One and Five Ideas One and Five Ideas on Conceptual Art and Conceptualism
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One and Five Ideas One and Five Ideas On Conceptual Art and Conceptualism TERRY SMITH EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT BAILEY DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham and London 2017 © Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞ Interior design by Barbara Wiedemann Typeset in Chaparral Pro by Copperline Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Smith, Terry (Terry E.), author. | Bailey, Robert, [date] editor. Title: One and ve ideas : on Conceptual Art and conceptualism / Terry Smith ; edited and with an introduction by Robert Bailey. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, . | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiers: (hardcover : alk. paper) (pbk. : alk. paper) (e- book) Subjects: : Conceptual art. | Conceptualism. | Conceptual art — Australia. | Conceptual art — New Zealand. Classication: . | — dc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ Cover art: Joseph Kosuth, Clock (One and Five), . Clock and four works on paper, photograph, and printed paper. Tate Modern, London. Acquisition transferred from the Irish Museum of Modern Art © Tate, London . To Joseph Contents ix xiii Introduction: A Theory of Conceptualism Robert Bailey 1 Art and Art and Language The Tasks of Translation: Art & Language in Australia and New Zealand – A Conversation about Conceptual Art, Subjectivity, and the Post- Partum Document Peripheries in Motion: Conceptualism and Conceptual Art in Australia and New Zealand One and Three Ideas: Conceptualism Before, During, and After Conceptual Art Illustrations FIGURES Art & Language, Comparative Models, , installation view Art & Language, Art & Language, , discussion (Terry Smith and Lucy Lippard) Exhibition view, Mary Kelly. Post- Partum Document. The Complete Work ( – ), Generali Foundation, Vienna, Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, s – s, catalog cover, Ilya Kabakov, I Tell Him ‘If You Want to Live with Me, Behave Yourself . .’, Art & Language, Art- Language , no. (May ), cover Art & Language, Index , , installation x Illustrations Art & Language, Index , , poster Mel Ramsden, Six Negatives, Joseph Kosuth, The Second Investigation, Art & Language, Handbook (Blurting in A&L), cover Art & Language, Art & Language, National Art School, Melbourne, , discussion (Terry Smith and Patrick McCaughey) Art & Language, Art & Language, National Art School, Melbourne, , reading space Art & Language, Art & Language, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, , installation (Comrade Hardliner banner) Art & Language (P), Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, , reading space Art & Language (P), Media Massacre, Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, (detail) Art & Language (P), The Story of Cur, Piggy and The Prefect, Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, (detail) Art & Language (P), Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, , poster (censored) Art & Language (P), Daily Ideology, Art & Language (P), Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, , discussion, August , Kay Fido, Margaret Harrison, and Mary Kelly, Women and Work, a Document on the Division of Labor in Industry, – , installation view Kay Fido, Margaret Harrison, and Mary Kelly, Women and Work, a Document on the Division of Labor in Industry, – Mary Kelly, Post- Partum Document. Analysed Markings and Diary Perspective Schema (Experimentum Mentis III: Weaning from the Dyad), Exhibition view, Mary Kelly. Post- Partum Document. The Complete Work ( – ), Generali Foundation, Vienna, Illustrations xi Mary Kelly, Post- Partum Document, – , Documentation VI: Pre- Writing Alphabet, Exergue and Diary / Experimentum Mentis VI: (On the Insistence of the Letter), – (detail) Billy Apple, Bleaching with Lady Clairol Instant Crème Whip, November Ian Burn, No object implies the existence of any other, Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden, Soft- Tape, Mike Parr, Wall Denition, Jim Allen, New Zealand Environment No. , Peter Kennedy, But the Fierce Blackman, Philip Dadson, Earthworks — Timezone Map of the World, Joseph Kosuth, Art as Idea as Idea (Material), Robert Rauschenberg, Pilgrim, Greg Curnoe, Row of Words on My Mind , Robert Morris, Card File, July – December , Art & Language (Mel Ramsden), Secret Painting, – Daniel [“Dan”] Graham, March , , Luis Camnitzer, He practiced every day, plate from Uruguayan Torture Series, – Luis Camnitzer, The sense of order was seeping away, plate from Uruguayan Torture Series, – Felix Gonzalez- Torres, “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers), Joseph Kosuth, Clock (One and Five), xii Illustrations PLATES (following page ) Terry Smith, ed., Art & Language: Australia , cover Art & Language, Art & Language, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, , discussion (Terry Smith and Noel Sheridan) Art & Language (P), Art & Language, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, , poster Mary Kelly, The Post- Partum Document, – , Documentation II: Analysed Utterances and Related Speech Events, (detail) Mike Parr and Peter Kennedy, Idea Demonstrations, Gordon Bennett, Untitled (dismay, displace, disperse, dispirit, display, dismiss), Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, Ilya Kabakov, Answers of the Experimental Group, – Acknowledgments While it is impossible to acknowledge all of the people across ve de- cades who helped shape these essays at their times of writing, the au- thor would like to specically acknowledge his gratitude to Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden, Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, and Joseph Kosuth and to the other members of Art & Language with whom he worked in New York, as well as John Coplans, Max Kozlo, and Lawrence Al- loway at Artforum; John Maynard, Ian Wedde, and Gregory Burke in New Zealand; Mary Kelly, Alexander Alberro, and Blake Stimson; Luis Camnitzer, Jane Farver, and Rachel Weiss in connection with the Global Conceptualism exhibition; and Barbara Fisher, Boris Groys, Sarah Wil- son, and Anton Vidokle in connection with the genesis of chapter . Most of all, he would like to thank this book’s editor, for the idea, his work on it, especially the introduction, and for the title. Both author and editor would like to thank those who have proven essential in the book’s coming to be. Joseph Kosuth, Mel Ramsden, Michael Baldwin, Avril Burn, Mary Kelly, and Ray Barrie provided per- mission to reproduce images. Mary Kelly gave permission to reproduce “A Conversation about Conceptual Art, Subjectivity and the Post- Partum xiv Acknowledgments Document,” the transcript of a conversation between herself and Terry Smith that took place in Chicago on March , . Nadav Hochman provided invaluable assistance with images and permissions, and Ben Ogrodnik provided useful assistance with research. At Duke University Press, Ken Wissoker welcomed the project with great warmth, the out- side readers provided crucial critical insight, and Jade Brooks expertly shepherded the book throughout the production process. All of the texts are reprinted as originally published with only minor modications, most of which involve the standardization of citations. Original publication information is as follows: Terry Smith, “Art and Art and Language,” Artforum , no. (February ): – . Terry Smith, “The Tasks of Translation: Art & Language in Australia and New Zealand – ,” in Ian Wedde and Greg- ory Burke, eds., Now See Hear! Art, Language and Translation (Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press, ), – . Terry Smith with Mary Kelly, “A Conversation about Con- ceptual Art, Subjectivity and the Post- Partum Document,” in Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson, eds., Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology (Cambridge, MA: Press, ), – . Terry Smith, “Peripheries in Motion: Conceptualism and Con- ceptual Art in Australia and New Zealand,” in Luis Camnitzer, Jane Farver, and Rachel Weiss, eds., Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, s – s (New York: Queens Museum of Art, ), – . Terry Smith, “One and Three Ideas: Conceptualism Before, During, and After Conceptual Art,” e-ux journal (Novem- ber ), http://www.e- ux.com/journal/view/; sub- sequently reprinted in Boris Groys, ed., Moscow Symposium: Conceptualism Revisited (Berlin: Sternberg, ), – . We thank the many other people and institutions who gave permis- sion to reproduce or reprint images and texts: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Generali Foundation, Vienna; Queens Museum Archives, Brooklyn, New York; Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers Uni- versity; Artists Rights Society (), New York; the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland; the Acknowledgments xv Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, Tongarewa; Art Resource, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London; Mike Parr; Peter Kennedy; Billy Apple; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney; Jim Allen; Govett- Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand; Philip Dad- son; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; Leanne Bennett; Woody Ostrow; Rights, New York; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; Canadian Art Database; Society for Reproduction Rights of Au- thors, Composers and Publishers in Canada ( ), Montreal; the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Alexander Gray Associates, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate, London. Introduction A Theory of Conceptualism ROBERT BAILEY This book brings together Terry Smith’s ve most important texts about Conceptual Art as