Why is there only one Monopolies Commissio? British Art and its Critics In the Late 1970s

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Mulholland, Neil Charles (1998) Why is there only one Monopolies Commission? : British art and its critics in the late 1970s. PhD thesis.

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WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE MONOPOLIES COMMISSION?

British Art and its Critics In the Late 1970s

Neil CharlesMulholland M. A.

Thesissubmittedfor the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy University of Glasgow Department of History of Art Faculty 6f Arts

October 1998

Neil Charles Mulholland 1998 r-, -ý-All Rights Reserved

ABSTRACT This thesisexaminesthe British art world in the period 1976-1981. The first section explores the crisesin the artworld triggered by the International Monetary Fund Crisis of February 1976. Central to this analysisis the Labour and ConservativeParty's ideological shift from culturalist paternalism to monetarist liberalism, the history and function of the Arts Council of Great Britain, the pressscandalssurrounding the Tate Gallery's purchaseof Carl Andre's Equivallent VIII and the ICA's exhibition of COUM Transmission'sProstitution. The Peter Andrew Brighton, 'crisis (Richard Cork, the critics' of opportunist populist polemics Fuller and John Tagg) are then introduced alongsidea discussionof the colossalchangesin the British art press. This is followed by an analysisof Cork's defenceof Conrad Atkison's work by looks The Oak Royal the rejected section at postmodernism the murals. second and of Cork and the populist crisis critics, namely, the scripto-visual work of John Hilliard, Victor Burgin, and John Stezaker. The influence of photoconceptualismon community artists and feminist artists is then examined. This if followed by an analysisof Art & Language'scritique history' in This 'new 'Semio-Art'. the an with analysis concludes of relation to section art of following The Terry Atkinson. Spence Jo section looks at the practicesof and dconservative'/populistpostmodernismas outlined in exhibitions such as The Human Clay (1976), Towards Another Picture (1978), Lives (1979) and Narrative Painting (1979). This includesextensivediscussionof the work of David Shepherd,PeterBlake, Ron Kitaj, David Hockney, StevenCampbell, Women's Painting (Imagesof Men), and The School of London (The Hard Won Image). The final sectionopenswith a lengthy examination of the agitational decision investigating COUM Transmissions, their to abandon the publicly performancesof followed band become industrial Throbbing Gristle. This is in the order to subsidisedartworld by an examination of British pro-Situationism, punk and new wave subculturesin the 1970s, In 1980s. the the the them to the entrepreneurial art of market early growth of relating Lisson impact 70s I 70s the the the of wave on art crises and new relative conclusion, consider late boom Artist) (Young 1980s, British the the the of and early yBa phenomenon sculpture of 80s to the time of writing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Illustrations

4

Dedications

9

Introduction: Why is there Only one Monopolies Commission?

10

1

T. 1534 or Not T. 1534?Is that the Question?

13

2

Crisis Criticism

37

3

GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

52

4

Fart for Peace

65

5

Photoconceptualism

76

6

Community Photography

97

7

Semi(o)-Art?

106

8

Radical Academicism

120

9

The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

135

10

Nude Review

151

11

ReconsideringTheory

171

12

Schooling London

183

13

GuaranteedDisappointment

211

14

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

240

15

Who am I? Where am I going? How much will it cost? Will I needany luggage?

274

End Matter: Bibliography

291

CHAPTER

3

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure No. Daily Mirror, No. 22410-Monday February 16th, Mirror Group- pl. Digitally from photograph of newspapertaken in National Library of Scotland, reproduced Edinburgh. 1.2

Heineken Advertisement.Februa[y 1976. Digitally reproduced from photocopy taken from Tate Gallery Equivalent VIII PressArchive.

1.3

Daily Mail, 19th October 1976, pl. Digitally reproduced from McDERMOTT, CATHERINE. "New Wave Graphic: A Manual of Style", StreetStyle: Britisb Style in the 80s, The Design Council, London, 1987, p59.

3.1

CONRAD ATKINSON Asbestos.installed in CORK. RICHARD. Art For Whom?. SerpentineGallery. Arts Council of Great Britain. 1978. Digitally reproduced from TISDALL, CAROLINE and NAIRNE, SANDY. (eds.) Conrad Atkinson: Picturing the System,Pluto Press/ICA,London, 1981, p7.

3.2

Viewing CONRAD ATKINSON A Shadeof Green. An Orangg Edgr, Arts Council o Northern Ireland Gallecy,Belfast, 1975. Digitally reproduced from TISDALL, CAROLINE and NAIRNE, SANDY. (eds.) Conrad Atkinson: Picturing the System, Pluto Press/ICA,London, 1981, p52.

3.3

Print: Fromthe PeopleWhoBroughtYou CONRAD ATKINSONAnniversaz3! Thalidomide...Print presented the 150th to the QueenMother to commemorate London in April College 1978(alsothe 20th anniversaryof University Xof Thlidomide). Digitally reproducedfrom TISDALL, CAROLINEand NAIRNE, SANDY.(eds.) ConradAtkinson:Picturingthe System,Pluto Press/ICA,London,1981, p65.

4.1

Harrow Road and Westway Urban Motorway- Royal Oak, Paddington, London, October 197 Digitally reproducedfrom CORK, RICHARD. "Public Art at Royal . Oak", Art for Wbom? Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1978, p22.

4.2

DESMOND ROCHEORL The Construction Workers- Keim Sillicate Mural- Royal Oak. Paddington, London. A12ril1975 - October 1977. Digitally reproduced from CORK, RICHARD. "Public Art at Royal Oak", Art for Wbom? Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1978, p23.

4.3

DAVID BINNINGTOM Office Work, Keim Sillicate Mural. Royal Oak, Paddington. London, April 1975 - October 1977. Digitally reproduced from CORK, RICHARD. "Public Art at Royal Oak", Art for Whom? Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1978, p25.

5.1

VICTOR BURGIN Illustrations from "Photographic Practiceand Art Theorý"-, Studio International, Photography Edition, July/August 1975, p4l.

5.2

VICTOR BURGIN Stlaurent Demandsa Whole New Lif cstyle, 12hototext.102 x 152 . New from ICA 1976. Digitally UK '76, Collection, Arts Council reproduced cm, Gallery, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976.

5.3

Think aboutIt VICTOR BURGINIt's Worth ThinkingAbout ... ClassConsciousness. StudioInternational,No. 191,March/April 1976,p146-147.

5.4

VICTOR BURGIN Wbat Does PossessionMean to You? Edition of 500 Collection, A--ts-Council 124 84 Newcastle-upon-jyne, x cm, photolithographic prints,

127L Digitally reproducedfrom WOOD, PAUL.,FRASCINA,FRANCIS.,HARRIS, JONATHAN. and HARRISON,CHARLES.Modernismin Dispute:Art Sincethe Forties,Yale/OpenUniversityPress,1993,p222. 6.1

ANONIFEMINISIO. CrochetedBreakfalt, Knife. fork and wool. dimensions unknown,. 1976. Digitally reproducedfrom " 1977 Dossier: Teministo' (2)" ROZSIKA PARKER "Portrait of the Artist as a Housewife", in PARKER, ROZSIKA. and POLLOCK, GRISELDA. Framing Feminism:Art and the Women's Movement 1970-198S, Pandora (Routledge& Kegan Paul Ltd), London, 1987, p208.

7.1

ART & LANGUAGE Illustration from Art - LanguageVol. 3 no. 4, (Fox 4).

7.2

ART & LANGUAGE Ils donnet leur Sang:donnez votre Travail- Oil on Canvas, 1977, 236 x 474 cm. First exhibited at Robert Self Gallery. London. December1977 January 1978, Collection Gateriede Paris-Digitally reproducedfrom HARRISON, CHARLES. "'SeeinWand 'Describing': the Artists' Studio", Essaysin Art and Language,Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1991, p158.

7.3

ART & LANGUAGE 1972 Documenta Index 04- Lisson Galle[y. London 1974-74. Digitally reproducedfrom COLLINGS, MATIFHEW. Blimey!, 21 Publishing Ltd. Cambridge, 1997, p122.

8.1

POLYSNAPPFRSCOLUCTIVE Family. Fantasy.Photography. B/W Photograph= Digitally reproducedfrom FUIRER, MICHELE. "Jo Spence:Review of Work 1950 to 1985, CambridgeDarkroom", Ten 8,19,1985, p50.

8.2

TERRYATKINSON Ideolo&&LBattered Postcardfmm Trotskxin Coyoacanto Stalinin Moscow.dated1938...Mixed Media. 1Kx 79 cm, 1981-82. Digitally reproducedfrom FRANCIS,MARK, (ed.) TerryAtkinson: Work 1977-83,Whitechapel Art Gallery,April 1983,p7.

9.1

DAVID SHEPHERD Tiger Fire, Oil on Canvas,original dimensionsunknown, 1973. Digitally reproducedfrom a photograph of limited edition print courtesy of Solomon 8C Whitehead Guild Prints Ltd.

9.2

BARNEY BUBBLESLives, Exhibition cataloguedesign. 1979. Digitally reproduced from BOSHIER, DEREK. Lives: An Exhibition of Artists Whose Work is Basedon Other People'sLives, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979.

9.3

Digitally reproducedfrom BOSHIER, NORMAN HEPPLE in his Studio, -1979. DEREK. Lives: An Exbibition of Artists Wbose Work is Basedon Otber People'sLives, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979, unpaginated.

9.4

MARGARET HARRISON Rape,Acrylic and Collage on Canvas-177.5 x 244 cm, 12-7L Digitally reproducedfrom BOSHIER, DEREK. Lives: An Exhibition of Artists Whose Work is Basedon Other People'sLives, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979, unpaginated.

9.5

DICK JEWELL JewellFamily- Silk ScreenPrint, 90.2 x 63.5 cm, 1977. Digitally reproduced from BOSHIER, DEREK. Lives: An Exhibition of Artists Whose Work Basedon Other People'sLives, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979 unpaginated.

10.1

PETER BLAKE Titania (work in progress).Oil on Canvas,122 x 21.5 cm, Waddington Galleries Ltd. London, 1976. Digitally reproduced from USHERWOOD, NICHOLAS. The Brotherhood of Ruralists, Lund Humphries, London, 1981, p4l.

10.2

RON. B. KITAI If Not. Not. Oil on Canvas,60 x 60 in. ScottishNational Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. 1975-76. Digitally reproduced National Galleriesof Scotland Postcard.

10.3.

RON. B. KITAI The JewEtc.. Oil and Charcoal on Canvas,152.4 x 12.9 cm., Marlborough Fine Art Ltd. London. 1976.,Digitally reproducedfrom FAURE WALKER, JAMES. "R. B. Kitai Interviewed by JamesFaureWalker", Artscribe, 5th February 1977, p4.

10.4

RON. B. KITAI Cecil Court. London WC2 CMe RefuZees)-Oil on Canvas,182.9 x 182.9 cm Marlborough Fine Art Ltd. London,, 1983-84. Digitally reproducedfrom LIVINGSTONE, MARCO. R.B. Kitai, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, figure 143.

10.5

DAVID HOCKNEY- Looking at Pictureson a Screen,Oil on Canvas, 183 x 183 cm, New York- Andre Emmerich Gallery Inc. sold to Private Collection, 1977. Digitally from LIVINGSTONE, David Hockney, Thames Hudson, MARCO. & reproduced London, 1981, pl97.

10.6

STEVEN CAMPBELL The Fern's Revenge- Pool- India Ink on Paper-271.8 x 248.9 from MACMILLAN, DUNCAN. The Paintings of Digitally 1984. reproduced cm. StevenCampbell. The Story So Far, Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1993, p38.

11.1

SUSAN HILLER, Fragments-Installation shot, 178 gouachedrawings, 210 potsherds,5 from handwritten diagrams, Digitally 12 1978. texts. reproduced monochrome charts. PARKER, ROZSIKA. and POLLOCK, GRISELDA. Framing Feminism:Art and the Women'sMovement 1970-198S,Pandora (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd), London, 1987, pII6.

11.2

SUSAN HILLER, Fragments,GouacheDrawing- 1978. Digitally reproducedfrom PARKER, ROZSIKA. and POLLOCK, GRISELDA. Framing Feminism:Art and the Women'sMovement 1970-198S,Pandora (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd), London, 1987, p117.

11.3

ALEXIS HUNTER PassionateInstincts VI, Oil on Canvas-115 x 26 cm, Unilever Plc Collection. London, 1983. Digitally reproducedfrom NAIRNE, SANDY. "Sexuality, Image and Identity", The Stateof the Art: Ideas and Imagesin the 1980s, Channel 4/Chatto & Windus, London, 1987, p138.

12.1

FRANK AUERBACH Head Q(Michael Podro, Oil On Board. 33 x 28cm, Private CollectiQn, 12JLDigitally reproducedfrom HUGHES, ROBERT. Frank Auerbach, Thames & Hudson, London, 1990, Fig. 66.

12.2

FRANK AUERBACH Portrait o(Sandra (work in progress),Mixed Chalks on Paper. 81.3 x 55.9 cm, Collection of R.B. Kitai, 1973-74.40 Photos by SandraFisher. Digitally reproduced from HUGHES, ROBERT. Frank Auerbach, Thames & Hudson, London, 1990, Fig. 164-203.

12.3

LEON KOSSOFF,Booking Hall. Kilburn Underground Station No. 2, Oil on anvas, dimensionsunknown. 1977. Digitally reproducedfrom COLLINGS, MATTHEW. Blimey!, 21 Publishing Ltd. Cambridge, 1997, p197.

12.4

LUCIEN FREUD, Naked Man with Rat- Oil on Canvas-91.5 x 91.5 cm, Art Gallery of Western Australia, 1977-78. Digitally reproduced from Lucien Freud Paintings, The British Council, 1988, plate 58.

12.5

LUCIEN FREUD, Large Interior W.11 (After Watteau)- Oil on Canvas, 186 x 198 cm. Private Collection- 1981-83. Digitally reproduced from Lucien Freud Paintings, The British Council, 1988, plate 68.

13.1

COUM TRANSMISSIONS. Logo From'Couming of Age'Promotional Leaflm Christmas Edition, 1974. Digitally reproducedfrom photograph of leaflet from National Art Library COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, Victoria Albert Museum, London.

13.2

COUM TRANSMISSIONS, Amsterdam Performance,August 19Z5, Digitally reproducedfrom photograph taken from National Art Library COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

13.3

Vile, SanFrancisco,USA, Vol. 1. No. 1. 'Valentines Edition' February 1974. ,

13.4

GenesisP-Orridge Filed to Points, Photocollageon Postcard.1976. Digitally reproducedfrom ANON (NAYOR, COLIN? ) "The RemarkableCaseof GenesisPOrridge and the Dirty Postcards", National News, Issue3, Kelerfern, London, 1976.

13.5

GenesisP-Orridge and his supportersoutside Highburgh Magistrates Court, London 5" April 1976. Digitally reproducedfrom ANON (NAYOR, COLIN? ) "Tbe Remarkable Caseof GenesisP-Orridge and the Dirty Postcards", National News, Issue3, Kelerfern, London, 1976.

13.6

Promotional leaflet for VILE, 1976. Digitally reproducedfrom photograph taken from National Art Library COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, Victoria Albert Museum, London.

13.7

Promotional leaflet for Prostitution. ICA, October 1976. Collection of the author.

13.8

Posterfor Prostitution, ICA, October 1976. Collection of the author.

13.9

PETERSLEAZY CHRISTOPHERSON Gaty Gilmore Memorial Society. Edition of 50 Postcards,1977. Digitally reproducedfrom McDERMOTI7, CATHERINE. "New Wave Graphic: A Manual of Style", StreetStyle: British Style in the 80s, The Design Council, London, 1987, p6O.

13.10

BOY (JOHN KIRVINE) Gaa Gilmore Memorial Society,T-Shirt, 1978. Digitally reproducedfrom ibid.

13.11

Photographof London Newstand in 1976 Digitally reproduced from collection of Simon Ford, Curator of National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

13.12

THROBBING GRISTLE Industrial Records'Auschwitz Logo'. 1976. Digitally 1976. Industrial Records, LP from Friendly Very sleeve, reproduced

13.13

THROBBING GRISTLE 'Flash'Insignia, sticker 3x2 in, 1977.

14.1

KING MOB King Mob Echo. No. 1 1969

14.2

SEX PISTOLSon the cover of Investor's Review. December1977.

14.3

PETERSLEAZY CHRISTOPHERSON Sex Pistols- Promotional photograph. 197S. Digitally reproducedfrom photograph of reproduction in National Art Library COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archivc, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

14.4

JAMIE REID SubvertismentStickers, from Suburban Press,Stickers. 1973. Digitally Curator National Art Library, Victoria from Simon Ford, of of collection reproduced Albert Museum, London.

14.5

JAMIE REID Holidayl in the Sun (Detail). Photo-collage-7in x 7in. Glitterbest Ltd. and Virgin RecordsLtd. VS19114th October 1977.

14.6

JAMIE REID Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols LP SleeveDesign. Cut-up 12 in 1977. 12 inGlitterbest Ltd. Virgin Recordspaperx coloured and and newsprint

14.7

Daily Express2nd December1976, pl Collection of Ronald Heeps, Artist, Glasgow.

14.8

MALCOLM GARRETT and LINDER STERLING Oreasm AddiCt- lypograp4 (Garret) and Photomontage(Sterling), 7in x 7in, 1977.

14.9

PETERSAVILLE Love Will Tear Us Apart, lypogranhy and Photography, 12in x 12in, Factol:y Records-18th April 1980.

14.10

LAURIE RAY CHAMBERLAIN Digitally reproduced from MALOON, TERENCE. "Notes on Style in the Seventies:1. Modes of Perceiving", Artscribe, 12, June 1978, P15.

14.11

ADAM ANT as Highwayman in 1981 Digitally reproduced from YORK, PETER. "Clubtime: How the Wedgewas Won", Modern Times, William Heineman, London, 1984, p69.

14.12 Collection- AutumnlWinter 1981. Digitally reproduced from McDERMOTT, CATHERINE. "Punkature: The Revival of British Fashion", Street Style: Britisb Style in the 80s, The Design Council, London, 1987, p29. 14.13

DUGGIE FIELDS in his Earls Court Flat Digitally reproduced from Artscribe, 12, June 1978.

14.14

DIJGGTEFIELDS on the cover of Artscribe. 12. June1979.

14.15

MARK P. Sniffin' Glue, No. 6, Punk Fanzine.Felt-tip pen and Xerox, January 1977. Digitally reproduced from McDERMOTT, CATHERINE. "New Wave Graphic: A Manual of Style", StreetStyle: Britisb Style in the 80s, The Design Council, London, 1987, p66.

14.16

TERRY JONESPagefrom iD, March 1981. Digitally reproduced from JONES, TERRY. Wink, Instant Design: A Manual of Graphic Techniques,Architecture and Technology Press,1990, unpaginated.

14.17

STEVE STRANGE and RUSTY EGAN at Heroes, Blitz Wine Bar- Covent Garden, 12ZE,Digitally reproducedfrom YORK, PETER. "Clubtime: How the Wedgewas .Won", Modern Times, William Heineman, London, 1984, p7S.

15.1

TONY CRAGG Red Skin, Coloured Plastic Fragments.671x 518cm, Installation at LbtzowstrasseSituation- Berlin, British Arts Council Collection, 1979. Digitally 1996, Georges Pompidou, Paris, Centre from Cragg, TonY p70. reproduced

15.2

TONY CRAGG Britain Seenfrom the Nortb Coloured Plastic-Fragments.D* Variable. Installation at Whitechapel Art Gallery. London, Tate Gallery Collection 1,28-L Digitally reproduced from Tony Cragg, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1996, p77.

15.3

TONY CRAGG Five Bottles (Yellow. Green. Orange and Blue) Installation at Metropolitan Museum of Toyko, Coloured Plastic Fragments,Dimensions Variable. Collection Galerie Buchmann. Saint-Gall, 1982. Digitally reproduced from Tony Cragg, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1996, p188.

15.4

BILL WOODROW Twin-Tub with Guitar, Twin-Tub washing machine. 40 in high, JM Digitally reproduced from BIGGS, LEWIS., BLASZCZYK, IWONA. and .NAIRNE, SANDY. "Bill Woodrow", Objects & Sculpture, Arnolfini/ICA, London, 1981, p36.

15.5

JULIAN OPIE Making It, Oil on Steel,305 x 52.5 x 52.5 cms, 1983. Digitally from MONCHAUX, PAUL DE. CRICHTON, FENELLA. and BLACKER, reproduced

KATE. TheSculptureShow,Arts Councilof GreatBritain, HaywardandSerpentine Galleries,London,1983,p78. 15.6

DAVID MACH, Polaris,Car Lres, 170 x 20ft. SouthBank Centre.London,1983. Photoby BARRYLEWIS,courtesyArts Councilof GreatBritain Digitally reproduced -from LIVINGSTONE,MARCO. David Mach:Towardsa Landscape, Museumof ModernArt, Oxford, 1985,p2l.

15.7

DAMIEN HIRSTDigitally pastedfrom DamienHirst Website,0 Jayjopling Ltd.

15.8

MARCUSHARVEY,Myra, Acrylic on Canvas,396 x 320 cm, SaatchiCollectimi. 122,L Digitally reproducedfrom Sensation:YoungBritish Artists from the Saatchi Collection,RoyalAcademyof Arts, 1997,p87.

15.9

THE LEEDS13 PressCuttingsfor GoingPlaces,1998Digitally reproducedfrom RUGOFF,RALPH."Yours Sincerely",Frieze,Issue42, October1998,p66.

