Editing Art & Language

{{Short description|English conceptual artists' collaboration}}
{{About|the art group|the journal|Art-Language}}

[[Image:Art-LanguageV3No1-1974.jpg|thumb|Scratched photograph of the cover of ''[[Art-Language]]'', Vol.3 No.1, 1974.]]{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
'''Art & Language''' is an English [[conceptual art]]ists' collaboration that has undergone many changes since it was created around 1967. The group was founded by artists who shared a common desire to combine intellectual ideas and concerns with the creation of art, and included many Americans.

From May 1969, the group published in England the magazine ''[[Art-Language|Art-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art]]''.

==History==
[[File:Secret painting mel ramsden art language.jpg|thumb|[[Secret Painting]] Art & Language (Mel Ramsden), 1967]]
[[File:Art language mirror piece conceptual art.jpg|thumb|[[Mirror Piece]], 1965]]
[[File:Art language air conditioning show conceptual contemporary art.jpg|thumb|Air conditioning show 1966-7]]
The Art & Language group was founded around 1967 in the United Kingdom by [[Terry Atkinson]] (b. 1939), [[David Bainbridge (artist)|David Bainbridge]] (b. 1941), [[Michael Baldwin (artist)|Michael Baldwin]] (b. 1945) and [[Harold Hurrell]] (b. 1940).<ref>Neil Mulholland, ''The Cultural Devolution: art in Britain in the late twentieth century'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, p165. {{ISBN|0-7546-0392-X}}</ref> The group was critical of what was considered mainstream modern art practices at the time. In their work conversations, they created gallery art and presented these ideas in a journal as part of their discussions.<ref name="Tate-A&L">{{cite web |title=Art Term: Art & Language |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-language |website=Tate Museum |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref>

The first issue of ''[[Art-Language|Art-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art]]'' (Volume 1, Number 1) was published in May 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.leftmatrix.com/artlanguage.html|title=Art & Language|access-date=21 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123124657/http://www.leftmatrix.com/artlanguage.html|archive-date=23 January 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1972, the group created ''Index 01'', consisting of 350 texts placed inside 8 filing cabinets. These texts were "indexed according to their logical and ideological (in)compatibility", to assert a "critical inquiry into art practice as an art activity in itself".<ref name="Frieze-2002">{{cite journal |last1=Morton |first1=Tom |title=Art & Language: Musee d'Art Moderne Lille Metropole, France |journal=Frieze |date=4 April 2002 |issue=66 |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/art-language-0 |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> The Art & Language group that exhibited in the international ''[[Documenta 5]]'' exhibitions of 1972 included Atkinson, Bainbridge, Baldwin, Hurrell, Pilkington, Rushton, and Joseph Kosuth, the American editor of ''[[Art-Language The Journal of conceptual art|Art-Language]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GAa9BwAAQBAJ&q=index+wrongs+healed+in+official+hope+art&pg=PA97|title=Arte y archivo, 1920-2010: Genealogías, tipologías y discontinuidades|last=Guasch|first=Anna María|date=2011-02-11|publisher=Ediciones AKAL|isbn=9788446038146|language=es}}</ref> The work consisted of a filing system of material published and circulated by Art & Language members.<ref>Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen, Hazel Gardiner, ''Digital Visual Culture: Theory and Practice'', Intellect Books, 2009, p104. {{ISBN|1-84150-248-0}}</ref> π

==Projects==

Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden co-founded The Society for Theoretical Art and Analysis in New York in the late 1960s. They joined Art & Language in 1970–71.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2002/04/30/des-mondes-a-penser-pour-les-crocodiles-soumis_4240758_1819218.html|title=Des mondes à penser pour les crocodiles soumis|date=2002-04-30|access-date=2019-08-13|language=fr}}</ref> During this time, [[Sarah Charlesworth]] and [[Christine Kozlov]] became affiliated with the group.<ref name="PM" /><ref name="AM" /> New York Art & Language became fragmented after 1975 because of disagreements concerning principles of collaboration.<ref>Charles Green, ''The Third Hand: Collaboration in Art from Conceptualism to Postmodernism'', UNSW Press, 2001, p48. {{ISBN|0-86840-588-4}}</ref>
[[File:Art & Language, Untitled Painting (1965), Tate Modern, London - 20130627.jpg|thumb|Art & Language, Untitled Painting 1965. [[Tate|The Tate Modern]] Collection.]] 

