By Lawrence Alloway

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.

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. Metropolitan Mu seum he has retained his kn ack for pu blicity even th ough his big The arc wo rld can be viewed as "a shifting m ult iple go al coalition." 6 It is, to exhibitio n, "N ew Yor k Pai nring and Sculptur e 1940- 1970," was essent ially a continue regard ing it as an orga niza tion, "a 'negotia ted enviro nment.' That is, reca p itu latio n of his com mi tme nts of the earl y '60s ra ther th an a view from the lon g contracts with suppliers and cus tome rs, ad herence to industry-wide pricing, later '60s, wh en the show was execut ed. His capaci ty to exp and th e traditionally conventions , and supp ore of stable 'good business' practi ce."?T he co ntracts are narrow ro le of curator has been admi r ing ly recorded by Calvin T omkins": the usu ally less formal in art and good business practi ce is prerey vag ue, but th e keeper of the flame doub les as medi a he ro. pa rallel is there. D ecisions in art ga lleries, museums, m agazines , and publishing In 1910 Apol lin aire described atte ndance at th e o pe ning of th e annual hou ses are m ade close co th e wo rk ing base of each e n te rpr ise, as in exhibition of the Socie te de s Artistes Fr an cais: "love ly ladies, h andsome decenttal izat io n. T hus we have a net work, not an hier ar chic structu re. As H.]. ge ntleme n, acade m icians, ge ne rals, p ainters, models, bou rgeois, men of le tte rs, Leavitt po ints out, apropos of individu als in a network: "It is eno ug h, in some and blue stockings." This was w ritt en for a newsp ap er so th e 19th-century cases, if they are each tou ched by so me pare of a net work of com mun ication which typology is jou rnalistica lly ap t but the assumption of a recognizable a rt world is also rouches each of th e othe rs at some poin r.?" Such a p attern of parc ial clear. Painters and models were solid ly legi ble in th eir roles and their support informati on fits th e complex m ovement of me ssages and influences in the art sys te m was equa lly clear-ge nerals, young coup les, w riters. The art wo rld now is world. R aymond D. Catcall has referred ro " the principle of 'simple str ucture,' neither as clea r nor as sim p le as it see med rhen, N ot only has the group of artis rs which ass umes th at in an experime nt involving a broad and a we ll-sa mp led set of expanded in number but art is distributed ro a larger aud ience in ne w ways, by va riables, it is im probab le th at any sing le inf lue nce will effect all of them. In improved m arketing techniques and by rhe m ass med ia. What doe s the vag ue Othe r wo rds it is more ' simp le' to expect th at any one va ria ble will be accou nted term art world cover? It includes original wo rks of art and reprodu ctions; critical, for by less th an th e fu ll complexity o f all the factors adde d together."? T h is 6 Network: T he A rt W orld Described as a System Network: The A rt W orld Described as a System 7