DEDICATIONS I would like to thank Alice, Ian and CraigMulholland,JaneAllan, John Calcut,Nicholas Oddie,Col. Mustard,RayMacKenzie,RonnieHeeps,Kraftwerk,ElaineWilson,Peter Stringfellow,Marion Lawson,RobertJohnston,MontagueSandwich,ElaineBoyle,Anne Toland,JohnCooperClarke,RossBirell,JohnWilmot Earl of Rochester,LeighFrench, AnthonyH. Wilson,KenNeil, B52s,DuncanCombrie,PeterMandelson,SimonFord,my Glasgow Richard Hooker School Thanks. Art. at and my students supervisor of

9

Introduction

INTRODUCTION Why is there only one Monopolies Commission? My research over the past three years has primarily focused on the incictcrininate relationships between institutions and practical/thcoretical shifts in the British artworld since the mid 1970s. These developments are here explored in relation to the momentous political upheaval during last years of the Callaghan administration following the body blow of the 1976 International Monetary Fund crisis, and the revolutionary ultraconservatism of the first Thatcher Government of 1979-1983. Significantly, it was during this period that the British fine art establishment found

from both the left and right for the first time since the Second itself under resoluteattack World War. The IMF crisis led the Labour governmentto look at ways of 'devolving' high democracy by advocating social making the Arts Council of Great Britain financially culture, and ideologically accountableto 'the public'. Given that the British artworld was, at this time, dependent on public subsidy, the art and criticism of the period can only begin almost entirely to be understood if read in relation to its cultural and economic revolutions. This is especially both that the Labour Governmentand Conservativeopposition were making given pertinent demanding Conservatives be dismantled Arts Council the that the clairns, so that populist drastic Callaghan's (if their they choose could afford economic could own art it). people first Thatcher the accelerated administration, which cut public subsidy were under experiments and encouragedprivate patronage. I demonstratethe ways in which the ideological change from Keynesianculturalism to monetarist populism generatedand financed the new art of the era: from proto-punk performanceto postmodermstobject sculpture. In part, then, this is a dominance Charles Saatchi's of of the British art scene,charting the pedigreeof the pre-history Young British Artists (yBa) of the late 1980sand early 1990s. Far from advocating the kind of economic determinism found in early Marxist histories of art, this thesispoints to the numerouscontradictions emergingwithin the new art late 1970s. In contrast, proponentsof the triumphant critical the of criticism and Structurallst Semlotic Art, Marxism, Feminisms, (the the of modern 1 sm era post poststructuralism and New Art History which arc the subject-inatter of this thesis) havesought to ensurethat its powerful and culturally significant reactionary elementsare excluded from the official preoccupationsof art history and theory. It is also my contention that critical found British art - as postmodernist accountsof recent in the writings of John Roberts and Griscida Pollock, among others - have largely suppressedthe importance of forms of cultural practice not associateddirectly with institutionalised art. Furthermore, I understandthat the led has (essentialist) theory critical postmoderniststo deny historical contradiction. pursuit of Recently,this critical amnesiahas allowed untold opportunism in the British artworld as yBas have sought to displacecritical postmodermsm,characterisingit as,an irrelevant and outdated

I ()

Introduction

academicpursuit,eternallystuckin its goldeneraof the early 1980s. If the theoryandart historiographyof recentBritishArt areto escapetheir presentaestheticrelativism,a vast debates haveto be reconsidered. numberof practicesand In the mid-to-late 1970spractice, theory, criticism and art history interlocked around the question of photography and its relation to the 'crisis' in the modernism. Among many others, visual and verbal dialogueswere establishedbetweenMary Kelly, Victor Burgin, T. J. Clark, Griselda Pollock, Art & Language,John Tagg, Camerawork, The Hackney Flashersand Jo Spence.Although I do not want to suggestthat participants in thesedebatesconstituted a disagreement), from in (united teleology to their reactions to of seems a residue emerge school one another. Operating under the banner of the 'politics of representation', there was history, theory and practice of modernist art and to the radically revising commitment lines, but little details. While Marxist/feminist the agreement some along on photography in historicise it (Tagg), theory (Burgin). the to politics of representation others suspended chose

Greatdifficultiesarisein writing aboutthis. Firstly,contradictionmustbe maintained in orderthat somemeaningsof the periodmight be reýonstructed.However,writing, form. history, it is to tends narrative the eliminatecontradictionsince a especially writing of Theoreticalstrategiesdesignedto disruptnarrative,suchasdeconstruction,tendtowards fail Deconstructions in to properlyconsidercontradiction,the often aestheticism practice. leads demonstrate idealism (i. desire impossibility to the e. everytext to of reading theoretical 1 in Another fail is ) that much of to to contradiction. problem emerges seen contain they read but history, late 1970s is in theory the criticism, practice, and not merely art the work historiography and meta-criticism. This suggeststhat any accounts of the period will in some for less but be opportunity retrospectivecontemplation and with meta-historiographic way interpretative Can if study of an than about an earlier period. we might expect writing revision this nature lead to any form of enlightenment,or are we destinedto repeat trains of thought it logically How that which separate and can we our writing that are already prevalent? discusses,if both are sustainedby similar descriptions? This only presentspart of the problem. The late 1970s was also a period in which the

'avant-garde'cameunderattackfrom populistswitbin the artworld. Ron Kitaj andDavid different Hockney'smadesimilar,populistdefences of paintingwhile makingvery practical (Richard Cork, Andrew Brighton Peter The the tackle crisis critics to and problem. efforts Fuller)proposedthat artistsshouldrestorethe artworld with a senseof socialpurpose.Related to Cork and Brighton'spleaswasthe work of artistssuchasConradAtkinson,andvarious formsof Muralism,while Fullersetthe agendafor the conservativedefenceof the Schoolof I To seea difference betweenthings is to seespecific qualities uniquely contrasted with eachother. To seeunspecific,indeterminate differencesis a contradiction - it is to seenothing at all. Deconstruction comesdown on the side of discord and irreducible complexity as the universal result, whatever the textthe only thing that is new is the elementof inflexibility and pre judgement. What was once a result of critical investigation becomesan idealist method.

11

Introduction

Londonin the 1980s. Theseeventswereall in someway inspiredby the Daily Mirror's for Tate Gallery the criticismsof purchasingCarl Andre'sEquivalentVIII, or 'the Tate bricks'. Althoughsuchpopulismhasbeenseenasa reactionto the politicsof representation, (Mary Kelly'sPost-PartumDocumentwascalledthe 'nappy-show'in 1976),in fact, it sharedmanyof its concerns.Bothcampswereanti-modernist,viewer-orientated, overtly sociologicaland critical of the Arts Council. Ironically,asthe aimsandidealsof the left and right became increasinglyconfused,beinginvolvedin the artworld historiographybecamemoreof a caseof became 'Not prevalentin the left and the right, obscuring takingsides. oneof usconservatism' the art practicesthat arosein the early1980s.The mostinterestingpracticalwork of the late Punkandthe New Wave,ridiculedand exploitedthis situation. 1970s,COUM Transmissions, in turn, suchwork becamea majortargetfor reprisalsin the 1980swhenthe old critical camps do battle begun to overthe return to painting. regroupedand Current British art is the legacyof this competition for power over the production and

interpretationof art. What hasbeenlost arethe argumentsand contradictionsthat provided history in Instead, New Wave. Punk the early the the art of new rise and the subject-matter of 1970sallowedstrongdefences to be built aroundthe politicsof representation, or what later fester in leaving New Wave Punk be 'critical to the and postmodernism', cameto called dismissing image in Moreover, painting, virtually all new culturalstudiesand sociology. found in failed the work of the to complex post-punk ethos recognise critical postmodernists in The Steven Campbell. that elided work were contradictions produced such painterssuchas favourof transformingthe contingencies of 1970sMarxismand ferninismsinto RAE-friendly Theory. ahistorical In contrast to this managerialdespotism,I have taken 'critics' to include artists, antihistorians, journalists, art critics, anarchists,neo-conservatives,punks and affronted art artists, different 'critical By of texts' mesh as a the approaching public, among others. membersof discoursesat work within the ideology of 'British', 'art' and 'society', I have produced a nonfocusing history By this chaptersaround specific groups of artists and critics of period. unified have I sought to allow the rehearsalof accountsof the same and making useof quotation, Assumptions different from about causeand effect, or the relationship points of view. events betweentheory, practice and reception differ in eachchapter. The time scaleof eventsand the different has Each description the explanation of chapter their a same. are not time scaleof deliberately between This thesis, them. therefore, the presents a connections eventsand of its its in the complexity. In order to partially representthe some of period refracted picture of has been important introduce it to this period of some recognition that the volatile nature concept of closure is ideological, that it is a pretencethat issuesposed by art historical texts are hope I that the combining of severalcontradictory possibilities advises capableof resolution. that the production of 'history' is a suppressionof possibilities, providing different answersto the question 'why is there is only one Monopolies Commission?'

12

1'.15.34or not T. 1534?Is that the Question?

CHAPTER 1 T. 1534 or not T. 1534? Is that the Question? Labour Governmentthat nationalisedthe Bank of England, the coal Industry, the ... railways, and health services,also nationalisedculture. It was more concernedto enrich the country's cultural life, and to bring it within the reachof people, than any 1 history. Government previous in the nation's Suddenlyit was the morning after, with its splitting headacheof unemployment,class and racial friction and economicslump. The Seventies,like the Thirtics, saw crisis becomea daily condition of Ilfc.2 As, on the one hand, inflation erodedthe value of the Arts COLHIC11 subsidy,and oil the other hand, recessionmade it impossiblefor the Government to compensatefor inflation's effects,the Arts Council's weakenedfinancial position made its decisions 3 less for important would-be clients. more, not Harold Wilson once said, "A week is a long time in politics. " At the moment, it is bit long living famous We the through those as in visual arts. are one of every upheavalswhich are the stuff of art history books, but which are much harder to 4 understandwhen you are caught up in them. The useof art for social changeis bedevilledby the close integration of art and society. The state supports art, it needsart as a cosmeticcloak to its horrifying reality, and uses art to confuse,divert and entertain large numbersof people. Even when deployed 5 loose the umbilical cord of the state. againstthe interestsof the state, art cannot cut On the one hand, by its very nature experimentalor alternative art in whatever bound hand, from to the cause a public stir; on other is many artists' points of medium for funding Arts Council Grcat Britain through the criticiscd of constantly was view, began It to seemas though the slicesof subsidy-cakeavailable were its conservatism. feed defended for both "art to the artists who art's sake" and those who not enough for "art asking whom?": "rubbish" and "waste of public money" seemedto win were 6 day. the

1JANET MINIHAN, The Nationalisation of Culture: The Development StateSubsidiesto the Arts in of Great Britain, London, 1977, p235. 2NORMAN SHRAPNEL, "Introduction", The Seventies:Britain's Inward March, Constable, London, 1980, p13. 3ROBERT HEWISON, "The Arts in Hard Times", Too Much: Art and Societyin the Sixties 1960-7S, Methuen, London, 1986, p226. 4PETER FULLER, "On Social Functionalism", Artscribe, No. 13, August 1978, p43. 5(; USTAV METZGER, "Art Strike 1977-1980", 1974. 6CAROLINE TISDALL, "Art Controversies the Seventies",in SUSANCOMPTON of cd. British Art in the 20tb Century, Royal Academy, Prestel-Verlag,Munich, p84.

13

1'.15;4 or not 'I 1534?Is that the Question? .

Between 1972 and 1973 the Tate Gallery acquired three works by the American sculptor Carl Andre, a carved wood timber structure entitled List Lidder, 144 Magnesium Square composed from the said number of metal floor tiles r.

and Fquivalent VIII (Tate Gallery No.

-ýk1-

7OPF

1534) a sculpture (re)constructed from 120 ... le,

firebricks. They were shown without I

controversy several times during the next

S %1"I ST CAItT ! A' I

ME TOTS

j

FLY

OVER

few years, until the 15th February 1976

ANGOLA'S

when an article entitled "The Tate drops a

TOWN

GHOST

Costly Brick-7 written by Colin Simpson The Sunday Times Business in appeared

Whichever wayyoulookat Britaill'slatestworkof art.. f,.

eýý'

IIIIIIN OFFLR

Three women shot deadin Ulster

WHAT A

News section. Here Simpson suggested, without evidence, that Treasury eyebrows had been raised at the use of Government funds to acquire for the nation works of art firebricks. "8 120 "stack a included of which

Modern art is alive and well and some of its practitioners are laughing their way to the bank. Sonic forms of public expenditure, it seems arc still sacrcd. 9 The following day the story created an eruption in the popular press which would make Andre's 'Bricks' the best known work of contemporary art In Britain. Leading the attack was decided fact Mirror, Daily to take the that Equivalent VIII was the issue with which from by fire bricks, making a materials, ordinary artistically unsanctioned constructed for bricks. the going market rate with comparison

7COLIN SIMPSON. "Tate Drops Costly Brick / How the Tate G a allery Spent LI million in Two Years", Sunday Times, February 15th 1976.

8ibid. 9ibid. Michael Davies'Notebook' in the 22nd February 1976 edition of the Observerclaimed that Colin Simpson'sstory had been'engineered'by Douglas Cooper, who had lambastedthe Tate and their for his Books and Bookmen. Cooper later receivedan "Apology" in regular articles purchase one of from The Burlington Magazine for suggestingthat he had played such a conspiratorial role: "lie had no conversationwith the employeesof The SundayTimes and did not mention the bricks in his article." EDITOR, "Apology", The Burlington Magazine, Volume CXVIII, No. 878, Mav 1976, p516. Given that Simpsonwas not the first to write about the purchase- this being achievedby an anonymous employeeof the BasingstokeGazetteon February 13th 1976 - he could easily have plagiarisedit from another source.

14

T.1534or notT.1534?Is thattheQuestion?

BRICKNOTE: You can buy ordinary householdbricks for betweenL40 and LSOa thousand.The 120 bricks the Tate bought would be enoughto build a large fireproof 10 moneybox. The Mirror, of course,neglectedthe possibility that Equivalent VIII might be valued differently by membersof the artworld to whom it had no utilitarian purpose or value. However, this idea was in turn rejectedby the popular Presswho declaredin unison that thesebricks were insufficiently wrought to qualify for art status, exhibiting no evidenceof their maker's tsubjectivity'.

Whichever way you look at Britain's latest work of art WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH How the Tate dropped 120 bricks1l

On the whole,thesecommentswerepredicatedon the suppositionthat artworksareorganised by andaroundan identifiablesubjectwhich maybe identifiedby the viewer. In Andre's be "People to to expectart sculpture,the oppositewastrue, therewasnothing reveal: Mine isn't. "12 If sculpturetraditionallyrequireda spectatorwho waswilling to mystifying. in intenseandrelativelysustainedviewingactivity, Andreagaininvitedthe becomeengaged 13 This his (disapproving? ) refusal to meet glance. work merely required a very opposite, ideological requirementsto think in terms of categories- 'completed' works produced in 'definable' materials - generateda certain anxiety in viewers. The expectation of an be No is explanation was granted, closure was that quelled. all anxiety will explanation, denied.14 I OPHILIPMELLOR, "Whichever way you look at Britain's latest work of art... WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH:How the Tate dropped 120 bricks", Daily Mirror, No. 22410, Monday February 16th, Mirror Group, pl. 1IMELLOR, pl. 12 CARL ANDRE IN PETER STAFFORD, "Brick SculptureNot the Original, Artists Confirms", The Times, February 18th 1976, pS. 13SeeWILLIAM FEAVER, "A Brick is a Brick is a Brick... ", Vogue, April 1976.

140f the numerousarticleswhichappearedin the Britishpresson the 16th February1976,mostcarried factor. ANON. "GalleryStonewallsBricksBuy", EveningStandard; headlines to this which pointed ANON. "Tate GallerySilenton Priceof Artistic Pileof Bricks", Daily Telegraph;ANON. "Cost of Tate'sBrick BuyStill Secret",SouthWalesArgus;ANON. "The Tate'sBrickWall of Silence",TheNews Portsmouth;ANON. "Tate StaysSilenton BrickBuy", JerseyEveningPost;andANON. "Gallery Stonewalling",WesternEveningNewsall emphasised the Tate'sunwillingnessto explain,thereby had headlines Despite left the matteropen the they tone, that no explanation. accusatory such suggesting for discussion the followingday,givingtheTatesomeopportunityto explainits actions. A smaller financial however, to stress motivesfor the silence- ANON. "Tate Gallery chose numberof newspapers, Silenton Priceof Artistic Pileof Bricks",Daily Telegraph,February16th 1976- encouraging and publicspendingby closingoff the aestheticpossibilitiesof channellingpublic outrageagainstexcessive the debate.It wasn'treallyof anyimportancewhetheror not the work was'rubbish',just so long asit wascheaprubbish. With mostpapersprimarilyexploitingthe 'outrage'and senseof anxietyasa means is

T. 1534 or not T. 1534?Is th2t the Question?

The artist and purchaserswere thus seento be guilty of charlatanism and collusion in order to achievefame and fortune. Following this, a plethora of new offending 'modern' artworks were met with the press'contempt on the grounds that they spoke in the profane languageof unsanctionedmaterials, eventsor processes."Much of the presscriticism used Andre's work as a pretext for an attack on modern art in generalbecauseit appeared,like the emperor'snew clothes, to adopt incomprehensiblestrategiesin order wilfully to confound 15 " common senseand popular taste. Much of this is assumedyet is startlingly implicit in the Philip Mellor's description of Andre's work as "dropped bricks" or "rubbish", words which suggestthat the artist has failed to arrangehis materials. Of course,it is often the casethat dropped bricks are rubbish. Andre, however, arrangedfor his bricks to be set out in a pre-ordained manner and to be protected by Gallery security, facts which announcea maker's involvement, evenif in a lessercapacity than that expectedby the popular press. The extent to which the Tate Gallery's almost fetishistic bricks however, for is, the themselves this with underscored concern. The a matter relationship first showing of the Equivalents Series,was in 1966 at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. The Tate did not approach Andre until 1972, when it was thought that his work might fit for 'classic' Britain's national collection. That the Tate of minimalist art constitute a purchaseda 1969 're-construction' of Equivalent VIII, rather than the installation as a whole, failed Andre's bricks they that to the also understand work, as individual seeing suggests for in boosting The Sun the the sales slack post-Christmas period, an 'exclusive', saw of opportunity fact despite Art "LUM Brick Pile Starts Row", The Sun, February 16th 1976, that the that the claiming had been disclosed. leading The Sun to the price not most successfully closed reading, purchase off Chinese Tate's to the whispers relating expenditure,the more wildly inaccurate,the more numerous before It three the spendingissueswere analysedin perspective:"the more was over sold. months papers be it is the the there that avant-garde a creative manifestation, more will certain self-consciously funds. fact, high from because, I in 'proportionately' the total contribution public say proportionately from budget the to the avant-garde is small. It is almost nothing, in comparison to official arts paid sum the great sumsgiven to museumsas a whole, or to the great 'official' cultural enterprises,such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the National Theatre, and the Royal ShakespeareCompany. Even the Tate, which is our flagship gallery of modern art, spendsonly a tiny part of the funds available to it on work which should be classifiedavant-garde. The rest goeson buying work for the British collection (also a gallery responsibility), and in trying to fill gapsin the e representationof classicmodernism (at the time when post-Cubist works, for example,are amongstthe most expensivethings in the whole of the art for LUCIE-SMITH, )" EDWARD "Brickbats the Tate", Encounter, May 1976, p49. market.

"In 1976,1do rememberfeelingverystronglywhenit cameto thingslike the bricks,on the onehandit definedthe sizeof the problemin termsof the gapbetweenwhat artistsweredoing,(andafterall by that time Carl Andrewasa fairly well established second-generation artistwithin the artworld),but in terms of art therewasstill an oceanto crossbeforeit seemed theyunderstoodwhat of thepublicawareness thesepeopleweretrying to do. At the sametimewhat the Bricksalsohighlightedwasa failureof nerve have done the could part of people who somethingaboutit, for exampletheTateGallery,who could on haveseizedthat opportunityat veryleastto stagean exhibitionwhich at the veryleastconfrontedthe problemheadon, andout of whicha lot of peoplemightwell havegaineda greaterunderstanding of what Andreetc.weretrying to do. But insteadof that theyretreated,therewasa senseof fear,a senseof Oh Godl we can't havecontroversy,we haveto dampenit down." Interviewwith RICHARDCORK, QueensPark,London,February1998. 15BRIONY FER, "The modern in fragments", Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, Yale University Press,1993, p37.

16

T. 1534 or not TAS34? Is that the Question?

16 inseparable However, in an article sculpturesrather than as parts of a site-specificwhole. for The Burlington Magazine, Richard Morphet, then Deputy Keeperof the Modern written Collection at the Tate, was clearly consciousof this important fact: T. 1534 [The firebrick version of Equivalent VIII purchasedby the Tate] consistsof two identical layers, eachconsistingof sixty firebricks, arrangedin a6 by 10 configuration. It presentsnot only a specificshapemade out of modules of a specific but be 120. It to total also of sizeand material, an assembly units made cannot rebut the concern it manifestswith regularity and with a specific number arranged, provokes speculationin the spectator'smind as to alternative formulations of the same number. T. 1534 is in fact one work from a seriesof sculpturescalled Equivalents in which, using identical bricks, eachexamplepresentsthe number 120 in a different two-layer arrangementranging from one with an overall measurementof 5 by 13.5 by 180 inchesto one of 5 by 54 by 45 inches. Despite its embodiment in quite elementary forms, the tension betweenan unchanging,reiterated volume and the sculptures' layers in bricks is In two the are stacked sharply varied shapes mysterious. everycase, 17 as a straightforward meansof maintaining structural cohesion. It would therefore appear unusual for the Tate to have purchasedonly part of a work of art. As its did function the without sculpture clearly not public reaction partially confirmed, Equivalents. The only reason,then, for purchasingonly one elementof the secondfirebrick have been Tate Equivalents that the were trying to savetaxpayers' the can exhibition version of 18 money. The Tate's policy then comesunder scrutiny in relation to the physical characteristicsof

bricks initially, Andre After bricks the sandlime the sold original themselves. showing work the backto the manufacturerin orderto raisesomemoney,ashewasunableto find a buyer;"So

16Thediscussion little followed Tate's there that was the purchase controversial revealed which been had because between there the trying to no the sculptorwas say, publicandwhat comprehension his in March 1978 This when of work. remedied exhibition was to a comprehensive opportunity view full included (1959-76), London Gallery, Whitechapel a a retrospective produced which the On March 30th, failed This Series. Equivalent the to public. the strategy also convince reconstructionof Andre'sCedarPiecewaspushedoverby ReubenRouten,a 37 yearold art studentfrom Liverpool. He his face damaging Andre's 'D 0,000 Wooden in with sculpture' appeared court chargedwith criminally paintedin severaldifferentcolours. 17RICHARD MORPHET, "Carl Andre's Bricks", Burlington Magazine, Volume CXVIII, No. 884, November 1976, p763.

