From Prominence to Obscurity: Keith Arnatt's Transition from Conceptual Art to Photography

MA, Bisera Ikanović MA, Lamija Hatibović University of Sussex Alumni University of Sarajevo Alumni Currently residing in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract— The article will show Arnatt’s transition from a II. COMING TO THE IDEA prominent conceptual artist to an unknown photographer. It will The art scene witnessed a great number of art movements analyze Keith Arnatt’s photographic work and put it in a context th of both his own artistic career and the artistic movements at the in the 20 century. Never before were there so many time of their creation. Parallels between absurdism, paradox, distinctively different artistic creations in such a short time humor, originality, perversity and the painterly characteristic are span. Each of them negated the former movement and most of all words are shown in his works. Two exemplary photographic them lasted for less than a decade. One of those ‘movements’ is series will be analyzed in order to reflect the former: Pictures Conceptual art. Perhaps it should not even be referred as a from the Rubbish Tip and Notes from Jo. movement, since the artists of this period were not considered to be a group. Their styles and ideas greatly differed from one Keywords – Keith Arnatt, conceptual art, photography, another. However, for the lack of a better expression to address this artistic style, the article will refer to it as a movement. I. INTRODUCTION In the British art community, Keith Arnatt was considered Up until a decade ago, not many people were familiar with to be one of the most respected artists of modern British art. the term Conceptual art and even less with the basic principles of the movement in question. It seemed to be lost in the sea of Recently, the respect has started to encompass his photographic th career as well, although perhaps still not in the scope that one numerous art movements of the 20 century. However, the might feel it deserves to. Arnatt’s photographic work is known reason for its growing popularity, now almost fifty years later, amongst the art scene, where his audience at the beginning could be attributed to the changed understanding of its role. consisted mainly from “photographic buffs, people who are Moving from a philosophy which associated art directly with knowledgeable in photography and the history of photography” an object to a, philosophically, more abstract concept of [1], with only a handful of art critics and artists alike that felt associating art with the idea for the artwork, not the object confident enough to discuss the work and interpret it. The itself. Putting painting and sculpture away from the limelight of possible reason for the public’s unawareness of Arnatt’s the art scene provided more space for other art forms to photographic work may lie in the rather small amount of develop. These new art forms refrained from the traditional exhibitions of his work. materials and instead used “photographs, film, sound, light, earth [and even] artists themselves” [2]. Today, not many books are written about Keith Arnatt and even less about his photography. Most of the information about Keith Arnatt was one of the pioneering conceptual artist, his work can be found in various catalogue articles and several not just in Britain, but a world-wide. He is considered to be one essays. Although the essays written in these catalogues shed of the first people who started to question the function and the some light on his pre-photographic and touch upon some of his role of the artist. Art critics of the time connected this issue photographic work, they are limited in information. Thankfully, with Barthes’ idea of the “death of the author” [3]. However, Arnatt was an artist who, even though he seemed to care little one must keep in mind that Keith Arnatt was original in his about the success of his work, did not mind discussing his ideas, a characteristic defined by his personality which was work with others and when doing so, he was very clear about such that many describe him as a person that “if anything is his ideas and accomplishments, thus reducing the possibility of popular then [he] would want to go the opposite way” [4]. He others misinterpreting it. However, this is more applicable to was not what some might consider a follower, but instead was his early works than for his photographic work. Due to the fact the one that created paths for other artists to follow. The fact that at that time photography was not considered to be a form that he was a world-wide renowned conceptual artist is not of art or, at least, any form of serious art, artists that were surprising. At the time, Britain was not the center of raising associated with it were usually quickly disregarded. In the artistic