Executive Fictions: Revisiting Information Adam Lauder A Thesis In The Department Of Art History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada September 2010 © Adam Lauder, 2010 ABSTRACT Executive Fictions: Revisiting Information Adam Lauder There is growing recognition of the significance of the 1970 MoMA exhibition organized by Kynaston McShine (1935- ), Information, to broader narratives of Conceptual art and the so-called Information Society. Previous studies have focussed on Information as a symptom of processes of informatization (Meltzer, 2006) as well as the aspirational politics of 1960s counterculture (Allan, 2004) and the heightened visibility of corporate sponsorship (Staniszewski, 1998) within the sanctified space of the museum. The present study amplifies and revises these findings by singling out for exploration the executive roles performed by three exhibition participants, McShine, IAIN BAXTER& (1936- ) and Lucy Lippard (1937- ). Within the context of the corporate exhibition environment of Information, the supernumerary operations enacted by these figures generated an abrasive inter-play of redundant information by calling attention to and multiplying managerial functions traditionally vested in the curator. I argue that this McLuhanesque logic of decentralized management was adopted in response to the effects of information speed-up and youth culture. As the museum is transformed into the technological newseum or synaesthetic playground envisioned by McLuhan’s associate Harley Parker (1915-1992), the curator drops out and the artist drops in. The non-oppositional, but nonetheless disruptive, logic of these roles charts a parallel, but distinct, course to the more familiar strategy of institutional critique deployed by Hans Haacke (1936- ) within the context of the same show. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Martha Langford, for her constant support of this project and of my studies in the MA program at Concordia as a whole. Dr. Langford’s guidance through this process has been invaluable. Moreover, her inspired teaching and innovative, research-intensive publications have served as constructive models for my own first steps as a junior scholar. The humorous or playful elements of this manuscript were in no small measure inspired by her good cheer and wit. I would also like to thank my reader, Dr. Kristina Huneault, for her interest in this project; her comments and suggestions made for a stronger and more closely-argued thesis. I also want to thank Vincent Bonin for his many helpful bibliographic suggestions. I must also acknowledge the tremendous patience and support of my wife, Kate Dumoulin, and of my family as a whole during this demanding course of research and writing. Finally, I would like to thank IAIN BAXTER& for his remarkable generosity and insights. I met IAIN while working as an administrator at the University of Windsor in 2006; a productive professional relationship later developed into the IAIN BAXTER& raisonnE (an electronic catalogue raisonné supported by York University in Toronto) and other projects. IAIN’s inclusive, non-linear—in other words, “informational”—approach to a wide- ranging network of topics in contemporary business, culture and media have, through our many informal conversations over the years, indelibly shaped my own thinking about all of those domains and their interconnections. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS vi. List of Figures 1. Executive Fictions: Revisiting Information 16. Methodology 24. McShine: Curator as Dropout 50. IAIN BAXTER&: Artist as “Drop-in” 63. Lippard: The Critic Takes Over 79. Conclusion: The ‘Modular’ Museum as Muse 86. Bibliography 96. Figures v LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Installation View of the Exhibition Information, 1970. From Ken Allan, “Understanding Information,” in Conceptual Theory, Myth, and Practice, ed. Michael Corris, 144-168 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 28. Fig. 2 Installation View of the Exhibition Information, 1970. From Ken Allan, “Understanding Information,” in Conceptual Theory, Myth, and Practice, ed. Michael Corris, 144-168 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 147. Fig. 3 Lawrence Fried. Installation View of the ‘Information’ Show at the Museum of Modern Art. From Hilton Kramer, “Miracles, ‘Information,’ ‘Recommended Reading,’” New York Times (July 12, 1970): 87. Fig. 4 Vito Acconci, Service Area, 1970. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), The Museum as Muse (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1999), 173. Fig. 5 N.E. Thing Co., Thinking Re: Concepts, Art (If That’s the Proper Word), Communications, Media, Anything, 1970. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), Information (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970), 89. Fig. 6 Jan van Raay, Kestutis Zapkus, Lucy Lippard, Jean Toche, and Other Art Workers (Seen on the Left) Break Up a Trustees’ Dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 12 January 1971. From Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009), 139. Fig. 7 Hans Haacke, MoMA-Poll, 1970. Interactive installation with clear plastic voting boxes, text panel, chart of results, at Information exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, 1970. From Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009), 194. Fig. 8 Information Machine, c. 1970. From Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #934. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 9 Information, Museum of Modern Art (showing Olivetti’s Information Machine at centre), 1970. From Les Levine, “The Information Fall-Out,” Studio International 181, no. 934 (June 1971): 266. Fig. 10 Information, Museum of Modern Art, 1970. From Les Levine, “The Information Fall-Out,” Studio International 181, no. 934 (June 1971): 266. Fig. 11 Kynaston McShine with the assistance of Charles Froom, Information, 1970. From Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 273. vi Fig. 12 Group Frontera installation, Information, 1970. From Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 274. Fig. 13 Kynaston McShine with the assistance of Charles Froom, Information, 1970. From Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 274. Fig. 14 One of Broegger’s Platforms Frustrates a Viewer, So He Leans, 1970. From Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #934. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 15 Unidentified Images of Sacco Beanbag Chair Originally Reproduced in ‘Domus,’ March 1969. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), Information (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970), 157. Fig. 16 Burlap-draped Two-by-fours by Helio Oiticica are what He Calls a ‘Nest’ upon which the Public is Invited to Climb, Rest or Sit in Padded Cubicles or Platforms, 1970. From Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #934. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 17 Harley Parker, Plan View, Experimental Gallery, 1967. From Museum of the City of New York and The New York Council on the Arts. Exploration of the Ways, Means, and Values of...Museum Communication with the Viewing Public (New York: The Museum of the City of New York and The New York Council on the Arts, 1967), 36. Fig. 18 Façade, Museum of Modern Art, c. 1964. From Alan Wallach, “The Museum of Modern Art: The Past’s Future,” Journal of Design History 5, no. 3 (1992): 211. Fig. 19 IAIN BAXTER&. “IAIN BAXTER& to Kynaston McShine” (May 1, 1970), Kynaston McShine Information Exhibition Research, IV.59. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 20 Plan for an Exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1960. From Libero Andreotti, “Play-Tactics of the ‘Internationale Situationniste,’” October 91 (Winter 2000): 51. Fig. 21 Bror Grenfeldt, Unidentified Image Originally Reproduced in ‘Domus,’ April 1969. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), Information (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970), 156. Fig. 22 N.E. Thing Co., President Seated at Telex Carrying Out 50,000-mile vii Transmission (at right), 1970; Telexed Self Portrait From Memory (at left), 1969. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), Information (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1970), 91. Fig. 23 Lucy Lippard Demanding ‘50% Black Women Artists’ as Part of the Ad Hoc Women’s Committee Protest, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1971. From Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009), 161. Fig. 24 Changing: Essays in Art Criticism, 1971. Book cover featuring Wall Drawing #1 (1968) by Sol LeWitt. Fig. 25 James Dee, Installation Shot of Exhibition to Benefit the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, Inaugural Exhibition, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, October 22-November 1, 1968 [Works by Will Insley (left) and Jo Baer], 1968. From Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009), 141. Fig. 26 Lucy Lippard, Lucy Lippard to Kynaston McShine, April 19, 1970. From Kynaston McShine Information Exhibition Research, IV.59. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 27. Lucy Lippard, Lucy Lippard to Kynaston McShine, May 5, 1970. From Kynaston McShine Information Exhibition Research, IV.59. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 28 Michael Lauretano, Cover Design, Information Catalogue, 1970. Fig. 29 Source image for Michael Lauretano’s design for the cover of the Information catalogue, c. 1970. From Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #934. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 30 Source image for Michael Lauretano’s design for the cover of the Information catalogue, c. 1970. From Curatorial Exhibition Files, Exh. #934. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Fig. 31 General Idea, The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, 1980. From Kynaston McShine (ed.), The Museum as Muse (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1999), 175.