180f course,the Tatealsohadto balancethis concernwith the pressures anddemandsof the art market: "The Tatewaitedfour yearsbeforepurchasingin 1973its important Andresculptureof 144metalplates Andre by floor in 12 12 the which madein 1969. Andremadesix sculpturesin this a square, placedon five had different The in other alreadyenteredthe collectionsof importantmuseums a metal. series,each its lastchanceof acquiringanyof these in EuropeandAmerica,andtheTate'spurchasethusrepresented kind Variations this of situationoccuroften." ibid., p767. on six works.

17

T.1534or notT.1534?Is thattheQuestion?

19 didn't bricks. " The Burlington Magazine aped the the gallery evenget the original pile of tabloids with its April 1976 'Editiorial': Well, evenT1534 is not the original brick sculpture that Carl Andre made in 1966: by bricks it, to the sinceno one wanted were sent back to the works, and were not available when the Tate, six yearslater, wished to buy a replica. Andre had to make do with firebricks.

"From the commentthis aroused,you would not havedreamedthat it wasabsolutely for traditional a sculptureto occurin severalexamples,or that Duchamphadrun the gauntlet fifty his However, Andre "20 it is that was well over earlier. clear ready-mades years not with facts: to these engage with problematic entirely willing I'm not interestedin reproducing or adding to the number of works of a given kind ... be But if then these art to not would that exist. others attempt produce reconstructions, becauseart is not plagiarism.21

But why shouldpeoplevaluethis specificpile of bricks,or arrangement of steelplates, bricks is if Because than that you want to getthe pile. of my work, and any other? more Carl Carl Andre to then the go work of you must of authenticexampleor specimen Andreand buy it. I havea monopolysupply. Now this supplycanbe forgedor This dealing forger be but the then or plagiarist. with work of a onewould plagiarised, is verysimple. Thereis lessstartlingmattertherethan meetsthe eye. But we generally 22 tendto overvaluemoneyandundervalueart. Hence, although the Tate purchaserscould easily have acquired the bricks inexpensivelyfrom a builder's yard in London (as the tabloids loved to point out), they were compelled to purchasea in New York, from Gallery fire-bricks Weber John the the sculpture madeof reconstruction of

23 for an undisclosed sum. It is thereforepertinentto examinequestionsof attribution and VIII, Equivalent VIII, Tate Equivalent Does an the a secondversionof own nomenclature. firebricks'? Tate Gallery VIII, No. T. 'a Equivalent 1534, impression of pile or of artist's In Andre'sopinion,art is inspiredby matterandnot by ideas.T. 1534in its first (destroyed)form wasinspiredby oneparticularbrick. Alongwith otherworks in the different brick. later it Equivalents three a years using series, was reconstituted same 19MELLOR, pl. Seealso PETER STAFFORD, "Brick SculptureNot the Original, Artists Confirms", The Times, February 18th 1976. 20PAT GILMOUR, "Trivialisation of Art by the Press", Arts Review,January 1977, p50. In Rosalind Krauss' words, Andre's bricks were 'reproductions without originals'. 21ANDRE in FULLER, p123-124. 22ibid.

p123.

23"How

mucb did the Tate pay for Equivalent VIII? I think it was L4000. Something like that. They couldn't have got an Andre for less." ibid. p122.

18

T.1534or notT.1534?Is thattheQuestion?

It is thus part of the secondEquivalents series,intimately related to the first but distinct from it. The type of brick employedin T. 1534 was no lesscarefully selected than that employedin its first version, and unlessmade of this kind of brick, T. 1534 doesnot exist. Thus physically, as well as an idea, it is, in its own right, an important 24 by Carl Andre. work Morphet attempted to 'compel our conviction' in the Tate Bricks by fusing the materials by Tate decisions the to the purchased of an author. Notwithstanding the reflex-claims of poststructuralist theory, his claims are erroneousfor a number of reasons. If T. 1534, by definition, firebricks the set of are owned by the Tate Gallery, then Equivalent VIII must have beena set of sand lime bricks. T. 1534 may ape the form of Equivalent VIII but its physical make-up is clearly different, for, as Morphet rightly claimed, it would not be T. 1534 were it not made of firebricks. However, to claim that T. 1534 had a "first (destroyed)form" in Equivalent VIII, is to admit that the physicality of both versionsof the Equivalents is not of primary importance. This is reinforced by the fact that when Andre was unable to purchasesandlime bricks for the his he do' 'made work, with firebricks. Were the physical characteristicsof secondversion of the Equivalents concept of primary importance, Andre would not have chosento produce a it. As is T. 1534 its it is "in that entirely clear own right, an of such not physically, simulation important work by Carl Andre", despitewhat Morphet or evenAndre might claim to the contrary. To complicate matters, when T. 1534 was 'destroyed' by being sprayedwith blue food from by London, February 23rd Stowell-Phillips 1976 Peter painter on an amateur colouring 25 Instead the firebricks the were not replaced. conservationdepartment were required to follow Morphet's thesis,devoting much time and expenseof cleaning them, further infuriating taxpaying newspaperreaders. To make matters worse, Andre agreedwith the Tate's actions:

24MORPHET, p764. 25SeeANON. "Tate Bricks Disfigured", The Times, 24th February 1976, pl. Stowell-Philips had no left-wing the assaultson culture which were perpetratedat the turn of the 70s, one of associationwith the most famous being The Angry Brigade'sbombing Biba for having manufactured lifestyles. StowellPhillips did not intend to make the populaceaware of the repressivepatriarchal structure of society,nor did he seekto condemnthe passiveexperienceof the consumereconomy. As he attempted to disfigure the 'Tate Bricks' he was reported to have shouted'I am a taxpayer and I'm incensedthat this Pile of bricks was bought with public money.' Rather than being enragedat this art attack, onlookers applauded. Despite being reported as fact by much of the press,this much was hearsay. The manner in which state power lay in a web of controls over the massesbecameclearerin the next few days when Stowell-Philipsspoke to reporters of how he had 'felt compelledto do it'. Rather conveniently, no permanentdamagewas done to the 'Tate Bricks' and Stowell-Philipswas not charged.Recently,artists had have benefited have from instant mythology, as having your art in Britain their attacked works who attacked virtually ensuresits entry into the official annuls of British Art History. In 1994 Damien Hirst's Away from the Flock (subsequentlyincluded in Sensation)was 'improved' by an artist with blue ink while on display in Some Went Mad SomeRan Away at the Serpentine. In 1997 Marcus Harvey's Myra display at Sensation in the Royal Academywas attacked with red and blue ink by two 'artists'. In on , all, the Tate Bricks scandalset the agendafor all subsequentengineeredBritish art scandals.See:ANON. "Anatomy of a Small Sensation", The Times, February 19th 1976.

19

T.1534or notT.IS34?Is thattheQuestion?

You once said, 'my works are in a constant state of change. I'm not interestedin reachingan ideal state with my work. As people walk on them, as the steel rusts, as the brick crumbles,the materials weather and the work becomesits own record of everything that's happenedto it. ' Do you therefore disapprovethe Tate's decision to remove the ink-stain from the bricks? I approve of the removal of it. That statement was not meant to refer to vandalism, but to the fact that I do not polish metal plates. [ I Isn't vandalismpart of history, too? Vandalism is part of history, but then so is ... Aushwitz. That doesnot meanwe should approve and continue the practice.26 This futile effort to copyright and legitimise Andre's 'sculpture' and therefore gain 'value for the taxpayers' money backfired appropriately. Soonthe Tate was reeling under a barrageof trite artworks sent in by membersof the public. Significantly, the public echoedthe press' by Andre's attack on sculpture sendingobjects which were designedfor domestic utilitarian tasks (vacuum cleaners)or for the workplace (bricks, paper clips, string). "Some people have drawings by in their children and one man offered a photograph of a filing cabinet evensent with a row of coffee cups on top. [ ...] Mr. Richard Morphet said 'None of their objects are oneswe wish to consider as acquisitionsto the permanentcollection."27 Having maintained the illusion that the 'Tate Bricks' were (incontestably)Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII, the Tate faux-dada by forced to them consider of of post at a plethora objects and return each was now That (to Tate the taxpayer). the expense were wrongly attached to the notion of considerable Andre's work being an expensiveand "unique acquisition"28, is concluded by the fact that the T. 1534 firebricks continue to be housedin individual velvet-lined boxes stored in the Tate archive.

Significantly,Andreclaimedthat the only differencebetweenhis bricksandordinary intent to havemadeit art."29 In this, the artist revealedhimself brickswashis "self-conscious to be an exponent of procecduralism,the notion that art is produced according to certain rules defined in relation to social institutions. Traditional aestheticswere and procedures,and functionalist, explaining objects to be artworks as a result of performing particular functions (perhapsgiving us a feeling of elation). Andre, in contrast, did not seeart as a seriesof from but tradition, a phenomenoncaught up in a as a processresulting autonomous objects, web of intertextuality. This may help to explain the generally negativereaction to his work. To someextent, Andre's viewerswere required to becomeconnoisseursgiven that they needed to be equippedto relate the maximum number of strangeobjects being proposed as artworks, to by an already acknowledgedgroup of art objects meansof a theoretical claim about the nature 26ANDRE in FULLER, p117. 27ANON. The journal, 23 February 1976. 28MELLOR,

pl.

29ANDRE in FULLER, p124.

20

TAS34or notT.1534?is thattheQuestion?

his latest Andre This that to the could meant when of art. presenting artworks or value public, not simply claim 'what you seeis what you see'sincehis proceeduralismruled out the 'innocent be Andre's but it As work argued, was not merely was entirely such, might mystifying, eye'. reliant upon mystification: Carl Andre, who is fond of analogisinghis work with shoe-making,talking about ... being an 'art-worker' and professingMarxism, could never allow theseconvictions to he for his beyond taste wrongly associatesthe physical materials,with which extend his in Andre's it is [ ] is If to vector there work, not a radical side proletariat. ... diagramswhich, like so many diagramsdrawn by professedartistic radicals, indicate 'Art' and 'Society' as differing forcesand hope for somevaguepoint of divergencein in injustice be in it Rather the naked economic must exposing pictorial representation. Andre's ability to sell metal plates, produced by the appropriation of other men's Artworks can only labour, for a profit margin which vergeson the ridiculous. 30 signify social relations as symptoms. A corollary of Andre's proceeduralistview is that anyonewith a conception of art, an democratising fully the thereby theory create art, might of art application and understanding 4profession'(by eliminating it as an arena of reified competence). As a Marxist, this was Yet, his Andre artisan as an through work. to and promote that encourage sought something had he it 'unique' that (selling expensivecommodities) was something and mercantile capitalist 31 Likewise, his in destroyed have it the market. art monopoly to prevent, given that would Morphet was more than willing to allow Andre to presenthimself as a 'democratised' artist be Tate to at Tate's would appear (with the official sealof approvall), thereby ensuringthat the full Tate However, the to forefront allow the were unwilling of proceeduralistresearch. the implications of proceeduralismto run, sincea completely democratisedartworld would mean fit for deciding Tate's public art what constituted modern ostensiblemonopoly on the end to the consumption.

I seeno reasonwhy we shouldn'tbeprimarily concernedwith our own subculture, backing is bit. I The Government little [ it just my my game, try to spread a and ... do I long I interest, to them so, will. to as cancontinue persuade andso passionate 32 dream it. I'm on to a goodthing, and I would not of questioning

30ROSETTA BROOKS, "Please,No Slogans", Studio International, (Art & SocialPurpose), March/April 1976.

31" Carl Andrewasrecentlyquotedassayingthat whenhevisitsart schoolshe asksfor the oneswho leave, he hands 'I be then tells these to to their saying: wish to speakonly to those up: to put artists want being M. from ANDREW " BRIGHTON NICHOLAS prevent themselves artists. and peoplewho cannot PEARSON,"The 'Specialness' of Art andArtists", Art Montbly, Number21, November1978,p3. 32 MICHAEL COMPTON quoted in FULLER, "The Tate, The Stateand the English Tradition", Studio International, Volume 194, Number 988,1/1978, p7.

21

I. I i34 or not 1'.15.W Is that the Question?

Hence,the illusion had to be maintained that the act of conferral of art status is an exerciseof authority vestedin socially defined roles, in order that the brokers of the artworld could continue to Provide explanationsof wbo can confer art statuson wbat and wben. Figure 1.2 This satirical Hcincken Advertiscnicia attaches the notion of shanianism to

Andre's work. despitc WSiconoclastic intcutions, It is true to say that without logical constraints on art making and arthood, the determinism Thc 'artist' 'arthood' necessary to vacuous. are tendered contextual and concepts be logical if to there such constraints, then constraints, and arc sustain the concept of art implies be Morphet for As Andre be 'it's to and art' and say wrong. such, someone possible it must both subtly implied that the public were merely 'making noise' rather than producing being However, to in addition a particularly objectionable meaningful artistic statements. fallacy, Tate's this to the acquisition of causes problems the in relation intentional example of British by the the working as as intent on mocking artworld groups who were anti-art works different definition for A (albeit reasons and ends). of art in which assaults and middle-classes lose definition they their in which on official museum culture are clear-cut instances of art is a

little fctishisation for Moreover, being there the is the of need to question creativity. point, that degree did, Andre Morphet believe, that it to the that artworld is structured a and as reasonto hold does be at any given time, a since not institution, it as an informal plausibly viewed might 'The Police Institutions (whereas the the uphold as are required such ýjýle given theory of art Law'). The idea that Andre or the Tate are authorities on art is nothing other than a mutually beneficial impressioncreatedby them, which ultimately cannot be proven to be either true or false. Hcnce, the best justification Morphet had for refusing to consider the public's fauxdada objects as acquisitions for the permanentcollection was that membersof the public were friends? become Of figures (his )33 the they artworld, course, could always within not authority had but they not until proven themselvesto those already in positions of power; the artists, denial democratic I Such human of socialism capita ist-patcrnal ist and potentiality. archetypal 33"Art is nothing over and abovewhat has beensocially establishedas art. What is called art in our society is art regardlessof what future societiescall art and, thereforc, the supposition... that our society might have got the art-list wrong assumes,wrongly, that there is somethingto get right or wrong. The oniv mistake that can be madeis one of not knowing the conventionsof society (i.e. not knowing what societycalls art. " ROGER TAYLOR, Art, An Enemy of the People,Hassocks,Sussex:Harvester, 1978, p49-50.

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fascisticpolicies were particularly pertinent in Britain during 1976. Given that Andre's work madeit difficult to define art semantically(in terms of what it is not), 'art' risked becominga defunct term with little or no classificatoryforce. Hence,the only way to avoid this was to redefine the production of art economically,that is, by nurturing classdivisions. Andre was out of his depth: in England the Queencan knight her horse trainer or The Beatles,and that's one way ... of conveyingvalue. In the United Statesthere is no way of conveyingvalue except with less for American is I British that their think this artists. why artists get work money. Americansare usedto conveyingvalue with money. In a way it makesAmerican determines have How your much money you societymore vulgar, simple and clear. follow difficult find less I it It's to extraordinarily much ambiguous. social position. 34 drawing in English intra-class rooms. the wars that go on As I will demonstrate,the Tate Bricks scandalprimarily servedto bolster the power and its those who understood authority of professionalmembersof the artworld, particularly politics and were willing to play the power games:

I supposeit might havedone. I don't rememberthinking that at the time. I remember beingverydisturbedby the violenceof the reactionandthe way that thesetabloid become it it's to commoncurrency,we now, we've got used would.... newspapers by being have crucified tabloid a generationof artistswho actuallyenjoy actually headlinesandalmostregardit aspart of the work. It raisesdifferentissuesI think. But but drew in helping, don't is it I the most this thinking attention time that remember at 35 dramaticway imaginable. As Richard Cork (tacitly) points out, the scandaldrew attention to a number of Minimalist issuesin a manner which had previously beendenied. Indeed,when all of this is judged against have been Andre's by American to a minimalists, work appears other the reception of work had Morris Sculpture: Part If, Robert in " Ten "Notes written: on yearsearlier great success. Someof the new work has expandedthe terms of sculpture by a more emphatic focusing on the very conditions under which certain kinds of objects are seen. The 36 be but in is itself thesenew conditions to one of the terms. carefully placed object The idea that minimalist sculpture might be no more or lessimportant than any other 'term' in fact The debacle Andre's literally in that most of the the surrounding work. a gallery was taken desirable. highly beneficial, in terms, even responseto the work was negative,was, minimalist

34ANDRE IN FULLER, p124-125. 351nterview with RICHARD CORK, QueensPark, London, February 1998. 36ROBERT MORRIS, "Notes on Sculpture:Part II, " Artforum, Vol. 5. No. 2, October 1966, p20-23.

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By rejecting the idea that sculpture should focus primarily on the conditions in which it is seen, the public were tacitly forced to critically interrogate the 'condition of sculpture' againsttheir will. Yet during 1976, such phenomenologicalmusingsseemmisplaced. Minimalists such as Andre were at last forced to considerthat their abstract introspectionsmight spill out of the has In 1966, Morris "object into the that the party political area. could still claim artworld and 37 For Andre in 1976, become has less less important. become important. It merely self not however, the possibility that the bricks debaclewas of considerablymore interest than T. 1534 he by Andre it Indeed this when point which was raised was precisely was a very real one. 38 far for first We detractors Art Monthly. homage his the to might go so edition of produced a as to argue that the production of an atmosphereof crisis was also a necessary,and greatly underestimated,component of the minimalist project:

Yearsago,I was quotedassayingart is what we do andcultureis what is doneto us becomes by human Works that's concern shared manypeople, of art, any andour art. be identical by with eachother. those the can never concerns which sumof enriched But everyonesaysthat brickscannotstandby themselves, theyneedan argument,or line of work, to surroundthem. I absolutelyagree;but the Venusde Milo would just be 39 knew if aboutsculpture. a stonewoman nobody Despite Andre's posthumousrecognition of situational aesthetics,it seemsthat a substantial Tate firebricks keeping for bringing T. 1534 the were the at and number of people responsible important In true sense,therefore, the presswere right their an significance. to confirm unable belated This is critical not to claim to claim that this was a caseof the emperor'snew clothes. different for had Andre for the that claimed they a very agenda. the press, popular points "British public doesn't have much to do with art", "becauseof the economically determined in interested having for in There's the great capitalists people no money conditions of society. having interested in "40 in There's them television. money art. However, as always, most newspaperswanted to cashin on the craze for art bashing. Whole columns were clearly lifted from one newspaperto another without any facts being Karl Col. Carle, Colin, Andre and while photographersraced to called was checked. has Nevertheless, John A. Walker bricklayers local there out, pointed as at work. photograph "Normally familiarity break the to such attacks: of with numbing was somethingwhich seemed is divide between so wide that neither circles the and avant-garde art press popular the cultural 37ibid. 38CARL ANDRE, "The Bricks Abstract", Art Montbly, No. 1, October 1976, p24. This abstract, by form, Andre, in the table selected strongly on affair was presented of comments a number containing resemblingAndre's concretepoetry. 39ANDRE in FULLER, p117. 40ibid.,

p112.

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acknowledgesthe existenceof the othcr. "41 Of course,the reactionary sectorsof the tabloid pressremainedunconcernedwith high art, despitetheir pretenceto defend 'traditional' notions 42 Their concernwas that, in sanctioning useless of artistic expressionand communicability. activities, the Tate Gallery could be cast as the right-wing nightmare vision of bureaucratic socialismwhich would infuriate the popular imagination. In condemningthe Andre sculpture the popular presswas able to pander to the philistinism of its readersin respectof modern art, while simultaneouslygaining moral kudos as the watchdog of the public purse.43 Theseeventshelped to focus the public's attention on current debatesconcerning the benefits of monetarist economicplanning. Throughout the seventies,monetaristshad beenarguing that higher full did inducing it Keynesianism the might secure employment, so at expenseof while inflation and taxation both of which impaired growth. A key ideological weapon of monetarist thinkers - such as Alfred Sherman,Director of the ConservativeParty's Centre for Policy Studies44- was to encouragepeople to believethat more was being spent on public services benefits. found Although their most powerful supporter monetarists without any noticeable ideas leader in Thatcher Party 1975, Margaret Conservative their the the as of election of with by Harold Wilson's last keenly implemented Labour Government in the the of years were premiership. The fourfold increasein oil prices early in 1974 entailed a sharp reduction in living importing In hit in Britain the countries. all oil oil crisis an economy all ready out of standards

41JOHN A. WALKER, "The Mass Media UseArt", Art in the Age Mass Media, Pluto Press,London, of p69. 42--things like Andre's bricks maintain links with popular culture. Our tabloid newspaperscan still get in a lather about them; comics on prime-time TV still feel it worthwhile to make them the subject of jokes, on the assumptionthat the lowliest lager lout will somehowknow what is being derided. In America the tabloid you buy from the rack by the supermarketcheckout will never have anything about Andre or anyonelike him. The lead story will be Rosanne'sdivorce, or 'My mother-in-law was raped by a little greenalien.' No populist politician, not evenPat Buchanan,is ever going to make political capital out of minimal art. " EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH, "The Art of Bricklaying", Art Review, April 1996, p3435. 43WALKER,

p69.

44"The Centre for Policy Studies(CPS),an early think tank, was actually a product of the Heath administration. He had let it find a pitch within the party, ostensiblyto do somenon-threatening like differences between into the Europeanand Japaneseeconomiesbut in reality to things the research give Sir Keith Josephsomethingsafeto do. Under his leadership,however, the CPSstarted to postulate all kinds of weird experimentson the British economyand British society. By 1974, the organisation was acting as a greenhousefor the new Tory Party, and an entirely new philosophy was growing up in the heart of the old one. By the time Mrs. Thatcher was installed, the CPSwas in absolutely full flow, churning out papersand memorandaand speechesand what have you, all of them arguing for a massive shift to the Right, a shift in favour of free-marketeconomics,monetary controls and individual liberties." PETER YORK, "Pioneers", Peter York's Eigbties, BBC Books, 1995, p10.

