunrop lpog raq
Sursnot prurnt:adr4 lpuonbrsgns tng 'lrt pnrdaruo3
pastg-oEtnBuEIIElrurrgrr-J1asllprrdlr parnpord
ptl Jtls 'so96r:1ty :gr u1 'Surdolo^rPst.t{teql rrdurrl
]ErrprllSursea.rrulorp;o aldrutxr rrtltout sra5o
.radr4urupy Jo >lro.&\arlt 'ststtw pnrd:ruo3 Suoruy
'(r5'3g),r.rt rluEurtulthl,
'srsul leldsrp
;o saldurcxasEsarsro oqr dn po>llolpue
paqsrlod'sdolspue roog rLIl prqqnrls aqs'runrurrlty
tltlo.4{spt1\aqt te sJrutru.ro;,r:d u1 'snltls pnbo
prpro)l rg plnor{s ad6 rourro; l{t lttlt Surogtuarun8;t
r?LI'>lro.llodl1-,tuaudo1a,rap,po8pal^{::Dlrt lluourruor
a.rou trlo.rj lrurlsrP s '>lJo.4{ adll-.JfuEuJlullltu,
s ")lJ 'Surddoqs'8urue:1t'8ur1oor seq)ns 'uJluo^t
qtr.{\ p?trrf,osst uruo tsour rnogel Jo surro; pape.r8u,ttop
flpuortua,ruor paugap rr.[s]I uI 'olsa!ua111lty aruauatuww
oqr posoduor srlo>lfl uturrJp-I rlrrlry '696r u1 ':3re1
le ltanos ur pur plro.&lre rqr qqrl^{ qtog'ruslxrs Pu
rusrlrJ Jo urslllllf,l PJSIITJ?u?d e sIIJ,tt se fualuraotll
J.tturculaln -IluY lll qll.t{ luaturllolut aPnlfut or .tt:r8
l1ryrnb sqr rng '>lro.ttrrrLlt Jo uorllqlr1xr aqt ra.to ug8r.r
,stsrtrqrl.u lluo usrq Peq urJ]uol purSrro s,),^\V rtll
'srsnrf,
IElrp?r;o orloprod E artrgurr ol rrutl lpldtr
pur 696r [,wnue[u] >lro ^r.:N ur prrrrroJ sr.d{uonrleo)
srr>l.rolKlrY aqf 'PorrJo rtil Jo ruslFrrPr rrPI.{ rql
lq parrogt 19 ol Suruur8agse^{trt Jo plro.&taql sol,6r
rrlt Jo trets arp lg 'a.rrdrurrLIr Jo arru?r aLIrq >ptg
vsn
' 3 u r r - l l o r usolse sl l u r e t : : : r r t n q : a r r r : e : d
lre IJIIIJ] Put uortlPuol ]tJnllnr lsruraPoulsod
JLII 'uoltslpgoy8 rnoge slts srqt 1eq.ttalrnb
uorts:nb uado ur sureurarl1't66r Jo rluuolg allua1
rql te erssn1 patuosa;da.rdpuegdrunut '6tonto;nq
rtrts olnsoq r lg Suqro,u urog palu?^r;d Surag;o rradsord aqr dg paruneq
llpruuarad 'srptr3p .ro3poslpurS.rtru s.&ot1.tro.rn8gagt 'satuolr .ratta.r8
s arntlnl Jo auo u1 ',rusrltnldaruor pgo13,3o uoarpuedaqt otul Parrgurau?rg
rAELIsuorttllrlsul xaldruor slq 'uoqt arurg '696r uI uolun tal^os rLIt 8ur.teo1
llrug 'pto.rgr lrgrqxr ot pr^tolp eg or ue8aq ^o>ltge) 'sog6r arlt 7o u>110'wsa.Lad
aqr Sur.rnq 's.rral xrs lxru rtp ro; tuarul;rde ]unururol t Jo surg r{srqgnr
l{l rno Surrrnd ro; etor arp 8urrsl lg Suruuqd qtr.4{uorssrsqo slurouo:a
 This was intended as a responseto the worseningpolitical situation in the
country, as exemplified by the shooting of students at Kent State University
who had beenprotesting at the escalationof the war in South-EastAsia. Piper's
letter of withdrawal was then incorporated into the notebooks constituting
Context#8 and Context#9, respectivelysubtitled'Written Information
Voluntarily Supplied to Me During the Period April 3o to May 3o t97o' and
'Written
Information Elicited From Me During the Period of May r5 to June
r5irgTo'.Piper later referredto the developmenttaking placein her work at
that time as being'from my body as a conceptuallyand spatio-temporally
immediate art object to my person as a genderedand ethnically stereotyped art
commodity'.