shou ld be borne in m ind fo r it is absolutely against my inre ntion to reduce the art so me of th em, consi derable control of rhe ir wo rk, and tax problems repl ace worl d to any sing le influen ce by describin g it as an o rga nization. On rhe contrary , money wo rries. O ne aspect of th e enhan ced soc ial starus o f arrisrs h as been an it is o nly in rhi s way rha t its comp lexity can be kept clea t. in creased artenrion ro rhe ir wo rds. The typical ve rb al form of rhe Abs trac t "T he organization as a sys tem has an ou tput, a product, or an ourcome, bur Ex p ressio n is t ge ne ra tio n was the srare rne n r, essen tially a fir sr-pe rson th is is not necessar ily identical with th e individu al purp oses of group mem bers," expression purti ng succinctly fundamental ideas abo ut art. It is sum ma rizi ng and observe D . K atz and R .L. K ahn. '? W har is the output of rhe arrworld viewed as a authentic in th at it o rigina tes fr om th e sa m e SO urce as the art to which it rela tes. system? It is nor art because th at exis rs prior ro distribution and wi thou t the In the '60s th e srarernenr was sup p lem ent ed, maybe supplanted, by th e int erv iew technology of informat ion . T he output is rhe distribu tion of art, both liter ally and whic h p reserves th e virtue o f th e first person, bur o n a more conv ersational in rnediared form as text and reproduction. T he ind ividua l reason s for ievel.'! dist tibur ion vary: wit h dealers it can be ass umed ro be rhe p rofit motive and with O n the ot he r hand, sta tem ents and interviews bo th ge t ove rused, precisel y teachers ir can be ass umed ro be th e m or ive ro educa te, with th e profit motive ar because of their impeccable origins . So urces becom e cliches, as ha s happen ed to one remove. Att ga lle ries, museums, un iversities, publish ers are all p arts of th e Poll ock's, "W hen I am in m y p ainting, I'm nor aware of wh at I'm do ing" and kn owledge indus tty, produ cing sig nifiers whose signifieds are works of art, W arhol' s mach ine analogy .14 Since artists are fai rly accessible and their p res tige art ists, styles , pe riods. high, critics frequently m ake a new interv iew in the p rep ar at ion of a catalog or F.E. Emery and E.L. Trisr have disc ussed systems in rel ati on to the va rio us boo k rather th an search th e existing ones for complexities of intention, for ms of environm ent th at th ey occupy. T he art wo rld would seem to be more unnoticed details, and cha nges of op in ion. The fai lure to inrerpret has left us wirh animated th an a "p lacid clusrered environme nt" but less momen rous rhan a a bac klog of unev alu at ed inrerv iews.P T h is documentatio n co ns ri tu res "ru rbulenr field." Between rh ese rwo falls th e "disturbed -reactive envi ro n ment." authe n ticity wirhour con rexr, Con tacr wirh the art is t can p roduc e information of an accuracy impossible to ach ieve in ano rher way, bur it can also inhibit writers This ter m refers to a situation in which there is more tha n one orga nization of th e same kind ; fro m taking th e discussion in direc tions th at th e a rt ists res ist o r have not tho ught indeed, the existence of a number of similar o rga nizations no w becomes the domina nt of. Ifth e cr it ic's interp re tations are bou nd by th e intention s of the arrisr, there is a ch aracrertseic of rhe enviro nme ntal field . Each org an ization does nor simply ha ve to take corr espond ing negl ect of comparative and h ist orical in fo rmation. The authority aCCOUnt of the o thers when the y mee t or random , bur has also to consider th at whar it knows can also be known by rhe ochers. The pa rt of rhe en vironment to which ir wishes to move irself in of the interview h as th e effect of freez ing criti cal discuss ion of artists at earl y rhe lo ng ru n is also the pare to wh ich rhe o thers seek ro move.'! points in rheir development, wh ich is usually th e time of th e g rea tes t verbalization. Mar cel D ucha mp has p roposed that th e funcrion of the audie nce is Certainly th e art wo rld meets Emery and Trisr's req uirement of "the to dete rmine th e meaning of the work when ir is OUt of th e artist's han ds by p resence of sim ila r o the rs" in a dis turbed react ive env iro nment. vari able acts of "dec iphering and interpreting." 16 This is nor a frivolous idea, but T he principle of conflict of inter est is fully applicable to the sirua rion in th e o ne th at is confi rm ed by th e hi story of taste and by the record o f art is ts' arr wo rld. The re is, for example, th e compe titio n among art ists to do a cer tai n reputations. The statement and the interview are both aimed ro Cor rec t this kind of work th at is porenrial in th e level of knowledge th a t a group of th em Slip page of art isr ir intention by fixing m eaning once and for all. sha res. It ap p lies also to th e rel ation ship s amo ng cr itics: these are rarely Artists and th e ir wo r ks have cha nged less th an the sys tem by whic h rh eir art antagonistic, but it is noriceabl e char critics have not as a rul e reviewed one is di stributed. T he condi tions of cons umption, in whic h o ne is faced with th e another's books , th ough in rhe p asr few yea ts K oz loff, Calas , Lippard, and Kir by ab undance of wo rld art, h ave changed rnore th an th e cond itio ns of p rodu ction. have all p ublishe d collec tions of their essays. T he conflict of in terest amo ng A rt is still opera tiona lly wha t it beca me in th e R en aissan ce, a siruarion of o ne mu seums is marked because ropicaiiry favo rs ce rtain shows at cerrai n times and man CO ntrol over an object that provides a full record of p roces s' at each stage of th e in s titutions know it and know each o the r kn ows. T hus th ere is cons ide rable the wo rk and thus permits th e full est feedback from the artist. T he ava ilab iliry of com pe titio n fo r a lim ited nu mber of des irable p roperries.t- the who le fo r ins pectio n along the way com bined with the crucial fact of sole The essential figure in th e sys tem is of course th e arrisr. His is rhe p rodu ce autho rity are basic sa tisfac rions and conven iences ofpainting , drawing, and some on which the system depends. In addition to his in iriaring acr of p roduction t he forms of scu lp ture. In this respe ct R embrandt is not operarionally differe nt fro m artist has a privileged social ro le. The prestige of th e position was ea rned by the Lichtensrein: pe rsonal decis ion and direct CO ntrol are fundamental to rhern both. Ab srracr Exp ressionists origina lly, by the exist ent ial and seerlike a ttitudes wirh In connectio n with ea rly Pop art th e te rm "fine art-pop arc conri nu um" 17 which they confronted a soc ie ty not rh en ready for th ei r arr. It has continued in Was used to descri be th e inrerconneerions of culrura l leve ls, "low" and "high ," .1 th e '60s, but on a cha nged basis : ea rly success and med ia coverage give artists, or unique o r mass-produced, in no n homogeneous groups. It inclu ded rh e es the tic j 8 Net wo rk: The A rt W