Art & Language

The Art & Language group was founded around 1967 in the United Kingdom by Terry Atkinson (b. 1939), David Bainbridge (b. 1941), Michael Baldwin (b. 1945) and Harold Hurrell (b. 1940).[2] These four artists began their collaboration around 1966 while they were art teachers in Coventry. The name of the group was derived from their journal, Art-Language The Journal of conceptual art, originally created as a work conversation in 1966. The group was critical of what was considered mainstream modern art practices at the time. In their work conversations, they created conceptual art as part of their discussions.[3]

Between 1968 and 1982, the group grew to nearly fifty people. Among the first to join were critic and art historian, Charles Harrison, and artist Mel Ramsden.[4] In the early 1970s, individuals including Ian Burn, Michael Corris, Preston Heller, Graham Howard, Joseph Kosuth, Andrew Menard, and Terry Smith joined the group. Two collaborators from Coventry, Philip Pilkington and David Rushton, followed. The relative degree of anonymity held within the group continues to have historical significance in the art community. Due to an uncertainty of the exact member lists, it is hard to know unequivocally not only who all of the contributors were but also what their exact contributions were.

The first issue of Art-Language The Journal of conceptual art[5](Volume 1, Number 1, May 1969) is subtitled The Journal of Conceptual Art. By the second issue (Volume 1, Number 2, February 1970), it became clear that there were conceptual art pieces and conceptual artists for whom and to whom the journal did not speak. In order to better encompass the purpose of the journal, the title was abandoned. Art-Language had, however, brought to light the beginning of a new art movement. It was the first imprint to identify a public entity called Conceptual art. The journal was the first of its kind to serve the theoretical and conversational interests of a community of artists and critics, who were also its producers and users. While that community was far from a unanimous agreement as to how to define the nature of conceptual art, the editors and most of its historic contributors shared similar opinions about other art movements. Conceptual art was critical of modernism for its bureaucracy and its historicism, and of minimalism for its philosophical conservatism. The practice of conceptual art, especially in its early years of origin, was primarily based on theory, and its form, predominately textual.

As the distribution of the journal and the teaching practices of the editors and others contributors expanded, the conversation grew to include more people. In England, by 1971, artists and critics including Charles Harrison, Philip Pilkington, David Rushton, Lynn Lemaster, Sandra Harrison, Graham Howard and Paul Wood had joined. Around the same time in New York, Michael Corris joined, followed by Paula Ramsden, Mayo Thompson, Christine Kozlov, Preston Heller, Andrew Menard and Kathryn Bigelow.

The name "Art & Language" remained precarious due to the various interpretations of both the many pieces of art and the purpose of the group. Its significance, or instrumentality, varied from person to person, alliance to alliance, discourse to discourse, and from those in New York who produced The Fox (1974–1976), for example, to those engaged in music projects and those who continued the Journal's edition. There was disagreement among members, and by 1976, there was a growing sense of divide that eventually led to competing individualities and varied concerns.

Throughout the 1970s, Art & Language dealt with questions about art production and attempted a shift from conventional "nonlinguistic" forms of art, such as painting and sculpture, to more theoretically text-based works. The group often took argumentative positions against such prevailing views of critics like Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried.[6] The Art & Language group that exhibited in the international Documenta 5 exhibitions of 1972 included Atkinson, Bainbridge, Baldwin, Hurrell, Pilkington, Rushton, and Joseph Kosuth, the American editor of Art-Language.[7] The work consisted of a filing system of material published and circulated by Art & Language members.[8]

Burn and Ramsden co-founded The Society for Theoretical Art and Analysis in New York in the late 1960s. They joined Art & Language in 1970–71.[9] New York Art & Language became fragmented after 1975 because of disagreements concerning principles of collaboration.[10] Karl Beveridge and Carol Condé, who had been peripheral members of the group in New York, returned to Canada where they worked with trade unions and community groups. In 1977, Ian Burn returned to Australia and Mel Ramsden to the United Kingdom.

Art & Language, Untitled Painting 1965. The Tate Modern Collection.

By the end of the 1970s, the group was essentially reduced to Baldwin, Harrison, and Ramsden with the occasional participation of Mayo Thompson and his group Red Crayola.[11][12] The political analysis and development within the group resulted in several members leaving the group to work in more activist-oriented political occupations.[13] Ian Burn returned to Australia, joining Ian Milliss, a conceptual artist who had begun work with trade unions in the early 1970s, in becoming active in Union Media Services, a design studio for social and community initiatives and the development of trade unions.[14][15] Other members from the United Kingdom drifted off into a variety of creative, academic and sometimes "politicized" activities.

At the beginning of the 1970s, there were about thirty members. The Art & Language group emphasized the use of language on the theory that language is the basis from which ideas and concepts are built. Their philosophy was that language permits index words which appear, disappear, and for some even persist, thus allowing viewers and artists alike to analyze the evolution of a word through the proposal of different definitions.

Art & Language and the Jackson Pollock Bar collaborated for the first time in January 1995, during the "Art & Language & Luhmann" symposium, organized by the Contemporary Social Considerations Institute (Institut für Sozial Gegenwartsfragen) of Freiburg. The 3-day symposium saw the intervention of speakers including Catherine David, who prepared the Documenta X, and Peter Weibl, artist and curator. There was also a theoretical installation of an Art & Language text produced in playback by the Jackson Pollock Bar.[28] The installation was interpreted by five German actors playing the roles of Jack Tworkow, Philip Guston, Harold Rosenberg, Robert Motherwell and Ad Reinhardt. Using lip sync, the actors used pre-recorded text for a "New Conceptual" conversation.[29] Ever since this collaboration, each new Art & Language exhibition has been joined by a Jackson Pollock Bar theoretical installation.[30][31]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Art & Language.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Art & Language

• Interview with Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden about Art & Language (2011) MP3
• Art & Language: Blurting in A & L online Hypertext version of a complete print work of 1973 by American members of Art & Language, with articles and a discussion forum.
• Thomas Dreher: Intermedia Art: Konzeptuelle Kunst with four German articles on Art & Language and a chronology with illustrated works.
• Artists group page in Artfacts.Net with actual major exhibitions.
• Andrew Hunt, Art & Language, Frieze, October 2005.
• Tom Morton, Art & Language, Frieze, April 2002.
• El análisis crítico de la modernidad de Art & Language
• Works by Art & Language at the Mulier Mulier Gallery
• Art & Language page at Lisson Gallery
• Art & Language at René Schmitt Druckgraphik
• Official site of Taddeus Ropac Gallery
• Official site of Kadel Willborn Gallery