Logic

Feeltheditreience
3
Createalittle sensation
thaterrrronecin see
Somethingpucm touch
PrDperty
Therebnothingbtmch it
You'vegotit
'fouvanttokeepit
NaturailyThatt consenation
Ererphing you buy m1s smething about you
Some things )Du bW say more thm you rEalise
One thing 'ou buy sys erarything
Itconserrsthosewhocarftharreit Property
Theydont ${nt tobeconserwd Eitler you harrcitoryou don't
L,ogicaltthatbcontradicfion

UK
On the other side of the Atlantic, the analyticaltenor of much British
Conceptual art was being leavenedby the influx of French theory in the early
r97os.1967had witnessedthe English translation of Roland Barthes'sElements oJ
'The
Semiologtaswell ashis influential essayon Death of the Author'. His book
of essaysMlthologtes belatedly appearedin English in ry72, containing his
famous analysisof the different levelsof meaning contained in a photograph,
in particular the way in which a constructedimagemay set offunconscious
chainsof connotation in the viewer,the more so if the imageappearsenrirely
natural. For some time,'critical'conceptualistshad beenmoving rowardsan
awareness of,,not jl-rstart, but the broader registerof'the visuaf in generalas a
major site of the socialproduction, and reproduction, of meaning.
No one took ideology-critique and semiotics on board more comprehensively
thanVctor Burgin. In a seriesof works, he moved from generalmeditatronson
pw ',8urqt8rq ruo, ^{au) 0rl,4L',Sorlr8paq aqt,uaa,4{taq
urpaflqtwsl,'fqu,,!{Jp
uontrunsrpEruo;; p aunp altn ay1l7wdua7-uy yur?uo atlt '1rt,,udrgsuontlar
xogat11
rsuatr ur prtsrx3-orlgarrq rrgr pu:nol e '(,95'8g) 1o uorlrnpord
aqt ur pr^Io^uraucraq dnor8 srqr'fl,6 r urorg uounlossrpslt ot ptal
llerluaaa ppo.'leqr dnor8qsq8ugaqrqlr.,ralndsrpr ur pelorqrlr .ruoreq
peq3ur,uryo1,,u.:51 .qt'uonrppe uI',ll fntdrtruo3, Jo aru:erd pur8uo
aql uro;; suonrradxapur stsaratur tuo;agrpSurdole,rap a.ra,,w
sauo;a8unol
aql pu'pa^lo^urse.nuoDe.raua8 auourqr a.rour'urrtr.rg
u1 l:nua pagrun
r uro:3:e;se,n:SenBuE-1 E uV
'sol,6r-prru:qtlq ue3 u1't:r prudaruo3
3o uorresnuqodaqr ur:yo: parrrqdurore paltld a8tn8w'1rg rry
'qllEa,4l suollBu
rtlt [ ]souF su,4{ouonepdod :rp 3o llrrouru.r lun e lrql tre; :rp pue 'raarod
trruouotra put uoneunlop JenxasJo uorrsaSSns alqnop srr qlrd{ lorss.ssod,
(3u^l
-uodnllsecMaN'rls
ur troi lo qdPr8oloqd)
pl0u0e!clqnd
(.ltxtt)t8x60t
)tsod
9161 UOISSaSSO.I
ulAng rcph
u0pu0l
'u0ncoll0c
ole^ud
FnLsx/,9r)
zzzxgrr
u0]poB
sluudcrqder?otoqd
g16Iu049SUaS
uFngrolr!
'aydnor Sune;grua p;nneaq purgo-10,u lltuarrdde oqr
;o uorrou agr
'tsrluor aldrtlnu ego sleyd a:nrrrd aq1'(a:ardsuuo.r;
3o a3r:unaqt u:a,ntaq
pue tt8g) aula-uodn-apsrc.,te51;o ,{ro aqr punore satrsuo patsed
pue s.ralsodst palur:d a:a.trsa8yruraql '91,6rruog eldurexaruo q'.lrJ.rlt pue
s.rer's:urn;.rad;o; straapedrnxnyruo:; suoqde: 1e:gdn rpur'aur:rps Sursnoq
alelosapt q8nortp rue.rde Suqsnd raqrour rood e .ro 's.ra1:ro,napura,;pred-.noy
go sa8rrul add:-a8euodar-oloqd asodrtnl o] uo lua,n ur8.rnfl a^rrtr? otr aqr Jo
poo8 ra:ea.r8aql .ro; s?Jrs?pFnpr^rpur sauo Sururnsqnslnoqe lpruoq lsrorry t
qlur uorDunluor otur P.f,roj sr tueurasrlJ?^pu uro.rj palpr fpure; sroaS:noq
t ;o aSeutrsnoulnlS fprpru.red e snql ursn.re,rpe3o sarraapa,usens.rad
arp 1t Sursn'e8aur put txat Jo uonrun(uor palrad'raun:qr qBnorlt tltdul
slr paure8yot sq: ;o rpn11 'spelotd Sulsre;-ssausnorcsuoo 'lsruolual.r.lur
llpryoads o: (t5'3g) l.r:3aur pnsu;o 3uruorrury prrSolo?pr aql
'the
fox', who knew'many smal1things'. Despite the fact that Berlin was
addressingthe contrasting merits of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the
conceit might be seento allegorisea differencebetweenmodernism
(Greenberg:'aesthetic valueis one not many') and a Marxist approachattentlve
to the contingenciesof a socialpracticein history. In terms of its published
contents TheFoxhad a broader remit than Art-Language, as well as a more
emphatically political tone.The following year,TercyAtkinson left the English
group, initially working as a video artist, then turning to the production of
drawings and paintings of explicitly political
content on themes ranging from the FirstWorld TheFox,uol.I, no.1-,
r975
War to the confict in the north of Ireland.Those
in NewYork
Published
who remained functioned as a kind of grit in the
a r r m a c h i n em, a i n t a i n i n ga n u n r e m i ti tn g
scepticism,both for the political enthusiasmsof
the NewYork group around TheFox,and to Art& Language
English artists and intellectualswhosepoliticised frcmTenPosterc7977