In the early years of the 1970s, several artists joined the collective, including Ian Burn, Michael Corris, Charles Harrison, Preston Heller, Joseph Kosuth, Andrew Menard, Mel Ramsden and Terry Smith,<ref name="UBUWEB" /> and David Rushton.<ref name="UE" /> During this time the group produced numerous theoretical writings and art works.<ref name="UBUWEB" />

During the mid-1970s the group was in conflict during a time when conceptual art had lost some of its "critical bearing" and was being institutionalized. The conflicts among the collective existed within the context of global socio-political turmoil and economic crisis as well as the "revival of modernism."<ref name="CCCOD">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cccod.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/dp-al-cccod-en-06122017.pdf|title=Art & Language: Illustrations for Art-Language|date=September 2017|website=Centre de Création Contemporaine Oliver Debré |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref>

By the end of the decade, the only members who remained were Baldwin, Harrison and Ramsden, with the occasional participation of [[Mayo Thompson]] and the group [[Red Crayola|Red Krayola]] with whom several recordings were made.<ref name="UBUWEB">{{cite web |title=Art & Language, Britain |website=UBUWEB:Historical |url=https://www.ubu.com/historical/atkinson/index.html |publisher=Originally published in Aspen 8 |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="Rough Trade">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DtunaUIgxsEC&q=art+&pg=PA53|title=Rough Trade|last=Young|first=Rob|date=2006|publisher=Black Dog Publishing|isbn=9781904772477|language=en}}</ref> Ian Burn returned to Australia, joining Ian Milliss, a conceptual artist who had begun work with trade unions in the early 1970s, in becoming active in Union Media Services, a design studio for social and community initiatives and the development of trade unions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://joaap.org/issue8/milliss.htm|title=Annecdotes about Anonymity by Ian Milliss|website=joaap.org|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theivorytower.tv/baumflek%20osterweil%20-%20peripheral%20visions.pdf|title=Peripheral Visions: The Working Life of Ian Burn|last=Baumflek|first=David|date=July 2013|website=The Ivory Tower}}</ref>

In 1986, Art & Language was nominated for the [[Turner Prize]].<ref name="Tate-Turner">{{cite web |title=Turner Prize 1986: Gilbert & George won the Turner Prize (Art & Language listed among the nominees) |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/turner-prize-1986 |website=Tate Britain |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Art & language documenta 5 index 01.jpg|thumb|Art & language documenta 5 index 01]]
Art & Language and the Jackson Pollock Bar collaborated for the first time in January 1995,<ref name="ZKM, JPB">{{cite web |title=Jackson Pollock Bar |url=https://zkm.de/en/person/jackson-pollock-bar |website=ZKM: Center for art and media Karlsruhe |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> during the "Art & Language & [[Niklas Luhmann|Luhmann]]" symposium, organized by the Contemporary Social Considerations Institute (Institut für soziale Gegenwartsfragen) of Freiburg.<ref name="A&L&L">{{cite book |editor=((Institut für soziale Gegenwartsfragen, Freiburg i. Br., Kunstraum Wien (Hg.) )) |title=Art & Language & Luhmann III |date=1997 |publisher=Passagen Verlag |location=Wien |url=https://zkm.de/en/publication/art-language-luhmann-iii |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> The 3-day symposium included speakers such as [[Catherine David]], who prepared the Documenta X, and [[Peter Weibel]], artist and curator. There was also a theoretical installation of an Art & Language text produced in playback by the Jackson Pollock Bar. The installation was interpreted by five German actors playing the roles of [[Jack Tworkov|Jack Tworkow]], [[Philip Guston]], [[Harold Rosenberg]], [[Robert Motherwell]] and [[Ad Reinhardt]].<ref name="Harrison">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEQDkzD19QcC&q=jackson+pollock+bar+luhmann&pg=PA49|title=Conceptual Art and Painting: Further Essays on Art & Language|last=Harrison|first=Charles|date=2003-08-08|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262582407|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zkm.de/en/person/jackson-pollock-bar|title=Jackson Pollock Bar {{!}} ZKM|website=zkm.de|language=en|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fundaciotapies.org/es/exposicio/art-language-practica/|title=Art & Language en práctica|website=Fundació Antoni Tàpies|language=es-ES|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref>

