DOCSLIB.ORG

Documenting Douglas Huebler: His Early Conceptual Works 1968-1975

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Documenting Douglas Huebler: His Early Conceptual Works 1968-1975 Documenting Douglas Huebler: His Early Conceptual Works 1968-1975 Mary Gunter Haviland Abingdon, Virginia B.M., Queens University of Charlotte, 1970 M.L.S., Emory University, 1974 M.A., Virginia Commonwealth University, 1977 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McIntire Department of Art University of Virginia May, 2015 2 © Copyright by Mary Gunter Haviland All Rights Reserved May 2015 iii Abstract This dissertation considers the early conceptual work of Douglas Huebler, from 1968 to 1975, focusing on his drawings, mapping, and photographic strategies. It argues for his singular place in the emergence of American conceptual art merited by his inventive linguistic approach to the image, a systematic procedure that extended beyond the conventional tenets of conceptualism and generated a particular openness to his surrounding world. This is the first monographic treatment of Huebler’s early career, examining the critical phases of his work in relation to the art and linguistic currents of the time. The introduction contains biographical information relevant to Huebler’s production—his path from Michigan to his innovative years at Bradford College in Massachusetts where he began his conceptual art in collaboration with New York curator Seth Siegelaub. Each chapter includes detailed analyses of selected works from his categories of location, duration, and variables, those pieces that have particular significance in relation to his carefully devised text. His work is situated in relation to other artists producing in a similar vein during the 1960s and 70s, such as John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner, and Robert Smithson. Huebler often preferred procedure by chance, presenting the results as snapshot photographs that were shuffled in sequence and often with seemingly disjunctive language. Using the caption, cliché and aphorism, Huebler asks the reader to question conditions of appearance in the photographs, allowing the viewer to go beyond direct visual perception. The dissertation concludes with a look at his Everyone Alive series. 4 Contents An Introduction to Huebler’s Early Work............................................................1 Thesis overview ...............................................................................................1 Thesis structure ...............................................................................................3 Synopsis of chapters....................................................................................... 6 Foundational sources................................................................................... 10 The path to conceptualism: Huebler’s early years from Michigan to Bradford..............................................................................15 Chapter 1. How To Let a Huebler Drawing Speak.........................................25 Chapter 2. Unframing the Grid: Huebler’s Procedural Mapping . 67 Chapter 3. Huebler’s Photoconceptual Strategies.......................................120 Epilogue............................................................................................................................ 206 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 211 Illustrations.....................................................................................................................221 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO HUEBLER’S EARLY WORK In Huebler’s terms, the text ‘collides’ or ‘dances’ with the image…What looks so familiar, becomes unfamiliar, as it is annoying. We crave familiarity and instead we are made dizzy…It is possible to navigate through Huebler’s multi- layered constructions. It’s just that his is not an easy art.1 —Mike Kelley, “Shall We Kill Daddy?” (1996) Thesis overview Despite his unsettling title “Shall We Kill Daddy?,” Mike Kelley, Huebler’s former student at California Institute of the Arts, fully recognized the reason that his beloved teacher’s work has been overlooked in the mainstream literature—it is not an easy art. It is intellectually playful and purposefully frustrating, requiring a careful navigation through multi-layered constructions of language with image. Douglas Huebler (1924-1997) was a primary figure among the first generation American conceptualists including Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry, and Joseph Kosuth, those whose group exhibitions in the late 1960s and early 1970s have become hallmarks in conceptual art, and yet scholarly examination of Huebler’s work has been uneven at best. This dissertation argues for Douglas Huebler’s singular place in the emergence of American conceptual art merited by an inventive linguistic approach to the image that generated a particular openness to his surrounding world and extended beyond the conventional tenets of conceptualism. 1 Mike Kelley, “Shall We Kill Daddy?” exhibition catalogue essay in Origin and Destination: Alighiero e Boetti and Douglas Huebler, eds. Marianne Van Leeuw and Anne Pontégnie, Spring 1997 (Brussels: Société des Exposition des Palais de Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 1997), 156. Also in C31 Magazine (December 1996 – January 1997), online http://strikingdistance.com/C31nov/kelley.html>. 