Artist Writings: Critical Essays, Reception, and Conditions of Production Since the 60S
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Artist Writings: Critical Essays, Reception, and Conditions of Production since the 60s by Leanne Katherine Carroll A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy—History of Art Department of Art University of Toronto © Copyright by Leanne Katherine Carroll 2013 Artist Writings: Critical Essays, Reception, and Conditions of Production since the 60s Leanne Carroll Doctor of Philosophy—History of Art Department of Art University of Toronto 2013 Abstract This dissertation uncovers the history of what is today generally accepted in the art world, that artists are also artist-writers. I analyse a shift from writing by artists as an ostensible aberration to artist writing as practice. My structuring methodology is assessing artist writings and their conditions and reception in their moment of production and in their singularity. In Part 1, I argue that, while the Abstract-Expressionist artist-writers were negatively received, a number of AbEx- inflected conditions influenced and made manifest the valuing of artist writings. I demonstrate that Donald Judd conceived of writing as stemming from the same methods and responsibilities of the artist—following the guiding principle that art comes from art, from taking into account developments of the recent past—and as an essayistic means to argumentatively air his extra-art concerns; that writing for Dan Graham was an art world right of entry; and that Robert Smithson treated words as primary substances in a way that complicates meaning in his articles and in his objects and earthworks, in the process introducing a modernist truth to materials that gave the writing cachet while also serving as the basis for its domestication. In chronicling the reception of these artists’ written production at the time of its writing, I conclude that writing that could be related to artists’ visual practices is what resonated in the late 60s. In Part 2, I explore Frank Bowling’s public deliberation on the relationship of black experience to modernist painting in ii Arts Magazine; Art & Language’s supposition that an editorial might count as art—arguing that it always already came up for the count as secondary-primary artist writing; female artist-writers’ disclosure of their art and writing in new feminist-founded magazines; and critics’ recognition of artist writings as a critical space. I conclude by proposing that the profusion of and demand for artist writings were constituted by the poststructuralist death of the author along with a persistent meaning-limiting author-function. This study confirms that critical engagement with writing by artists is a challenge: to viewers/readers, to art writers, and to artist-writers during the nascent era of artist writing. iii Acknowledgements I have profited from the support of various individuals and institutions while producing this dissertation. I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor Mark Cheetham for his guidance since 2007. His responses to my email queries were remarkably prompt, considered, and helpful. He directed me to artist-writers and passages on artist writings he came across without restricting the shape the project might take. He read my work with care, providing useful and encouraging feedback. Without this commitment—his availability, expertise, and encouragement—the interesting opportunities I have had over the past few years would not have been possible. My committee members’ feedback has also been invaluable. I am grateful to Elizabeth Legge for incisive questions, such as “is writing about art necessarily more critical than making it?” I am grateful to John Paul Ricco for sharing methodological and theoretical insights, reading suggestions, and his assessment of the “expanded field.” Also, I wholeheartedly thank David Carrier for his profitably critical and thoroughly supportive external appraisal. The issues these aforementioned examiners and Barbara Fischer raised at the oral defense made for challenging, stimulating, and valuable discussions for which I am deeply appreciative. Commentators outside of the doctoral program have also provided input from which I have benefited. It was a great honour to present my preliminary work on the Abstract Expressionist artists who wrote at the Museum of Modern Art, New York’s New Perspectives on Abstract Expressionism: A Young Scholar’s Panel in 2011. I am thankful for the feedback of respondents David Anfam, Michael Leja, Katy Siegel, and Ann Temkin. Helena de Preester offered useful suggestions in her review of a book chapter based on segments of Part 1, which she has accepted for her collection Not a day without a line: Understanding Artists’ Writings. This dissertation would not have come to fruition when it did nor likely in the way that it did without the financial freedom afforded by the generous support of the following: the Social iv Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program in the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities; Massey College; and the Faculty of Arts & Science, School of Graduate Studies, and Department of Art at the University of Toronto. I also acknowledge and express my appreciation for the staff at Robarts Library in the Interlibrary Loans office, the Fisher Rare Book Library, the Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., especially Marisa Bourgoin. For permission to quote from her and Robert Smithson’s papers at the latter institution, I am grateful to Nancy Holt. Graduate students from the Department of Art and Fellows from Massey College to whom I owe much for their advice, inspiration, and fellowship include Miriam Aronowicz, Peter Buchanan, Jacqueline Ford, Adi Louria-Hayon, Christopher MacDonald, Jann Marson, John McQuillen, Alma Mikulinsky, Spencer Morrison, Sara Osenton, David Reibetanz, Sarah Richardson, Devon Smither, Sarah Stanners, Caitlin Tom, Tianna Uchacz, and Adam Welch, with very special thanks for their camaraderie and in a number of cases musicianship to Claire Battershill, Sarah Copland, Elizabeth Harper-Clark, Ankita Jauhari, Ester Macedo, Jennifer McDermott, Cara McKibbin, Cillian O’Hogan, Natalie Papoutsis, and Sophie Roberts. For the countless ways in which they have supported my work, I am grateful to my parents, Karen and Alan, my sister Charlene, and my brother Shaun. Finally, for daily confabs and multifarious contributions to my wellbeing, I thank my best friend Harry Wilkinson, to whom I dedicate this thesis. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: Writing about Artist Writing..................................................................................... 1 Part 1: 1965-1968............................................................................................................................ 8 1 From AbEx Hostility to 60s Canonicity ........................................................................... 10 2 Donald Judd’s Gallery Conclusions.................................................................................. 39 3 Dan Graham’s Minimal Suburbia..................................................................................... 54 4 Robert Smithson’s Writing in the Vicinity of Art ............................................................ 60 5 From a “Johnny-Come-Lately” to a “Critic-Sculptor” and an “Artist and Writer”.......... 77 Part 2: 1969-1979.......................................................................................................................... 91 1 Frank Bowling’s Modernism ............................................................................................ 93 2 To Come Up for the Count ............................................................................................. 105 3 Feminist Disclosure........................................................................................................ 142 4 “Artists as Writers”......................................................................................................... 160 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 175 Works Cited................................................................................................................................. 181 Works Consulted ......................................................................................................................... 205 vi 1 Introduction: Writing about Artist Writing Toward the end of the twentieth century and today, artists are recognized for their writing. The 2012 College Art Association Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work was awarded to Adrian Piper in recognition of her art as well as her writing: she “has produced art and writing that makes us question our constantly shifting contemporary social landscape.” The Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art was given to artist Allan Sekula: he “has devoted his life as an artist to writing, photography, installation, and film. While his multidisciplinary approach to problems of representation and politics has earned him accolades as an artist, his writings have helped students, scholars, and the public