List of Plates vii Foreword by Thomas Crow xii Preface and Acknowledgments xv Preface to the MIT Press Edition xix 1 A Kind of Context 1 Modernism in two voices 2 A culture of art 6 Critical resources 13 Epilogue: Modernism and the Postmodern 21 A corrective note 27 2 Conceptual Art and the Suppression of the Beholder 29 Abstraction and Abstractionism 31 Minimalism and the post-Minimal 37 Conceptual Art and Art & Language 47 Postscript 61 3 Indexes and Other Figures 63 The index as art-work 63 A logical implosion 75 4 The Conditions of Problems 82 Background 82 Conditions of work 82 The position of the work 88 The artist as author 91 Some methodological upshots 94 Foreground 95 Proceedings: local history 95 Place of work as possible world 104 Worlds apart 114 Means of survival 126 vi Contents 5 On 'A Portrait of V. I. Lenin in the Style of Jackson Pollock' 129 Readings and readers 129 A monstrous detente 134 Black propaganda 136 An essay, a conjecture and an exhibition 139 The orders of discourse 145 6 'Seeing' and 'Describing': the Artists' Studio 150 The studio genre 150 Painting and expression 156 Some functions of allegory 166 The transformation of the index 168 7 On the Surface of Painting 175 Surface 176 Contingency 182 Change 190 Erasure 200 8 Reading the Museum 206 'Incidents in a Museum' 206 Index: Incident in a Museum VIII 209 Index: Incident in a Museum X VI 215 Index: Incident in a Museum XXV 218 9 Unit Cure, Unit Ground 223 10 On Pictures and Paintings 225 A work in process 225 The moment of criticism 232 Potential and loss 238 11 'Hostages' 1: Painting as Cure 244 12 'Hostages' 2: Some Other Sense 251 Notes 257 Index 297 Page 1 Jackson Pollock, One (Number 31, 1950) (1950) 3 2 Jackson Pollock, No. 14 (1951) 5 3 Morris Louis, Golden Age (1959) 12 4 Kenneth Noland, Bloom (1960) 12 5 Jules Olitski, Green Rose (1967) 13 6 Anthony Caro, Prairie (1967) 14 7 Jasper Johns, Jubilee (1959) 15 8 Frank Stella, Mono Castle (1958) 16 9 Donald Judd, I/wfcYW (1965) 16 10 Robert Morris, Untitled (1967-8) 17 11 Kasimir Malevich, Suprematism (with Blue Triangle and Black Rectangle) (1915) 19 12 Michael Baldwin, Untitled Fainting (1965) 20 13 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Acid Box (1966) 20 14 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Temperature Show (1966), Documentation No. 3 21 15 Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden, Soft-Tape (1966) 22 16 Ian Burn, Looking through a Piece of Glass (1967) 23 17 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Title Equals Text No. 15 (1967) 23 18 Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) (1967) 24 19 David Bainbridge, Loop (1968) 25 20 Mel Ramsden, Secret Painting (1967-8) 25 21 Mel Ramsden, 100% Abstract (1968) 26 22 Kenneth Noland, Coarse Shadow (1967) 32 23 Marcel Duchamp, Bottle Rack (1914) 33 24 Anthony Caro, Twenty-Four Hours (1960) 34 25 Donald Judd, Untitled (1961) 38 26 Robert Morris, Corner Piece (1965) 39 27 Frank Stella, Union 1 (1966) 43 28 Carl Andre, 144 Pieces of Zinc (144 Zinc Square) (1967) 44 29 Dan Graham, Poem-Schema (1966) 48 30 Robert Barry, Something which is very near in place and time, but not yet known to me (1969) 49 31 Lawrence Weiner, One standard dye marker thrown into the sea (1968) 50 32 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, key to 22 Predicates: The French Army (1967) 52 viii List of Plates 33 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Map to not indicate ... (1967) 53 34 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Title Equals Text No. 22 (1967) 54 35 Mel Ramsden, 100% Abstract (1968) 55 36 Mel Ramsden, Elements of an Incomplete Map (1968) 55 37 Mel Ramsden, Guaranteed Painting (1967-8) 56 38 Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin, Title Equals Text No. 12 (1967) 57 39 Harold Hurrell, The Cybernetic Art Work that Nobody broke (1969) 58 40 David Bainbridge, electronic installation for Lecher System (1969-70) 59 41 Michael Baldwin, Sunnybank (1967-8) 60 42 Michael Baldwin, Abstract Art No. 2 and Abstract Art No. 3 (1968) 61 43 Art & Language, Index 01, installation at 'Documenta 5' (1972) 64 44 Art & Language, Index 01, view of file drawer with text (1972) 65 45 Art & Language, Alternate Map for Documenta (Based on Citation A) (1972) 66 46 Art & Language, Index 02, installation at Lisson Gallery, London (1972) 73 47 Art & Language, Index 02, detail of wall display (1972) 73 48 Art & Language, Index 05, instructions for reading the index (1973) 80 49 Art & Language, Index 04, fragment from computer print-out (1973) 81 50 Art & Language, Proceedings 0012 Child's Play (1973-4) 83 51 Art & Language, installation of Banner for the Venice Biennale (1976) 96 52 Art & Language, Index 002 Bxal, detail of wall display (1973) 100 53 Art & Language, Index 002 Bxal, instructions (1973) 102 54 Page from Art—Language vol. 2 