2 This is the first monographic treatment of Huebler’s early career, examining three critical phases of his work and their relation to the art and linguistic currents of the time. Most art history surveys of the twentieth century give Huebler a cursory glance and a handful of exhibition catalogues have given him substantial consideration. This is why my mentor and thesis advisor Howard Singerman saw the need for further research. The scope of this thesis is limited to Huebler’s conceptual works from 1968-1975, including background information relevant to his production, and an analysis of selected works from this period that best represent my argument. This document is not a catalogue of his works during this period. I examine many of his better known works as well as some less recognized pieces which are exemplary of his approach to an examination of the relationship of image and language. My discussion involves a close reading of Huebler’s language in relation to his drawings, mapping, and photographic strategies. I consider Huebler’s work in relation to the ideas of relevant thinkers on such topics as analysis of a line, twentieth century theories on time and space, and linguistic and social theory. I situate his work in relation to other artists producing in a similar vein during the 1960s and 70s, demonstrating how and why his production is distinctly provocative for analysis. Toward the mid to late 1960s Huebler began to mark locations—on the ground, onto road maps, and in his photographs—as sites for documentation of spatial perception and awareness of one’s surroundings, accompanied by written instructions for the production of the experience. These instructions and the 3 corresponding photographic record of the procedure became his particular signature form of documentation well into the 1970s, revealing his thoughts on the conditions of appearance in both social and physical space. Huebler often preferred procedure by chance, that is, by unpredictable circumstances, presenting the results as snapshot photographs that were shuffled in sequence. He was careful to make the distinction that the photograph, in his work, is a supporting document to explicate the procedural idea as opposed to merely illustrating it. If one characteristic of critical thinking is the ability to think in terms of multiple reasons for an act, certainly Douglas Huebler’s thought process is critical— he thought in terms of variables. Life was a series of variables, waiting for different intervening effects, multiple ways of seeing the same thing. Huebler’s approach was an intense investigation of the three divisions of his interest— Location, Duration, and Variables. These categories were fluid sets within a system that allowed the viewer to go beyond direct visual perception. Thesis structure one might assume that the headings Location, Duration, and Variables would lend a logical arrangement for this dissertation however such an approach would be deceiving. Huebler shifted from one category to another according to whatever temporal or spatial conditions he sought to redefine, whether expanding lines on a map or exposing underlying meanings in language. The works in each of his categories are designated numerically but are often not in chronological sequence, while all three categories overlap topically to varying degrees. For instance, a piece 4 showing a readymade map of New York City streets, despite its obvious geographical focus, does not fall under Location but is instead entitled Site Sculpture Project: Variable Piece #1, New York, 1968, and involves random movement. Huebler purposely creates a complicated net to untangle. When thinking about my own structure for this dissertation, I decided that an arrangement by duration, location, and variables seemed more archival than investigative and might ignore the fact that these are intermingled issues, nuanced in ways that could more logically be considered by medium. For this reason, I have arranged Huebler’s work as drawings, mapping, and photographic strategies. Within these, I have given rigorous attention to certain works that, to my mind, are the most compellingly rich to set Douglas Huebler apart from his contemporaries. These are works that have not been
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Double Embodiments
    6 DOUBLE EMBODIMENTS Felix Gonza lez-To rres's Certifi cate s AKING A SHEET OF PAPER OR A WRAPPED candy from a stack or pile by Felix Gonzalez-Torres ranks among T the most iconic contemporary art experiences (fig. 81). Even when one is told that the artist wanted viewers to break the "no touch" rule defining museum and gallery spaces, part ici­ pation feels transgressive . At least one viewer described feeling crimina lly complicit, nervously "scanning the exhibition space for surveillance cameras ."1 Others take candies by the handfu l (teenage boys are particularly eager). Audiences familiar with the story behind "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) take candy reverently, as if paying their respects to a grave in reverse. When the paper stacks are low, viewers sometimes take a sheet only to return it later, as if unwilling to deny someone else the oppor­ tunity of engagement. Massed into neat stacks or herded into a comer, the paper stacks and candy spills recall the rigorous geom­ etry of Minimalist sculpture. The rigor promises us, as critic Jennifer Doyle writes of museum and gallery experiences, free­ dom from "the burdens of an emotional life."2 But as the piles 191 FIGURE 8 1 Foreground: Felix Gonzalez-Torres , "Untitled," 19 89/90 . Print on paper, endless copies . 26 inch es (at ideal height) x 29 x 23 inches (original paper size). Background: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled" (ForJ eff), 1992. Billboard , dimensions variable. Installation view: "Felix Gonzalez-Torres: This Place," Metropolitan Arts Centr e, Belfast, 2015-2016. © Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Sito STORIA2 RS INGLESE REVISED