orld Described as a Syste m Network: Th e A rt W orld Described as a System 9 app reciatio n of mass-produced goods, the app rop riation of pop ular materi al by interpretat ion . On e may be more interested in th e un iqu e compo nent th an the artists (Pop art) and the mass medi a's interest in arc. In th e '60s, however , it other, but to res trict the work's meanin g solely to th at is resrricrive. In add ition, it became clear rhar th e art wo rld itself had become subject to a sim ilar goes agains t all one's ex perience of arc to presume th at exhaustive inte rpretat ion non hie rarc hic connectiv ity. T he mass medi a covered prominent artists or is possible. A con sequen ce of the incorpora tion of arc into the fine arc-pop an museum shows; rhe occasio ns of high culrure became th e subject of publ icity. continuum is th at th e var iable res ponses inevitably evoke d by arc have been m ade Abs tract pa in tings in House and Garden features on collectors, or the Park Pl ace mo re fully visible. Ga llery ph otograph ed with fashi on models am ong the sculp tu re, are two This saturation by infor mati on , though new in its scale and intensit y, has examples. Here rhe works of art become a parr of the lively flow of signs and am ple historical roots of which I sha ll mention two. To quote Kacl M annhe im: symbols rha t populate th e environment. In rhe case of o ne movem enr, rha r of "the educa ted no lon ger cons rirure a cas te or a compact rank, but an open Euro pea n-based Op art, ir was we lcome d in the ge neral pr ess earlier and more stra tum."> Link ed co thi s is M an nhei rn's observation th at sophistication is no cord ially th an in the arr rnagazines. \8 Lichtenste in and Rauschenberg have borh lon ger "an ad ju nct of status and breeding." 24 T hus the criteria for sop his ticatio n do ne cove rs for Time and Lichrenstein one for Newsweek as we ll. O ne of Robe rt ate sepa rated from a req uire d level of scored knowledge in cert ain areas and Smithson's ea rlies t rexrs appeared in Harper's Bazaar and the first article on become a re flex of topical orientation. This is a form of knowledge, of course, but earthworks, by H oward Junker, ap peared in the Saturday Evening Post, years adap tive rather th an normative. The fine arc-pop art cont inuum, a disordered before Calvin Tomkins go t to it in The New Y orker.19 T he literatu re of ar t now realm to o rt hodox hu mani st s and for ma lis ts , is a gym nasium fo r the runs copiously beyond rhe reviewing of exhibitions by crirics as arc is assimila ted development of thi s sop hist ication wirhout depth th at is cha racteristic of mu ch co the sphere of consurnprion. T hus ther e exists a general field of commun icatio n of the arren tion tha t th e public brings to arc. Irs flexibility is preferable co within which arr has a place, not rhe privileged place assigned to in human ism as dogm aric avowals of singular mean ing and absolute standa rds. At least it does tim e-bin ding symbol o r mor al exemplar, bur as part of a spec tr um of objecrs and not reduce one's continued exposur e to cha nging configura tio ns by narrowly set messages. prior sta ndards. When the occasions for viewi ng arc were restricted and th e According to Roland Bar thes "what makes writi ng the op pos ite of speech is spectators were few in number and socially un iform, there were agreed-o n lim its that th e former always app ears symbolical, int roverted, ostens ibly turned of respon se and interpret ation . Now tha t art is see n in wildly differing con tex ts, rewards an occulc side of langu age, wh ereas th e seco nd is noth ing but a flow of the diversity of response to arc is public too. Fo r thi s reason it see ms that the empry signs, th e movement of which alone is significanr."2oThus he maint ains noti on of esoteric art and everyday life in opposition needs co be modi fied to the tradition al separat ion of closed high ar t and popular culture as an ex tens ion allow for art's presence in the quotidian rea lm. of Saussures terms langu age and speech. The p roponents of visual arras a closed P rotectiven ess cowards origina l works of art , with their aura of un iquen ess, form, a rype of classified info rma tion, also suppose irrecon cilable levels. To use a derives fro m a nati on of art as th e maximized handmade object. W titin g in th e sta teme nt of Ro rhko's, one th at has become a cliche: "A p icture lives by lare fifties, surrounded by Abstract Expression ists , Meyer Schapi ro even referred co mpanio ns hip , expandi ng an d quickeni ng in th e eyes of the sensitive observer. to free handling "as a mean s of aff irming th e indi vidual.t" Intoxicated by the It d ies by rhe same token, It is, rherefore, a risky and un feeling act to send it Ou t au tog rap hic he contrasted Abst ract Expressionis ts with Lege r's regard for th e into the world." 21This view o f art, highly es the ticizing, bur also sn obbish , res ts reproducible products o f technology, "but th e experiences of th e lasr 25 years, on rhe assu mption that a paint ing possesses a deep singular mean ing an d th at have mad e such confidence in the vision of tech nology less int eresting and even correct rece pri on consists of iden tifying it. The histo ry of tasre and the study of distasteful."21i This is like blaming cri me in the streets on a TV progr am , but th e human communication does not suggest such pe rfect match ing as a plausib le fallacy is still com mo n, though now expressed by a new ge ne ratio n of naturists occurrence. T ho ugh art may be a private act in its origins, rhis is not what we can reac ting agai nst industrial po lluti on and Ame rican militarism inste ad of W orld be expec ted to see as art becomes p art of a sysrern of public information. Ar c is a W ar II and mem ories of the N azis. It is presu med th at aura is lessened whe n arc is p ublic sys tem to which we, as spec tato rs or consu mers have ra ndo m access. reproduced mechan ically. Some properties show up more than othe rs in A wo rk of art consists of ar least two levels of inform ati on: one rhar can be reprodu ction it is tru e: autograp hic solidi ty is lighten ed and connectio ns with rran slared into ocher med ia for reproduction, or that other arri sts can use, and Other arris ts and the rest of the world are facili tated , bur these are non destructive one th at is iden tified solely wi rh the or igina l cha nne L22 An y work of art contains emp hases. It is not possi ble co res trict the mea ni ng of a work to its liter al both special channe l characteristics (unique) and rransmissable in form ation presence; art consis ts of ideas as well as objects. (repeatable) . The stratification is not mechan ically arrived ar, bur is a One work tha t has bee n submitted to mass production in a curiou s way is consequence of th e interaction of the arrisr's intention and rhe specraror's Jackson Pollock's Conv ergence, 1952. T he origina l pai nti ng is in the Albrighr 10 Ne two rk: The Art Wo rld Described as a System N etwork: The A rt W orld De.rcribed as a System 11

Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; ir has been reproduced in rhe form of a jigsaw puzzle. It was in the sixties, starti ng wirh Pop are, rhar regular mass media coverage It is therefore an extreme exa mple by which we can test wha t rem ains whe n are is of art began. Previously magazines and newsp aper s had treated individual treated not as a self-evolving process bur as some thing added to th e conti nuum of stories, ofte n in detail, bur now art was recogni zed as a rhem e of leisure which moving daily sig ns. Th e original is not destroyed whe n th e colored rep roduction was itself nam ed as a subject in rhis decade. Instead of occasio nal pieces on is cut up in to little Arp-like free form units. The pai nt ing is a H erculean late defaced statues or extravagant collectors, art was steadily covered as a consri tuenr work, one of the two major effor ts Pollock made to recap ture and extend the big of the culture. Life and Time, for instance, had rep roduction s of and srarernenrs dri p pai nti ngs of two years earlier (the other is Blue Poles). Is it degraded by its by Pop artists long befor e rhe specia lized art journals go t around to them . Later lud ic form ? I think not, inas much as any cran smissable image is subject to re in the sixt ies, however , it is true th at the art magazines and ge neral press share contex rualization, whe rher it is the lion 's feet, derived from Egypt, on the same subjects much of th e tim e. (It is th e prom ptness of th e coverage that is j N apoleon ic furniture, or a Coca-Cola sign in a South American jungle. The one of the reasons for th e corrosion of the concep t of an avanr-garde. A group's continuum of translated messages requires acts of cont inuous estimation before a I lead-time in new ideas is of almos t negligible durati on now.) When I wrore a I :'~ , I succession of alterna tives. Is th e person who successfully completes the puzzle piece on Rosenquist for Artforum recently, seleccion of rhe color illust rat ion s simulati ng the work of the artist and hen ce being brought close to the crea tive was delayed until we could find our which of the transparencies ava ilable from U( 1'/ 1 process? O bviously not , for the arrange ment of standardized pares does not the Whitney Museum were being used by Tim e and Newsweek. Although my I !i I resemble Pollock's way of pai nti ng, but it might be like making a Sol LeW itt article was longer and later , ir was esse nt ially no less occasional than Ro bert I II I ; I (" the process is mechan ical and sho uld not be tampered with . It should ru n its Hugh es's and Do uglas Davis's pieces. I did not tim e the article myself; the course."?") T he variables of context and inter pret at ion released by 20 th-century Whitney Museum did. It is a weakness of the arc magazines that many of the I communica tio ns have become the subject of thi s mass-produced object. A arti cles are as much revi ews as the shorter pieces acknow ledged as such. Color connection can be made between painting and puzzle: the image of the labyrinth, rep roduction s in the catalog are reused in rhe magazines, a conve nience th at ties a structure with blocked rou tes, cont inually evoked by writer s on Po llock, is later uses closer chan ever to the ini tial occasion. T he effect of criticism as appropriate to the initial unordered scatter of the bits; and whe n it is terminated review ing is to prod uce a series of suddenly uni form top ics in the journa ls, which it becom es a sign for the pa int ing, Conve rgence. gives the appearance, to suspicious provinci als, of a rigged scene. The six ties was a brilliant decade in whi ch an excep tional number of young To all th is must be added the prospe rity of the decade. There was money for artists emerged , wirh out the tentative or inh ibitory sta res of their pr edecessors. museum s (new plane, new acquisitio ns) and for inves tme nt in p rivare ar t Th eir work , along with the cont inued work of slower- deve lop ing older artis ts, galleries (Scull's backing of the Gree n Gallery, for instance, or the support that helped to make the decade one of numerical and stylis tic abunda nce. There was several collectors gave th e Pa rk Place Gallery which raised cooperatives to a new