movements and it was even easier for him to establish second half of the 20th century photography became a more himself as a promising artist abroad. According to The New Art prominent medium, but it was usually used in combination catalogue, although people could read all about the artistic with other mediums, rarely on its own. So how did Arnatt go novelties in popular art magazines of the time, most of them from being a known Conceptual artist to an unknown coming from America, in reality people have “seen very little photographer? of it” [5]. According to a letter written by Anne Seymour to Keith Arnatt, Tate decided in 1972 to start the “first stage of a project, it is particularly interesting that during the nine days push to expand [their] collection somewhat in the direction of that the project was taking place, the TV program schedule was the ‘New Art’” [6]. printed on the back of each shot, or vice versa, depending on one’s stand and point of view. There are numerous accounts of Conceptual art was not what one might consider an Arnatt’s Self-Burial, which vary in their claims relating to the immediate success. In America it seemed to be progressing at a duration of the TV screening. Some reports claim that each faster pace and was appreciated by the members of the art photograph was presented on television for two seconds [15], scene, but the movement did not find the same acceptance with while others claim that each photo was presented for four the everyday visitors. Many art gallery visitors seemed to be seconds [16]. unable to understand the concept of art-as-idea and demanded to see more ‘artistic’, not intellectual, artifacts. In its essence, So, what would be the most appropriate description of these Conceptual art was the art of intellect. Aesthetics was not a photos? Ian Walker, for example, describes them as “static priority to conceptual artists, as it was to their predecessors. images, lugubriously deadpan in their very stillness, pretending The idea and the explanation behind the artwork is what to be ‘stills’ prom some probably very slow event” [17]. mattered and what made the created piece - art. Evolving from Richard Cork considers the Self-Burial to be “prophetic of its an object centered art to an idea centered art was a long maker’s subsequent development” [18], referring to Arnatt’s process. The reason why it was named Conceptual art is later disappearance from the art world. The latter mentioned because it explored “what the concept of art and the concept of piece, Trouser-Word Piece, is considered to be the epitome of artists were” [7], basing itself on the idea, “rather than style or Arnatt’s Conceptual creations. It was a work aided by a strong any specific aesthetic regime” [8]. philosophy, which was taking “egocentricity as its subject matter'' [19]. This artwork consisted of two parts: one was the Keith Arnatt was considered to be an extremely intelligent photography of the artist holding the I’m a Real Artist sign, and artist, with both profound and witty writings and philosophy. the other was the “text taken from philosopher J. L. Austin's What made Arnatt different, as David Hurn said, is that he was Sense and Sensibilia, exposing the indeterminacy of the “able to put that into the pictures in a way that the general meaning of the word real” [20]. public could understand” [9], something that Conceptual art lacked in general. He was one of those artists that could not III. BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER settle for one artistic medium and changed his artistic The change from being in front of the camera to being tendencies and preferences a number of times in his career. He behind the camera was not as sudden as it might seem. Even was interested in all forms of art from paintings, sculptures, during his period as a Conceptual artist, Arnatt would include photographs, performance art and language art. He began his photographs in his artwork. However, in most cases, he was artistic career as a painter, where he attended the prestigious not the one taking the pictures, but rather “directed the camera” Royal Academy in London, becoming a landscape painter [10]. [21] while he was in front of it. The photos were “usually taken His knowledge of fine arts is something that will be constantly by friends or colleagues from college” [22]. These photographs referred to in his later work, including in his photography. Not were used only as “records, not first-order works of art” [23], finding satisfaction in painting by the mid-60s, he turned to thus documenting his work and with it making the experimental art and unknowingly helped to form a new documentation a part of the work. The first contact with movement. The basis of the movement already existed with the photography for Arnatt was a matter of necessity, given the