    You may download and print this text by Roberta Serpolli, solely for personal use THE PANZA COLLECTION STORY “The Panza Collection is entirely a couple’s affair. When my wife Giovanna and I discover works by a new artist, I look at her and she looks at me. I can see in her eyes if she wants to buy or not. So even between my wife and me, ‘looking’ is an issue.” Giuseppe Panza, 20091 Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, along with his wife Giovanna, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost collectors of contemporary art. The collection, originally composed of around 2,500 works of art, is mainly representative of the most significant developments in American art from post- World War II to the 21st century. Along with a need to fulfill spiritual and inner quests, both intuition and reflection have inspired the collectors’ choice that would demonstrate, retrospectively, their far- sightedness. By devoting themselves to an in-depth focus on emerging artists and specific creative periods, the Panzas contributed to acknowledging the new art forms among both the general public and the art market. The Beginnings of the Collection: On the Road to America The collection ideally began in 1954 when Giuseppe, at the age of thirty years, traveled to South America and the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, where he discovered the continents’ captivating vitality of economy and culture. Upon his return to Milan, he felt the need to take part in the international cultural milieu. In 1955, shortly after his marriage with Giovanna Magnifico, Giuseppe purchased his first work of art by Italian abstract painter Atanasio Soldati.
    [Show full text]
  • Dlkj;Fdslk ;Lkfdj
    THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ACQUIRES MAJOR COLLECTION OF CONCEPTUAL ART FROM SETH SIEGELAUB AND THE STICHTING EGRESS FOUNDATION, AMSTERDAM New York, June 10, 2011—The Museum of Modern Art has acquired a major group of works from the collection of exhibition organizer, publisher, and dealer Seth Siegelaub, a key supporter of artists working in dematerialized art practices in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The collection includes 20 defining works of Conceptual art by Vito Acconci, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, On Kawara, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Smithson, and Lawrence Weiner, all of whom moved away from the traditional production of objects and chose instead to explore language, sound, time, movement, or mapping as their primary mediums. In addition, Seth Siegelaub and the Stichting Egress Foundation have donated to The Museum of Modern Art Archives Siegelaub’s own extensive archives, containing correspondence, photographs, notes, exhibition proposals, and many other significant documents that offer a tremendous resource to scholars of this period. As part of the acquisition, Siegelaub has given the Museum four major works: Robert Barry’s 90mc Carrier Wave (FM), 1968, which transmits inaudible radio waves throughout a given space; Douglas Huebler’s Duration Piece No. 6 (1969), a series of photographs documenting the gradual dissemination of a rectangle made of sawdust on the floor of Siegelaub’s ―January 5–31, 1969‖ exhibition; Joseph Kosuth’s Titled (Art as Idea as Idea). The Word “Definition,” (1966- 1968), an early Photostat enlargement of a dictionary entry for the word ―definition;‖ and Lawrence Weiner’s A 36” x 36” Removal to the Lathing or Support Wall of a Plaster or Wallboard from the Wall (1968), a work which, according to the artist’s statement, can be fabricated or can simply exist as language.
    [Show full text]
  • The Benefit of the Doubt: Regarding the Photographic Conditions of Conceptual Art, 1966-1973
    The Benefit of the Doubt: Regarding the Photographic Conditions of Conceptual Art, 1966-1973 by Heather A. Diack A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Art University of Toronto © Copyright by Heather A. Diack 2010 The Benefit of the Doubt: Regarding the Photographic Conditions of Conceptual Art, 1966-1973 Heather A. Diack Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Art University of Toronto 2010 Abstract This dissertation offers a reconsideration of the uses of photography under the aegis of Conceptual Art between 1966 and 1973 by analyzing the ways photography challenged epistemological limits, and, despite the claims regarding the medium’s inherent indexicality, emphasized experience over exactitude, and doubt in place of certainty. By focusing on four American practitioners, I argue for the “benefit of the doubt;” in other words, for the value of disbelief and hesitation, marking the reorientation of art at this time towards critical methods which oppose all orthodoxies, including but not limited to formalist dogmas, and instead are committed to the denial of autonomy in favor of understanding meaning as infinitely contingent. The dissertation is divided among four key case studies, including Mel Bochner (n. 1940), Bruce Nauman (n. 1941), Douglas Huebler (1924-1997), and John Baldessari (n. 1931). Each chapter argues for the unique contribution of photography in relation to conceptual art practices, while also situating the projects of these individual practitioners within the broader history of the medium of photography. I explore specifically the concepts of seriality, transparency and theory in Bochner; performance, “worklessness,” and failure in Nauman; portraiture, mapping and impossibility in Huebler; humor, didacticism, choice and chance in Baldessari.