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control due to huge public sector pay demandsdesignedto squeezeEdward Heath's ConservativeGovernmentout of power. On being returned to Government in October 1974, Wilson decidedto recant on Labour's radical socialist election promises,increasingpublic spendingby 9% over the next year while the rest of Europe was deflating, while meeting 30% demands for pay power workers, miners and railwaymen in July 1975. The hyperinflation createdby this responseactually servedthe interestsof Labour's right-wing, sinceit allowed the deteriorate to to the point when the needfor their reactionary policies could be economy blamed on outside agentssuch as the unions and the oil crisis. The expectedeconomic results were announcedin the autumn of 1975 when the Treasury produced the National Income Forecastwhich showed the Public SectorBorrowing Requirementfor 1975-76 rising from D

billion to L12 billion, (thedebtin 1970hadbeenzero). The LabourRight werequick to act.45 In January1976,the ChancellorDenisHealeyadopteda toughmonetarypolicy in orderto concentrateon growth andthe battleagainstinflation by makinga L3.5 billion cut in public spending,andagreeinga pay accordwith the unions. In orderto musterideologicalsupport for this 'emergency' measurethe Governmentarguedthat inflation wasan enemyof democraticsocialismsinceit placeda greaterburdenon the poor. However,it soonbecameapparentthat the monetaristbattleagainstinflation meant full the to consensus commitment abandoning employment set out in the Conservative Government's 1944 White Paperon employment policy.46 Moreover, those who remained in faced down with a screw on the rate of wage increaseswhich seemedto be aimed work were 47 In the primarily at restoring private sectorprofitability. context of such unpopular economic amedicine',the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror's assaulton the Tate Gallery's decision to display Andre's rubbish could be seento constitute a Machiavellian manoeuvredesignedto favour the Labour Right. On the one hand it underlined an area desperatelyin 'need' of disciplinary cuts in public expenditure,cuts which would be vivaciously welcomed by the hand, diverted it the the the healthy, employedsectionsof the of populace; on other majority from have the that significant effects public expenditure populace cuts would on those who Welfare State. Given implication the that the on of monetarist policies quickly resulted relied

45"Above

all, the New Right benefitedfrom exploiting fearsof a drift towards totalitarian socialism. The apparently unstoppablegrowth of union power and the 'hard' Left both within and outside parliament (witnessthe Trades Union Congress'invitation to the head of KGB to its 1976 conference,the emergenceof the Militant Tendencyand the fourfold growth in membershipof the International Socialistsbetween1974) provoked spectaculardefectionsfrom Left to Right in the decade most notoriously Paul Johnson, Bernard Levin and ex-Labour Ministers Lord Chalfont. " BART MOOREGILBERT, "Cultural Closure or Post-Avantgardism", The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural Closure?, Routledge,London, 1994, pS. 461nflation 47This

was brought down to a single-figurerate by the spring of 1978.

led to the 1978 pay dispute with the unions which endedin the 'winter of discontent'. eventually

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in direct and substantial increasesin unemployment,it is hardly surprising to find that art scandalscameto play an increasinglyimportant part in tabloid politics during 1976. An important part of the successof this tactical manoeuvreby Labour monetaristslay in its capacity to separateany perceivednegativeeffectsof monetarist policy (such as rising (such as putting a stop to inflation and the public unemployment)from apparent successes funding of 'rubbish' art). The public artworld provided an ideal scapegoatin relation to this 48 it This meant (Quango). model since was a quasi-autonomousgovernmentalorganisation that popular arts supported by the Arts Council could be claimed as benefiting from Labour's new monetarist policies, sinceit was a Governmentalorganisation. On the other hand the Arts Council could be held responsiblefor unpopular, 'modern art' sinceit was, after all, (quasi)autonomous. Hugh Jenkins, then minister responsiblefor the arts, was said to have inquired into the purchaseof the Tate Bricks, discussingthe matter with senior officials of his department. Nothing transpired. Of course,severecuts in funding or threats of an end to but behave, have forced independent Trustees Tate Gallery to the of the public subsidywould have left the Governmentwithout its pawns. this would

Despitethe fact that theyplayedno role in the purchaseof theTate Bricks (theTate beingfundeddirectlyby Whitehall)theArts Councilperformedto plan,meetingthe Taking infuriatingly the response. non-artworldwith an measured confoundedobjectionsof his cuefrom feudalpatronage,Roy Shawsoughtto defendtheArts Council'srole asan 'arts for like Service, NHS Education the 90% of the populationwho would the or service',much he People, Later, in into The Arts the the wrote of arts. contactwith and not otherwisecome his concernto extend"learning'sgoldengifts", a concernderivedfrom his experience asa from devoid home (apart boy, in influence totally music of anycultural working-class raised a hall), who beganto discoverliteraturethroughpublic librariesandan adult educationevening 49 course. For Shaw, the Arts Council was one hope of renewal and growth in an otherwise irredeemable'mass-civilisation', a meansof conservingthe imaginative valuesand energies that transcendthe mere instrumental reasonwhich is the characteristicmalaiseof modern

50 Arts Shaw In the the this, traditions within was clearly working culturalist of culture. Council, an institution brought into being by the efforts of a newly professionalized

48Despite

many misleadingheadlineswhich suggestedthat the Arts were controlled directly by the governmente.g. MICHAEL EVANS, "Sir Norman Drops 120 Bargain Bricks on the Tate", Daily Express,February 16th 1976. Seealso ANON. "Minister Hears How the Tate Bought a Pile of Bricks", Financial Times, February 17th 1976; and SIR NORMAN REID, "From the Director at the Tate Gallery: Bricks (letter)", The Times, February20th 1976, p15.

49ROY SHAW, "Introduction", The Arts and the People,Jonathan Cape, London, 1987, p9. 5OSuch views owe much to the works of John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold and F.R. Leavis. See MATTHEW ARNOLD, Culture and Anarchy, Thomas Nelson and Sons,London.

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intelligentsiaasa resultof the combinedeffectsof cultural commodificationon the onehand, andstatesponsorededucationon the other. TheArts Councilof GreatBritain'sfirst annual JohnMaynardKeynes: reportof 1947famouslyquotesBloomsburyaesthete The dayis not far off whenthe EconomicProblemwill takethe backseatwhereit belongs,andthe arenaof the heartandthe headwill beoccupied,or re-occupied,by our life human behaviour the of and of relations, creation problems of and real problems51 andreligion. As an institution,theArts Counciloweda greatdealto culturalism,the British intellectual tradition fosteredby criticssuchasMatthewArnold, T.S.Eliot, F.R. Leavis,RichardHoggart, the valueof cultureto the claimsof andRaymondWilliams. Deliberatelycounterpoising be for by the culture might opted stateeducationas mechanism which utility, culturalists; driving increasingly imperatives to the the of an andextendedas centreof resistance preserved mechanicalandmaterialistcivilisation. The democratisation andthe 'civilisedruling of the lifestylesof culturalistacademics Government's Labour to the their post-war associates, werecentral classes'who were by developed in be Individualism tandem andsocialismwereto conceptionof a new society. intellectualprivilege.The Governmentusedcollectivewealthto investin a democratising long industrial in economyof the the and run, replace manual programmeof education, so, low wagesand long hourswith an intellectualpost-industrialeconomyof shorthoursand high by heralded bound Government Labour In together economic a societynot wages. this, the be but by individuals Rational educated would autonomous citizenship. marketcontracts, life dependent high their that on supportinga generous of was quality enoughto understand 52 democratic levelof public provision,allowingthe gradualascendancy socialism. of Gaining secure,intellectual employment from a state bureaucracydue to improved and

his ideas 'citizen'. As Shaw shouldnot such, wasclearlya model opportunity, subsidised high latest in be the the twist story of cultural refusalof the popular a moralistic simply seenas but "All are the artsarea sourceof pleasure somepleasures of materialcivilisation: pleasures 53 Shaw's " higher thoughtswere than quantity others. of greater quality and not simply of a for between division the the affectiveand cognitive, they predicatedon the rationalist

51See:JANET MINIHAN, The Nationalisation of Culture The Development of StateSubsidiesto the Arts in Great Britain, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1977. 52"The

be history high history imaginative the can as art read a crisis of avant-garde of of complex by by idea brought New Class in A the the the culture of of rise on reflective and modern culture. crisis progress,that is, the secularidea of moral and social advancethrough the growth of instrumental knowledge." ANDREW BRIGHTON, "Art Currency", Current Affairs: Britisb Painting and Sculpture in the 1980s,Museum of Modern Art Oxford and The British Council, 1987, p14. Seealso: ALIVIN W. GOULDNER, The Future of the Intellectualsand the Rise of the New Class,Macmillan, London, 1979. 53SHAW, "What

useare the Arts?", p20.

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prioritised the intellectual labour of thinking over the pleasure of the text. For Shaw, as for most democratic socialists, the Individual's knowledgeable "will to form" had to be publicly Icgitimated and controlled in order to ensure Its highly worthwhile social benefits:

Dcspitc Mrs. Thatcher's belief in "Victorian values", her government's attitude to education and the arts suggests that she is lot aware, as William Gladstonc was, that "The higher instruments of hurnan cultivation are also the ultimate guarantees of public 54 order.,,

Mail -Tho#e

people

are

the

wreckers

of

elviUsadon'

Adulh,ý ý", II ''. At

ýdlox%

I, "'ý 'ý

It III rel,

Such an attitude, it would seem, had bcconic

an

increasingly incompatible with inuch statesponsored art in the in id-seventies. Again, the question arises Listo whether or not it was deliberately incompatible.

.. .......

Could the lower

human depravity of also be a instruments guarantee of public order?

Figurc 1.3 Daily Mail. 19"' October 1976. This 12al2erwas soon rcl2r(.)dLicCdon the cover of Throbbing

Gristle's Vea Friendly LP Sleeve.

In the Spring of 1976, the Chancellor was forced to adopt an even stricter economic forcing him to abandon sonic of Labour's policy commitments in the expenditure, stance on public services. In February, the month in which Andre's bricks were first unveiled, the Treasury decided to secure a fall in the pound in order to make sterling more competitive. ]'he Bank of England's poor handling of this manoeuvrc precipitated a crisis in the pound between March and April 1976 in which nearly a third of Britain official reserves were spent supporting the falling currency. Following the International Monetary Fund crisis55 in the autumn of

54ibid.,

p25.

55Following the Bank England'sdisastrous attempt to devaluethe pound, the Labour administration of applied for an IMF loan in order to prevent more cuts III public spending. The IMF, however, askedfor cuts of 0 billion in public expenditure in order to securethis loan. Callaghan managedto force through ý2 billion in cuts, thereby ensuringthat the IMF would grant a loan, for fear that they would appearto be responsiblefor economicruin if they failed to do so. It was soon proved that the IMF were intent oil destroying lcft-wing governments. In 1977 it askedthe USA, Germany,japan and Britain (who refused) to createa foreign exchangecrisis, to withhold aid to the socialist Governmentof Portugal, thereby permitting the harsh IMF economicprescriptionswhich soon allowed the far Right back into power. See KATHLEEN BURK and ALEC CAIRNCORSS, 'Goodbye Great Britain': Tbe 1976 IMF Crisis, Yale, London, 1992.

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T.1534or notT.1534?Is thattheQuestion?

1976, policies now characterisedas lbatcherite were fully launched by Callaghanwho secured a reduction of L2 billion in public spendingover the next two years.

On the 18" of October 1976, in the middle of IMF crisis, COUM Transmission's Prostitution openedat the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, a retrospective dislocate human hardly Given it is to this cultivation and order. guaranteed public exhibition for days filled just "'Prostitution' that only although ran eight and one room the surprising least its It it to the modest size. was subject of at coverage receivedwas out of all proportion 56 in The 100 newspaperand magazinearticles and questionswere asked parliament. infamous exhibition, which featured pornography, usedtampons and maggots,was most famously met with a furious attack by veteranright-winger Nicholas Fairbairn - QC and MP for Kinross and West Perthshire- in languagesomewhatakin to the Arts Council's defenceof 'cultural value': It's a sickeningoutrage, Sadistic,Obscene,Evil. [ ...I The Arts Council must be scrapped being here destroy is [ I Public to the morality of our society. wasted money after this. ... 57 decadence. They Thesepeople are the wreckers of civilisation. want to advance "... like all modern exhibitions it was an excusefor exhibitionism by every crank, queer, lead business. Tory in " Fairbairn "abolish to the to the the went on call and ass squint bureaucracy intellectual "anxious to the their arrogance", art soft-bclt with spooks denigrate language, to they can attitude meaning and promote every swill-bin thought. -58

That Fairbairnshouldhavemimickedsomeof theArts Council'spromotionalrhetoricwhile like Arts it Fairbairn, the as surprise. the should come no endorsed activities criticising Council,clearlyendorsedthe notion of art astheculturalactivity of the educatedclasses, the felt he Tory Fairbairn, the the of quintessential representative old guard, classto which belonged. However,evensuchincongruouswork couldbe defendedon Fairbairn'sgroundsin brief, into it a well-chartedescapade the that offered educatedmodernistcognoscenti director Institute Indeed, the the the of this position artistic precisely of of was anarchism.

56SIMON FORD, "Doing P-Orridge", Art Monthly, June 1996, No. 197, p9. A similar number of by debacle. Bricks the generated articles were 57NICHOLAS FAIRBAIRN in THOMSON PRENTICE, "Adults only art show angersand MP", Daily Mail, Tuesday 19th October 1976, pl. 58NICHOLAS FAIRBAIRN in TISDALL, p85.

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ContemporaryArt: "The arts in this country are still dominated by middle-classattitudes. This hasgot to be broken down. "59 Broken down, perhaps,but not eradicated.

Confrontedwith suchliberalcuratorialpractices,it hasrecentlybecomecustomaryfor historians to arguethat - unlikethe work of modernistssuchasManet,Picassoand criticalart Pollock- the newart of the mid 1970sdid not forcea newsetof criticsto adopta newway of been had legitimated by it already since publicly seeing educatedfigures: by in the popular Pressare quite irrelevant, because the columnists objections raised ... the critical and curatorial successof [Andre's] the work as modern art was achieved quite independentlyof suchreservations(where originally, as in the caseof [Manet's] Olympia, [ ]a senseof the modern was constructed,to a certain extent, out of the ... 60 commentariesof critics).

While this comprehensive claimmight elucidateonepossibledifferencebetweenmodernist its be implications judged to artworlds, wider remain againstthe postmodernist and specificculturalandpolitical contradictionswhich took placein this countryaroundthe during 1970s. the and economic paternalism of cultural question it might beclaimedthat muchof the Despite(or because of) their leftist sympathies, late modernist cognoscentiof the mid-1970s had deliberately effectedan exaggerationor Council's Arts the original culturalist aims, using public money with the specific of reversal intent of offending (as opposedto 'altering') the public sensibility. Suchan argument could be had fact Transmissions by COUM that the consistentlyaimed to make art more countered by undermining the mass-media'smanipulative sensationalism,while seekingmore popular 61 forms 'direct' of experience. Yet any critical potential of COUM's work was in turn eroded by the common understandingfabricated by cultural administrators and the press,that the face image. COUM's the a monetarist culturalist status quo was mirror of assaulton opposing inadvertently 'modernisers' the therefore, aided cause of monetarist of mystification, culturalist the Labour Right who were, after all, the producersof the powerful media sensationalism COUM rallied against. which The assaulton culturalism rapidly becomea mausoleumfor the institutionalised avant-

have in impossible they their negationsand whereby could position not garde,who were an 59 TED LITTLE (Director of the ICA) in THOMSON PRENTICE, "Adults only art show angersand MP", Daily Mail, Tuesday19th October 1976, pl. Roy Shaw,however, condemnedthe exhibition: "It is kind be for. is in " thing this the that of which public not money should used view personal my RICHARD CORK "Richard Cork's 1976 Art Review", Evening Standard, 30th December1976. This is his democratic bow Shaw's For to to socialism, reluctance monetarist a with pressure. compatible clearly issue for "Protests Contemporary the take the see at use of subsidy public money public on right wing Arts Exhibition", The Times, October 22nd 1976. 60FER, "The Modern in Fragments",p43. 61SeeChapter 13: GuaranteedDisappointment.

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their politics too. One of the few avant-gardegroups to recognisethis were COUM, who used the opening night of the Prostitution exhibition to abruptly abandon the artworld, re-launching 62 band Throbbing industrial Gristlc. With the artworld's ideals scarredby themselvesas the the 'failure' of the 70s late-avant-garde,new art historian Tj. Clark was soon able to dconvincingly'proclaim that becomessimply too complete;they the moment at which negation and refutation ... [the late avant-garde]erasewhat they meant to negate,and therefore no negation takesplace; they refute their prototypes too effectively and the old dispositions are 63 literally longer 'no appy. sometimes - painted out; they Recognisingthe vast political potential of this situation were the New Right who choseto in Art Council's 'patronising' the the manner which cultural elitism seemedto emphasise deliberatelydenigrateand patronise the consumersof massculture. Adopting the guiseof democrats, New Right expressedconcern that the paternalistic administration of the social divisive; between drove it by treating culture as a wedge socially culture and was society culture

decline be ideal to society sphereandmass-consumer aswitnessof a secular a separate deploredfrom the critical standpointof eliteminority culture. In an ingeniousrhetoricalploy, be democratised industry' Right 'culture New that the suggested could the simplyby being turnedoverto the privatesector.Sucha proposalrefutedFairbairn'sThatcheritewish for a distinction between breaking down in Victorian Values"; "Victorian the to utilitarianism return 64 democratic life, New Right Labour's However, the social mimicked policies. and cultural distinctions be by dissolution to such not ultimately achieved an Arnoldian of was the but labouring by New Right's the the triumph the of classes, emancipation of educational 'economic rationalism'. Implicitly endorsingthe reduction of objects of cultural preferenceto

62Throbbing Gristle actually debutedat the AIR Gallery on ShaftsburyAvenue, London, in July 1976. A secondappearanceas TG followed at the Hat Fair in Winchesterduring August. Although the Prostitution show actually saw TG perform for the third time, the exhibition functioned more as an intended it COUM to the than mark official as was end of as an art outfit, now a retrospective, obituary band Throbbing Gristle incorporating Carter. industrial Chris Given their new member as reborn dadaesqueroots, COUM have beenacclaimedfor (radically) withdrawing their artistic labour in the face doing, lead in for However, they the entrepreneurial so the consumption. capitalist way of antagonistic became limited 1990s. Having COUM 1980s state the exhausted subsidy, and simply a private of artists Records). (Industrial company 63T. J. CLARK, "Preliminaries to a PossibleTreatment of Olympia in 186S", Screen,Spring 1980, p27. 64Victorian hierarchy, the of of discipline of order, all of which were valuesstress virtues of authority, liberalism. by Bowing Thatcher's to public pressure,Labour also proposed an end economic subverted to the Arts Council's (quasi)autonomy,despitethe fact that this would have meant loosing one of the most powerful political weaponsavailableto monetarist 'modernisers'. However, considerable ideological differencesremained,with Labour (advisedby Conrad Atkinson) proposing a democratic balances' Arts in Council 'checks the to order make and publicly accountable,and the of system Conservativesadvocating the end of the Arts Council. SeeLABOUR PARTY, The Arts and the People: Labour's Policy Towards the Arts, London, 1977.

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the level of commoditiesfor salein the market place, the New Right's consumption aesthetics business intereststhan to any inherent intellectual thernatics to the of powerful owed more power or theoretical innovation. In an important sense,then, the New Right was fully exploiting monetarist 'reforms' initiated by the CallaghanGovernment,arguing that a 'squeeze'on the cultural economy for hole Right's Callaghan 'a If the called of expansion'. proof were needed create what would intention to take advantageof Labour's monetarist drag act, it needonly be stated that the Associationfor BusinessSponsorshipof the Arts (ABSA) was launchedon the 12' of February 1976, only three daysprior to Colin Simpson'sarticle in The SundayTimes BusinessNews. The ExecutiveCommittee ABSA included representativesof the BeechamGroup, Doulton and Company, IBM (UK), Imperial Tobacco, Legal and GeneralAssurance,Midland Bank, Perkins EnginesGroup and Phillips Industries, all powerful supportersof the ConservativeParty. It is ironic, (but not surprising), that the Labour Governmentshould have supported ABSA's formation by providing a grant, for four yearslater Norman St John Stevasran a campaignencouragingbusiness ... C25,000, Committee ABSA He of too of and created a a grant, gave sponsorship. Honour to promote sponsorship. His successoras Arts Minister, Paul Channon, launchedtwo publications of 1981 for businessand the arts. Three years later, under Arts Minister Lord Gowrie, camemore substantial support. The BusinessSponsorship incentive scheme(BSIS)was launchedin October 1984, through which the Governmentmatchesfirst time and existing sponsorswhen they put up new money for for behalf Arts Minister ABSA the the on of an agreed scheme the arts. administers fee.65 However, given that there was a recessionon, there was little dangerof an over production of New Right's Behind This the economic camouflage. was mere artworks, public or private. familiar Arts Council lay democratic that the the criticism were overly more cloak social lifeless ideas, generalitieswhich nowhere engagedwith the vital, obsessedwith abstract This 'authentic' intuitive theoretical of consumption. suspicion cultural of nature responsive, back legendary Dr. Johnson's Conservative, through appeal going analysiswas quintessentially David Hume's kicking by to refute theory philosophical scepticism. a stone to experienceover Partly as a corollary of this point, right-wingers arguedthat paternalism placed a stranglehold line, Conservatives Taking monetarist materialist radical the a arts. on the creative nature of for for level higher the an effective public administrator of taxation required arguedthat the be What less left their to to choice of art. ought of the public with money spendon arts had been life in importance those aspects which experience publicly were cultural primary 66 be decided by the public, (in theory): 'endorsed'.What to endorse,therefore, should

65COLIN TWEEDY, "From Maecenasto Manager", A Celebration of 10 Years'BusinessSponsorship for Arts, Sponsorship Business Association Arts, the p14. of of the

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T. 1534 or not T. 1534?Is that the Question?