undoubtedly a sense of relief and ebullience at having got out from under the luxurious space). There was as well a willingness [Q pay high prices for new an, gestu ral form of Abst ract Express ion ism which domina ted the fifties. T he escape subject to elaborately negoti ated discount: H arry Abrams, Leon K raus haa r,Jo hn from de Koo ning ope ned out a se ries of op tions which had been excluded by the Powers, Scull were amo ng those who attached the principle of conspicuous es thetics and ope rational lore derived from him. For museums it ma rked an consump tion to the newes r art. By the end of the sixties, however, rhe cluster of efflorescence of ret ros pec rives, or rheir equivalent. Not only were exhibitio ns on social injustice, Vie tnam, and inflatio n had destroyed the favorable situation, for a large scale, rhere was lavish duplication, such as two different Licht enst ein the arc world as for other sub-g roups. Rober t K. Merton has proposed a meth od exhibitio ns in two years, and big sho rt-term expenditures, such as Morris's of Studying social cha nge: it is " the concep t of dysfunct ion, wh ich implies the colossal p iece ar the Whitney Museum or Serra's at Pasaden a. Museum s concept of strain, stre ss, and te ns io n on the st ructura l level," 28 of an cooperated in the realizat ion of arti sts' projects on a vast scale. In the catalog organizatio n. The sm oothly funct ioning arc wo rld of the sixties exhibits the re is a con vergence of art history as a methodology and art criticism as a numer ous dysfunctions now. The pri ce and turnover of goods at galleries are res po nse to pr esent arc, T hus there has been an increase in the objectiv e down. T he deficits of mus eum s all over the count ry are ge tting harder co make complexity of dat a avai lable about living ar risrs, For publishers the sixties up, sometimes resulting in violent abbreviarion of services. included a number of mon ographs on, to name a few.johns (Kozloff),Oldenburg The confidence produced by rhe simultaneo us success of rwo gene ratio ns of (Rose), Ste lla (Rubin) , Wa rhol (Cop lans , Crone), Licht enstein, Ke lly (both American art ists, the delayed recogn ition of rhe older and the accelera ted W aldm an ), Pra nkenrha ler (Rose). The sup port system of rhe knowledge /. recogn ition of the younge r ge nerar ions coming toge the r, pro mo ted a sense of industry was firmly lined up behind th e arris rs. com mon identity. Ar firsr th is amounted to lirrle mo re rha n a loose agreeme nt ro I:! I 12 Network: The Art W orld Described as a System Network: Th e Art World Described as a System 13 being part of a professional group in a situation sufficiently stable not codemand events. This has led to an ideological evaluation of h istorians' supposedly continual, consci ous participation. By the late sixties, however, artists had objective techniques. developed a sharper sense of th emselves as a permanent inrerest. Typical of a Both the status of art as an object and the validity of the gallery exhibition as new intransigence and desire to modify the form of distribution of art we re the a unit have been questioned. The first sign of the problem may have been in the Art W orkers Coalition and the sh ort-lived Emergency Cultural Government, '50s when Pollock, N ewman, and Rorhko made their large paintings. After both of which pr esumed rhe nee d for reform of the marker and institutions of the initial con sternation , however, th e paintings were assimilated into small spaces, art world. An orher sign is the move eo protect the artist's power of copyright by like a gallery or apartment, because the ar risrs wanted intimate, p articipatory the Artist's Re serve Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, a contract that a co nra cr. Happenings, th ough sometimes producing residual objects, like number of artists requite their collecto rs to sign. (It provides for future Oldenburg's, were ourside gallery limits; even more so were Event s, which could remuneration if a work is resold ar a higher price.) What has occurred, of course, be imperceptible, ex cept co participants, dispersed, a nd prottacted or is that the revival of ideol ogy has extended to the art world. It takes two forms: momentary. Earthworks, which sub stitute terrain for the object, weresupporred fir st, an increase in one's own political commitment and, secondly, a fundamental by galleries, notably Vir ginia Dwan's, and wh ar was shown in the gallery was " i I scepricism concerning other positions. Ideology as a method or argument is usuall y the documentary evide nce of work in New J ersey or N evada. The new corrosive in rhat it substitutes my interpretation for your motive. The discontent exp ansion of scale was wittily stated by Morris wh en he obse rved of his L OJ of many art ists with galleries and museums th erefore may amount to a Ii Angeles Project 2 (ait conditioning and heating equ ipment buried in a square fundamental re -orientation of att itude eo the enrire system that encloses their mile of ear rh) that there would be "a little more weather in the area." Smithson's work. ~ dialectic of site and non-site set up a network of signs between the absent T o the militant artists wh o have a place in the system can be added other