    [Show full text]
  • And the Possibilities of Multi-Institution Linked Datasets
    and the Possibilities of Multi-institution Linked Datasets “There’s no reason…the Museum of Modern Art shouldn’t link its Jackson Pollock page to…pages of museums throughout the world.” — New York Times Jonathan Lill Lill The MoMAMoMA Archives Archives Jonathan Lill MoMA Archives 932. Recent Acquisitons VI 933. Graphics 1: New Dimensions 934. Information 935. Archipenko: The Parisian Years 936. Barnett Newman, 1905–1970 937. One-Eyed Dicks MoMA Exh. #934. 938. Osaka I 939. East 100th Street…. Information July 2–September 20, 1970 940. Work in Progress: Architecture Organized by: Kynaston McShine 941. Stories by Duane Michals Participants: 942. Picasso: Master Printmaker Vito Acconci Jorge Luis Carballa Christine Kozlov 943. Robert Irwin Carl Andre Christopher Cook John Latham Siah Armajani Roger Cutforth Sol LeWitt 944a. From Naturalism to Abstraction: Three Series Keith Arnatt Carlos d'Alessio Richard Long 944b. Salvation Army Reception Exhibition Richard Artschwager Hanne Darboven Marta Minujin 944c. Painters for the Theatre David Askevold Walter De Maria Robert Morris 945. E.J. Bellocq David Bainbridge Jan Dibbets Hélio Oiticica 946a. The Nude: Thirty 20th-Century Drawings John Baldessari Carlos Espartaco Dennis Oppenheim Michael Baldwin Mercedes Esteves Panamarenko 946b. Paperworks Barrio Campo Rico Gerald Ferguson George Passmore 947. Recent Acquisitions: Design Collection de Canovanas Rafael Ferrer Paul Pechter 948. Paul Burlin (1886–1969): The Last Paintings Robert Barry Hamish Fulton Giuseppe Penone 949. Berenice Abbott Frederick Barthelme Giorno Poetry Systems Adrian Piper Bernd Becher Dan Graham Michelangelo Pistoletto 950. Four Americans in Paris Hilla Becher Ines Gros Gilbert Proesch 951. Jasper Johns: Lithographs Mel Bochner Randy Hardy Alejandro Puente 952.
    [Show full text]
  • Lawrence Weiner
    STRAND 6: Lawrence Weiner Strands 2 Informati on and ideas to explore works from IMMA’s Collecti on Strand 6: Lawrence Weiner (...) WATER & SAND + STICKS & STONES (...) STRANDS Prepared by arti st Christi ne Mackey STRAND 6: Lawrence Weiner Introducti on Christi ne Mackey Strands is a series of informati on sheets devised in Christi ne Mackey is an arti st and independent response to works from IMMA’s Collecti on, where an researcher who employs diverse disciplines, subject arti st is invited to develop a range of responses to works matt er and tacti cs in devising works that can generate selected from an exhibiti on. The purpose of this series diff erent kinds of knowledge of place - their hidden is to provide informati on and ideas for anyone – adults, histories and ecological formati ons. Using diverse children, teachers, lecturers, students – to encourage graphic sources and quasi-scienti fi c methods, her OBSERVATION, DISCUSSION and MAKING. work explores the interacti ve potenti al of art as a research and pedagogical tool; its capacity for social Each Strand focuses on one artwork from IMMA’s and environmental change and as a way of organising collecti on and includes the following informati on: diverse knowledge systems for a ‘social’ model of practi ce coupled with diverse publics. - about the arti st: who they are htt p://christi nemackey.com - background to the arti st’s practi ce: how they make www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie their work, what kind of work they make - for discussion: some questi ons and observati ons about the arti st and the work which are intended to prompt further looking, discussion and making - key words: words used in the document which are One Foot in the Real World explained further Drawing on IMMA’s Collecti on, One Foot in the - acti viti :es a variety of suggesti ons for further acti viti es Real World, includes works that explore the urban and projects in response to the work environment, the everyday or the domesti c.
