The case of conceptual art

5 хв

You're in a museum. In one room, you admire an exquisitely rendered ( вишукано виконаною)painting of a
lush( пишний) garden by Spanish artist Santiago Rusignol. In another, you encounter ( зустрічати) one of
the most famous paintings in the world, a monumental work by Picasso that bowls you over with its
dynamic composition of abstracted but still recognizable( впізнавані) figures and forms, telling you of the
horrors of the 1937 bombing of the village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War ( громадянська війна).
And in another room, you come across something completely different, a picture of a chair, a chair, and a
blown up dictionary definition of a chair by Toledo, Ohio, born artist Joseph Kussuth. What the actual? Can
we really call this art, this thing that is entirely unlike those other things in the rooms before it, that exhibits
( демонструє)no technical skill and transports you to nowhere but right where you are in an empty feeling,
slightly chilly( прохолодну) gallery? How can this be art? And what am I supposed to do with it?

This is the case for conceptual art. Kussuth made this work in New York in 1965. In the years leading up, the
Equal Pay Act( закон про рівну оплату праці) had been passed, President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated( вбити) , the Civil Rights Act( закон про громадянські права) was freshly signed into law, and
the Vietnam War and protests against it were in full effect. The decade's identity as one of countercultural
revolution was crystallizing. And the art of the time likewise ( також) reflected a widespread ( пошрене)
questioning of tradition. There was pop art and minimalism and happenings and fluxes. Paintings, when
they did happen, were coming off of the wall and invading ( захоплювати) your space. And there was also
this thing that Kussuth was doing, which came to be called conceptual art.

In 1967, artist Saul Lewitt explained it like this. In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important
aspect of the work. It means that all the planning and decisions are made beforehand,( заздалегідь) and
the execution ( виконання ) is a perfunctory affair( поверхнева справа ). The idea becomes the machine
that makes the art. For Lewitt, this often meant creating specific instructions and diagrams for large scale
wall drawings that could be carried out by others. Even after Lewitt's death, a draftsperson,( кресляр) or
many of them, can make the drawing happen, as long as the instructions and certificate of authenticity are
on hand. The resulting works can be magnificent, but it's not the individual touch of the artist that makes
them so. It's the idea supported by proper execution.

Sometimes people were the machines that made the art. Like for a 1969 piece, Vito Acconci challenged
himself to follow randomly selected passers-by until they entered a private space. He said of it, I'm almost
not an eye anymore. I put myself in the service of this scheme. And sometimes it was actually machines
that were the machines that made the art. Ian Byrne's Xerox book came to be when he photocopied a
blank sheet of white paper and then copied that copy and so on and so forth 100 times, with more and
more visual noise appearing as he went.

Documentation is often how we come to know about conceptual art. And that's OK, because the physical
presence is secondary to the idea that brought it into being. You didn't have to be there to see Eleanor
Anton parade 50 pairs of rubber( гумові) boots on a trip around California and New York. She took photos
and made postcards of them and mailed them to hundreds of artists and museums and libraries and
friends. And when you see one of those postcards or hear about them in a YouTube video, your
understanding isn't really distorted( спотворюється) or diminished.( зменшується)

Art critic and curator Lucy Lepard described what was happening at the time as a dematerialization. It
wasn't often as literal as John Baldessari's cremation piece of 1969, in which he burned all of his paintings
and had the ashes( порох) interred in a wall of the Jewish ( єврей) Museum. Because materials were
almost always involved. It's just that they were often ephemeral. Maps, diagrams, photos, books, or at least
not the primary concern. Even molten lead( розплавлений свинець) became fleeting, as much as it can be,
in the hands of Richard Serra, who in the late 60s focused on action and process over finished object. None
of his original splash or cast pieces still exist. They were made for temporary( тимчасові) shows and
discarded after. Uniqueness wasn't important. He has since made new iterations following the same
procedure.