practice bore the stamp of French theory. English on paper

Silkscreen
108x 80
Art & Languageviewedpolitical conceptualism, (42%x31%l
indeed the waveof radicalised intellectual activity
acrossthe field of cultural studies, with suspicion, 57
as representingsocial control by a new layerof Combined Unions
AgainstRacism/
cultural managementrather than a genuinely
Gregor
Cullenand
transformationalpractice(fi g.le). Redback Graflx
TheWorkplace ls No
TRnrusmonru
PRAcrrcE Placefor Racism1985
Poster
Out of this contestedhistory emergedactivities
Sydney
that were more akin to Ian Burnt senseof
Conceptual art as'transitional'(seep.54).Many
FOLLOWING
DOUBLE
PAGE:
were moving beyond the practice of art as such 55
with its galleries,dealersand avowedlybourgeois HansHaacke

sociallocale,into a more diffuse,harder-to- Shapolsky et al.

Manhattan RealEstate
categoriserealm of radical cultural practice, often Holdings:A Real-Time
working in conjunction with community groups, SocialSystem,as of
May1, 1971(dehnl
trade unions and so on. In the US, exilesfrom the 1577
disintegrated group arollnd TbeFox, including Photographs and
Michael Corris, Carole Cond6, Karl Beveridgeand typewritten datasheets
Eachphotograph
others, setup RcdHerring,another journal with an
5 0 . 8x 1 9 . 1( 2 0x 7 % l
avowedlyradical agenda,and working, in Corris's Courtesy oftheartist
ohrase.'in the milieu of left and ultra-left "mass"
organisationsand Maoist :(pre-partf" formations'. In Edinburgh, Dave Rushton
and myself, among others, continued with the Srloolproject by initiating the
School Press.This worked to design and produce posters,leafletsand brochures
for rank-and-filetrade union groups, campaignorgarisationssuch as Rock
Against Racism,and political bodies including the SocialistWorkersParty.As
NewYork Art & Languagebroke up, Ian Burn himself left the US and returned
to Australia, pardy encouragedby the potential opened up by the election of the
socialistWhitlam government.Burn was activein Union Media Services,and
 loN srsaraturpuE slueun(rnuol ,!\auJo aBuEJt ot dn pauedo lleu:rrur r:t
'sarSoyouql.trpau
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aqt sEsJ)JoJasJa^rP,,|llual?ooEqlns Jo aruanEul Jtll .]lPun 'ssell qlr,{1ur'uo:)
3ura,r-Ua1 puqnlps.r: aq: uo prlredur rapua8pw art.r;o suons:nb sepotnd
srqt Suunp uoueuro;surr: 8uro8:apun se,u;1as1t,srr1qod,3oSutputtsrapun
Jqt 'rl^.,4roH tusrurpt5;o anbDt;r :qt Jo JI,4{Jqt ul tututtuoP auoJag
ptrl rErlt r;el ,\.N aqr;o s:rrqod sstp t :,1trrrqod,aqr;o :su:s 3ur,n-13o1
p:epurrr l1a,t:e1a;e ot p.ur.roJuor pa,{auar rsnl a,rtq a,u:tgl rw pnrd:ruo3
;o uontsrrrr4od aq1 d:ors a1or.1,,u:qr Sulrq ulog .rJ'.ra^a,\{oq
lsr terll
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Fuolttsuerl srr ur le1::y pnrdaruo3
JO anF^ IrA.lsrll:PaPn]Juor aFJ'r!lJrs.1s ]Erf,osaqt ur aloJ slr Jo ss.uf,re^Ie
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pur ispoqtaruyo,tr p:srue8:o fla.lrrralo: aroru uo srseqdruaue lsdrqsuortela:
uErunr{Jenlle ot uortuattE]attaJB t :uortElrunururotrPu trPaur Jo sur]oj
trDerlour.p Jrour asn olbuapual e lualsls Surta1leureg: :sureBeuon:ea;
e :tre pn:daruo3 1o s:rnle ;: aarssarSord a.rgpa:e1osru:ng 'r86r Jo ,tsluE
pntdaruor-xa ur 3o sJroura1Atr, altrnJsrq uI's?Duantusuotr ]Enos rapl,&qlr,{
tuaup^lo^ur Jo srurogprnrr;d a.rour;o aurcu a!11ur 'qtrnsseut Jo arrlre.rd aql
qrr.lr uolo:q lla.urrugep Sur.reqse saal;suagr p:pw8a: po,rlo^urrsoql rlrqa 'l.re
pnrdaruoS pasorrqod go sur:og3o rno {1na:rp aso:t saanenrwasarllJo IIy
'stq8u
Fufuoqv Jo; u8rrdurcr aqr seqlns sanssrur1e$snydlergn:ds gtr,u
aSe8ueo1 SuruurS:qselear w '(25 39) sdno;3 llrunururor pu uorun rpel Jo
a8ue.re ;o; sa.rnqrorqpw srarsodparnpo.rd osp srql :raford a;r-13ur1.roL1pw
rrv.rJt uo srarlto pue lqrry lpueg 'qrrurg l'llel'uopuel 1a8r51ql,u pa1.ro.,r
68
everyonefelt they had to evacuatethe territory of art to sustain a defensible
critical practice.
A casein point is the work of Harrs Haacke.In his earlier work, Haacke had
rnovedftom setting up kinetic systemsfor the circulation of liquids through
tubes, or the continually repeatedprocessof production and subsequent
evaporationof condensationwithin a closedglasscube, to more open systems
involving birds feeding and grassgrowing. By r97o he had turned to social
systems,As we haveseenwith Piper, the art world's responseto the war in
South-East Asia had been increasing,and on zz May tie NewYork Art Strike
organisedby the ArtWorkers Coalidon - involved picketing the
Metropolitan Museum. As his contribution to the Museum of Modern Artt