    [Show full text]
  • Nber Working Paper Series the Globalization of Advanced Art in The
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE GLOBALIZATION OF ADVANCED ART IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY David Galenson Working Paper 14005 http://www.nber.org/papers/w14005 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 May 2008 I thank Robert Jensen for discussions. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer- reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2008 by David Galenson. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. The Globalization of Advanced Art in the Twentieth Century David Galenson NBER Working Paper No. 14005 May 2008 JEL No. J00 ABSTRACT The twentieth century was a time of rapid globalization for advanced art. Artists from a larger number of countries made important contributions than in earlier periods, and they did so in a larger number of places. Many important innovations also diffused more rapidly, and more widely, than in earlier times. The dominance for much of the century of conceptual forms of art, from Cubism and Dada to Pop and Conceptual Art, was largely responsible for the greater speed with which innovations spread: conceptual techniques are communicated more readily, and are generally more versatile in their uses, than experimental methods. There is no longer a single dominant place in the art world, comparable to Paris for the first century of modern art, but it is unlikely that a large number of places will join New York and London as centers of artistic innovation in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Douglas Huebler and the Photographic Document
    Visual Resources an international journal on images and their uses ISSN: 0197-3762 (Print) 1477-2809 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gvir20 Douglas Huebler and the Photographic Document Christian Berger To cite this article: Christian Berger (2016) Douglas Huebler and the Photographic Document, Visual Resources, 32:3-4, 210-229, DOI: 10.1080/01973762.2016.1229318 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2016.1229318 Published online: 06 Nov 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 168 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=gvir20 Download by: [USC University of Southern California] Date: 20 August 2017, At: 11:20 Douglas Huebler and the Photographic Document Christian Berger This article discusses the concepts of document and documentation in Douglas Huebler’s (1924–1997) work of the late 1960s in order to assess the role of referentiality and subject matter within conceptualism more broadly. It examines the complex form and function of documents in his Location Pieces and establishes documentation as the zone of encounter between an artistic concept, proposal, or system, and the outside world. Focusing on the essential role of photographic images in his pieces affords new analysis of Huebler’s practice. Central to that practice was the tension between the photograph as an allegedly neutral document – an idea deeply rooted in the history of photographic discourse – and its critical as well as aesthetic potential. Keywords: Conceptualism; Documentation; Photography; Douglas Huebler (1924–1997) In his Location, Duration, and Variable Pieces, which Douglas Huebler (1924–1997) began making in the late 1960s, the artist combined short written statements with other materials, most often maps and photographs.
    [Show full text]
  • Giuseppe Panza Papers, 1956-1990
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf8n39n9g1 No online items Finding aid for the Giuseppe Panza papers, 1956-1990 Lynda Bunting. Finding aid for the Giuseppe 940004 1 Panza papers, 1956-1990 Descriptive Summary Title: Giuseppe Panza papers Date (inclusive): 1956-1990 Number: 940004 Creator/Collector: Panza, Giuseppe Physical Description: 117 Linear Feet(311 boxes, 58 rolls, 3 flat file folders) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles 90049-1688 [email protected] URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref (310) 440-7390 Abstract: Collection documents the Italian businessman's activities in collecting works by some of the seminal American artists involved with abstract expressionist, pop, minimal, conceptual, environmental, and light and space art. The archive contains material dating from 1956, when Panza began collecting. up to the sale of the second part of his collection to the Guggenheim Museum in 1990. Panza's art collection is documented by correspondence with artists and galleries, photographs, small drawings, invoices, loan requests, announcements, and invitations. The archive also includes a substantial quantity of Panza's writings on art; papers and ephemera related to Panza's associations with museums, galleries, and cultural institutions; clippings and photocopies of articles about the collection; and an extensive group of architectural drawings of potential sites for the collection, many with Panza's installation designs. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is in English and Italian. 1923 Born March 23rd in Milan.