The artistic patron is not new - from Maecenasthrough to the Medicis and Mellon, we have seenthat money and art go together. British examplesrange from the Earl of Southamptonto the Tate family to Sir Charles Clore and the Sainsburyfamily. However, it is to America that we look for developmentof the businessand arts 67 business in Britain now call sponsorshipof the arts. movementwhich we Despitethe obvious aim of ABSA to improve the image of big business, ("sponsorship of the 68 business be be helping flourish"), important is the community to the can seento way arts an New Right claimed to be helping uncomplicatedand brow-beaten 'ordinary' people to snip the bound ties that them. Conservativesthus deceptivelypandered cultural and economic know like like know' 'I I I the to what what attitude common to what they pragmatically -I held to be the public conception of the arts. This aspectof Thatcherite policy constituted a ideologies the totalised on of culturalism and Keynesianmacroeconomics assault related more than either COUM or the Labour governmenthad envisaged.Monetarist Conservatives buyers democracy 'market', The with voters as and politicians sellers. as a as understood due its in Labour Party their to the solely was, eyes, promisesof expensivepolicies. successof Suchpromises,however were inflationary, sincethey encouragedexcessiveexpenditure leading demands from far As voter-customers. as the arts were concerned, exaggerated to ever more Labour offered an expensive,yet comprehensiveservice. What was perhapsunique in the case however, 'market' that this the service was relatively unpopular the was with electoral arts, of leisurely The Labour culture to state subsidised with wealth and tended privilege. associate who Governmentwere perhapsto blame here, having clearly recantedon the democratic socialist highly Government The Labour publicly spirited citizens. of educated, a society creating aim of decision fate institution their to the the centralise of the of citizenship with certainly sealed for in 1976.69 All New by 'reforms' implementing that the monetarist was remained market Right to capitalise upon Labour's Government'sexploitation of the working classby pledging ideology. Keynesian vestiges of cuts acrossall remaining The New Right were able to capitalisepolitically upon Labour's betrayal of the in important Their to the stance anti-citizenship profoundly relation educational working class. false impression Council Party' 'People's Arts that they the the the were gave role of - placing 66See:DAVID ALEXANDER, A Policy for the Arts: just Cut Taxes, SelsdonGroup, London, 1978. As Minister for Education and Sciencein the 1970-74 ConservativeGovernment,Margaret Thatcher had have her by Harold introduce Wilson's to to charges, only policy museum repealed attempted Governmenton his re-electionin 1974. 67TWEEDY,

p9.

68PRINCE CHARLES, A Celebration of 10 Years'BusinessSponsorsbipof the Arts, pS. My emphasis. 69SeeERIC HOBSBAWM, "The Forward March of Labour Halted?", in M. JACQUES and F. MULHERN (Eds.), The Fonvard March of Labour Halted?, Verso, London, 1978.

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T. 1534 or not T. 1534?Is that the Question?

70 Shaw,meanwhile, continued to argue that them in a powerful political position. Governmentshould play a central role in developingan educatedand enlightenedtaste in the humanist designed light, Shaw's In to this concern make overtly people extraordinary. arts - an Leavisite'elitist' emphasison a hierarchy of discriminating viewerswas far from reactionary. Shawimplicitly rejecteda consumption model of culture for a critical model of reception by society peoplednot more passiveconsumersbut by connoisseurs aesthetics- envisaginga feelings irrationalism "uncultivated interpret: the and which often accompaniesthem are who 71 demagogues dictators " thrive. and the stuff on which In contrast, the conservativeconsumption model implicitly rejectedthe possibility of de-familiarisation; jaded, the that claim art might our revitalise routine, everyday aesthetic habits of perception by forcing us to break with those habits and seethings radically anew. Clearly the prospectof a critical, non-utilitarian culture ran counter to the radically scientistic drift of conservativepolitical interests. The New Right's central cultural policy tactic was in in to the small companies undevelopedcountries turn the manner which akin suspiciously 72 Ensuredby the Orwellinan dictum 'ignorance is 'Usesof Illiteracy' to their advantage. began ingenious Party Conservative to arts policy changes, the pledge a number of strength', back New from While bid funding in the to the the to private sector. public a move cutting Right and the ABSA argued that pluralism in arts subsidieswould lead to a re-invigorated knew institutionalised that ending public subsidywould also end the avant-garde artworld,

their 'critical' activities. A number of critics, however, went further, arguing that the Arts Council, with its had into institutions the culture, of elite power to assimilatealmost any object or gesture Indeed, the eventhe possibility that a project of modernity. effectively neutralised disintegrating modernism might radically alter or disrupt given structuresof meaningwas history its (dada, by it neo-dada, strategy a comprehensible with own acceptablesince was now irked ) What that quangos were many was avant-garde etc conceptualism, pop, minimalism, ... for from it. Divorced 'failed the complex the to signify' sakeof collaborating on projects which led failure 'real this artists to produce psuedo-avant-gardework, world', political milieu of the lacking formal the their of authentic avant-garde while experiments mimicking the reductive New Right's Arts Like imperative. the the consumption aesthetics, politically emancipatory 70SeeCONSERVATIVE POLITICAL CENTRE, The Arts The way Fonvard, London, 1978. Richard Cork claims that he was not entirely aware of the momentousnessof the political eventsof 1976: "No I did I No it I than the time. there wasn't that of course clearly now at much more see wasn't, no. can bit later, feeling Discontent, Winter it When that the to the a you could of very rapidly get came sense. Old Labour was up and rambling. But, to be honest, could anybody could have imagined that this did. had have in I inkling it Thatcher the that taken way she certainly on no of could called creature Queens Park, London, CORK, February 1998. RICHARD Interview " with really. 71SHAW, p20. 72SeeRICHARD HOGGART, The Usesof Literacy, 1957.

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Council's cultural paternalismwas seento deny the possibility of aestheticde-familiarisation, but through relativism. The Arts Council's power to legitimate events through populism not createda cult of myopic culture appreciatorstrained to routinely break with (unformed) habits. The suggestionwas that the Arts Council's liberalism was supporting a small coterie of passive developing than a masssocietyof cultured critics. rather aesthetes Although the avant-gardecontinued to conceivetheir work in a spirit of critique, it has become by immediately to that their note a commonplace work was consumed an since framework designed institutional The to them. specifically categorise and explain extensive between demanding intellectually an culture, museumsas institutions which relationship legitimisethis difficulty, and the correspondingindustry of explanation, was quickly identified by a large number of producersand administrators of British art as thc matter for practical and deemed To independent of suicidal, as remain popular reservations was critical engagement. the threat to their secure,intellectual employment now camefrom the (de-regulated)State. Culturalist 'citizens' who fearedan end to their privileged status were therefore forced to for initial in As New impetus Right's the this the of modernism country. rejection contrive an had in artists who audibility, critics and professedan affinity with the political populism gained fact from Arts Council in jump What their they to sinking ship. were avant-gardepretended doing was ensuringthat their status becameboth the object and content of their work, thereby + locus hh, the their popular visual culture. at of positions guaranteeing

from did have deviate Giventhat formeradvocates their to culture of modernist not futile describing it incessantly to argue that their own activities, might appear of usual practice historians, Yet (who to the took contrary claims place at all. of new art were shift cultural any be in it benefactors 'shift') that this the the alleged subtle might sense of post-modern of major Britain was constructedout of the commentariesof its critics. has during the past year will, art which contemporary received the mauling savage ... fund it beneficial have towards turning the the of vast of effect potentially surely, 73 future issues human, political and social which affect the of us all.

73RICHARD CORK "Richard Cork's 1976 Art Review", Evening Standard, 30th December1976.

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CHAPTER 2 Crisis Criticism Thus there developed an unconscious process by which critics manufactured schools of painting with their own built-in obsolescence. This view coincided with the interests of dealers and museum officials, for it gave thern an opportunity continually to add to their public collections, and arrange exhibitions that displayed their knowledge of the 1 new trends.

The developmentof various postmodernistpracticesand diSCOUrses throughout the late 70s and 80s has beenan attempt to come to terms, first and foremost, with the undemocraticnature of Britain's major art institutions and the undemocratic place of 2 art generallywithin the culture. Seizing on surface appearances many commentators have overtly and ldcall,"'tically concentrated their criticisms and complaints oil the contradictions of distribution. Much of this writing has been frained within liberal debates on distributive rights: that have people a right to the equal share of satisfaction as citizens and consumers all from art. The result has been a general populist tone to a large amount of art political writing: that if art can produce the right socially minded themes, accompanied by the link between provision, some organic art and the working class call right institutional be forged. 3 The routine modernist continuum of revolt and counter-revolt, which has been no more meaningful than a reflex action over the past couple of decades, must be fulfilling by [ I Although the more and steadily alternative. a sane men and replaced ... have distinct this ways of seeking that integration - ranging exhibition all women in from street murals and collaborative work in schools to direct intervention in political door-to-door co-operative projects - they agree that avant-garde illstruggle and fighting to establish the supremacy of One True Path Forward is henceforth out of the 4 question. There has long been a post-war ritual of intellectual hostility concerning avant-garde practices Berger, Ernst H. Kenneth Clark. Gombrich Britain, the ofjohn in writings and particularly in In the late 1970s, however, a new coterie of neo-Marxist critics emerged as ambassadors of fecklessness They the their indignation at of art under capitalism, pronounced cultural change. Unwittingly, crisis in contemporary promulgating a art. simultaneously while

the Conservative

Party's political aspirations were being aided by these 'crisis critics' whose primary task was to

'ROBERT

HEWISON, "The Arts in Hard Times", Too Mucb: Art and Society in the Si.xties 1960-75, Methuen, London, 1986, p231. 2jOHN

ROBERTS, "The Dialectics of Postmodernism: Thatcherism and the Visual Arts I", Postmodernism, politics and art, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1990, p6 1. 3ibid.

p58.

4RICHARD

CORK, "Art For Whom?, Art For Wbom?, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1978, p7.

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lucrative for (while towards the attitudes visual arts, ensuring questionpaternalistic careers themselves). The seedsof such critiques were to emergefrom Raymond Williams, who, in the mid1970s,beganto criticise the Arts Council for maintaining a 'consensusof goodwill' reminiscent benevolence traditions towards the middle class the and upper of paternalistic aristocratic of had been late disinherited 1950s, Williams' Since the the chief concern with culturally poor. led him developing importance to the stress of which a participating concern masses,a democracyin which peoplewould have greateraccessto the channelsof communication. In deal he had in Arts Council's indeed Williams the common with a great aims; was to this, believe Council. However, Williams the to a member of eventually came three as years spend hampered by democracy Quango the severely the of social was paternalistic that possibility debate In Britain, Britain's system. and control of the arts were arts administration nature of

had body in trustees them,andwhatever the of power vested of whatever province entirely 5 brought Arts Councils. Andrew in the to assist and officials were experts advisers, groupsof Brighton,oneof the mostWilliamsianof crisiscritics,offeredthe following explanationof this development: In Britain there is no tradition of a strong indigenousart world. Unlike the European have in in American the this sufficient numbers affected or wealthy country not rich or far intellectuals traditional the the so as painting accepted valuesand evaluationsof has helped I State [ to professionalizethe patronage and sculpture are concerned. ... British art world by changingthe balanceof its population; as the amount of state 6 has has financial support the number of cultural civil servants. grown, so too As Williams pointed out, this Quango model servedto encouragethe depoliticisation of art in Britain, an attitude inherent in the Arts Council's professionaland managerial ethos. The for if in to assertions were argued as objective, and normative modernist approach art which began Williams in 1950s, hierarchical Leavisite to the were culture which reject view of the

heldto be corollariesof this structure.Williamsthereforearguedthat the illusion of an 'standards' British the to of art and maintaining central apoliticalcritical objectivity internationalmodernism,wasin fact merelya methodof maintainingthe cultural supremacy 5"Constitutionally, it was governedby a Council whose memberswere appointed by the Government, but from which they were entirely independent,once the necessarygrant-in-aid had beenawarded. The Council was advisedby the specialiststaff it employed,together with panelsof unpaid experts, but these decisions. fact, law It Arts Council's in itself. had that ultimate was, a unto over no control panels Throughout the 1960s the Arts Council was being urged to becomemore representative,to democratise its proceduresand becomelessof a metropolitan oligarchy of interlocking interests. [ ...] The twelve Regional Arts Associationsfounded between1958 and 1973 brought a measureof devolution (together but did democracy Wales) Scotland " Councils Arts that the not create and any at centre. of the with HEWISON, prev. cit. p228. 6ANDREW BRIGHTON, "Official Art and the Tate Gallery", Studio Intemational, Review Issue, 1/1977, p 42.

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of the educatedclasses.Due to the persistenceof paternalist attitudes, Williams concluded, by dominant being the shaped classeselevatingtheir culture to the culture. In the culture was far from 1970s Williams his in the climate of was alone postmodern attack on the Modernist 7 What was peculiarly British about his attack, however, was that it was arguedin consensus. terms of entrenchedclassantagonism. In the United States,on the other hand, the turn against Modernism had emanatedfrom artists whose primary concernwas with examining the 8 had While in this some cases of expression. examination a political intent (e.g. Pop semantics for Art), it its (e. Minimalism, Conceptualism, Feminist carried often out own was sake g. and CageianAestheticsof Indifference),as though in continuation of the Modernist apolitical both in largely Modernism, Since intellectual the cases, negation of remained a pursuit, project. the new forms of American art therefore remainedunwillingly within the realms of high art, bents. humanist Such had and anti-aesthetic anti serniological new art certainly albeit with influenced a number of British conceptualistoriented artists practising throughout the 1970s. For a number of influential British art critics, however, the most important issuesremained in the writings of Ruskin, Arnold, Leavisand Williams, all of who were primarily interestedin long Britain, its In to the to analytical qualities attributed artworks. with the moral as opposed for tradition of state patronage the arts and its equally ripe class-system,Williams' materialist by be Modernism taken to were some more relevant than the philosophical and criticisms of from America Continent. the emanating and critiques poststructuralist Richard Cork: arrivist art-critic, as radical as a Rotarian. He's concocteda huge 9 by in career sayingvirtually nothing and worrying no one the establishment.

7 This view was particularly prevalent in Britain during 1978: "With the growth in political and has had defects the to the the state working class, mitigate obvious of organised more economicpower of life. intervening in While by is increasingly the the armed guardian and economic social state capitalism be its it to seenas the custodian of social order and and ruling class, wishes of an economicorder " Ibid. p 41. For evenmore extreme increasinglyas a neutral mediator in the conflicts betweenclasses. TAYLOR, Art. Enemy ROGER People, Routledge & Kegan Paul, the this an of position see of accounts 1978, and SUEBRANDEN, Artists and People,Routledge& Kegan Paul, 1978, both of whom elaborate by distinguished link is it irrevocably with certain that concept associations a partisan which art the view its Both that of classassociationsthe concept of art is empty. Of stripped argue once the middle classes. be intelligible They immediately to anyone at are not all. may more available to artworks some course, by Taylor forms but Branden's them. understood and not necessarily vulgar of classes the middle Marxism fail to show that classconnectionsare other than contingent. Nor did they elaborateon the disagreementsthat often occur amongstmembersof the middle classartworld. SeeR.W. BEARDSMORE, "Review: Art, An Enemyof the People", British Journal of Aesthetics,Volume 20, No. 2 Spring 1980, p182-184. 8 "There is a marked differencebetweenthe art publications of London and New York. Both Art Montbly and Studio International have beendeepin the fry of analysingthe social issuesof art. Artscribe may deplore someof the analysisbut it doesnot ignore it. In the States,after the removal of Max Kozloff from Artforum, there is a total blackout (with the exception of feminist publications such as Heresies.) RUDOLF BARANIK, "USIUK Dialogue on SocialPurpose", Artscribe, No. 14, October 1978, p54. 9ART & LANGUAGE (New York), "Appendix", Fox 3, June 1976.

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Richard Cork hasspentvaliant yearstrying to explain the wrong heapof objectsto 10 bunch the wrong of people. He beginsby lamentingthe snuffing out of avant-gardeoutlets and opportunities by ignorant, media-inducedhysteria,and endsby concludingthat introverted avant-garde 11 is irresponsible justifiably trivial and art and therefore, unpopular. In the late 1970sRichard Cork elaboratedWilliams' ideaswith almost missionaryzeal.12 Cork was appointedart critic for the London EveningStandardin the autumn of 1969, having just graduatedfrom Trinity Hall, Cambridgewith a first in Fine Arts. In his 'Art News' column, he broke with the trivialising practiceof much newspaperreviewing by dealingonly with one show in eacharticle, expoundinghis own opinions in the didactic generalparagraphs 13 Despite his do to opened pieces. editorial pressure which so, he refusedto producethe usual potted commentariesand only in July 1976 did he finally agreeto add a factual listing ('On View') at the end of eachcolumn.14 Cork was soon appointedto serveon the Art Panelof the Arts Council of Great Britain (1971-74). It was during this period that the Art Panelbeganto placethe avant-gardeunder its 15 specialisedprotection. The New Art - including the work of Keith Arnatt, Art & Language,

10DONALD BROOK, "Books: A CautiousBob EachWay", [Richard Cork, The SocialRole Art], Art of Montbly, No. 37,1980, p22. 11JANETDALEY, "The Art Critic's Art", The Literary Review,No. 9,9th to 22nd February1980, p28. 12.1 certainly rememberreadingWilliams in the 70s, he was somebodyI was consciousof when I was at Cambridgein the 60s as one of the few dons who had somethingto say." Interview with CORK, Queens Park, London, February1998. 13 "In terms the of newspaperaudience,what I remembermost powerfully is when I would write about new developments,you'd quite often get a whole shoalof lettersfrom readersabusing,saying'how could you possiblybe taken in by thesenon-sensicaldevelopments'?But I think that the angervery often centredon what the art was madeof. It seemedthat if an artist departedtoo much from painting or sculpture,the public were very readyto say'this is not art', very readyto legislate,as if they were very clear in their own minds about what was or wasn't art. Much cleareractually than I was! It seemedto me that an awful lot of what wasgoing on in the 70s was that very question,was interrogatingthe whole notion of art's own identity, and how you can actually push it out into areasthat previouslyhadn't beenconsideredasthe territory of art. But I wouldn't saythat thoselettersfilled me with incredibledespondency,in fact quite the reverseI felt that becauseI was able to write about thesenew developmentsin a forum like the Standard, which did actually get through to a lot of peoplewho knew very little about art, was a positive thing because it meantthat evenwhen they were reactingwith angerthey were somehowconfronting the whole question, askingthemselvesperhapswhat kind of art they wanted. So at leastit was in the air; there was a debate going on." Interview with CORK, QueensPark, London, February1998. 14 See:JOHN TAGG 8c PETERFULLER, "Richard Cork and the 'Road to Wigan Pier'", Art Montbly, No. 30,1979, p3. 15 "Having

allowed themselvesto be persuadedin the sixtiesthat their position as a parallel sourceof patronageto the private gallery systemwas a problematicone (althoughit is not clear that this should necessarilybe so) the Art Panelof the Council were unableto resistthe conclusionthat they had a unique

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Victor Burgin, Hamish Fulton, Gilbert & George,John Hillard, Richard Long, and John Stezaker organisedby Anne Seymourat the Hayward in November 1972 - largely inauguratedthis policy. In support, for his first Critic's Choiceexhibition selectedfor Tooths in 1973, Cork includedworks by Conrad Atkinson, John Stezaker,John Latham, David Dye, Gilbert and George,John Hillard, Bob Law, Richard Long, Gerald Newman, and the Nice StylePoseBand. The following year he Painting invited Beyond to select and Sculpture,a British Arts Council touring exhibition was by included which works Keith Arnatt, Victor Burgin,John Stezaker,David Dye, Gilbert and George,Hamish Fulton, David Lamclasand Gerald Newman; artists united by their "wish to questionthe supremacyof a value-systemwhich until recentlyremainedunchallengedexceptfor a few outstandingtwentieth century pioneers." 16 This claim was almost entirely erroneousgiven that the Arts Council was far from democratic;on the contrary, it was the prevailing orthodoxy. Membersof Art Advisory Panel,suchas Cork, could be nominated by anyone,but only accepted by Council. the the agreement of only The Panelthen hasthe authority to appoint committeesto organiseexhibitions and to judge the awardsschemes.f I Panelmembersdispenseawardsone year, only to receive ... awardsin the next from the very people(now servingas panel members)to whom they had presentedthcm.17 This might explain why Cork carried his allegianceto theseartists into the editorship of Studio International when he replacedPeterTownsendin the summerof 1975, at the suggestionof Etonian millionaire Michael Spens,an Edinburgh basedarchitect,ScottishNational Party first late The issueunder journal international the of modern art. activist, and new owner of Cork's stewardshipwas devotedto 'Art and Photography',and containedhis own article on John Hilliard as well as an 'editorial dialectic' on the 'Pitfalls and Priorities' of art magazines. Here he wrote of the needfor a magazinethat could relate art to the broadestof social bases fully discussion fail it the sustained, and elaborated which newspapers giving meditative while to provide.

responsibilityto support artistic activity that wascommerciallyunenviable." JANET DALEY, "The Arts Council vs. The Visual Arts", The Literary Review,October 1981, p4O. 16CORK, "Introduction", BeyondPainting & Sculpture:Works bougbt for the Arts Council by Ricbard Cork, Arts Council of Great Britain, Exhibition Catalogue,1974, p3. The exhibition openedat Leeds City Art Gallery on January12th 1974. It then travelledto the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (February 16th -March 17th) and the Arnolfini Gallery,Bristol (May 4th -June 8th). 17 DALEY, "The Arts Council The Visual Arts", p4O-41. Daley was one of the crisiscritics' fiercest vs. critics. As shepointed out Victor Burgin, amongothersat this time, was a memberof the Art Advisory Paneland Awards to Artists Sub-committccof the Arts Council of Great Britain (1971-76). Much of the work selectedby Cork at this point emergedfrom this tightly-knit neo-conccptualistmilieu.