lnJormation show that summer, Haacke installed a kind of votirg booth
'Yes' 'No'
consisting of two and boxesunderneath a wall-mounted question:
'Would
the fact that Governor Rockefeller hasnot denouncedPresidenr
Nixon's Indochina policy be a reasonfor you not to vote for him in November?'
Rockefellerwas,of course,a
59
luminary of the Museum aswell as HansHaacke
governor of NewYork. Two-thirds oneof seven
of those who took part in Haacke's individually1larned
panelstrcm
poll voted'Yes'.
ABrced
Apaft7918
Haacket next planned show
Photographs on paper
was to havebeen .l1stefit,at the aid on boafd
GuggenheimMuseum, NewYork, E a c hp a n e9 1 x 9 1
( 3 5 % x3 5 % )
in April r97r.The major new piece Tate
was to havebeen a photo-text
documentation of what Haacke 60
called A Ie al-Tine SotialSlstem.This MafthaRosler
was to haveconsistedof the real
Kitchen7975
estateholdings on Manhattan of
'Shapolsky Stillfromblackand
et ali, slum landlords whitevideo(6 rninutes)
engagedin the exploitation of Coudesy of theartist
predominantly African-American
and Puerto Rican communities (fig,5&).The proposal elicited frorn the
Guggenheim authorities a statementof what was consideredto be the
boundary of acceptability for a political dimension of art, a boundary that
Haacket work clearly overstepped.Themuseum director's statement
acknowledgedthat'art may havesocial and political consequences', but argued
that theseshould be produced'by indirection and by the generalised,exemplary
force that works of art may exert upon the environment', and not, asHaacke
proposed,'by using political meansto achievepolitical ends'.Haacke's
deliberateblurring of the boundary betweenpolitics and art was simply too
much for a culture whose oficial ideology of art centred around its
independence,howevermuch that supposedindependencemight be
compromised by the status quo itsellThe upshot was that the exhibition was
foreclosed,its prospectivecurator dismissed,and Haa&e becamethe
figureheadof politicised Conceptual art.
Haacke got his own back in 1974by producing a piece detailing the business
 v
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E Jo tuog ur Surpuerg '(.S'3g) uiqrilX eqi{o nuonuagff qtrns s>lro.4{ oaPI^ uI urrs
rg ur srlnsarrql',rr s,ra1a1o3wg,Jo uolrtrupxr ut qrl.t{ ue ur,llqtrutertlt,
jo rusrrrtrrf s,prJJC ]retllrry ol popuodsa.r'lunorrt u,{to lJLl lg 'rolsoa LIlltW
'&nlurpa/le.r put lrrpnxas 'rapuo8 sansslgo lradsa,rur llgelou rsoru
Jo
'srrtrlod ftr1u:pr tua8raurol1'ttau aqr qtlt{ ssaulsng3rg pue ssep Suru.raruor
sr srrtrlod Jo rsu?s e ortlda.r or papurt tng d.rorra(t.rt rllrurs e Pa^tollo; srrr,[]O
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",
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Jo ruo, sr'(slseurun orl suortntrtsur .f,ra.L aql lq) paqr.rrsaplgerrrtrualgo;dun
rtrnb sr a>lleEH'roozur uopuo-I ur urnosntrl rraqlv A errollln ?ql Pu
l;ogrg aurtuad;as rqr lt uortrgltlxo turol slq or IEIr?rru.f,rolrnpo;rur arp
uI'sumasnur.roltur go suortfrllol aqt ur Surprsor'ptiuouer aurolog .4{ou
?Nrqrrrll pruorturur s>lJo.{tJrll trr-[] rlgrurpun sI tI 'tr Surte: put oltr :nol
8ur.tri1 le,tt arnrst l1.rtlnru.red e :Io urslrrtl.rl prrrlod uIrllrorg SuruarqSrlua
;o
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rrr1]ll.& uortsonbuado ut sr 4 '(65'39) s:lutdruor Surpealrallto put 'slqrltts
rLIl Jo suortErlgr prrrqod orll Surleununyp',anbrlr.rr]euorrnllrsul,j:o ;rrJer
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intoning their names and miming their use.By the end, however,she is
brandishing the knife, acting out the frustrations of an identiq, confined by
t r a d i ri o n a lg e n d e r - d e f i ni oi tn .
Among those who drove home the implications of a non-medium-specific
Conceptual art for reflectionson wider questionsof representationand
identity-construction was Mary Kelly. As well as building on both the social
interventions of Haacke and the identity-related work of Piper, Kelly has
commentedon how shepicked up on some of the potential of the Art &
Languagelndex installations, or more particularly on what she saw as therr 61
'The Margaret
Harrison,
Kay
absences: significanceof the relation between the psychic and the social was FidoHunt,MaryKelly
made obvious to me by its absencein Art & Languagework . . . I saw that space Women
atWorklgTS
as being openJHer Post-Partum Document
(TSZTS) remains a definitive statement lnstallation at
on the interleavingof the psychicand the social.While shewasworking on it, S o u t hL o n d oG
nallery