no. 4: 'Handbook(s) to Going-on' (June 1974) 104 55 Art & Language, Dialectical Materialism: Ernie Wise (1975) 108-9 56 Art & Language, Singing Man (1975) 110 57 Recording of songs by Music—Language (Art & Language and The Red Crayola) (1976), still from the film Borba u New Yorku by Zoran Popovic 111 58 Art Sc Language, poster for 'School' (1976) 114 59 School Press, poster for 'School' (1976) 115 60 Cover of The Fox, vol. 1 no. 1 (1975) 115 61 Art &c Language and The Red Crayola, sheet music for Keep all your Friends, from the long-playing record Corrected Slogans (1975) 122 62 Poster for Fox 3 (1976) 123 63 Art &c Language (p), illustration for Art-Language, vol. 3 no. 4 (Fox 4) (1976) 125 64 Jackson Pollock, Mural (1950) 132 65 Art & Language, Map for 'V. I. Lenin' by V. Charangovitch (1970) in the Style of Jackson Pollock (1980) 133 List of Plates ix 66 Installation of Art & Language 'Dialectical Materialism' exhibi- tion, Galerie Eric Fabre, Paris (1976) 139 67 Art & Language, Ten Postcards (1977) 139 68 Art & Language, Flags for Organizations, list of axioms (1978) 140 69 Selection from Art & Language, Ten Posters: illustrations for Art-Language (1977) 141 70 Art & Language, 'V. /. Lenin' by V. Charangovitch (1970) in the Style of Jackson Pollock, scrambled version, installation at the Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (1980) 143 71 Art & Language, Portrait of V. /. Lenin in July 1917 Disguised in a Wig and Working Man's Clothes in the Style of Jackson Pollock II (1980) 144 72 Johannes Vermeer, 'Allegory of Painting': The Artist's Studio (c. 1666-7) 151 73 Gustave Courbet, The Artist's Studio (1855) 153 74 Art & Language, Study after Georges Braque 'Atelier V (1949); Study for 'Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place' (1981) 153 75 Pablo Picasso, Paris, March 21, 1933 (1933) 154 76 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place Painted by Mouth (II) (1982) 155 77 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place; Drawing (i) (1981-2) 156 78 Art &c Language, Us donnent leur sang: donnez votre travail (1977) 158 79 Art &c Language, Picasso's 'Guernica' in the Style of Jackson Pollock I, installation at 'Kunst in Europa na '68', Ghent (1980) 159 80 Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans (1849-50) 159 81 Jackson Pollock, War (1945) 160 82 Art & Language, text to face Gustave Courbet's Burial at Ornans Expressing... 161 83 Edouard Manet, Olympia (1863) 162 84 Art & Language, drawing for a poster for Kangaroo? (1981) 164 85 Cover of Art-Language vol. 4 no. 3: 'Ways of Seeing' (October 1978) 165 86a-d Manet's Olympia in details of plates 77, VI, 76 and VII 168 87 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place Painted by Mouth (I); Drawing (ii) (1982) 170 88 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place in the Dark (111) and illuminated by an Explosion nearby (V, VI, VII, VIII); Drawing (in) (1982) 170 89 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place Painted by Mouth (II); Drawing (iv) (1982) 171 90 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place showing the Position of 'Embarrassments' in (III); Drawing (v) (1982) 171 91 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place illuminated by an Explosion nearby (V); Drawing (vi) (1982) 173 92 Art & Language, Index: The Studio at 3 Wesley Place illuminated by an Explosion nearby (VI) (1982) 173 93 Lucas van Valckenborch, Winter Landscape (1586) 176 94 Oscar Claude Monet, Snow at Argenteuil (c.1873) 177 95 Paul Cezanne, Bathers (1883-5) 179 96 William-Adolphe Bouguereau, The Bathers (1884) 179 x List of Plates 97 Art & Language, Study for Index: Incident in a Museum 2 (1985) 181 98 Auguste Renoir, La Loge (1874) 184 99 Piet Mondrian, Composition, Tree (1913) 186 100 Piet Mondrian, Composition (1930) 187 101 Paul-Joseph Jamin, The Brennus and bis Share of the Spoils (1893) 188 102 Julian Schnabel, Prehistory, Glory, Honor, Privilege, Poverty (1981) 189 103 Diego Velazquez, Venus with Mirror (The Rokeby Venus) (c.1650) 191 104 Edouard Manet, The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian (1868) 192 105 Joseph Wright of Derby, A Cottage in Needwood Forest (c. 1790) 194 106 Joseph Wright of Derby, A Cottage on Fire (c.1793) 194 107 Edouard Manet, Woman with Fans (c.1874) 196 108 E. A. Carolus Duran, Mademoiselle de Lancey (c.1876) 196 109 Hans Holbein, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (The Ambassadors) (1533) 197 110 Detail of anamorphic skull in plate 109 197 111 Piero della Francesca, The Flagellation of Christ [c.1450) 199 112 Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat (1793) 200 113 Camille Pissarro, Hoarfrost ~ the Old Road to Ennery, Pontoise (1873) 201 114 Alexander Deineka, A Fine Morning (1959-60) 204 115 Jackson Pollock, The Deep (1953) 204 116 Cover for Art-Language', vol.