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In March 1976, Cork "published an issueof Studio International on 'Art & Social Purpose'and beganreferring to himself as a 'committed socialist'". 18 Cork was subsequently at pains to statethat the British artworld's lofty modernistidealswere arrogant myths, proposing "to restorea senseof purpose,to acceptthat artists cannot afford for a moment longer to operatein a vacuumof specialiseddiscoursewithout consideringtheir function in 19 " In contrast to Roy Shaw,Cork followed the Williamsian wider and more utilitarian terms. line, arguing that high art's 'objective standards',could only be availableto the elite of which Shawhad becomea member.20 Sincethe high arts were the culture of the elite, the general public could only ever understandor appreciatethe high arts if they adoptedthe ideology of the elite. For many on the Left, the massappreciationof high culture could only be achieved by governmentchangesin economicand educationalsystems,not by artists, arts administratorsand art critics. Cork disagreed,adopting a position similar to the 'cultural materialism' developedby Williams towards the end of the 1970sin the pagesof the New Left Review. Like many intellectuals associatedwith the New Left, Williams soughtto convict Marxists of an insufficiently materialist understandingof the superstructures.In Marxism and Literature, he rejectedthe conceptof 'superstructure'for evadingthe questionof whether culture is determinedor determining.21 All aspectsof the superstructure,Williams argued,had becomeso marked by the logic of power and domination that they were now material. Henceit had become impossibleto explain culture with referenceto the economicbasesincethere was no basisfor distinction betweenthe two. A result of this view was that thoseareasthat had hitherto been regardedas superstructures,suchas culture, could now be seento hold immensepolitical hands, In the right culture could be as effectivea political weapon as economic power. intervention. The realisationthat Marxism had hitherto underestimatedcultural agency encouragedCork to useStudio International and the EveningStandardas a platform to for 'Art SocialPurpose. promote Problemsemergedimmediately. "Embeddedin the useof this phraseis the negation 22 has (true) " of the axiom that art alwaysand everywhere a social and political purpose. Moreover, therewas a risk that 'Art for SocialPurpose'might simply be a boost to the 18TAGG & FULLER, "Richard Cork and the'Road to Wigan Pier'", p4. 19CORK, 'Art

and SocialPurpose',Studio International, March/April 1976.

20 Cork conveniently neglected to mention that he himself was a graduate of Cambridgel 21SeeRAYMOND WILLIAMS, Marxism and Literature, Oxford UniversityPress,Oxford, 1977. 22JEFFREYSTEELE,"Notes Towards SomeThesesAgainst the New Kitsch", Art Montbly, Number 18, July/August1978, p19.

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bourgeois 'culture industry'. 23 This much was suggested when Cork asked Mel Ramsden if he would contribute to the September/October issue of Studio that would be therned on

Art & Language (A&L) replied sardonically: art magazines. contemporary Who do you think you are talking to? [Magazineslike Studio] representa capitalist consumption-categorymasqueradingas reality and fooling people into accepting capitalist production relations. [ ...I ...all we would be doing there is launching socialist balloons for 'harmonious' capitalist consumption cf. Studio's arriviste-reeking 'themes' 24 e.g. "Art and SocialistPurpose".

Indeed,asa critical experiment,Cork'sinterventionslauncheda numberof balloons(Peter Fullerbeingthe mostinfamous).Within just six months,Spens'interferencehadcaused to ripple throughthe subduedBritishart press,the impactof his takeenormousshockwaves 25 during breakdown. being "the Townsend, " Under the national nervous magnified over had been James Faure Walker a contributorto StudioInternational. Fromthe painter abstract banished discussion Studio, Cork he took over virtually of paintingandsculpture moment Cork'stechnological from the journal in orderto concentrateon 'newer'developments. determinismhavingmadehis copylesswelcome,FaureWalkerand a groupof artist friends decidedto setup Artscribewith a smallgrantfrom the GreaterLondonArts Association, (provided, conveniently enough,while his wife Caryn was on the board 26), and a loan from the dealer LeslieWaddington. The artist-run typewritten broadsheetwas initially intended to didactic launching itself anti-Studio with an editorial: make critics redundant, Artscribe has appearedat a time when popular critical opinion in British Art seemsto be wavering betweenleftist dialecticsand academicformalism. [ I Artscribe doesnot ... illustrate but believes to the thesis, of an art a social or rationale psychological endorse in the conviction of the primary aestheticelementin human experience.27

23"... the objective cretinization of painters, opensthe door for a further connectedsystemof false ideas false idea function it is itself indispensable the that the of art most notably not an part of social about bourgeois for ideology the the of class." ibid., p19. the system propagating 24ART & LANGUAGE (New York), "Appendix", Fox 3, June 1976. 25BEN JONES, "Editorial", Artscribe, No. 1, January-February1976, p4. 26 "As an historical note, in 1976/77, when Caryn FareWalker was employed as a Visual Arts Officer for the Greater London Arts Association, GLAA assistancewas awarded to the magazineArtscribe, James Caryn Fare Walker. by " MICHAEL DALEY, Council "Arts Awards", than and other none edited Art Montbly, Number 49, September1981, p32. 27BEN JONES, "Editorial", p4.

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Much in line with this formalist polemic, FaureWalker usedArtscribe as a platform from 28 launch Cork's the semantically-based a sustainedattack on critical territory, which to by being Stezaker, Hillard, artists pursued such and Burgin: artistic practices The artist as the antennaof society is a myth: so is the notion that 'new' art is the most dictator, demanding [ ] be the that artist speaks as a artists put in relevant art. ... brains, media artists as an elite corps of all communications of super cultural control from TV take the the mindlesstechniciansthat over stations should engineerswho brainwash the masses- the artist as demystifier, the liberator of consciousness.[ ] ... (the identity of " an artist) can only be maintained by reducing the content of for depends being it incoherent, its is that the making so shown, or artist-persona what authority on the institution that publicisesit. The paradox at the presenttime is that a from being dropped, identity initiative this stem along with its can only radical be in the other words artist must not an artist, so much as authoritarian associations: 29 an ordinary member of society.... FaureWalker's attack on Photoconceptualismhas much in common with A&L 30 for however, had different disdain Faure Walker, the a movement. contemporaneous for defence he from "narrowly A&L that critical ground a partisan given was seekinga agenda 31 by himself his limited [formalist] highly and painting and sculpture" produced range of of a friends: "Arguably it is now more progressiveto work within a tradition than to try to escape 32 "We are not always convincedof the newnessof 'new developments';and from it. " between 'mainstream' 'advanced' between 'new', 'traditional' or and are and polarisations is If and sculpture a partisan viewpoint, then we supporting painting superficial. notoriously 33 is in But be real newness any medium what counts.,, partisan. may Brandon Taylor's characterisationof the bad feeling around at the time was subtly different to FaureWalker's. Like FaureWalker, Taylor claimed that Artscribe was initially

28Seealso: JAMES FAURE WALKER, "In Defenceof Artscribe", Art Monthly, No. 34,1980, p10-12. Art 34,1980, Artscribe", Monthly, No. Surface Before "The MARTIN, BARRY p12. and 29FAURE WALKER, "Towards a Definition of the Progressivein Painting", Artscribe, No. 3, Summer 1976, p13. 30For

Chapter 7 Semi(o) Art? Art & Language's see critique, an account of

31 BRANDON TAYLOR, "Writing on the Surface:A RecentTendencyat Artscribe", Art Monthly, Number 33, February 1980, p3. There was no figurative art in the magazineuntil the 5' issue. 32 FAURE WALKER, "Towards a Definition of the Progressivein Painting", p13. 33TUE EDITORS, "A Surveyof Contemporary Art Magazines:Artscribe", Studio International, Art MagazinesIssue,September/October1976, p155. FaureWalker was to briefly becomean important figure in the 'return to painting' movementin 1979, selectinghis friends for the Hayward Annual of that favoured he he hold However, and process to abstract painting, primarily was not sustain a since year. for by figurative being the narrative arguments and overshadowed painting. His idea of this position, on 'tradition' clearly also differs from that of the 'Hard Won Image' faction of the early 1980s, lacking any bias. nationalist

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"dedicatedto a modest but interestingprogrammeof disestablishmentarianism.In those early daysArtscribe was designedto prick the flesh of official indifference to younger artists on the Marxism Studio International With hand, "34 the to the woolly of oppose on other. and one Taylor as co-editor, FaureWalker and his circle of formalist painters were unable to dominate had first Taylor journal A&L's In journal. the the taken edition of magazine, already the new had formalist; being for that task arguing analytical conceptualism a closerelationship with to the tactics of holistic or non-relational painting: [In contrast to analytical philosophy] Art & Languagewere apt to induce nothing in inattention, if better than not of actual somnolence, a senseof unfocussed much between lines discerning left in is text, the to more and of never the search eye which being bring barely into to concepts of and ever able than a vaguestringing-together denied. is being [ ]definition the eye asserted or so positively what was sharp ... detail, did field for just it intelligible in the within open of an as enlisted a vain search 35 Olitski or a Noland.

In directoppositionto FaureWalker'sinterests,Taylor usedhis new found editorialpowerto School in St. Martin's bis friends, "a of working or near of artists group promotethe work of JohnA. Walker and Art in London,and includingPeterClallis,johnathanMiles, Stezaker, Paul Womball. -36 Using a picture of the Daily Mirror's attack on Andre's Equivalent VIII to

37 his illustrate point, Taylor stuckto Artscribe'seditorialpolicy,arguingthat high andradical 38 force. be In longer fused, thought of as a radical could no and as such art culturewerenow begin from St. Martins Taylor "the the that the proposition this, group claimed, of recognition familiarised become have large with the generalrangeof avant-garde reasonablywell public at According did in This "39 to the to terms. amount much practical not attitudes. and postures Capitalism Clint Works Walker's Manifesto, 1976 of poster such as works -a group's Eastwoodashis gun-tottingDirty Harry alter-ego- countered"advertisingrhetoricon its own 40 being it This " its the the tag. case thereby avant-garde avoiding terms,using own methods,

34 TAYLOR, "Writing on the Surface:A RecentTendencyat Artscribe", p3. 35 TAYLOR, "Textual Art", Artscribe, No. 1, January-February1976, p7. 36 TAYLOR, "The Avant-Garde and St. Martins", Artscribe, 'Education Issue',No. 5, SeptemberOctober 1976, p5. 37 Cork also usedthis illustration in his Editorial for 'Art and SocialPurpose' Studio International, March/April, 1976. 38 THE EDITORS, Studio International, September/October1976, p155. 39 TAYLOR, Artscribe, No-5, p5. 40ibid.

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is difficult to seehow the St. Martins School of 'semio-art' differed from Photoconceptualism generally.41 Indeed,as Taylor concluded,the "present attempt by the St. Martin group to destructure poster and magazineadvertisingin a societywhich neither reveresadvertising 42 be techniquesnor controls their usemight therefore ultimately prove to unstrategical. From the beginning,then, Artscribe was a strangebrew.43 While aping Studio's thematic approach,initial issueswere devotedto decidedly anti-Studio topics such as 'Sculpture' and 'Painting Now'. However, 'Education', a bumper fourth issueedited by Taylor, had much in common with Cork's preoccupations. Cork's critical position was 44 being issue. Formalist "conventional topic trading with of one copy scant, a subsequently diminution by issue the of their vanguard stance(Eventhe rock seven, marked art critics

Studio Art Montbly )-45 and writerssuchasPeterFuller,andTimothy columnvanished. Hymanwererecruitedasregularcontributors,eachwith yet anothersetof radicallydifferent 46 Havingmeagrelydigestedthewritingsof the New Left, Fuller wasableto critical agendas. 47 his Cambridge in Fuller's Cork, that they connection, were moderately agreement. convince

41 SeeChapter 5 Photoconceptualism 42ibid., p6. 43-It got a bit strangeat that point. No one really knew what Artscribe was doing. It's a bit like Modern Painters nowadaysactually, isn't it? Maybe there's a parallel there." Interview with CORK, QueensPark, London, February 1998. 44FAURE-WALKER, "Richard Cork interviewed by JamesFare-Walker", Artscribe, No. 7, May 1977, p41-44. 45RORY COONAN, "Style in the 70s", Art Montbly, Number 29, September1979, p14. 46SceFULLER, "Respondsto 'Painting Now'", Artscribe, No. 6, April 1977, p31-34, and FAUREWALKER, "JamesFare-WalkerReplies", Artscribe, No. 6, April 1977, p34-37. Hyman soon becamean influential advocateof Narrative Painting. SeeChapter 10 Nude Review. 47 While editor of Studio, Cork had commissionedarticles by Brighton, Fuller and John Tagg. The Gang of Three later betrayedthis trust. SeeTAGG & FULLER, "Richard Cork and the 'Road to Wigan Pier'", Art Monthly, No. 30,1979, p5. "I rememberbeing astonishedwhen that article cameout because PeterFuller certainly hadn't intimated to me that it was going to appear, so it was a real kind of body blow. Far and away the nastiestarticle anybody has ever written about me. It was quite difficult to know what was going on in Peter'smind at that time, becausehe was very much on the change. It was future himself he look back that the to only time convinced was the at Ruskin and rewhen around look Pre-Raphaelitism, but in defend at to some way, the also painting. And nineteenth-century evaluate I supposethat's where we departedcompanycompletely becauseI really couldn't seeany point in going back to Ruskin, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to seemyself as somesort of last ditch defenderof he denouncing different lot hugely in had We that sense; was an awful of what gone on were painting. in the 70s, and to me becomingvery very conservative. Medium fetishism really, which I have never beenable to understand. He was certainly very ambitious, which I hadn't realisedin the 70s, but became felt blocked frustrated, he'd 70s by in I the that and the end of the 70s early think and maybe very clear. he had defined himself. To me, he had by that time, I'm afraid, lost a lot of what had made him a good have him became Studio. It to to contribute me want made a sort of psychodramain a writer and what Queens London, CORK, Park, February 1998. Tagg, Fuller and Brighton had Interview " with way.

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became Studio, he welcome at very wherein copy soon emulatedBrighton by claiming that "capitalism has destroyedthe traditions of Fine Art which it created".48 In many ways, however, Fuller was experimentingwith a more intemperatelitigation againstthe fine art like late Taylor, Roger that the arguing, modernist artworld, now robbed of its establishment, functions, had no convincing justification for its existence: social and political There can be no seriouslong-term argument for the continuous allocation of Government funds for middle-classobsessionalgame;that is why the Tate's present has been from both left from so vigorously opposed policy and right, and acquisitions 49 from The Burlington Magazine Marxist to the entire art world spectrum, critics. Rather than being an attempt to recombineart and life, much of this polemic was in the causeof have been Fuller's 'radical' (public) the views regarding artworld would never careermongering. heard without the rapid expansionof the (private) art pressin Britain that took place in 1976.

50 laconic determination babble deficient in Controversial soldmoreart magazines. It is telling that Fullerneverconcluded,asothersdid, that the artworld shouldbe abandonedfor communityart or higher him His told that conservative upbringing a orderof provocation. avant-garde his future careerasour critical discriminatingauthorityhadto be found,fortuitouslysafeguarding helmsman.Throughouthis remaininglife, his slendergraspof vulgarMarxism madehim highly forcing him irreparable involvement in into 'high the culture', position any governmental critical of Selsdon Group's At Thatcherite the same the the philistine castigation of arts council. of mimicking into investigations Marxism impetuous Fuller's theology, neurotic andpsychologywas time, by advocatinga 'redemptiveaesthetics'muchin line with leadinghim to find an ersatzquintessence High Tories(or the 'Old Right') suchasJohnRuskinandRogerScruton,defendingtraditional 51 practicessuchaspaintingandsculptureagainstthe newmedia. Art This State British Cork Cork the transcript. to of was prevented when published over sue attempted Hour. in Eleventh the the conference a transcript of 48 FULLER, "The Crisis in Professionalism",Studio International, Volume 194 Number 989,2/1978, history has been by historical influenced Tom British "My culture and perspective on greatly central P80. Nairne and Perry Anderson. Seeespecially,TOM NAIRNE, "The British Historical Elite", New Left Review, No. 23, and PERRY ANDERSON, "Origins of the PresentCrisis", New Left Review, No. 23 and "Components of the National Culture", New Left Review,No. 50." FULLER, "Footnote 4" ibid., p87. 49 FULLER, "The Tate, The Stateand the EnglishTradition", Studio International, Volume 194, Number 988,1/1978, p7-8. 50 "... coverageis an idle and fraudulent concept. Idle becauseit needsto permit the exerciseof beady-eyed interestsin the generationof gossipand 'controversy'; fraudulent becausethe spurious coherenceand in is by issue, 'coverage' issues, totality any given exemplified or of servesto mask which comprehensiveness homogenise ideological conflict and content of and trivialise its intellectual the specificand cognitive Peter Dormer", HARRISON, "Harrison Art CHARLES Monthly, Number 1981, 47, June " on constituents. p17. 51 SeeChapter 12 SchoolingLondon

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To complicate matters further, Artscribe did not remain the sole contender to Studio's had been long; for Townsend his too working on a project of own. In October 1976 he mantle launchedArt Monthly with Jack and Nell Wendler, with the aim of promoting "British Art in its national context". 52 The first issueconcentratedon the Bricks debacle53,in addition to the have devolution detailed Scottish discussionof new the that might on artworld, giving effects Glasgow's Third Eye Centre in institutions May 1975. By as such which opened arts for lengthy journals' to thernatics, the concentrate on need and art penchant abandoning academicarticles, Art Monthly was able to respond quickly to the turmoil of eventsthat would during few British in the the artworld next years. The secondissuein November take place 54 front devote its P-Orridge's The ICA. to the to page a report on ordeal at previous was able 'Education Issue' of Artscribe had commissionedWilliam Crozier to produce a review of the 55 by its Redcliffe-Maud Report, way of a contribution to thematic. Art Monthly neededno fourth 1977, it TUC's its in January in the a on arts policy edition printed report such excuses; document simply becauseit had beenpublished.56 Seeingthe error of its ways, Artscribe for issues. initial its theme-based penchant abandoned Art Monthly's provincial concernsclearly distancedthe new journal from the internationalism of Studio. Artscribe had also sought to be "national rather than international. Most artists in England [sic.] receiveno coverageof any kind by the pressat large - not even bad coverage. It seemsto us topsy-turvy to look overseasbefore taking account of what lies idea Artscribe's 'national' Anglocentric hand. Unfortunately, "S7 of to meant and nearer in Art the the this time. give nepotism rife artworld at unsurprising perhaps metropolitan, Monthly's low cost, wider distribution, flexibility, frequent and focusedcoverageof a wide 58 for This Studio's it issues the mantle. contender more significant quickly made range of

52CLIVE PHILLPOT, "An Insular View of British Art Mags", Art Montbly, No. 1, October 1976, pl-2. Philpot went on to comment: "The recent bi-monthly newspaperArtscribe seemsto be attempting some fortnightly but difficult it it is to publication could usefully provide, as that see or things a weekly of the from kind is its the standpoint principally of a particular of painting a national organ since view of art and sculpture." 53CARL ANDRE, "The Bricks Abstract", Art Montbly, No. 1, October 1976, p25. 54EDITORIAL, "P-Orridge's Gruelling Days", Art Montbly, No. 2, November 1976, pl-2. Seealso Chapter 4: GuaranteedDisappointment. 55WILLIAM CROZIER, "The Redcliffe-Maud Report", Artscribe, Education Issue,No. 4/5, SeptemberOctober 1976, p2l. 56CHARLES GOSFORD, "TUC and other documentson art policies", Art Montbly, No. 4, February 1977, p6-9. 57THE EDITORS, "A Surveyof Contemporary Art Magazines:Artscribe", Studio International, Art MagazinesIssue,September/October1976, p155.

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become When Spens had Studio in 1975 it to a reality. purchased more institutional soon was later British In 1980s, the the that print run of most other art magazines. whole subscribers its Spens' this and occasional editorship, asset great with world-wide ownership under distribution of art coveragein the UK was piloted into extinction. Spenswas not solely to blame for this. Unfortunately Cork's penchant for thematic, issue-basededitions promptly and deliberatelyprovoked the disapproval of a readershipused de-politicised analysisof the traditionally privileged media of painting to a more generalised, and sculpture: In May this year, the anniversaryof the month in which I took up the editorship of Studio International, a terseletter arrived from the Head of a London art school. Accompaniedby our subscription, order which I have not filled in, the letter form, it back 'I seemsat the moment that that renewal as am sending my announced longer be Therefore find longer we will no painting a part of modern art. you no letter. in It ' I the was, one sense,an unpleasant welcomed magazine. ordering your had being half dozen issues I then the summarily to edited were message receive: dismissedby one of the very institutions on which Studio relies for its ground-baseof letter far important in But the encapsulated sense, and more another support. dedicated I to opposing through the towards was the art which attitude precisely from heart dissenting And the this of the artthe verdict appearanceof magazine. 59 begun draw blood. had I to that proved establishment educational Following Cork's review of the 1977 Hayward Annual in the Standard, a seriesof heated letters were printed in The Guardian, PeterBlake, leader of the recently formed Brotherhood of 60 leading Ruralists, the critical onslaught. The Richard Cork - Paul Overy (Tbe Times) - Caroline Tisdall (Tbe Guardian) troika for disinterest/dislike for their painting and sculpture as such, singular were attacked disallow in (at traditional the visual arts as to that time) media their aim avowed and being irrelevant/unacceptable/unworthyof critical attention, and, as a corollary, their doctrinaire insistenceon using what available spacethere was for newspapercoverage disingenuous What is half-baked theorising. particularly pop-political of the arts of his himself 'established fantasy Cork's the comrades as victims of and of about interests' is that the three of them virtually constituted the newspaperart critical institutions British I At [ the that time, of mainstream art many establishment. ...

58Artscribe was initially sold for 20p and Art Monthly for 40p. Both 'inkys' contained writing that by Artists just (often L1.75 Studio 'glossy' the than critics). same and students rather the rivalled institutions could easilyafford both magazines. 59RICHARD CORK, "Editorial", ibid., p100. 6OTheBrotherhood of Ruralists was formed in 1975 by Blake and a group of six Romanticist friends heritage "through and experience personal vision of native our a expressing with the purpose of COLE, "Foreword", " FRANK NICHOLAS USHERWOOD, The English the countryside. celebration of Brotberbood of Ruralists, Lund Humphries, London, 1981, p6. SeeChapter 10 The Nude Review.