An archive of papers relating to "New York Art & Language" are held at the [[Getty Research Institute]], Los Angeles.<ref name="Getty">{{cite web |title=Michael Corris papers of the Art & Language New York Group, 1965–2002 |quote=Papers and works relating to "New York Art & Language" are held at the [[Getty Research Institute]], Los Angeles. |website=Getty Research Institute Library Archives |url=https://primo.getty.edu/permalink/f/19q6gmb/GETTY_ALMA21134088420001551 |access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref>

==Critical reception==
In 1999, Art & Language exhibited at [[MoMA PS1|PS1 MoMA]] in New York, with a major installation entitled ''The Artist Out of Work''. This was a recollection of Art & Language's dialogical and other practices, curated by Michael Corris and Neil Powell.<ref name="MoMA-1999">{{cite web |title=The Artist Out of Work: Art & Language 1972–1981 |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4674 |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> In a negative appraisal of the exhibition, [[art critic]] [[Jerry Saltz]] wrote, "A quarter century ago, 'Art & Language' forged an important link in the genealogy of conceptual art, but next efforts have been so self-sufficient and obscure that their work is now virtually irrelevant."<ref>Jerry Saltz, ''Seeing out loud: the Voice art columns, fall 1998-winter 2003'', Geoffrey Young, 2003, p293. {{ISBN|1-930589-17-4}}</ref>

In 2002, Beatriz Herráez, writing for [[Flash Art]], described the Art & Language retrospective exhibition, ''Too Dark to Read'', as "declaration meant to ‘clarify’ the group’s practice" as a method that is located in "the discursive quality of its ideational system and never in isolated works."<ref name="Flash">{{cite journal |last1=Herráez |first1=Beatriz |title=Art & Language |journal=Flash Art |date=December 2016 |url=https://flash---art.com/article/art-language-2/ |access-date=7 March 2023}}</ref>

[[Adrian Searle]] wrote in 2014: "Art & Language is as much as anything a conversation from which work arises and goes off on its own tangent, referencing itself, dragging Art & Language’s compendious history with it as it goes. Their's is an art that makes and unmakes itself, eats and regurgitates itself."<ref name="Guardian-Searle">{{cite news |last1=Searle |first1=Adrian |title=A life measured in tea towels: Jonathan Monk and the art that freezes time |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/18/jonathan-monk-art-and-language-lisson-gallery |access-date=10 March 2023 |date=18 November 2014}}</ref>