fact works of “leading conceptual artists in the UK such as Art & that he was “doing things which were fixed to a location; the Language, Victor Burgin, Michael Craig-Martin and John only way [he] could show people what [he] was doing was to Latham” [11]. Today he is probably most known for his photograph them” [24]. His wish to document his work was performance art, with works such as the Self-Burial (1969) and something learnt on his predecessors’ mistakes. In his Trouser-Word Piece (1972). interview with Susan Butler, Arnatt stated that a tremendous influence on his work was the work of Claes Oldenburg, whose The Self-Burial, occasionally known as The Disappearance work Hole (1967) “puzzled [him and left him] wondering had of the Artist [12], presents a perfect example of self-portraiture it in fact been done [since at the time] there was no combined with the use of photography. The work bluntly reproduction, no film, no visual evidence [just] a report of an expresses the idea of darkness and death, with the artist being action being performed” [25]. So, at this point, photography buried, but at the same time more subtly relates to the already was just a necessity of his Conceptual art. mentioned popular theory of the death of the artist. However, when Arnatt was asked to describe this work, he simply When describing the difference between his photography claimed that it was “an advertisement for nothing” [13]. The and his Conceptual art, Arnatt stated: performance has a certain dose of humor in it. An exhibition souvenir of a sort is kept in the Tate archive and presents a A fundamental difference, I think, between the way that I form of a flick book, which shows a sequence of images that, worked earlier and the way in which I work now is […] that when turning the pages fast enough, together show Arnatt’s the idea was of central significance, that anything that was gradual burial [14]. However, seeing that it was done as a TV made was made almost incidental to the idea. I don’t think I work that way at all now; things I do now are the result of […] technically perfect way, into an object of enjoyment. – Walter discovering something in the process of working; I do Benjamin [35] something and then reflect upon it. [26] It took approximately a decade for Arnatt to find what he So, the difference lies in the change of his approach, where was really interested in photography. With the Pictures from a the former has been described as “intuitive”, whilst the latter Rubbish Tip, he embraced the use of color and he put the stood for “logical [and] pre-ordained procedures” [27]. The theme of abjection as the primary theme of his work. He shift can be attributed to both personal reasons and to the photographed seemingly irrelevant objects and played with the society’s lack of understanding and appreciation of his concept of turning non-artistic items into artistic photographs, conceptual work. The personal reasons for the change could be or as Arnatt phrased it “making pictures which are not chaotic associated to Arnatt’s altered behavior and his change of out of chaos” [36]. The vivid colors “and impeccable finesse of priorities. Critics attribute this change to an unfortunate advertising photography” [37] in the Pictures from the Rubbish accident that Arnatt had suffered at his house in Tintern Abbey Tip create an illusion of a painting, thus making the in Wales. On one recorded occasion when Arnatt mentioned the photographs visually ambiguous and beautify the rubbish accident, he merely stated: “It changed the way I feel about a presented in such an extent that the viewer forgets the negative lot of things [making me] develop a terrific attachment to [Wye connotation of rubbish and sees it as something beautiful. Valley]” [28]. The change in his personality Duncan Wooldridge attributes to the accident where Arnatt “fell from The “idiosyncratic use of non-photographic colors” [38] the top of a ladder […] and was never the same [becoming] was uncommon at the time, and it was one of Arnatt’s original quiet, evasive and introverted” [29]. He believes that this fall ideas. Colors range “from sumptuous [with] the richly affected Arnatt’s artistic development and instigated the shift in autumnal tones to dramatic chiaroscuro.” [39]. The scenes are his artistic direction, which could be traced in his 2007 obviously staged, placing the selected rubbish in a carefully exhibition in the Photographers’ Gallery. However, the only selected background made out of plastic bags which medical evidence that we have which could explain Arnatt’s emphasized the beauty of the food presented and creating changed personality is the fact he had Alzheimer’s disease and “psychedelic patterns” [40], choosing the right objects and the even then we do not know the severity of the disease. right light.