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been by have to seized a peculiarly intolerant coterie of young Turks, set to seemed freezeout any artistic form which they found ideologically unacceptable.61 By the summerof 1977 Trevor Grove, featureseditor of the Standard, lessalarmed at Cork's decline in Studio's 'radicalism' than the at rapid readership,askedif he would devote growing two columns a month to rounding up exhibitions other than those that took place in Lisson Grove. To Cork, this meant compromising his polemical column by transforming it into an 62 listing He March 15th. The final edition of 'objective' of visual arts events. resignedon Cork's Studio International followed within a year, consistingsimply of an unedited transcript held his ICA, discussion Britisb Art London in State 1978 The the conference at of of of -a 63 by Andrew Brighton, Peter Fuller Tagg. ideasconcerningsocial art organised and John Having exhaustedpopular and institutional art journalism, Cork (re)turned his attention to the distribution art's primary of contemporary network: the gallery. machinations A man of many contradictions, Cork beganto encouragea form of art practice debate by Williams' to over ethics and aesthetics organising a seriesof gallery analogous forgo intended to to the gallery system(1?!) in order to make art artists persuade exhibitions for 'ordinary people'. Of course,the idea that there might have poseda threat to the Arts Council's smooth running as a Quango is ludicrous. Cork's time on the Art Panelof the ACGB supporting the conceptualand performanceart he now discreditedhad servedhim well, his 'new' efforts to lend critical and financial support to art for social purposewere given the Council's full backing, thereby ensuringthat any dissentwas immediately recuperated: Richard Cork proposesas an alternative, to explore recent attempts to relate art to This theme seemsparticularly appropriate to a gallery concern. of social questions in one of London's most popular parks makesit accessibleto a position whose unique 64 wide public. Cork's problematic curatorial stancewas widely disseminatedin 1978 with Art for Wbom? at April 14th May). Gallery in London (22nd Serpentine the WE are increasinglydissatisfiedwith the failure of so much contemporary art to initiates. [ ] WE are convinced circle a small of with anyone outside communicate ... 61JANET DALEY, "The Art Critic's Art", The Literary Review, No. 9,9th to 22nd February 1980, p2728. While Daley's commentsconcerningthe monopoly in British art criticism were fairly accurate,her Arts Council Great half Britain the the of the picture. See within presented situation only of assessment Chapter 12 SchoolingLondon for more details. 620n June 9th 1977, Cork was replacedby Edward Lucie-Smithas The Evening Standard's art critic, Sewell Brian lasted 1980, took over. when only until who 63SeeChapter 6 SemioArt for a discussionof Tagg's interventions 64 SUEGRAYSON, "Preface", SerpentineGallery Report, 1978.

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that art must be transformed into a progressiveforce for changein the future. WE considerthat the artist ought to engagewith as the working people as possiblewho think that art has nothing to do with them. [ ...] WE declarethat art needspeople as be linked inextricably the two art: should need with eachother, and people much as 65 damagingly divorced again. so never Although adopting the rather absurd polemical style of (elitist) modernist manifestosin order his Cork artistic associatesremained true to Williams' ideals, their and to get points across, be lines the the should that artworld restructured along of a participating suggesting democracy.

Artists will never succeedin becomingtruly popular merely by imposing their work have been needs and attitudes audiences whose only perceivedon an on unchanged, how have level. learn [ ] Artists to they yet can make abstract and paternalist ... themselvesresponsiveto theseideas;study with unpatronising care why it is that do kinds in image the a venerated over of occupy place mantelpiece certain recurrent find if it homes; 'art' the term actually means, meansanything at all, to out what many house debate how far it; their own work the galleries which and those who never visit 66 likes. be could ever reconciledwith what the public Cork's responseto this problem was to industriously favour artists who produced socially he had begun in forms "artists to with one exception, support whom, selecting art responsible Standard. [ ] The his last during the opinion must as critic of climate of year articles written ... have changedvery rapidly in the four yearssincehe had enjoyedthe 'unaccustomedluxury' of 67 he decried. Perhapsmore than any other lavishing public money on just such art as now kind favoured. Cork Atkinson's Conrad the of practice which now work epitomised artist,

65 CORK, CONRAD ATKINSON, PETERDUNN, LORRAINE LEESON, ISLINGTON SCHOOLS ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTAND PUBLIC ART WORKSHOP, "Art For Whom?", Letter to Art Montbly, No. 16,1978, p 25-26. 66 CORK, "Art For Whom?, Art For Wbomý, SerpentineGallery, London, 1978, p9. 67 TAGG & FULLER, "Richard Cork and the 'Road to Wigan Pier'", pS.

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CHAPTER 3 GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson I leave aside the arguments about the radicalisation of a particular area of art as a but I remember thinking in the early 70s that conceptual art was merely political act; different. 'A for dawn' the only same magnificent more of sunset mistaken in Victor Hugo's words. 1 I don't believe as many do that theory can constitute a practice. Conversely I don't believe that you can simply have a practice - material conditions simply don't allow 2 State 'outside' of the or socIcty. privileged space For a modern home and cheap electricity / Streamlined functional neat simplicity / Put list dialectical / Dial the sluni clearance a materialist / Find out what your yourself on net potential is / Get married to an existentialist/ Don't doubt your own identity / Dress down to a cool anonymity / The pierre cardin line to infinity / Clothes to climb into the 3 benevolent bureaucracy / The new age of meritocracy

To a large extent, Atkinson had largely prefigured Cork's ideas. By the turn of the seventieshe had become detached felt in frorn their theoretical that, pursuits, artists practice. The already defined concerning art as an institutionally problems category and as a political philosophical debated by feminists, Marxists fire conceptuallsts, and soon came practice under as social and Atkinson forms historians be less that artists of resistance. insinuated and art should passive description, the the semantics of job and more concernedwith using their with preoccupied The the to and undermine machinations actively expose of capital. conceptual games influence based Cork (frorn the then critiques numerous institutionally and receiving attention of artworld Wben Attitudes Become Form Tbe Nell., Art, such as in exhibitions and others) entirely among distracted people'sattention from the urgent needfor action in the 'real' world. The New Art exhibition in 1972 at the Hayward Gallery I consideredreally to be a busted flush. I j It seemedto me that the conceptualart movementwas prot.oundly ... 4 academicand rooted in an attempt to corral practice and marginalisc It. ...art had to do something,becomea utility again, becausewe'd got to the point in the sixties where If [ ]I couldn't you to the use it, it which was useless. was art. anything got was art ... like he I Monet Strike the was exhibition where couldn't seeanything point after 1CONRAD ATKINSON, "People's Imagery: Trade Union Banners 1976", in CAROLINE TISDALL & SANDY NAIRNE eds. Conrad Atkinson: Picturing the System, Pluto Press/ ICA, 25th Nov-23rd Dec 1981, p22. 2ATKINSON,

The State of the Art and the Art of the State: Power Lecture Given to the "Introduction", Power Institute, University of Sydney, Australia, October 1983, Working Press, London, 1991, p8.

3jOHN COOPER CLARKE, "Euro Communist/Gucci Socialist", Ten Years in an Open Neck Shirt, Arena, London, 1981. 4ATKINSON,

Working Press, London, 1991, p5-6.

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light, looking I looking the and couldn't at see anything without without at the 5 politics. Strike at Brannansheld at the ICA, London 25th May - 25th June 1972, was a candid attempt to escapefrom formal and conceptualinvestigations,to concentrateinstead on the effectsof Late Capitalism. The strike at BrannansThermometer factory in his home town Cleator Moor Cumbria, West health industrial to the concerned strip of work conditions relating and on for Workers opportunity men and women. equal operating with mercury were on negotiations level, times the to permissible opening them to the risk of exposed poisonousvapours seven industrial sicknessessuch as "swollen gums, loss of teeth, tremors, kidney damageand brain 6 disease.,, Atkinson made useof letters, photography, super 8mm films and video. Little his be (this the to technique, to roughness of video was sometime prior to given was attention facts formalism'), 'grunge that might concentrate so viewers on such as profit and anti-aesthetic death. Drawing together 'facts' in the manner of a newspaperreporter, and imagesin the Atkinson produced a synthesisthat would make them understandableto a collagist, of manner juxtaposed images Slides the the cottages workers' were with village comparing of the viewer. directors, homes in Lake District National framed luxury ten the the miles away of timber the of Park. During the exhibition, there were a number of meetingsbetweenrepresentativesof the Strike Committee, the local MP, John Cunningham,and May Hobbs of the London Nightcleaner's campaign. Receiptsfrom the saleof prints went towards the strike fund. Atkinson claimed somesuccessin that one of the departmentsat Brannan's London became 100% unionised after seeingthe exhibition about the strike. Unfortunately, the strike did not August 1972. in its called off achieve goal and was Work, Wagesand Prices, followed at the ICA, London between5th and the 28th of April 1974, before touring to the Islington People'sRights Centre, London in June 1974, and Nathan Arts Centre, Newcastlein October 1974. As part of the ICA's programme of fact Atkinson illustrated Alienation, films the that talks wealth was entitled and exhibitions, despite in distributed United States its in Britain than the considerablymore unequally five bands into information billionaires. The organised of exhibition was millionaires and designedto developthis contention. At the top ran a line of ticker tape print-out from the Stock Exchangeshowing the downward movementin prices on the first day of Harold Wilson's Labour government. Next camephotographs,in contact sheetform, of people at work. Below both low-paid industrial developed workers, slips of and agricultural, of wage that, a collection Below between the the the this a number of of poor and wealthy. remuneration the contrast

5ATY,INSON, "ConradAtkinson:Interviewwith RichardCork", StudioInternational,191March/April 1976,p180. 6"Mercury Hazards", an abstract from a guideline document issuedby the TUC, and exhibited at Strike at Brannans.

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juxtaposed divisions to were and reports reveal class and inequalities of wage newspaperarticles flat E350,000 in Hyde Park Gardens costing ; was seennext to a report on earningand wealth; a 12,000 homelessLondon families; on ChristmasEve Mary McCoy died trying to eat cardboard (Tbe Times 29th December1972) while Lord Derby's chauffeur drove 400 miles to obtain bottom line 24th December 1973). The bacon Express included more newspaper (Daily streaky (from Studio International), together with visitor's commentsadded reviews exhibition cuttings, during the period of the exhibition. Visitors were also invited to participate in planned discussionswith artists and trades unionists. Atkinson clearly intended this to be controversial, but interests the societywhich allows it to exist: the the of artworld, to question not only You can get away with anything as long as it isn't political; you can be as controversial but last is like, bring into it the thing the artworld will accept or whatever sex as you 7 be nonsense. any kind of political statement,which seemsto me to

Thus,aswith Strikeat Brannans,Atkinsonincorporatedan enormousamountof evidenceinto documentation factual from digests, excerpts clippings, real of the work: matchingnewspaper biographies with colour slidesof print outs and stock exchange governmentreports,statistics, demonstrations. jobs While and mass manual graffiti, streetposters,peopleperforming his drive home in to Atkinsonusedwhatevertechniques appropriate order andmaterialsseemed found his collage, and objects work remainedresolutely points- photographs,print, paint, devices by diorama the than the antiemployed museum rather stylistic resembling pictorial, Late Atkinson's installation of picture atlas art. vast of post-conceptual morphologicalconcerns Capitalisminvitedviewersto examinemotifswithin differentvisualandverbaltexts,to analyse language into incorporated andviewedthrougha multitudeof are the wayspolitical values be of verbalandvisual understoodasa vastassemblage might which practices,practices have dominant Although from they cultures. could constituted taken and marginal possibilities 8 be information in in to the wasarranged suchasway as "exhibits a court room prosecution" divided force decadent, to to and entirelyoverwhelming, presentsocietyas unsustainably by does forget, be by "He into to to them: not allow us side-tracked action nauseating viewers by he dazzling Instead the the nags and unsettles conscience presenting reportage. or aesthetics flawsin our societyasthe first andonly realpriority undilutedby artistic inescapable "9 It canthereforebeclaimedthat in usingcollage,montage,graphics,photographs diversions. by Althusserianism Atkinson's the that was self-reflexive scripted was not work andtext, On the contrary,Atkinsonadoptedthe stanceof a beginningto dominatePhotoconceptualism. 7ATKINSON in HARRY COEN, "Making an Art of Politics", Newcastlejournal, October 1974. 8RICHARD CORK, "Assault by the Factsof Life", Evening Standard, London, 25th April 1974, p32.

9ibid.

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theoretical luddite, mistakenly assumingthat political content could exist without form and 10 isn't "It is " the message,the message the message. vice-versa: was sayingthe medium Taken in context, Atkinson's impatienceis perhapsunderstandable. His 'naive' documentarystyle was certainly a successin so far as it gavethe impressionof 'doing work' for forcing the theory restrictive practices of or aesthetics, without need a large number of 'direct However, to action' as a viable consider option. a number of related criticisms artists hand, his for On Atkinson's be the the relationship between one practice. scorn can made of form and theory failed to confront the panoptic power of right-wing propagandaproduced by factor industry, a which sernio-artistsat least attempted to rectify. Given this, the advertising Atkinson proved to be fully reliant on the public gallery systemin order to put acrosshis his for distaste in in it This the turn the contradicted gallery system, ways which message. from Thus, than the active or critical consumption. nihilism encouragespassiverather beginning,Atkinson's calls for a greaterdegreeof political activism in the artworld were thwarted by his ties with an inherently conservativeinstitution. This is clarified by Atkinson's being documentary his in 'activity' than as a primarily maker rather a participant production, history. We are therefore forced to ask a number of questions. Was there an attitude inherent in self-identification in Atkinson's definition of himself as a "cultural producer" which implied in itself issues? Was (re)production to there a sufficient response of culture was cultural the that lessened for identity his 'cultural implication that the somehow producer' responsibility an for What In the real engagement? were possibilities all, thesequestionsare conditions? cultural for but Atkinson's 'art a critique of politics' sake', rather as a critique of not meant primarily as 'cultural' independent that might of producers exist as an a class social class. the perception Following thesetentative gallery sojourns,Atkinson made a more concertedeffort to The Atkinson's Left. his the conventionalism of with aestheticsand politics, practice art engage Labour his involvement from 'artistic' the with movement: was clear

The labourmovementhaspledgeditselfto an assaulton the commandingheightsof the economy,but theyhavenevermadea commitmentto engagein the commanding heightsof culturalproduction. [...]I felt that sickeningsenseof beingout on a limb having banners, no senseof visualtradition, no the of no pointsof reference, with Cezanneof the labourmovement,no onewho hadstrippedthe philosophyand 11 down its to materialelementsandreworkedthe wholething. tradition For a Socialist,Atkinson here maintains an unusually high degreeof respectfor high art ("the heightsof cultural production"), which he saw as somethingto "engagein" rather than assault, his from distinguishes disposition approach contemporary neo-Situationists and which clearly a dadanarchistssuch as King Mob and The Angry Brigade. Indeed, Atkinson was inaugural in 10ATKINSON, Studio International, 191, p179. 11ATKINSON, "People'sImagery:Trade Union Banners1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE, pl 7.

55

GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

links Union, Artists' seeking cultural with the trade union movement while the settingup dispute direct in to situations as a aid to the unions involved, rejecting encouragingartists work force blunt is tool to counter as that with which violence a of change. a culture claims When speakingof giving the Labour movementa new visual tradition, Atkinson evoked Modernist conceptssuch as 'form follows function', and 'lessis more', the very aesthetic he have been In it is he this, that conceivable may attempting to predicates allegedlyopposed. impair the slick promotional skills of the plutocracy by appropriating it for the Left's own uses. However, when applied to Trade Union banners,rational modernist designstrategiesenforce instantaneousrecuperation: Basicallywhat I did was to strip the aims of the union down to its bare ideals, using the banner, back its the the so that every member could see, of text principles on of written basic book in the tenet of the union was: this was a of rules, what without reading a 12 bureaucracy. bare text of all the mystifications of capitalism and stripped progressive Are "progressivetexts" necessarily"bare" texts? What are the "basic tenets" of a trade union? Is uncritical sloganeeringnot entirely foreign to the complex aims and ideals of the trade union lie in in The the to this seem case would an approach such problem with adopting movement? incompatibility of the unions' emancipatoryagendasand the mesmerisingimagery produced to founded implicate Trade to radical socio-political unions were capital. nurture and sustain 'political Atkinson themselves to as a products'. oversimplifies transformations, not promote have ideological failed "If in the to you no with mass-media: compete effort matters, this time a have You the to capitalism provide all allow no polemic. on you going struggle cultural and 13 fought. While " background noise and all the wallpaper againstwhich the strugglesare Atkinson clearly has a point, it is ironic that he should not have realisedthat capitalism was business background The blueprint formal him than of mere noise. rather a with providing business is the too spirit communication, as confused with of easily spirited communication, all Atkinson was only too aware: "I've always felt [ ...I that it's pointless to imitate the sophisticated involved in I if not an oppositional culture, so was are you capitalism the of means and polish have learned I I in TV. Although am skills and pride my of professional the smoothness after 14 " amateurism. a sloppy not advocating

Atkinsonheldhis artisticconvictions. Despitethe failingsof theseearlyexperiments, Following his appointment to a Northern Arts Fellowship towards the end of 1974, he was life in Ireland Northern Council Arts by to to the present invited an exhibition relating of the formal his belief in "integrity As the of subject-matter, not of a consequenceof province. 12ibid.,

pl 8.

13ibid. 14ATKINSON, "Industry and Industrial Disease",in TISDALL & NAIRNE, p1O.

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GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

15Atkinson

banner initially interpreting the object", concentrated and a specific on methodsof finding "that imagery the signs and political and religious groups, religious opposing of mural had been in in Britain the to that they streets an extent on only seen the painted strugglewere of Notting Hill Gate in the 60s."16 To someextent this provided a parallel with Atkinson's earlier images, "the in Cuba, street posters,stickersand so on were all motivated where experiences identify in " I ideals could and which everyone could participate. with which goals toward and 17 The saturation of street imagery demandedthat Atkinson adopt the flexible approach to form which he had also discoveredin Cuba where "many of the artists had mixed severalmodes 18 " had had usedlanguagewith visual elementsand usedactual objects to explain a point. Atkinson spent a couple of months visiting Belfast,Armagh and Londonderry, photographing, followed: he A Two information saw. exhibitions of everything making videos and collecting Shadeof Green,An Orange Edge, in Belfast,May 1975 and Northern Ireland 1968; Mayday 197S,which went on to tour the mainland Midland Group Gallery and Art Net, London in 1976. Each consistedof hundredsof colour photographs of street murals, sectariangraffiti and by documents, These newspapercuttings and were supported a number of propagandaposters. Although by the many of organisations. and unofficial official statements relations public left largely in the to untitled co-ordinate again were visitors groups, set out were exhibits documentaryphotographs and information for themselves. The evidenceAtkinson hascompiled builds up a cumulative picture, to be dipped into fabric is infected linear in a community whose very of progression, rather than read a look, images hostilities. Wherever bitterest and statementsof the most you with the 19 found. be kind divisive are to In Northern Ireland 1968, Mayday 197S the artist left orange,white and greenpaper with pensin the gallery and askedpeople for their it had been handled, but issues it the the on way comments,not on the exhibition and from hostility interesting the The the that conscious of thing one was was raised. in those working supportive, particularly artists over there, although others were very for have for didn't in it, it They or what criticised the exhibition the community.

15ATKINSON, Studio International, 191, p177. 16ATKINSON, "People'sImagery:Trade Union Banners1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE, p19. See Chapter 13: GuaranteedDisappointment for a discussionof King Mob's Notting Hill graffiti. This in Atkinson than the classstruggle. a participant rather spectator as a marks more once statement 17ATKINSON, Studio International, 191 p177.

l8ibid. 19CORK, "Ulster: The Bitter Picture", Evening Standard, London, 6th May 1976, p24.

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GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

mixing art and politics or in fact for the formal handling. But the lay public and the 20 did write about the issucs. politicians who visited really

In this, Atkinson judiciously accentuateda number of distinctions betweenC01111111.1111tICS Who distinction 'culture lay 'art those who adopt a that and of politics', a culture' at the sharean heart of the 1976 'crisis' in British art. It is perhapsunsurprising that politicians should chose but "write the issues", why did the "lay public" adopt a similar approach? One of tile to about democracies Ireland Northern and conservative in generalis that politicians of predicaments dictate that dominant culture should be 'political', conventional yet varied definitions of tile 'political' being drawn from a rag-bagof referencesto religion, logical positivism, hunianist being This did Atkinson the the and utilitarianism. case, economics question is capitalist ethics, help to perpetuatethis situation? believe, holds disrupting memento making, we patronising and sloganeering such ... believe We the nature of its public. it assumes a public which assumptions about doesn't have to be made but which is already out there fully formed and wants to hear these things. A public to be in its imagined universalism and not one which will learn is It things. it a public of the worlds of the a public of simple slogans; is complex Conservative and Labour Parties, the world of the Morning Star art critic. This is a fixed be things, told a public of and petrified worthiness, and, most public which will band learns This of rote-learner receivers. public nothing all, an inert of patronising but rote, a public which is powerless to proselytise and, in the end, reason for itself. 21 deeply This is patronising.

it could, then, be arguedthat Atkinson maintained a (modernist) disinterest in people's interests, from different State's Both Conservative disinterest the not altogether indifference. was which a for fond ballots because Governements, Labour they are inefficacious example, are of and democratic for processes substitutes (such as anarcho-syndicalism, democratic socialism or federal It is only important republicanism). that people contribute so that the democracy illusion of a participative be Much be could said sustained. can

of Atkinson's participative art works. Figure 3.1 Viewing Nortbern Ireland 1968: Maý,daý 1975

20ATKINSON,

"People's Imagery: Trade Union Banners 1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE,

21SUSAN AND TERRY ATKINSON, "British Political Art at Coventry", Copenhagen; Orchard Gallery, Derry; Gimpel Fils, London, 1988, p-16.

p2l.