== Members and associates ==
Members and associates include [[Terry Atkinson]],<ref name="Tate-A&L" /> [[David Bainbridge (artist)|David Bainbridge]],<ref name="Tate-A&L" /> [[Michael Baldwin (artist)|Michael Baldwin]],<ref name="Tate-A&L" /><ref name="Frieze-2002" /> [[Kathryn Bigelow]],<ref>Nicolas Rapold, "Interview: Kathryn Bigelow Goes Where the Action Is," ''The Village Voice'', 23 June 2009. [http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-06-24/film/interview-kathryn-bigelow-goes-where-the-action-is/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100222050230/http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-06-24/film/interview-kathryn-bigelow-goes-where-the-action-is/ |date=22 February 2010 }} Access date: 27 June 2009.</ref> [[Ian Burn]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> [[Sarah Charlesworth]]<ref name="PM">{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Christine |title=Sara Charlesworth: Image Language |url=https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/1102 |website=Printed Matter |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref>,[[Charles Harrison (Artist)|Charles Harrison]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> [[Michael Corris]]<ref name="UBUWEB" />,[[Preston Heller]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> [[Graham Howard]],<ref name="NGV-1971">{{cite web |title=Art-Language, 1971 |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/89240/ |website=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> [[Harold Hurrell]]<ref name="Tate-A&L" />,[[Joseph Kosuth]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> [[Christine Kozlov]],<ref name="AM">{{cite web |title=Christine Kozlov |url=https://thealdrich.org/page/christine-kozlov |website=Aldrich Museum |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> [[Nigel Lendon]],<ref name="AL">{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Ruark |title=Nigel Lendon 1944-2021 |journal=Artlink Magazine |date=15 December 2021 |url=https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4955/vale-nigel-lendon-1944E280932021/ |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> [[Andrew Menard]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> [[Philip Pilkington (artist)|Philip Pilkington]],<ref name="TM-PP">{{cite web |title=Art & Language (Michael Baldwin, born 1945; Philip Pilkington, born 1949) |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/art-language-18425 |website=Tate Museum |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> [[Neil Powell (author)|Neil Powell]],<ref name="MoMA-1999" /> [[Mel Ramsden]],<ref name="Tate-A&L" /><ref name="Frieze-2002" /> [[David Rushton]],<ref name="UE">{{cite web |title=David Rushton / Art As Conceit |url=https://www.trg.ed.ac.uk/exhibition/david-rushton-art-conceit |website=Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh |access-date=3 March 2023}}</ref> [[Terry Smith (art historian)|Terry Smith]],<ref name="UBUWEB" /> and [[Mayo Thompson]] and Red Crayola.<ref name="Rough Trade" />

