Art & Language

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Art & Language (German art and language ) is a 1968 in Coventry in the UK , founded group of artists of contemporary art , dedicated to the conceptual art dedicated.

Development and work

Art & Language's first artists were Terry Atkinson (* 1939) and Michael Baldwin (* 1945), who met in 1966 as students at Coventry College of Art. Other artists quickly joined the collective , initially David Bainbridge (* 1941) and Harold Hurrell (* 1940). In 1968 the group founded Art & Language Press in Cambridge and in 1969 published the first issue of Art-Language magazine .

The group's early work and Art-Language magazine had a significant impact on the development of conceptual art in both Great Britain and the United States .

At the same time, Ian Burn , Mel Ramsden and Roger Cutforth founded the Society for Theoretical Art and Analysis in New York in the late 1960s . After the American group became aware of Art & Language in June 1969, both groups began to cooperate with each other in February 1970 and subsequently merged.

In the early 1970s Michael Corris , Charles Harrison , Preston Heller , Graham Howard , Andrew Menard , Terry Smith and, from Coventry, Philip Pilkington and David Rushton joined in with their work Art & Language.

In the course of the 1970s, Art & Language dealt with questions about the production of art and tried to shift from the classic "non-linguistic" forms of art such as painting and sculpture to more theoretically oriented works. With their research, Art & Language wanted to contribute to the demystification of art. In theoretical discourse, the group often had to grapple with the argumentative positions of prevailing views of critics such as Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried .

Cover of the first edition of Corrected Slogans 1976

Because of the linguistic-analytical nature of Art & Language's work, affinities with other conceptual artists such as Joseph Kosuth or Ian Wilson , who also worked on the group for a time, arose. Also a member of the group was the American musician Mayo Thompson ( The Red Krayola , Pere Ubu ). On his initiative, the Red Krayola released an album together with Art & Language in 1976 under the name Corrected Slogans .

By the late 1970s, the group still essentially consisted of Baldwin, Harrison and Ramsden. The political analysis and political arguments had led to many members leaving the group to pursue political activism elsewhere. Ian Burn and Terry Smith returned to Australia where, together with Ian Milliss , also a conceptual artist, they started a design studio with the unions in the early 1970s specializing in social marketing and community and trade union law as an art initiative build up. Karl Beveridge and Carol Condé as peripheral members of the group in New York returned to Canada , where they too began working with the trade unions and political groups. Other British members drifted into a variety of creative, academic and sometimes "political" professions.

The Art & Language group that took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 with the “ Index 0001 ” project (their most extensive work) in the Idea + Idea / Light department consisted of Atkinson, Bainbridge, Baldwin, Burn, Hurrell , Ramsden, Harrison and the American specialist in art-language Joseph Kosuth. Art & Language was also represented at Documenta 6 (1977), Documenta 7 in 1982 and Documenta X 1997.

Since 1977 Art & Language has essentially consisted of the collaboration between Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden in Banbury , Oxfordshire . In the meantime, an extensive oeuvre has emerged, especially pictures. Most of the texts are written by Charles Harrison, who has been publishing " Art-Language " since 1971 .

In 1986 Art & Language was nominated for the Turner Prize . In 1999 Art & Language exhibited the large installation entitled “ The Artist Out of Work ” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York .

Former members of Art & Language

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Literature and Sources

Magazines
  • Art Language. Vol. 1, No. 1, May 1969 - March 1985. 19 numbers. Art & Language Press, Warwickshire, UK.
  • A full reprint of this first series of the magazine appeared in January 2000.
    • Vol. 1: No. 1, The Journal of Conceptual Art , May 1969; No. 2, February 1970; No. 3, June 1970; No. 4, November 1971
    • Vol. 2: No. 1, 1972; No. 2, summer 1972; No. 3, Sept. 1973; No. 4, 1974
    • Vol. 3: No. 1, September 1974; No. 2, 1975; No. 2a, 1975; No. 3, 1976; No. 4, 1976
    • Vol. 4: Nos. 1-2, 1977; No. 3, 1978; No. 4, 1980
    • Vol. 5: No. 1, 1982; No. 2, March 1984; No. 3, March 1985
  • Art language . New Series. Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1994.
  • The Fox , Nos. 1-2, 1975; No. 3, 1976. Art & Language Foundation, New York 1975/76
selection
  • Paul Maenz, Gerd de Vries (ed.): Art & Language . DuMont, DuMont Art Practice , Cologne 1972.
literature
  • Exhibition catalog: documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today ; Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (list of exhibits); Kassel 1972
    • documenta archive (ed.); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive on documenta 1972 ; Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121-X
  • Catalog for documenta 6: Volume 1: Painting, sculpture / environment, performance; Volume 2: photography, film, video; Volume 3: Hand drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel 1977 ISBN 3-920453-00-X
  • Catalog: documenta 7 Kassel ; Vol. 1: (visual biographies of the artists); Vol. 2: (Current works of the artists); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6
  • (documenta 10 catalog): Politics - Poetics - the book on documenta X; Kassel / Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-89322-909-4 (German) / ISBN 3-89322-911-6 (English)
  • Charles Harrison : Essays on Art & Language . Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1991. (Essays by a member, not primarily on the group)
  • Marzona, Daniel: Conceptual Art ; Cologne 2005 ISBN 3-8228-2959-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Dreher: Blurting in A & L: Art & Language and Context Investigation , 2005, Online ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 1, 2007
  2. ↑ leftmatrix.com ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.leftmatrix.com
  3. ^ Art-Language / Facsimile Edition
  4. ^ Library catalog of the art and museum library of the city of Cologne

Web links