however,Kelly was also involved in a more conventionally'political'project

o2
MaryKelly
0neof eightindividually
framedpanels from

J Post-Partum Docunent
(Documentation lV):
Trcnsitionalobjects,
diaryand diagram
7976
Collage, plaster of Paris
andcottonwithtyped
text
P a n esl i z e2 7 . 9x 3 5 , 6
(11x14)
Kunsthaus Zlirich

MaryKelly
0neof thirteen
individually
framed
panelsfrom
PostPaftumDocument
(Documentation lll):
Analysedmarkings and
diary-perspective
documenting the historical situation of women in the workforce. Women atWork schema7975
(fig.er) by Margaret Harrison, Kay Fido Hunt and Kelly was an installation of Collage, pencil,crayon,
photographs, documents and sound tapes comparable to the TucaminBurns chalkandprinted
0 r a g r a m0snp a p e r
installation and the Australian Art &Working Life project. It occupied the P a n esli z e2 8 . 5x 3 6
border areabetweenhistorical-political documentation(with its roots in the (ll%x741")
Tate
Mass Observationwork of the r93"s) and a contemporaryConceptual art
installation.This undecideablitvis part of its character.
Kelly's Post-Partum
Dorummtiik.*ir. built on the presentational devicesof
conceptualism to produce a work that challengedconventional sensesof the
appearanceand unity of the work of art (figs.5z-3).Its subjectwas ostensibly
very different from the world of industrial work, except that for Kelly the piece
was very much about the sexualdivision of labour in sociequ. The work is in six
parts, consistingof over a hundred individual'plaques'tracingher son's
evolution from birth through to the acquisition of languageand the ability to
 d.rntuarqtarlur^{t :qr;o rarrtnb rstl
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6