== Public collections ==
{{columns-list|
*[[Art Gallery of New South Wales]], Sydney, Australia.<ref name="AGNSW">{{cite web |title=Secret Painting 1967-1968, Art & Language |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/30.2003.a-b/ |website=Art Gallery of New South Wales |access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Arts Council of Great Britain]], United Kingdom.<ref name="BC">{{cite web |title=Art & Language |url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/art-language |website=British Council, Visual Arts |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Centre Georges Pompidou]], Paris.<ref name="Pompidou">{{cite web |title=Art & Language Homes from Homes 1 2000 - 2001 |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/c679po |website=Centre Pompidou |access-date=4 March 2023}}</ref>
*Centro de Arte Contemporàneo de Malaga, Malaga, Spain.<ref name="Malaga">{{cite web |title=Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga. (Málaga Centre for Contemporary Art) |url=https://visita.malaga.eu/en/what-to-see-and-do/culture/museums/centro-de-arte-contemporaneo-de-malaga-malaga-centre-for-contemporary-art-p103310 |website=Visit Malaga |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art, Montsoreau, France.<ref name="CdM">{{cite web |title=The Château de Montsoreau-Museum of contemporary art, Loire Valley |url=https://www.chateau-montsoreau.com/wordpress/en/home/ |website=Chateau de Montsoreau |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*FRAC Haute Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France.<ref name="ArtFacts">{{cite web |title=FRAC Normandie Rouen: Collected Artists |url=https://artfacts.net/institution/frac-normandie-rouen/10519/artists |website=ArtFacts |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*FRAC Languedoc Roussillon, Montpellier, France.<ref name="FRAC L-R">{{cite web |title=ART & LANGUAGE (Michaël BALDWIN et Terry ATKINSON) |url=http://www.fraclr.org/download/2014/Acquisitions_2014_site_FracLR.pdf |website=FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, Acquisitions 2014 |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Les Abattoirs]], Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France.<ref name="Les Abattoirs">{{cite web |title=Art & Language |url=https://www.navigart.fr/lesabattoirs/artwork/270000000000393?filters=query%3A%22Art%20%26%20Language%22&page=1&layout=grid&sort=by_author |website=Les Abattoirs Musée - FRAC Occitainie Toulouse |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art]], Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.<ref name="LaM">{{cite web |title=ART & LANGUAGE Sighs Trapped by Liars 1-192 (Soupirs piégés par des menteurs 1-192) 1996 - 1997 |url=https://www.musee-lam.fr/fr/sighs-trapped-liars-1-192-soupirs-pieges-par-des-menteurs-1-192 |website=Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elpuntavui.cat/article/5-cultura/19-cultura/390089-un-tresor-al-macba.html?piwik_campaign=rss&piwik_kwd=mesCultura|title=Un tresor al Macba - 30 març 2011|first=Maria|last=Palau|website=El Punt Avui}}</ref>
*MAMCO, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Geneva, Switzerland.]<ref name="MAMCO">{{cite web |title=Collection Catalog: Art & Language |url=https://www.mamco.ch/en/1017/Catalogue/3279/Art-Language-Mel-Ramsden-100-Abstract-octobre-1968 |website=Migros Museum of Contemporary Art |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Migros Museum of Contemporary Art]], Zurich, Switzerland.<ref name="Migros">{{cite web |title=Art & Language: Homes from Homes II |url=https://migrosmuseum.ch/kuenstler/art-language |website=Migros Museum of Contemporary Art |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Musée d'art moderne (Saint-Étienne)|Musée d'art moderne]], Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France.<ref name="MAMC">{{cite web |title=Vingt-Quartre Heures de la Vie D'Une Femme: Collections du MAMC |url=https://mamc.saint-etienne.fr/fr/expositions/vingt-quatre-heures-de-la-vie-dune-femme |website=Musée D'Art Moderne Et Contemporain |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Mumok|Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung]], Vienna, Austria.<ref name="Mumok">{{cite web |title=Art & Language |url=https://www.mumok.at/en/collection/artist/art-language |website=Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles]], CA, USA.<ref name="MOCA">{{cite web |title=Art & Language |url=https://www.moca.org/artist/art-language |website=Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles}}</ref>
*[[Museum of Modern Art]], New York.<ref name="MoMA-col">{{cite web |title=Art & Language: Corrected Slogans 1976 |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/183817 |website=Museum of Modern Art, New York |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*[[National Gallery of Victoria]], Melbourne, Australia.<ref name="NGV">{{cite web |title=Art & Language: F works |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/24497/ |website=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium.<ref name="SMAK">{{cite web |title=Picasso's Guernica in the Style of Jackson Pollock Art & Language |url=https://smak.be/en/artworks/picassos-guernica-in-the-style-of-jackson-pollock |website=Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst |access-date=6 March 2023}}</ref>
*Tate Modern, London.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/art-language-2202|title=Art & Language (Michael Baldwin, born 1945; Mel Ramsden, born 1944)|last=Tate|website=Tate}}</ref>
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

* [http://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia?id_capsula=819 Interview with Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden about Art & Language (2011)] [http://rwm.macba.cat/uploads/songs/sonia124_06042011.mp3 MP3]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060420080300/http://blurting-in.zkm.de/ Art & Language: Blurting in A & L online] Hypertext version of a complete print work of 1973 by American members of Art & Language, with articles and a discussion forum.

==Further reading==
* Bailey, Robert. ''Art & Language International'', Duke University Press, {{ISBN|9780822374121}}
* [http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_Titel.html Thomas Dreher: Intermedia Art: Konzeptuelle Kunst] with four German articles on Art & Language and a chronology with illustrated works.
* Morton,Tom.  [https://web.archive.org/web/20090922233350/http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/art_language ''Art & Language''], ''Frieze'', April 2002.
* [http://enriquecastanos.com/art_language.htm El análisis crítico de la modernidad de Art & Language]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Art and Language}}
[[Category:Art & Language| ]]
[[Category:1967 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:20th-century art movements]]
[[Category:British conceptual artists]]
[[Category:English artist groups and collectives]]
[[Category:English contemporary artists]]
[[Category:Conceptual art]]
[[Category:British postmodern artists]]