    [Show full text]
  • ANNUAL REPORT 2014–2015 Board of Directors the BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY 2014–2015 Monica Angle Deborah Ronnen Susan O’Connor Baird Deborah Russell Charles W
    ANNUAL REPORT 2014–2015 Board of Directors THE BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY 2014–2015 Monica Angle Deborah Ronnen Susan O’Connor Baird Deborah Russell Charles W. Banta Christine Sabuda Elizabeth Bauman John R. Sanderson Robert J. Bojdak Catherine T. Wettlaufer Donald K. Boswell Elisabeth Roche Wilmers Robert T. Brady John R. Yurtchuk Helen Cappuccino, M.D. Leslie H. Zemsky Louis P. Ciminelli James W. Derrick EX-OFFICIO Pamela Dinsmore Catherine B. Foley City of Buffalo Mayor Sally Gioia Commissioner of Public Works, Roscoe C. Henderson III Parks & Streets L. N. Hopkins, M.D. Comptroller Peter F. Hunt Thomas R. Hyde County of Erie Alice F. Jacobs County Executive Roberta Joseph County Comptroller Northrup R. Knox, Jr. Chairman, Finance & Seymour H. Knox IV Management Committee Victoria Beck Newman Alphonso O’Neil-White AK Members’ Frederick G. Pierce II Volunteer Council Nancy B. Stevens, Chair François Rochon MISSION The mission of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of contemporary and modern art, principally by developing, exhibiting, and preserving its world- renowned Collection. VISION The Albright-Knox Art Gallery aspires to play a leading role on (American, 1848–1907). Eight Caryatid Augustus Saint-Gaudens regional, national, and international stages through exceptional Figures, 1906–07. Marble, each 102 inches (259.1 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery. James G. Forsyth Funds, Albright Art exhibitions, publications, programs, and collaborations. As a Gallery and the City of Buffalo, 1933. Photograph by Tom Loonan. hub of artistic and cultural energies, it strives to be an inspiring educational resource for all audiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Athena Tacha: an Artist's Library on Environmental Sculpture and Conceptual
    ATHENA TACHA: An Artist’s Library on Environmental Sculpture and Conceptual Art 916 titles in over 975 volumes ATHENA TACHA: An Artist’s Library on Environmental Sculpture and Conceptual Art The Library of Athena Tacha very much reflects the work and life of the artist best known for her work in the fields of environmental public sculpture and conceptual art, as well as photography, film, and artists’ books. Her library contains important publications, artists’ books, multiples, posters and documentation on environmental and land art, sculpture, as well as the important and emerging art movements of the sixties and seventies: conceptual art, minimalism, performance art, installation art, and mail art. From 1973 to 2000, she was a professor and curator at Oberlin College and its Art Museum, and many of the original publications and posters and exhibition announcements were mailed to her there, addressed to her in care of the museum (and sometimes to her colleague, the seminal curator Ellen Johnson, or her husband Richard Spear, the historian of Italian Renaissance art). One of the first artists to develop environmental site-specific sculpture in the early 1970s. her library includes the Berlin Land Art exhibition of 1969, a unique early “Seed Distribution Project” by the land and environmental artist Alan Sonfist, and a manuscript by Patricia Johanson. The library includes important and seminal exhibition catalogues from important galleries such as Martha Jackson’s “New Forms-New Media 1” from 1960. Canadian conceptual art is represented by N.E Thing, including the exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Projects Class cards, both in 1969.
    [Show full text]
  • Words to Be Looked At: Language in 1960S
    6 Text and Image:Rereading Conceptual Art In 1969, the artist Douglas Huebler famously asserted,“I use the camera as a ‘dumb’ copying device that only serves to document whatever phenomena appears before it through the conditions set by a system.No ‘aesthetic’choices are possible.”1 Likewise,Ed Ruscha,discussing the images in his 1960s’photo books, disclaimed any relation to art photography, insisting that “they are technical data like industrial photography . .nothing more than snapshots.”2 Such statements are not atypical. The view of photography they ad- vance,as a seemingly neutral means of recording information,underlies much art of the 1960s and 1970s.This turn to photography was part of an over- arching tendency to use mechanical recording and reproduction technol- ogies—tape recorders,video, Xerox machines,and so on—to make art.Such technologies promised a machinelike impersonality and distance from con- ventional modes of self-expression.This adoption of indexical models in turn greatly impacted the use and function of language in this art. For as we will see, in the shift to media- and information-based paradigms, words often moved from instruction, description, and record to a more conventional, if also ambivalent, status as caption.Yet alongside this more familiar text-image relation, a different logic emerged in which language became subject to the form of the archive or catalogue. Viewed from the present-day art world, where monumentally scaled color photographs seem poised to displace painting as the most visually spectacular and commercially successful artistic medium,it is hard to imagine the radical promise and threat that photography seemed to hold in the 1960s.
    [Show full text]