TnsLecncY
Various techniquesand strategiesassociatedwith Conceptual art havebecome
pervasivein contemporary art. JennyHolzert employment of languageis one.
Sherrie Levinet photographic critique of originality is another.Cindy
Sherman'splay with identiq' is yer anorher.The use of text and photograph
made by Barbara Kruger is inconceivablewithout Conceptual art. And so on.
The work of many artists is underwritten by a politics of difference.That of
many others is focusedon the social and institutional production of meanrng.
These two strandshavejointly renderedhistorical both the essentialismand the
autonomy-claims of modernist theory, no less comprehensivelythan
modernism itself once consignedthe ethos of the academyto history
(although just as the ghost of classicismcontinued to haunt the modern
movement, the spectreof aestheticvalue is present at the feast of
postmodernism).It would, however,be unfortunare ro closea book on
Conceptual art with the implication that its principal legacy was one of an
ethically over-secureand humoudess political correcrness.on the other hand it
would be equally inappropriate to celebrateat face value the kind of claim we
havealreadyencounteredthat'Conceptualism has becomeall-pervasiveif not
dominant in the art world'. In one senseperhapsit has.In responseto
uncomprehending presscriticism of his work, Damien Hirsr remarked in zooo
that,'I dont think the hand of the artist is important on any levelbecauseyou
are trying to communicate an idea'.The 'idea' rather than the hand-crafted
object has become the common currency of international contemp orary at:t.
But that artt relationship to its institutional conrext is 6r more securethan was
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IEf,ItIJt
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 At any given time, most of the art that gets produced is not very interesring.
This was astrue of conceptual art as it is of contemporarypostmodernism,or
as it was of academicart. In the past, natural wastagehas taken care of that. But
as the institution of art has becomein{lated in -oJernWesrern socieg/,and as
investment in it - both cultural and directly financial - has multiplied, it
becomeslessand lesseasyto tell when the Emperor is wearinghis new clothes.
Conceptual art's greateststrength is that it was,perhaps brie{ly, an episode
againstthe grain of all this. Certain arrists, asartists,took on the responsibility
of checking over the kind of thing art was,rhe kind of insritution i, *"r,
the kind of role it fulfilled in modern society.It is, I feel, quite misaken to".rj
conflatethis kind of critical pracricewith the eclecticismthat is the most
noticeable feature of art at the turn of the twenty-first century. In some
respects'conceptual art may be responsiblefor ihis, for having broken d.own
the barriersof the media out of which art is thought capableof being made.
But in other sensesir is nol I havemenrioned the impact thatT,S. Kuhn's
theory of paradigm revolutions made on the development of Conceptual art.
Kuhn atgued that most of the time scienceprogressedcumulatively, until
anomaliesbuilt up and the whole structure was shakenup and a new period of
normality commenced.Thesalientfeatureof most of the art to which the term
'conceptualism'is
applied,whether positivelyor negatively,is that it is, so to
speak,'normal science'.It is the way things arenow, just as academicart was in
the middle of the nineteenrh cenrury and just as modernism was in the middle
of rhe twentieth.
Hyperbole and utopianism aside,there is a sensein which Conceprualart
wasafotrn of guerrilla action againstrhe powers that be, in the shapeof
institutionalisedmodernism in both the marketplaceand the collegeswherearr
was taught and reproduced. Mel Ramsden once remarked that Conceptual art
waslessabout putting writing on the wall than ir wasabour a spirir of
scepticismand irony. If 'conceptualism'hasindeed becometh. .tat,r, quo of a
bloated contemporary art world, then arguably it shareslesswith the spirit of
historical conceptual art rhan it does with the modern academyfrom which
those artists took their distance.Nowadays,in a period of pervasive
'globalisation
we seemalwaysto be hearingrhat'we are all capitalistsnow'-
liberalcapitahsts,of course.By the sametoken, culturally we are all supposed to
be postmodernists.At the closeof Georgeorwell's parableof fru.trat"d
revolution, AnimalFarm(tg+s), the animalslook through the windows of the
house where their leaders,the pigs, are dining at rhe same rable as the human
farmers:
As the animals outside gazedat the scene,it seemedto them that something strange
washappening. what wasir rharhad altcrcdin rhe laces,what wasir th"r r""-.d io
be melting and changing?No question now, what had happened.The crearures
outside looked from pig to man, and from man ro pig, and from pig to man again;
but it was alreadyimpossible to saywhich waswhich.

