Page 20 - Studio International - June 1972

Art Et Language Investigation', the publication of the synopsis made and criteria considered relevant within
of categories from the Thesaurus, took Art-Language is generally pretty distinct from
Press effect from late 1968. the more 'conventional' claims and criteria
The publication in 1969 of the first number
upheld in art now. One is concerned, above all,
of Art-Language and of Kosuth's three-part to establish some kind of common-sense
article in Studio International, 'Art after ontology without at the same time making
Philosophy', resulted in some public attention ontological commitments which are simple-
and made explicit certain common concerns minded. This may sometimes lead to something
(also some points of potential disagreement). like lack of tolerance. The kinds of tools of
It is important to note that until 1969 the criticism developed within the essentially
British artists had been working in considerable British tradition of analytic philosophy have
The background to a group of British isolation; they were all living outside London proved useful in this context.
artists participating in 'Documenta 5' at (as they still do), were very little known Indeed it is a matter of importance that we
Kassel this summer. abroad and even less at home. Their work was are now once again in a position to
not included, for instance in 'influential' acknowledge that the 'subject matter' of art is
Art & Language Press was founded in 'post-object' artfests such as the exhibitions not, never has been, hermetic (formal/visual).
Coventry, England, in May 1968, by Terry 'Op Losse Schroeven' (Stedelijk Museum, One of the consequences of questioning the
Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Amsterdam) and 'When Attitudes become hermetic status of the art object has been to
Baldwin and Harold Hurrell. The first issue of Form' (Berne, Krefeld, London) in I969. In open the ideology of art once again, after at
Art-Language appeared in May 1969. Four more recent international mixed exhibitions least two decades of academicism (i.e. of self-
further issues (Vol. I Nos. I to 4) were published their work has often been misrepresented by conscious absorption in essentially formal
at irregular intervals until February 1972 curators confused as to the ontological status of problems), to the influx of ideas and information
(Vol. II No. i) when it was established that what has been consigned to them. Kosuth was from other disciplines. The interest aroused
publication should take place thrice yearly at included in 'Attitudes' but it is very doubtful in some recent contributors to Art-Language
regular intervals. Joseph Kosuth was invited to whether many understood, or were even by the notion of the paradigm as applied by
act as American Editor of Art-Language in conscious of, the nature of his contribution— Thomas Kuhn to the philosophy of science is
July 1969, and his name appeared as such on certainly, at least, so far as the London showing one example of the fruitful employment of an
the cover of Vol. I No. 2. In 1971 Ian Burn and was concerned. influential heuristic from an area of
Mel Ramsden became associated editorially The kind of work shown in Attitudes by controversy outside art.
with the journal. In the same year I was younger artists was for the most part new It is only surprising that this has taken so
invited to act as General Editor for Art & work—i.e. the artists concerned had only long. Explicit criticism from 'within' art
Language Press. recently abandoned object-making of a kind Cart criticism') has entertained and promoted
Terry Atkinson and Harold Hurrell had which was conventional in at least one sense. all kinds of imbecilities without seriously
known each other since childhood; David Much of this work depended upon implications questioning the sacrosanctity of conventional
Bainbridge met Terry Atkinson iii Barnsley in the mid-sixties work of Morris, LeWitt, art ontology. Implicit criticism of
in 1958 and Harold Hurrell while a student in Andre and others which had already been conventional art ontology from 'outside' art
London in 1964. Michael Baldwin was investigated for theoretical potential and has been massive and can now perhaps be seen
studying at Coventry College of Art in 1966 found largely wanting by the founders as incontrovertible. No wonder art has seemed
when Atkinson took up an appointment there of Art-Language some 2—3 years earlier. (It is to be out of touch with its 'public', with
as a lecturer; I met Joseph Kosuth in New York worth noting that some early material by 'social values', with 'economic realities', with
in May I969, and Atkinson stayed with him in Atkinson and Baldwin was circulated among information theory, linguistic analysis etc. etc.
July of the same year. certain 'minimal' artists in New York in I967.) For the moment perhaps the most important
Kosuth's and the British artists' work had The inevitable association of Art-Language `deep' consequence of the abandonment of the
developed independently since 1966 to a with an already publicised international 'material-character/physical-object' paradigm
position of obvious compatibility. In particular 'conceptual art' has served as a continual source is that it has offered an opportunity to do some
the interest in linguistic analysis shared by of confusion. The analytic tendency in the work sorting out. Inevitably, once the possibility of
Atkinson, Baldwin and Kosuth both of Atkinson, Bainbridge, Baldwin, Hurrell and a paradigm shift had been envisaged—in
distinguished them from other artists in the Kosuth has been justifiably seen—particularly crude terms, once it was possible to envisage
later sixties and prepared considerable common since the publication of the second part of an activity in art which was not a priori
ground between them. Kosuth's definition Kosuth's 'Art after Philosophy' and of directed toward the production of objects—it
series commenced in 1966; collaboration Atkinson's 'From an Art & Language Point of became obvious not so much that new
between Atkinson and Baldwin began in the View', both of which raised some animosity—to possibilities were open (though, heaven knows,
same year; 'Oxfordshire', 'Air Show', 'Air- be directly at odds with, and antipathetic to, there have been lemmings enough only too
Conditioning Show' and 'Temperature Show' the more picaresque, whimsical and extravagant ready to hurl themselves into the sea of 'post-
were early formulations, together with forms of 'conceptual', 'dematerialised' or object art') as that new problems, a new
proposals for work which included their Map 'post-object' art. One crucial point of difference, genera of problems, lay in the path of any
prints; Bainbridge had worked occasionally of course, is that while many artists in Europe assertion-making. The search for (emphatically
with Atkinson in 1964-6; in February 1967 and America have over the past four years 'search for', rather than 'discovery of') an art
Bainbridge and Hurrell, in their `Hardware' made claims to dramatic extensions of art into theory—or even something like an 'art theoria' —
show at the Architectural Association in the realms of performance and fiction, Art- might be seen as an attempt to order priorities
London (which passed virtually unnoticed) Language has attempted to ensure that any and direct approaches among areas of concern.
exhibited devices with mechanical functions assertions made are capable of being generative One is surely not, at this stage, envisaging
which were employed as `analogical source within a stated context: 'It can be shown that 'finding solutions'. There is a need to refrain
material' for considering questions of the entities which are of present concern, from premature proclamation of ideologies.
spectatorship and ontology; Atkinson and though based in theoretical considerations.... Many recent and current manifestos and
Baldwin's Hot-Cold and French Army books were are not theoretical fictions' (Atkinson/Baldwin, 'works' of 'conceptual art' — exploitations of the
formulated in 1967; Kosuth's 'Second Frameworks 1967). The nature of the claims new 'freedom' —seem in this light to imply a

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