signified and the present sig nifiers, a procedure which assigns the gallery a I special int er ests , such as women artists and black art ists. These gtoups include partial role , as a container of rock samples, maps, and ph otographs. Andre's not only p rofe ssional bur lay artists who work ourside the traditional options of "posr-srudio arc," has th e potential, no t followed by Andre himself, of going If 1'1' , 20 th-cen tury arr in naive forms of real ism , expressionism, and abstract design. I, straighr from inventory to site, which would make it post-gallery art , needing no There is a possibility that th e pressure of lay art, the natural produ ct of an Ii middle stag e of display. Con ceptual art, when it consists of photographs, educati onal system that ha s stressed both th e need for art and the easiness of schedules, lists, maps, and ins rruc uo ns is better viewed in books and catalogs ·11 techniques for doing it, may introduce a teal revi sion of our expectations of art in II than wh en mounted and framed on the wall where it subsides to tacky grap hics. the next few year s. The sophistication that is a product of 20th-century Finally petformance art such as Vito Acconci's, deais with sta tes of low visibility, information services makes it ine vitable that the lay arr movement will include Ii ' interaction, exhaustion, vulnerabiliry which dissolve the usual day-long solidity I people who use it for its car eer and poli tical potential, bur thi s does not invalidate of spectacle ar an art gall ery. it. It seem s rhen rhat there have been a succession of crises at different points in In conclusion we must ask what is likely to follow from the crisis of the system th ar meets Merton's requirement of "strain, stress, and tensi on on the ,(I confidence th at artists (some artists) feel in the distribution system. There is a structural level." basic continuity from (1) the public consump tion of prints that starred on a big It is wort h remarking that a majority of writers and curators were tra ined as III scale in the 17th cent ury and (2) the public display of heterogeneous art historians. In fact, critics withour art historical training often claim the role II uncommissioned arc in annual exhibitions that started in the 18th cenrury to the when all that is meant is an increase in the COUnt of verifiable facts . (Speaking siXties. The continuous assumptions are that art is translarable and char public personally, what I wr ire is art criti cism with foorno res.) The professi on of art access to new ar t is desirable. For any development in rhe sevent ies ro introduce a histori an now sh ares its own crises with othe r academic disciplines. It is orien ted ill real difference, these ideas or one of rhern , would need modificati on. It is highly towards a set methodology suitable for research by graduate students wh ose unlikely that any cha nge will originate with the galler ies which have never been incorporation in society afterward s is no longer assured.In the im mediate future temarkable either for "degree of flexib ility" or "span of for esight" to quote two , ,I the impo rtant issue s m ay be the devising of alternate methodologies and go als, critetia of M.P . Schurzenberger's for evaluaring behavior. 29 To judge by the I including analysis of the teaching of undergraduates (who, for one th ing, arrive illi recem record mus eums do not seem a likely source o f new forms of distribution, at university with a built-in mastery of the fine art-pop an continuum) . It seems subject as they are to their own institutional traditions and ro the ceiling imposed possible rhar rhe art historian is being displaced as model for critics, for th e by Wages and overheads. An y change would need to origina te with the art ists, reasons give n and also because of the activation of conscience by recent political though the diffi culry of making viable changes is suggested by rhe underlying 14 Network: The Art World Described as a System Network: Th e Art W orld Described as a System 15 assumption of pub lic access which I take ir nobody wanes to abridge. H owever the 18. See t he author's "Notes on Op Arr ," Th e New Art, cd . Gregory llarrcock, New Yo rk, 1966, p. cumulat ive effect of pos t-studio, site -based, and concep tual art forms is a clear 83-9 1. sign of stress, req uiring changed form s of presen tation. The problem is that 19. Robert Sm irh son , "The Crysra l Land," Harp er 's Bazaar, May 1966 ; H o ward J unker, "Getting search-bias, the tendency to look for a new solution close to th e old solurion.v is I Down to rhe Kni rry Grirry,' Saturday E1Jening Post, N ovem ber 2, 1968: Calv in Tomk rns, pronounced in the art world, because we all tend to conceive the wo rld in the "Maybe a Qu an tum Leap," T he New Y orker, Fe bruary 5, 1972, pp, 42-67. fixed image of our vocation. 20. Ro land Bar rhes, Writin g Degree Z ero and Elements of Semiology, rrans, Anne tre Laver s, Colin ~ Smith, Bost on , 1970, p. 19. 'i N o tes 21. Mar k Rorhko, "The Ides of An," T he Tige'r's Ey e, December 1947, p. 44. I 22 . For a w ider discuss ion o f rranslar abuuy, See rhe auehor's "O n Translation," Arts, Summer, 1971. " 1. This pa ssage der ives from rhe author 's "A rt and rhe Co mmun ication Ne twork." Canadian A rt,