No doubt, critical arr continues to be made. But only in an orwellian sense can
it be maintained that'we are all conceptualists now'.
LL
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 Inosr Broodthaers, Marcel
Musle d'Art Moderne,
leminism zz, 67
filt ;s
Judd, Donald 27, z9-3o, )5

Dipannnent dr Argles Flrrxus 8, zz-5, 26,75; figs.r1, Kabakov, Ilya 6z-3

57-9;frg15 r4 Carrying owtthe SlopPail
Buchloch, Benjmin 7 ^_/"" _
FI..t H '_,-'/
"-^' --R ,,-, 6z-;; fig.5o
Bulatov, Eric 6z Foster, Hal 54-5 Kandinsky,Wassily r3
Buren, Daniel 57 Foucault, Michel 57 Kaprow, Allan zz
Aboriginal Australian art 9
Afichage sawage 57; frg.u Ilr lox journal 65-6; fig.55 Kawara, On 4o
Abstfact Expressionism r8,
ManiJestationNo. L 57; Franrworksjournal 45 Date Paintings q; fig.12
17
fig'+r France r9, 18,+o, 15,57-g Kelly, Mary zz-l
abstraction t, 11,14, t6, zo,
Brirger, Peter rcr French theory, influence of Post-PartumDocurnffit 7z-3;
28, z9-1r
R , , . - : - \ / ;r-r r.v^, . , - /v ).r- - ,i figs.6z, 6,1
aesthetic,status of z6-7,28, a)! / 52,64,66
Phxopath 34 F.;-l \,{i-L.-l Womcnatl4hrk7z;frg.6t
66,z+
Possession
65,7rfrg54 ItL +o,7r Kirby, Sandy 67
Althusser, Louis57
Sensation 65; fig.5j Fry, Roger ro Klein, Yves 19
American-type painting 17
Burn, lan $, 19, 54, 66-7, 7r, Kline, Franz 17
And\ticalArtjovnal q5
7) Germany 4-1,40 Komar md Melamid 6z
analytical conceptualism
G6r6me, Jean L6on Kosuth, Joseph 7, $-6, 4r, 4l
4r-5' 75 'Proto-investigations'
Cage,John ry,ry,)5,37 O Pti Cien 4; fig.5 ;4;
Andersen,toels z3-4
Antiform
Carnap, Rudolf 49 gestural abstraction 17, 18 frg't4
7,1o,59
Arnatt, Kerth 45
Celant, Germmo 59 Gilbert and George 46 Titbd(ArtdsIdtaaslfua)
C6zanne, Paul 6 Globalconceptualism 9, 6o, fMnninpl b.4ri 6q.]
Sef-Burial )7; frg.29
Chandler, John 16 6l Kounellis, Jannis
TrouyrWord Pin 15 fig.15
Cobra group r9 Godard,Jean-Luc 55 Untitlrd (Twehc Horvs) S9;
Art & Language 6-2, ll-i,
ColdWar 16-17 Gorky, Arshile r7 fig +o
49, jz- ), 65-6, 7 5; frg56
collective works 49 Grahanr, Dan q61 Kozlov, Christine
lnrlex q9, 7z; fig4:
Collings, Matthew 75 HomrJor Atnerica q7-8; InJonnation No Theory 35;
ArtWorkers Coalition 63, 7o
Conceptual art fig'1" fig.26
Art andWorking Lift 67,72,
legacy 6,74-6 Gray, Camilla r7 Krauss, Rosalind j8
7t frg.57
use of term 7-9, zz-1,37 Green movement z4 Kruger, Barbara 7,1
Art-Ianguage jounal 7, $-q,
concrete nusic 22 Greenberg, Clement ro, 16, Kuhn,TS. 52,76
45, 49, 55tfrg.Jl
Cond6, Carole 66 17,28,66
Arte Povera 59-6o
Constructivisn 14, 15,54 Art dnd Culture u, tz-1 Lacan, Jacques 7,;
ArtJorummagazine 7,17
contextualism r.t fig.zz language
Atkinson, Terry $-+, 5z-),
Contro|journtl 45 Grotowski, Jerzy 59 Art & Langrrage 6-7,
Corris, Michael 66 Groys, Boris (rz 4t-5
Austin, J.L. 45
l; Craig-Martin,Michael 45 Grrtai group zo; fig.u de Saussure'-stheory of 5z
I avant-gardism q, ft-27, 28,
li Crow,Thomas 47 language-basedworks 7,
75
Cubism rr, r1 Haacke, Hans 7er,7z; fig.58 45' 74
Britishl4land 7r frg.5O relation to modern art
Bainbridge, David 43
Dadaism 14, 15 Hamilton, Richard 17 tl-14
Balciessari,John 3r-z
L)ali, Salvador r7 Harrison, Charles 7 L'art conaptuel(t9E9') 7
ConposingonCantas 3z;
Darboven, Hanne 4o Harrison, Margaret 7z; fig.6r Lathan, John
6g.zo
Books.ACentury4o;fig.y Higgins, Dick zz Art anrl Culture .,2-y frg.zz
Baldwin,Michael 3r,43-,1,
de Kooning,Willem r7, 18 Hilliard, John Latin America 7, 9, 6o-r
l 52-l
Debord, Guy 15 CanrcraRrcorling its awn Lendon, Nigel 67
Barrv, Robert 35,36
deconstruction 52,59 Conlition qi; fig.16 Lenin, VI. 59
Inert Cas Sries $; frg.27
dematerialisation 35-7 Hirst, Damicn 7.1 Levine, Sherrie 74
Barthes, Roland 52,6,1
Dibbetts, Jan Holzer,Jenny 74 LeWitt, Sol 7,35,l7-8
Beckett, Samuel 18
hrsprtitt Carriltion a4; Huebler, Douglas 35 Txo OpenMorlular
Bell, Clive ro
fig'tl Hrrnt, Kav Fido 7z; fig.6r Cuhts/HaL1-O11 y;
Benjarnin, Walter r7
Dommnta V (.rc17
z') 48-9, L 1 , , . - - 1 1r J " . ^ t . . 1 , , fiq.r.
BerLn, Isaiah 65-6
Beuvs,Joseph z3-5 5E-9 Lippard, Lucy z,8, zq,|,16,
Duchamp, Marcel ry, q3, qq idea, art as z8-53 54,60
Eurasrazq;6g.t5
Bonbrack n; fig; identity politics 7r-3 Long, Richard
Beveridge, Karl 66
Fountain e; fig.q tmagination zcr A Linc Made\Walking,
Bochner, MeI z, ,,1-s
LHOOQ 4-4 irrstallations t1-7, 1.), 7 z Englanl q6;fig38
Working Draw ingsand other
readymades l-r3, rc1, urstructionpaintings zz Louis, Morris zr
VisibltThings... 34; fig.25
z5-6,27, q9 lssar journal 45
Boettr, Alighiero 59
Italy zo, 55,59-60 Maciunas, George 2,3
Bolsirevism4,6, t7,54
Ernst, Max 17 FluxusMan!t'csto zt;
Borg6s, Jorge Luis 59
essentialism r,1 Japan 9, 20, zz,1.) fig't+
Brancusi, Constantin rz
e x P r e s s r o nr g , 2 o Johns,Jasper 17, 19,27 Magritte, Rcn6 17
Britain 3r, y-1,41-5, 16,
jorn, Asger 19, 55 Th Magic Mirror 4;hg.7
o+-o