Photography to Arnatt presented a new world filled with Fragments of rotting food are isolated from the greater unexplored subjects and ideas. Similar to his transition to mass of refuse, turned thereby into abject still life by crumpled photography which was to be expected, his decline from the a polythene which recalls classical drapery [41]. relatively known Conceptual artist to an unknown photographer was gradual as well. According to his close David Hurn thinks that Arnatt “is always referring back to friend David Hurn, the sole reason that Arnatt became something in painting” [42], more specifically, that he prominent was that people and critics where interested in his references Samuel Palmer. This would mean that Arnatt’s work at the time and that “people came to him” [30]. previous fine art background came through in his photography. According to Charlotte Cotton “it all went downhill after the Another reference to this series, comes from Schwabsky who show in the Tate” [31]. The show was held in 1972, where compares Arnatt’s rotten food with the “castoff clothes and Arnatt exhibited “all 230 gallery staff photo cards” [32]. In his rotting fruit that connects to Atget, but the intensity of opinion the exhibit was a success, but in reality people attraction/repulsion embodied in these works seems very much perceived it differently. According to Grafik, the personnel of its time, recalling contemporaneous work by Helen removed their photos one at a time and that resulted in the Chadwick” [43]. exhibit being closed before it was planned to. David Alan Mellor mentions that Arnatt was far from affected by these Two important photographic movements can be found in developing events, jokingly naming them the “disappearing Arnatt’s work. The ideas of the Pictorialist photographic act” [33]. After the exhibit, and when he turned to photography, movement can be linked to the characteristic of his the galleries seemed to have lost their patience with the photographs to appear painterly. The movement which unpredictable artist. His 1980 series, on the other hand, were originated in the final decades of the 19th century, promoted not so known in the art world, but instead gained their fame in the idea of creating ‘artistic’ photographs [44]. Photography the photography world “which was still rather separate from was a new medium at the time and it was not as highly fine art” [34]. esteemed as painting was, primarily because it was seen to be “simply the mechanical means of reproducing reality” [45]. IV. THE WORLD WHICH I SEE, THE WORLD OF THE RUBBISH Photographers, in order for their work to be appreciated, had TIP intervened with their photographs to blur their photographic The camera is now incapable of photographing a tenement qualities and pronounce their painterly ones, such as or rubbish heap without beautifying it. It has succeeded in composition and structure. Similar classic still life composition turning abject poverty itself, by handling in a modish, and structure is found in the Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, except for the fact that Arnatt achieves the painterly atmosphere not by denying the photographic qualities of his relationship. Proving how much Arnatt actually enjoyed these work, but by embracing them and emphasizing them. notes, is the fact that he decided to document them, so they “would [not] disappear” [51]. The idea of preserving the In this respect, Arnatt’s work is reminiscent of the second ephemera, text which was created with no intention to be photographic movement - Straight Photography. This preserved, creates a paradox. Just as he did with the Pictures movement was based on showing the beauty of tone and detail from a Rubbish Tip, Arnatt has given “value to something found in photographs and the ideas which could only be shown essentially transitory” [52]. with photography avoiding the classical fine art themes and subjects. It appears that Arnatt possessed that subtle ability to VI. CONCLUSION combine the two opposites in his work – the pictorial quality In the end, we can say that Keith Arnatt was both an with the realistic one. However, he took it a step further by original artist and an original photographer, although in his introducing color to his photographs. own opinion the two should not be even considered to be Some art critics mention the environmental issue when separate terms. He created series which were undeniably discussing the Pictures from a Rubbish Tip. For example, Sara unique and, on several accounts, ahead of their time. Decades Allen claims that the 1980s photograph makes the viewer after his Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, during the great “ponder man’s impact of the environment” and she even takes environmental movement, photographers focused on rubbish as it further by saying that the conclusions that the viewer might their subject, possibly completely unaware that Arnatt had done make are those how “man unthinkingly ruins natural spaces this years before, without the trendy movement as his with litter and so on” [46]. This might be the opinion of some instigator. That was his original quality, regardless of his effort viewers, but in truth the photographs do not send the message to deny it: he managed to see beauty in everyday scenes and ‘rubbish is wrong and do not throw it around’, but it seems to people, in common rubbish and discarded items, in simple send a rather opposite message of ‘rubbish can be beautiful if notes left by his wife. Being unconventional might have not you look at it the right way’. When we look at the photographs brought him fame and recognition as a photographer, at least we do not get the sudden urge to go and pick up garbage, but not during his lifetime, but it was by no means because of the rather prefer to admire the unexpected beauty found in the lack of ideas or because of the poor quality of his work. It was seemingly unworthy objects. Even Arnatt himself stated in an only three years ago that part of his photographic work was interview: “The concentration on rubbish often leads people to displayed in the Photographers’ Gallery, with the help of his believe that I’m concerned with ecological issues, that the point friend David Hurn. Yet even today, many people are oblivious of my pictures is to make some comic about the disastrous of his later work. His photographic work is greatly appreciated effects of overconsumption and things like this. They are in the art scene, by professors, curators and art professionals essentially ‘comics upon the nature of picture making in a alike. However, the public should be better acquainted with his number of ways” [47]. work and join the elite in their knowledge and appreciation of his work. V. WHERE ARE MY WELLINGTONS YOU STUPID FART? The weight of words. The shock of photos. [48] REFERENCES [1] K. 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