June, 1966, PP' 35 -37. 23. Karl Mannheim, Enays 0 11 the Sociology of Cultur e, Lon don , 1956. 2. Calvin Tomkins , "Moving w u h rhe Flow," T he Ne w Y orker November 6, 197 1, pp. 58-113 . 24, Ibid.

3. Apollinaire on Art, ed. LeR oy C. Bre un ig, tr ans. Susa n Suleirn an , Ne w York, 1972 , p. 87. 25. Meyer Sch apiro, "T he Libe rating Quality of Avant-Garde An," Art News, Summe r, 1957, pp. 38-39 . 4. Tomas Maldonado, Design , Na ture and R evols tson, [Cans. Mario Dornandi, New York , 1972, p . 51. 26. fbid

5. Henri Lefebvre , Every day Lif e in tbe Modem W orld, [fans Sach a Ra binov itch , New York, 27. Sol LeWi tt. "Sentences On Conceptual Art, 1968," Concepiest Art, ed. U rsula Meyer, New 1971 , p. 56. York, 1972, p. 175. 28, 6. D.S. Pugh, D.]. Hickson, C.R. Hinings, Writers on Organrzattons, Harrnondsworrh, 1971. Ro bert K. Menon, Social T heory lind SOCIal St ructure, G lencoe , Ill inois, 1949. P ar aphrasing Ric hard M. Cyerr and James G . March, p. 81. 29. M.P. Schurzenbe rger, "A Teri rar ive Classification of Goal.seeking Beh avior," in Emery, 7. Ib id., p . 8. System s Tbinktng, pp . 205-13.

