By Lawrence Alloway
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Contemporary American t Art Critics, No.1 rt and the Complex resent Donald Kuspit, Series Editor Professor of Art History State University of New York at Stony Brook by Ocher Ti des in T his Series Lawrence Alloway N o. 2 Th e Critic is A rtist: The Intentionality of Art Donald Ku spir N o. 3 Historical Present: Essays of the 1970s Joseph Masheck No. 4 bye to bye: Twenty Years of Art Criticism R obert P incus-Wiccen • UMI RES~~}!~~~ These articles [th ere are no reviews] written For Sylvia 197 1. 1983 , have not been re-written. The histor ical, evidential nature of art criticism is slurred if pieces tha t were occasional in origin are revised for consistency or according to second thoughts. Copyright © 1984 Lawrence Alloway All rights reserved Produ ced and distribut ed by UMI Research Press an imprint of University Microfilm s Intern ational Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Libr ary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Dat a Alloway, Lawrence, 1926 Network : art and the complex present. (Conte mporary American ar t crit ics; no. I) Includes index . 1. Art and socie ty . 2. Art -Psychology. 3. Art Marketing. 4. Art critics-Influence . I. Title . II. Series. N72.S6A39 1984 70 1 83-24 201 ISBN 0-8357 -1519-1 , 1 Network: The Art WorId Described as a System The Firsr exhibition of a newly made work of arc is in rhe studio. This first audience of the artis t's friend s views the art in rhe work place in whi ch it was created, in the artist's presence and associated with the rest of his life. The satisfactions of thi s contac t are obvious, both to the privileged group and co the artist in couch with his peers. The second exh ibition of a work, as a rule, is in an art galle ry where it is seen by a larger bur still specialized publi c. (T he aver age attendance at an ar t gallery dur ing a show is rarely more th an a thousand people.) From the ga llery the work may be purchased by a collecror, travel to ot her galle ries or museums, or be acquired by a museum. Each change of m ilieu will encourage different expecta tions and readings by a chan gin g audience. A fourrh context is Iirer ary, the catalogues and magazines in whi ch the work of art is no longer substant ially present as an object, bur is the subject of info rma tion. By thi s point in a work of art's distributi on a descrip tion in stages is no long er sufficient; it has acquired a record , not simply in terms of places shown and changing hand s, but an aura of estheti c interpret ati ons as well. It belongs in the context of the art world, with its special oppo rrunities for comparison and medication , for analysis and ple asure. The densiry th at a work accrues as it is circulated means th at it acquires mea nings not exp ected by the art ist and quire unlike those of rhe wor k's initial showing in the studio. Although wide distribution is the modern equi valent for the classical fam e, there is an inbuilr alienating factor. Wide distribution can sepa rate the wor k from the man who produ ced it as the variables of other people's readings pile up and characte rize the object. The alienation by distribution effeer is not to be avoided except by withdrawa l from rhe art world, for art is now parr of a communications ne twork of great efficiency. As its capacity has increased a progressive role-blurring has taken place. Before World War II, for examp le, museum s worked at a fixed dist ance from rhe art the y exhibited, which was either of some age or could be regarded as the late st form of a tradition of acknowledged historicity. Most American museum s have abolished the time lag that previously regulated the ir 4 N etwork: T he A rt W orld Described as a System Network: The Art W orld Described as a System 5 p olicies and now p resent no t only ne w work bur new artists. T ho ug h on a his torical, and infor ma tive writing ; ga lleries, mu seums, and private collections. different scale a nd wit h diffe re nt m otives, such activity connects intimat ely with It is a sum of persons, objects, resou rces, messages, and ideas . It includes p rivate ga lleries, whose profits can be affected by mu seum sh ows of th eir art ists. monuments and pa rt ies, esthetics and openi ngs, A valanche and Art in America. I The Al an So lomo n-Leo Caste lli collabo ra tion at th e] ew ish Mu seum in th e ea rly want to describe it as a system and consider wha t effects it has on art or on our six ties, rhe R auschen berg and Johns retrospectives, at the age s of 38 and 34 unders ta nding of art . Let me sta te at once th at system does not mean merely respectively, is a remarkable example of the converge nce of intellectual inter est "es tab lishme n t"; as Tomas M aldonado has pointed our," system is ofte n used as a and high p rofits. Art h istor ian s p repare catalogues raisonnes of living artists, so synon ym for reg ime, which vulga rizes an exceedingl y useful ter m. th at organ ization of da ta is m ore or less level with th eir occu rre nce. Cr itics se rve R ecognition of recent art, th e ar t of the '60s, induces a se nse of p roduce as gue st curators and curators write art criticism. The rerrospectives of de proliferati on. An exam p le fro m industry is th e big airplane, the DC -lO , bei ng Koon ing and Newman at th e Mu seum of Mod ern Art were both arranged by th e followed by th e short-ha ul DC-9 in rwo differ ent vers ions. Artists use their own ed ito r of Art News, T homas B. H ess.(A crossover in the o ppos ite direction was work and each othe r's in this way, rapidly and system at ically foll owing up new made byJ ohn Coplan s, former curator of th e Pasadena Ar t Museum and later th e ideas. In add ition, th e wri tten criticism of th e period has supp lied visual art w ith ed ito r of A rtforum. ) W illiam Rubin, a curator at th e Modern, wrote a ins ta nt com mentary. Ther e has been the refore a co nsiderable increase in the monograph on F rank Ste lla; he is also a collecto r and lent a N ewman to the numbe r of shore-term orde rly p ro ject ion s and th eir improvised inter pret at ion. re trospective. In ten years I have been a curator, a teacher, and an art cri tic, The effeer is, co qu ote H enri Lefebvr e, of an "enormous arnounr of signifiers usuall y tWO at a time. The roles ava ilable within th e syste m, the refo re, do not libera ted or insufficiently attached to th eir corresponding sig n ifieds."\ In cons tr ict mobility; the p articipants can move fun ctionall y wi thi n a coo pe ra tive reaction to thi s th ere h as bee n a widesp read discontent wi th the existing sys tem system. Collecto rs back ga lle ries and influence mu seums by serving as tru st ees or of informatio n-han dl ing in the arts. The problem of an art for th e educated has by m aking don ati ons; or a collector may act as a s hop window for a ga llery by taken on acute significance w ith th e eme rge nce of an aliena ted aud ience, fo r accep ting a p ackage collec tion from one de aler or one advisor. All of us are looped inst ance, th e yout h m arket and th e black comm uni ty. R eassessment by th e ar tis ts together in a new and u nsettling connectivity. I of th eir role in society p arallels their audience 's doubt about art's cen tra lity. The Henry Ge ldza hle r typ ifies th e inter connect ions of ro les in the system very m ark et or excha nge value of art has been discussed since 1960, not as a source of well. He was-with dea lers Ri ch ard Bell amy and Ivan K arp, then at the G ree n presti ge but as the caine of corr uption. Are is a commo di ty in a pare of th e system Ga llery and Leo Cast ell i res pec tively- ea rly in recognizin g emerge nt trends of but not in all of it, and at th is point I am mote int erested in di ffere ntiation th an th e '60s, and he ap peared in two of Oldenburg's happenings. As a cu rato r at th e redu ct ion.