More characteristic of conceptual art is Douglas Hubler's Duration Piece Number Six, for which he made a
rectangle( прямокутник ) of sawdust ( тирса ) in a doorway and documented it every half hour for six
hours. The sawdust was then cleared away. And what you see here is the final piece. Hubler said at the
time, the world is full of objects, more or less interesting. I do not wish to add any more. I prefer simply to
state the existence of things in terms of time and or place.

Which brings us back to those chairs, because what Kassuth is doing is pointing out the existence of things
in time and place, taking it a few steps further than when Magritte reminded us that this painting of a pipe
is not a pipe.( трубка) Like when we look at this painting of a chair, we know it's a pipe.
Choose the correct answers
1. What is the main focus of the video?

A. The history of Spanish art

B. The significance of Picasso's artwork

C. The concept of conceptual art

D. The technique of large-scale wall drawings

2. According to the video, what is the purpose of conceptual art?

A. To challenge traditional artistic techniques

B. To create visually appealing artworks

C. To document historical events

D. To promote countercultural revolution

3. How does Sol LeWitt define conceptual art?

A. Art that requires planning and execution

B. Art that emphasizes individual artistic touch

C. Art that involves random selection of materials

D. Art that focuses on the idea or concept behind it

4. What role do machines play in creating conceptual art?

A. They execute the ideas of the artist

B. They provide inspiration for the artwork

C. They are the subject of the artwork

D. They have no role in conceptual art

5. How does documentation contribute to our understanding of conceptual art?

A. It provides physical evidence of the artwork

B. It helps preserve the original artwork

C. It allows people to experience the artwork remotely

D. It improves the visual appeal of the artwork

6. What is the significance of John Baldessari's cremation piece?

A. It symbolizes the destruction of traditional art forms

B. It represents the artist's personal beliefs

C. It demonstrates the use of ephemeral materials in art

D. It challenges the concept of permanence in art

7. According to Richard Serra, what is more important in conceptual art?

A. The finished object

B. The process and action involved

C. The uniqueness of the artwork

D. The physical presence of the artist

8. How does Douglas Huebler's duration piece differ from traditional artworks?

A. It focuses on the existence of objects in time and place

B. It uses unusual materials for artistic expression

C. It requires constant documentation and monitoring

D. It challenges the concept of visual appeal in art

Questions:
1. How does the video describe the painting of a lush garden by Santiago Rusiñol?

2. What is the significance of Picasso's monumental work in the video?

3. Who created the picture of a chair with a blown-up dictionary definition of a chair?

4. How does the video question whether the picture of a chair can be considered art?

5. When and where did Joseph Kosuth create the work with the blown-up dictionary definition of a chair?

6. What were some significant events happening during the time when Kosuth made his artwork?

7. According to Sol LeWitt, what is the most important aspect of conceptual art?

8. How did artists like Sol LeWitt create large-scale wall drawings?
9. Give an example of how people were involved in making conceptual art.

10. How does documentation play a role in understanding conceptual art?

HomeWork
Not a real chair, but we're probably not thinking about how it's a kind of sign we recognize as indicating a
chair. Just as a dictionary definition is a verbal sign that points to something in the world, and a photograph
is a visual sign that points to something that is or used to be in the world, which of these three chairs do we
perceive to be more chair than the other, especially now that this real one is in a museum collection and
will likely never be sat in again?

If this putting regular stuff in a museum sounds familiar, it's because Duchamp, who made conceptual art
way before it was cool or even had a name. In 1913, Marcel Duchamp attached a bicycle wheel to a
wooden stool and called it a ready-made work of art. It was art because he said it was, and because he put
it in a gallery. Kussuth's operation here is similar. He said, "...the art consists of my action of placing this
activity in an art context." But the art context didn't have to be a gallery. Sure, there were exhibitions that
chronicled this kind of art, but more often the art was its own means of distribution.