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 PHoroe
nAPHrc
Gnrors
Orazio Bacci, Milm zr
(bottom);RobertBarry 1;
The Anthony d'Offay Gallery
47; Kunstsmmlung
Nordrhe in-Westfale n,
Dii'sseldorf / photo Walter
K1ein, DiiLsseldorf 47, 58
(top); Charles Harrison 44
(top);The Menil Collection,
Houston / photo Hickey
Robertson,Houston 8;The
Metropolitan Museum of
Art, NewYork O 1987/
photo LyntonGardiner 3o;
The Museum of
Contemporary Art, Los
Angeles / photo Squids and
Nunns r8 (left); Museum of
Conteinporary Art, San
Diego, @ r966-8 John
Baldessari / photo Philip
Scholz Ritterman 3z; O zoot
The Museum of Modern Art,
NewYork 16, r8 (right), 1,1
(top);The Museum of
Modern Art, San Francisco,
photo Ben Blackwell zo;
Oellentl che Kunstsammlung,
Basel / photo Martin Brihler
6z; OYoko Ono / Lennono
Photo Archive zz; O Edward
Ruscha 196146; Seth
Siegelaub/@1969Seth
Siegelaub38;photo @ Fred
Scruton 681
80
Gopvnreur
Gneors
The publishers have made
every elfort to trace all the
relevant coplright holders.
We apologise for any
omissions that might have
been made.
Beuys, llroodthaers,
Duchamp, Haacke, Kabakov,
Manzoni: O DACS zooz
Buren, Magritte: O ADAGP
*o DACS' London
l:::
Dibbets, Kosuth, LeWitt,
Morris, Naumann,Weiner:
O ARS, NY and DACS,
London zooz
Olitski: O DACS, London
andVAGA, NewYork zooz
Rauscht'nberg:
@ Robert
Rauschenberg/ DACS,
London andVAGA,New
York zooz
Smithson:O E.t"t" of
I{obert Smithson / VAGA,
NewYork and DACS,
London zooz