Page 73 - Studio International - December 1973

ART THEORY& PRACTICE
ART THEORYAND 1970), the only apparent limits have been those constituted. At the same time though, just as
of exhibition space. Constraints of nationality, this process minimises the element of the
THE DECLINE OF so often imposed as a natural limit, obviously arbitrary, it functions as an exegetical gloss to the
had no place where they might plainly be seen to pieces and, despite disclaimers, produces a
THE ART OBJECT be arbitrary. Style was inoperative and there traditionalist dichotomy of objects and
As the concern for the identity of art has were no readily observable categories where the explanatory commentary. The more this came
increasingly become the subject matter of art in problem addressed was usually that of art in to look like the case in 1969 and 1970 the more
the period since the mid-sixties, and as this has general. This tolerant inclusiveness was at this it was discussed and the more strenuously a
coincided with a devaluation of the time probably still part of the reaction to the `linguistic art' was asserted. In 'Information'
traditional practices of painting and sculpture, well entrenched idea of a single 'right' type of Kosuth stressed: 'Fundamental to this idea of
so there has evolved a new and extensive class significant art for any one period, combatted art is the understanding of the linguistic nature
of art practitioners working in relative liberty in since the mid sixties by the studied of all art propositions, be they past or present,
an area free of well-established normative indifference of Don Judd in particular. At one and regardless of the elements used in their
constraints. Major art in the fifties and sixties level this may have been likely to inaugurate an construction'. 9 At the same time Victor Burgin
posited artists of heroic individual stature, era of very wide diversity, given the new writing in David Lamelas's Publication made
manifest in the statements system at the freedom to nominate virtually anything into an much the same point when he said that as
principal painting exhibitions where the art context and ultimately into an art status. object art moved towards the signification of
statement might provide rich insights into the There was certainly enormous diversity, from universals the limitations imposed by its
artist's motivation but say little about his the Atkinson and Baldwin 'Air Conditioning inherent particularity made themselves felt and
painting. A system of this type continued to Show' of 1967 which confronted the problem of words increasingly emerged as something more
acknowledge the primacy of the critic as identifiability to Joseph Kosuth's definitional appropriate to the formulation of
o
intermediary and this inevitably sustained a exploration of all the states of water (1965-66)4 generalisations.' By this time, then, the
hierarchical order of artists, founded principally through to, for instance, Victor Burgin's problem of the place of the artist's 'linguistic
on the strength of critical qualitative interest in situational cues and the perceiver art' within the overall concept of art had
assessments. In an almost total reversal of this manifest in his work in 1969.5 But working emerged as the serious issue of Post-Object Art
situation the post-object artist is very much an within the context of art in some way and and one around which the criteria of
equal member of an extensive class of artists sustained by the idea of art, even if, as in responsibility could be demonstrated. Already
working to similar terms of reference. Where Joseph Kosuth's case, giving priority to 'the in 1970 a principal external commentator such
the heroic modernist painter dealt in separation of the art from its form of as Charles Harrison was addressing this
`courage', 'insight' and 'vision', the presentation,' 6 most of the pieces presented up question in conceptual art as a major problem
conceptualist dealt in 'questions' and to and into the major shows raised problems of but without suggesting that it was resolvable in
`problems'.' Art produced under the first set of the legitimation of art status in a particularly the totally inclusive manner sought by Kosuth;
values was inherently connected with ideas of acute way; by 1970 some well-involved in quoting Reinhardt as 'a unique precedent' he
individual isolation and individual commentators were able to say that the admits that his writings about art 'were what
responsibility in conditions exacerbated by openness of the situation had produced gave his paintings function', but this is not to
uncertain criteria of quality. Where this put a irresponsible work and that this ought to be allow them the 'art' status sought by Kosuth.11
premium on experience and survival the art of corrected. 7 Paradoxically, then, it was a Inherent in the dominating view of the
`questions' emphasised the virtues of narrowing of focus which coincided with the structure of the new art at the time of the major
intellectual understanding and instantly removal of the traditional limits of art exhibitions in 1969 and 1970 was the notion
opened art to anyone with the curiosity to established on the primacy of painting and that the bare nomination of an object or
`question the nature of art by presenting new sculpture. The consequence of such a situation proposition was sufficient condition for the
propositions as to art's nature'.2 was to raise a problem of discrepancy in a most making of art, or at least for some kind of
For this reason Conceptualism, or Post- developed form; art had been democratized certain involvement in art. Possibly one
Object Art, has looked like the art of a class into potentially a near public property, certainly of the earliest and one of the most extreme
rather than of the major individuals of an open international property, in which any instances of this was Robert Rauschenberg's
traditional art, a class subordinate to a sort of proposal could be made and in which response to an invitation to participate in a show
common task of exploring a community of any sort of proposal looked, initially, equal in of portraits at the Iris Clert Gallery to which he
commonly held problems. Although it has value to any other; but at the same time the replied by telegram : 'This is a portrait of Iris
acknowledged the distinctness of individual concept of art remained a difficult one with a Clert if I say it is'. Although nominated by
contributions it has been with rather an long tradition of writing in philosophy and Kosuth to a marginal ancestor status this is
alphabetical evenness, allowing that anyone aesthetics to demonstrate this difficulty. In the more significant than it looks. Rauschenberg's
might make the significant addition to modern necessarily undiscriminating anthologies of interest in 'art' was ironic in the early 196os as
art. At the same time there has been a latent exhibitions of the new art the extremes of the was so much American Pop Art which focused
problem of government in that individual new situation appeared with startling clarity; in on art (Rauschenberg's Art Box, 1962-3,
artists were of greater or lesser importance the catalogue to 'Information', for instance, a Lichtenstein's Art, 1962, Robert Morris's 37
according to the degree to which they highly explicit statement by Kosuth on Minutes 3879 Strokes, 1961, for instance),12 and
transformed art, presupposing, that is, a conceptual art is confronted by On Kawara's this irony was the outcome of a new situation
consensus definition of 'art' or a custodial bland assertion: ' "One Million Years" All the in art in the early sixties and one particularly felt
office with a revisionary function.3 This sort of Information of Mankind on the Earth'. 8 in America. In the first place there was wide
totalitarian authority is foreign to the ethos of What Kosuth does is to provide a teleological critical support for the view that painting was in
modern art, more especially as many recent explanation of his actions which are to be some sort of crisis and with this was posited a
artists see themselves as only recently emerged understood in terms of intentions. Everything general crisis of art. Identified and deplored by
from the critics' hegemony of the 195os and the from the photostat presentations of definitions critics this crisis was inspirational to painters,
early part of the 196os. This means that in the such as Universals to the more conventional encouraging an interest in radical alternatives,
major collective shows of Conceptualism, in writing about art was keyed to the concept 'are, most particularly stimulating the Pop Art
`When Attitudes Become Form' (London and which was to be understood as a totality over movement. Lichtenstein, assessing the boom
Berne, 1969) and in 'Information' (New York, and above any of the items from which it is conditions which presaged the crisis, thought

267