Seth Segalob thought of his Xerox book as an exhibition venue in itself, giving each artist included 25 pages
to make a work that responded in some way to the format. On, Kuwara made art by documenting his
everyday life and mailing news of it on postcards to friends, acquaintances, and art collectors. Eleanor
Anton photographed herself naked every morning to document her weight loss of 10 pounds over the
course of 37 days. And Mary Kelly recorded the activity of taking care of her young son, reflected on
motherhood in conversations with him, and eventually allowed him to scribble over her documentation.

As Lippard wrote in 1973, much art now is transported by the artist or in the artist himself. Conceptual art
was a way of working around the power structures of the art world, which as it happens was rife with
himself and around market concerns. Lee Lozano began her general strike piece in 1969, declaring her
withdrawal from the art world and documenting her final visits to gallery openings and museums.
Conceptual art was out in the world, often blending with activism. The Art Workers Coalition organized in
1969 to agitate for artists' rights and against Vietnam, racism, and sexism. But for the most part, conceptual
art was political not in its illustration of current events, but in its commitment to rethink the status quo.

There was a worker mentality and pragmatism to much first-generation conceptual art, a deadpan
recording and structuring of life, almost aggressively unartful, that replaced the careful consideration of
composition and form and flourish normally associated with art in artists. Ed Ruscha's book 26 Gasoline
Stations recorded exactly that, 26 gasoline stations. Berndt and Hilla Becker took straightforward pictures
of water towers. That's what they did, across years and continents. There was no trickery at play, no need
for an interpreter.

What's needed for this kind of art, more than interpretation, is a shift in perspective. An opening of a door
that allows an idea by Douglas Hubler to be art, a piece of paper that reads, the line above is rotating on its
axis at a speed of one revolution each day. Or a sign to be art, like this one by Louise Kamnetzer. You can sit
with this for a few seconds.
In 1969, artist and writer Victor Bergen contended, it may now be said that an object becomes or fails to
become a work of art in direct response to the inclination of the perceiver to assume an appreciative role.
As Morse Peckham has put it, art is not a category of perceptual fields, but of role playing. So it's up to you.
Do you want to play a role and call this art? If you do, congratulations. In some cases, you might now own
it. Lawrence Wiener's two minutes of spray paint directly upon the floor from a standard aerosol spray can
is exactly what it sounds like. And according to the artist the year after it was made, they don't have to buy
it to have it, they can have it just by knowing it.

We're used to art galleries being places where visual experience reigns supreme. But conceptual art asks us
to understand the gallery experience as never having been purely visual, always informed by our other
senses, the art's context, and the invisible perceptual operations happening in our minds to process it.
Conceptual art has given us new words to describe what we encounter and new levels of interaction. We
can still appreciate a masterful painting, but in a world after conceptual art, we do so with our blinders off,
understanding that art is composed of signs, it illustrates, it lives in specific buildings, it decorates rich
people's homes. Once conceptual art's lessons have been internalized, we see that this is not a garden, this
is not what happened at Guernica. Conceptual art still lives and blends with many other ways of making,
but it's a slippery art, one that avoids living in just one spot, one that resists ownership and being turned
into just another.

True/false
Statements:

1. Marcel Duchamp attached a bicycle wheel to a wooden stool and called it a ready-made work of art.

2. Conceptual art is always displayed in galleries.

3. Seth Siegel AB thought of his xerox book as an exhibition venue.

4. On Kawara documented his everyday life on postcards and mailed them to friends and acquaintances.

5. Eleanor Antin photographed herself naked every morning to document her weight loss.

6. Mary Kelly allowed her young son to scribble over her documentation of taking care of him.

7. Lee Lozano began her general strike piece in 1969, declaring her withdrawal from the art world.

8. Conceptual art was primarily concerned with illustrating current events.

9. The art workers coalition organized in 1969 to advocate for artist rights.

10. Conceptual art focused on careful consideration of composition and form.