8. H.]. Leav icc, "Some Effect s of Certain Co rnrnurucario n Patterns on Group Pe rfo nuance," in 3D, Pugh , H ickson, Hinings, Writer.f. Pa raphras ing Cyer r and March, p . 84. Organization T heory, ed, D.S. Pu gh, Harrnondsworrh, 197 I, p. 72. 9. Ra ymond B. Carroll, "The N at ure and Measurement of Anx iety." Scient ific American, 208,3, 1963, p, 96

10. D. Ka rz, R.L. K ahn, "Common Charac reri stics of Open Sysrerns,' in Systems T hinkin g, ed F.E . Emery. Harrnondswor rh, 1969 , p. 88.

!!. FE. Emery, E 1.. Trisr, 'T he Causal Texture of O rganizat iona l Events," in Emery, Syst ems T hinkin g, p p. 247-248.

12. For an accoun t of one such comperi tion , between rhe Museum of Modern Art and The Gugge nhei m Museum, see the au thor 's " An," T he Nation, De cember 30, 1968, pp. 733 -34.

I ~ . For fuller derails con cern ing anises' statem ents, see the aur ho r's "Art " T he N at ion, May 22, 1972, pp . 668-69.

14. Jackson Po llock, "My Painti ng," Possibdities. New York, 1948; Gene Swenson, "W ha[ Is P op An?", Art Ne ws, February 1964, pp 40-43.

15. For the difference between data co llection and idle exchange compare John Co plans's excellent inrerview in Roy Lichtenstein , Pasadena A n Museum , 1967 , with D iane W aldman's Roy Licb tenstein , New York, 1972. 16. Marcel D uch amp, "The Creative Ace," in Th e Ne w Art, ed. Gregory Barrcock, New York, 1966, pp , 23- 26.

17. The con cep t of [he fine an-pop an conr inuu rn IS given JJ1 [he auth or's "T he Long fron t of Cultu re," Pop Art Redefined, ed.John Russell, Suzi Gablik, Ne w York, 1969 . Ori ginally published in Camb ridge Opinion, 17, 1959.