Mute 1, Galleri Prag,

58

GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

In Atkinson's defence,Caroline Tisdall suggestedthat artists often take a defensive from issues, for them the the trees. This with preventing seeing confronted wood stancewhen base/superstructure implies model, in that it helps to continue the an overly simplistic view base). (superstructure) (economic However, as a culture and politics of separation alleged have hostility its Indeed, the that Atkinson receivedfrom Irish this can uses. model rough map, felt have likely they to that the producers of an alien 'political arisensince artists was most hand, On the their threatened activities as artists. one conservativepractitioners, culture' it implies, 'artist' through the term self-identification with and all marginalized manipulable and however, have feared Others, have to the their mystification of practice. may an end would Atkinson defend (political) In the sphere. effect, to as a counter cultural artworld wished he the criticised culture of politics, merely chooseto connote and nor neither promoted hand: issues the than with at passiveengagement encourageactive rather In my view there is a differencebetweena genuinelyparticipatory work made by from different in which attempts viewpoint situation, and a work a people a particular to analysethat situation using those people'sexperience. I think that in the first five between difference 70s the the participation and taking artists confused many yearsof being The for that the viewpoint was expressed. problem particular the responsibility 22 form. demystify from be have in the media to a specialist order to that you Atkinson's refusal to acceptresponsibility for his useof other people's imagery or to precisely 23 define his 'political' position was much maligned, yet it indicates a complexity of attitude: I seethe role of the artist as similar to a personwho gets up at a conferenceand makes his her his her based length and or understandingof other on or personal a point at be he is immediately What that says not something can or she people'sexperience. but line The is into there to artist or or manifesto. not say yes no, a party transformed debates in in the end contribute to which may creative series of as a participant a 24 by begin illustrating is to a theory. not motivation whose theory, and Far from being a producer of political culture, this suggeststhat Atkinson wished to defend 'art' foster indeterminate that realm might socio-political-cultural as a counter cultural sphere,an alternatives:

22ATKINSON, "People'sImagery:Trade Union Banners1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE, p2l. 23-If we should happen to think that the injusticesanimating him as an artist might be rectified by the from (let's the the or self-interest, removal of constraints artificial say) more enlightened application of free play of market forces, and shall not be certain why he deniesit. The buried foundations of his his speechas those of his art-theoretical or aesthetic 'Marxism' the surface of obscure at are as advertised for a thesison art and politics. " DONALD BROOK, for far is There taken too granted, much position. "Reflections on 'The Stateof Art: The Art of the State'", Art Montbly, No. 72, Decembcr/january 1983/83, p3. 24ATKINSON, "People'sImagery:Trade Union Banners1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE, p2l.

59

GOD SAVI: ( muad Atkiwon 1

The strongest point in Atkinson's favour is his skill in contrasting apparently blank he keeps fairly As an artist much in the background so that he becomes a material. kind of agent for this information. In a way it's a strategy to clicourage people to basic the anomalies they've just become immune or resigned to, or consider once more 25 forgotten. i.ust plain In other works of this period Atkinson continued to turn his attention towards illodcrii-day history by using high culture. Major world affairs horrors, these issues into writing political were tackled such as Solidarity witb Cbile (1974), and starvation in the Third World (I lunger 1975-78). At the same time, Atkinson's exposure of the mercury poisoning of the women led his for Brannans from Strike to at support other workers suffering in industrial involved disease. Iron Ore (1977), documented the case for compensating a number of Clcator Moor Billy the case of using miners, ore iron

Hunter, suffering from the chestdisease josie, the of and plight pneumoconiosis, his widow left struggling to cope with draw to out the compensation claims, A critique of the callousness of problems. multinational industries came the following year, Asbestos (1978) [Figure 3.21, focusing on the mesotheliorna his by Mary, breathing Vaughan, Henry and wife who contracted asbestosis III the of poisoning dust from her husband's moustache. What the West Cumbrians had got for a lifetime of hard disabling disease, left like 'was Atkinson no money, a a and an revealed, environment work, moonscape. For Allan Wallach, the central problem of such work revolved around the Problematic delineated by Art for Whom? The disparity between the artist's political intentions and the barrier his to to its critical effectiveness: seen create work was exhibited was a context in which

The gallery spaceis not a neutral, transparent medium through which one looks at The [ I charge carries an of own. space ideological its of art. works ... ... modern gallery That be described devoted type to of ritual activity. activity might as a spacesare 26 aestheticcontemplation. Despite Wallach's contention that "the central problem [of Atkinson's work] was not be Atkinson's the to to the of gallery environment would seem problem related presentation", hanging form, the materials on the wall to produce something that the tableaux useof

25TISDALL, "Art of Work", Arts Guardian, April 1974. 26ALLAN

WALLACH,

"Conrad Atkinson: The Dilemma of Political Art", Arts Magazine, 54, December

1979,153.

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GOD SAVEConradAtkinson

Victorian diverse Bonding together the panoramic museums. clutter of such a range resembled forcing develop information to an overload, created viewers concernswith the of related motifs here, however, There between the that the tableaux would was always risk objects. spaces becomeof primary interest as an innocuous and ahistorical 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.27 Documenting eventsin sucha detachedmanner had to lead to the 'content' of political events being disengagedfrom the ways in which they emergedas a contest of conflicting value systems. In the tableaux, the eventsseemedto take place outwith such palpable contradictory being being despite illustrations Were structures. of argumentative audiences configurations, bodiless designed bourgeois habits living to their of victims placate of presentedwith a gallery by proxy, undergoingthe catharsisof political edification in a public art gallery? it's very difficult not to exploit this kind of subject matter. Not to be a voyeur. To be be because impossible that though some of the men were would an objective onlooker; believe in friends. But to somethingcalled objective reporting, are conditioned we my in which you view people as insectsor rats. The BBC calls it balance,I suppose. This is where finding the right form of oppositional culture comesin. You can't appropriate faults. its You its to can't appropriate meansto expose the methods of capitalism like bound be There things, to things. are residues of other createa new way of seeing have because You in the weight of you are not reborn. religion, maybe, what emerges have bizarre to undermine this to contend with so you representations capitalism's 28 too. Against this, Atkinson continued to advocatethe theory that dislocating eventsfrom their freedom the to recombineand recontextualiseon automatic political milieu would give viewers history denying level, the of as a coherent narrative strung together thereby notion a critical from tracesof the past. Indeed,would heedingWallach's demandthat political art neededa "different type of space-a political meetingroom, a union hall or meeting room, a worker' club have lead A "29 to the to converted? preaching more sophisticated simply not or residence,etc. for A&L, idealisations "repulsive from the of theory of whom the practice and critique came 31 A paper was delivered and discussed " Art for Society"30 were "primitive embarrassments.

27SeeDAVID CARRIER, "The Origins of museums,the cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth- and 20 No. 1,1987 p. 83-6. and PETER MUNK, "Karel van Leonardo Europe", v. seventeenth-century Mander III. Court painter, collector and steward of the cabinet of curiosities", Apollo, London, no. 128, August 1988, p. 88-92. 28ATKINSON, "Industry and Industrial Disease",in TISDALL & NAIRNE, p14. 29WALLACH, prev. cit. 30CHARLES HARRISON and FRED ORTON, A Provisional History of Art & Language, Editions E. Fabre, Paris, April 1982, p62. 31 "There were more primitive embarrassments.A towering man of the age- 'Conrad' rather than 'Terry' Atkinson succeededin demonstratingto the world that he was in a position to prove conclusively that the QueenMother was an aristocrat..." MEL RAMSDEN, "Art & Language:Mike Baldwin and Mel 61

GOD SAVEConradAtkinson

by Baldwin, Harrison, Pilkington and Ramsdenat the Whitechapel Art Gallery during May 197832 in which Cork's Art for Societyexhibition33 was criticised for having "become a left by (typified the the the 'socialist activities of soi-disant self-promotional rallying point of fearless Queen Atkinson's Mother as an aristocrat).-34 Conrad the expose of artist' Notwithstanding Wallach and A&L's misgivings,political art could and did have an impact on ritual meaningof the gallery space. Cork's Art For Society ran into a great deal of had from it their the of artists work excluded a number exhibition as reached controversywhen Northern Ireland. When work arrived and beganto be unpackedsomeof the Museum's by boycott the threatened to the nature of Particular works, and attendantswere concerned had 40 intended ironically, It the to take that over of men action, and, show. was reported 35 WorkersUnion The'cultural Municipal General support. paramilitaries'who and official following 9th November, 1978: Museum Ulster the the statement on made the ran The Trusteesof the Ulster museumbelieveit is the duty of this institution a national be I Northern Ireland When the to all citizens of apolitical. museumrepresenting ... had been by Trustees it inspected the was unanimously and unpacked the exhibits were 36 for display. decidedthat a number of items were unsuitable Atkinson's generalpresentationof the 'troubles', John Pakenham'santi-paramilitary paintings, Hugh Alexander's collage I Study Violence,Margaret Harrison's factual painted collage about law, look Alexis Hunter's its the stereotypeof treatment and satirical at under and nature rape, following day However, the the the muscle-boundmale were all cited as possiblecasualties. G.M. W. U. made a statementsayingthat they were not involved in the attendants' threat of The Times, and its letter columns, Time had After the of attention the engaged matter action. out and other publications, the Ulster Museum and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Ramsden,Extracts from a Conversationwith SandraNfiller", Artscribe, No. 47, July/August 1984, p15. Baldwin and Ramsdenwere referring to Atkinson's Tbalidomide: Anniversary Print for the QueenMotber (1977), which exposedwhat amountedto a Royal sealof approval for multinational United Distilleries Thalidomide the victims. of expense at profiteering 32SeeART & LANGUAGE, "Art for Society?", Art-Language Vol-4 No. 4, Art & LanguagePress,June 1980.

33 Cork'stitle closelyparallelsArt for thePeople,an exhibitionof photographsof muralpaintingsheld by the anti-fascistArtistsInternationalAssociation(AIA) at the Whitechapelin 1939. SeeR.RADFORD Art for a Purpose:TheArtistsInternationalAssociation,1933-1953,Winchester,1987. As I point out in by Cork living following thought they that the supported painters were of mural many chapter, the AIA. bleak the times as and economic cultural throughsimilarly --I 34HARRISON and ORTON, Editions E. Fabre,Paris, April 1982, p6l. 35Anon. "An Exhibition Censored", 10th November, 1978, reprinted in "0 Godl 0 Ulsterl", Art Montbly, No. 22,1978-79, p2l-22. 36ULSTERMUSEUM, "PressRelease",9th November, 1978, ibid.

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GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson

decidedto presentthe show in two sections. Atkinson's work in Northern Ireland was, to some extent, successful,the scandalsurrounding its censorshipdrawing people'sattention to the debate Bill Rights the of on which the Labour government had beenoperating a issuessuch as censure. Atkinson's career was soon to achieve more notoriety.

In 1979 Atkinson's Thalidomidt,

series and Tony Rickaby's painted investigations of right-wing organisations in London were from Arts British Council's Lives: An Exhibition the of Artists Whose Work is Based withdrawn on Other People's Lives "because the Council was advised that their display might lead to 37(; iven the nature of its sub*ect matter, it is ironic that the only polinical action in the courts. by have from banning Atkinson and the exhibition generated should come controversy Rickaby's works. Atkinson's Silver Liberties, a Souvenir of a Wonderful Anniversary Year (1977) was produced in response to the Silver jubilee

celebrations,when the conservativepresswent to lengths British to the encourage public to enormous commemorate twenty-five years of a redundant autocracy.

Print (1977) This print highlights the use of the royal

Distillers' Unitcd Distillers, United products, on seal Thalidomide, of were, at this time, manufacturers refusing to ý;onlpetisate offcrcd

their victims.

aý a gift to the Queen Mother

The print was on the 150th

Anniversary

of UCL. 1

Atkinson focusedattention on what lay behind the facadeof the 1977 celcbrations,a Ireland Northern The the and atrocities ended with in in same started way. which year British militarism and violation of civil rights, and the erosion of civil rights on on emphasiswas the mainland. Associatedwith this were the tortures that were taking place in Castlereagh PoliceStation, through to SteveBiko and back to the murder of Durham electrician Liddle 38 by kicked found hospital being drunk died Newcastle. Towers, who police when after in in The opportunity to representthe Arts Council as yet another reactionary Ideological State Apparatus was somethingof a conveniencedesignedto affirm the continued radicality of Atkinson's work. Naively, the Arts Council took the bait, closing Atkinson's web of

37DEREK BOSHIER, "Statement", Lives: An Exhibition of Artists Wbose Work is Based on Otber Peoples' Lives, Selected by Derek Bosbier, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979. 38ATKINSON,

"People's Imagery: Trade Union Banners 1976", in TISDALL & NAIRNE,

p22.

63

GOD SAVEConradAtkinson

late fortuitously implicating itself in by British 1970s, the the atrocities of conspirators banning If the this controversial work consulting artists or curator. withdrawing work without imparted it with a degreeof belatedvehemence,its notoriety, critical edgeand satirical bite for lacking Jamie Reid's Sex God Pistols' the compared with subvertisments when were severely 39 Savethe Queen. It might be arguedthat, like the SexPistols,Atkinson briefly avoided being however, Unlike Sex by Pistols, Atkinson the the establishment. unwittingly assimilated himself. drew As his dissent, to the correspondence the attention primarily as scandal packaged letters debacle, filled issues the the criticising once more with pagesof arts magazineswere by late 1970s: 'big by Atkinson's the the question' gradually obscured of who work were raised Atkinson's analysisof the situation was startlingly prophetic: the artworld? ran dominating into is Great Britain Council Arts to a and move attempting of the ... decisiverole (e.g. 'inescapableeditorial responsibility') in the arts in preparation for the believe, 'problematic' 'tightening I This the areasof art see a up' of will, eighties. funded Thus in the the visual arts. work practice, particularly, though not exclusively, In 'Cross-roads'). (towards be my opinion this will a visual arts more populist will be documentation, but in work with sociovulnerable will most all media affect work is which contentious and moves outside and work political content, performancework 40 the acceptednorms.

39SeeChapter 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde. 40ATKINSON, "Correspondence:'Lives' Lives", Art Montbly, No. 27,1979, p28.

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Fart for Pcace

CHAPTER 4 Fart for Peace Any word would do, FART might be appropriate if not original. Immediacy is I do happening with what's now. important to many of us, making things to The crisis in fine art practice is not merely a question of the crisis in professiona IIsill: 2 knowing what to paint. it's a crisis in I prefer to describe them as 'Social Functionalists'. I intend a certain irony ul this function 'Social Functionalism' is that it keeps some label. [... ] the social of primary ... 3 be out of work in grants and on the strects. artists who would otherwise

On October 16th, 1977, two yearsafter its conception, Arthur Latham M. P. openedwhat was dedicated Working Britain, 'The People largest to unveiling a plaque mural in the exterior then Workers Construction David Binnington's The Rochfort's Desmond Paddington'. and of office Work, painted on adjacentsidesof one of the main supporting piers of the Wcstways Urban Motorway, were intended to offer a 'restorative' to the graffiti defacedsurfaceswhich form the concretecomplex of under and over passesadjoining the Harrow Road [Figure 4.11. For Binnington and Rochfort, the initial attraction of the site in April 1975 lay in Its potential for establishinga large powerful imageaddressinga predominately working classaudience. 1PHIL GOODALL, "Growing Point/Pains in Terninisto"', 1977, reprintcd in ROZSIKA PARKER and GRISELDA POLLOCK, Framing Feminism: Art and the Woman's Movement 1970-1985, , Pandora, London, 1987, p2l3. 2 DESMOND ROCHFORT, 989,2/1978, p85.

"The Crisis in Professionalism", Studio International,

3PETER FULLER, "Social Functionalism",

Volume 194 Number

Art Montbly, Number 19, September 1978, p27.

65

Fart for Peace

This was only acceptableto the Greater London Council provided that Binnington and Rochfort's Public Art Workshop could both properly finance the project and have the designs financial limitations With Workshop's by the authorities. obvious passed the relevant planning feet large The 4,500 of murals required a amount of aid. aspiring square the creation of The Academy Schools, Royal they trained the to where were as painters. muralists turned Royal Academy of Arts' E. Vincent Harris Fund for mural decoration provided an initial budget of L2,000 on the conditions that the final designswere acceptableto the trusteesand that the paintings were executedusing a permanentpaint type. Having rejectedacceptedpainting systemssuch as acrylics, oil and emulsion, as being Courtauld Rochfort Binnington for the visited and environment, an exterior unsuitable Institute of Art's Department of Technology,where ProfessorRees-Jonesoutlined the Keim developed The in Germany in 1877. based useof compound silicate on a cement paint system life drastically has increased Keirn flake-free a of over eighty years, system, which silicate the but Not their usenecessitatedthe prior expensive, only were such paints the cost of materials. layer then the render wall cement which would of white porous a special of application L8,000. After from; E2,000 budget As to the well over rose a result compatible with the paint. L5,000 Binnington Council Arts to the long to assist venture. agreed provide campaign,the a L7,000 definitely knowledge full in decided that Rochfort not would to commencework and be enough to complete the project. By November 1976 another contribution of L1,000 was finally Arts Council Harris Fund, Vincent from E. a substantial grant of and the received L3,000 was acquired in April 1977, by which time the budget had risen from its initial L14,000! L3,000 to conception of As membersof Artery's editorial board, Rochfort and Binnington quickly found the dedicated Artery, Sawtell, Jeff to a magazine providing a the of editor of support critical in Arts. Sawtell for the the praised expression working class-conscious -class platform 4 debate in The No. 13) Artscribe. Artery, his ('Comment' in quickly and editorial workshop Cork April 1978, Monthly. In Art competitors moved to the pagesof mainstreampublishing lesson how in "an publicly-sighted paintings can gain object welcomed the murals as providing from their settings,unlike easelpictures which are so often compromised and great resonance 5 displayed. Cork " in locations by the they evidently wished new are the which abused Muralism to retain the critical standpoint of avant-gardeart, (an avant-gardewhich he now however, lay for in Cork, in difference The deplored. ) this the context which crucial allegedly limitations by host is in "A of criticism was received: work of art a gallery confined a whole future collector's possession of as a private possibilities, of viewing audience, of narrowness

4SeeGLYN JONES, "Mur al, mural its, mural ism", Art Montbly, Number 18, July/August 1978, p3233. SRICHARD CORK, "The Royal Oak Murals", Art Montbly, Number 15, April 1978, p10.

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Fart for Peace

6 do While Cork may have been correct to imply that not affect the street mural at all. which the muralists differed from gallery artists in taking their inspiration from the public locale in financial history the they of the paintings reveals that they were just as worked, which defiance Hence, declarations, Cork's Sarah Kent Justly gallery works. in as of compromised 7 just "establishment as susceptible to pointed out that murals were pressure,, as any other form of art. Yet to Kent the Royal Oak Murals could never have been a paragon of "pathetic" they were since endcavour,

8

examples of pseudo-Socialist Realism which appeared

tawdry in terms of imagination and execution even when compared with the most elementary of gallery modernisms. In some senses,this was a rather unfair assertion. Neither of the Royal Oak murallsts hall. hand, On Rochfort's the music of one equivalent a visual style was particularly sought his by Spencer, Leger Giotto, Stanley and construction workers "fall into several influenced distinct gestures with groups, Giotto which and character lends his figures, like a tableau vivant, against the background of cranes and girders. "9

Figure 4.2 Desmond Rochfort. The Construction Workers. (1976-78).

On the other, Binnington's mural engaged with the ideas of William Morris and Georg Grosz disaffection Kent's the metropolitan modernist myopia missed of modern workers. concerning both Art Public Workshop by fact the that members of were resolutely inspired the obvious l() Siquerios, Diego 1930s David Rivera Orozco. jos6 Mexican Muralists of the such as and

6ibid. 7SARAH KENT, "Why Not Popular", The Stateof Britisb Art, ICA, London, 10th 12th February 1978. Reprinted in Studio International, Volume 194, Number 988,2/1978, p120. 8ibid. 9MALCOLM

MILES, "Community Press, Winchester, 1989, p72.

Murals in Britain", Art for Public Places, Winchester School of Art

1Olt is

believed Binnington likely Rochfort that they were working in the midst of a similar that and very had Rivera USA's Federal Art Project that experienced when working the crisis on cultural and economic in the early 1930s.SeeJONATHAN HARRIS, "Capitalist Crisis and Artistic Culture During the 1930s: New Deal 'democratic realism"', in PAUL WOOD, FRANCIS FRASCINA, JONATHAN HARRIS,

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This at least should have beenapparent to Kent given that Rochfort wrote at length on the 11 However, to those initiated with the history of Muralism, it could also be subject. by formally examining their work. recognised All true architectonic space,whether indoors or out, concaveor convex, is a machine, floor, its the such as walls, arches,ceiling etc. are the wheelsof this and parts, be seenas a machinewhich movesrhythmically with a geometric must which machine It is intensity. infinite essentialto make useof this phenomenain mural play of painting. Anyone who paints murals without taking this into account is not really a 12 mural painter. Heeding Siquerios' advice,we could argue that Kent failed to take into consideration the designs do 'paintings'. Successful than that rather muralists are not rely murals reality but design dexterity, images their to two-dimensional ability upon artisanal upon exclusively Siqueiros, Following Binnington in Rochfort and worked with architectural considerations. be building limits limits the the the of a that the of picture plane mural must of recognition itself. Both muralists therefore explicitly dealt with the physical reality of the walls when designingtheir murals. The angular tiers of Binnington's eastwall were corroborated, being his (a dynamism the composition, structural characteristicof to polyangular of usedto add Siquerios' work), using a painted archway to correspondwith the real archway in front, doors is The impression taking that the the the scene place on under motorway. thereby giving Binnington's wall were also handled in a creativeway, being transformed into office filing

cabinets. The 30-degreecantileveredsectionsof Rochfort's north wall lent themselvesevenmore dynamic his polyangular panoramaof scaffolding, reinforcing the expressivepower to readily his Rochfort's Albertian Realist heroic subject. rejection of perspective of monumentality and

CHARLES HARRISON, Modernism in Dispute: Art Sincethe Forties, Yale University Press,1993, p2527. Furthermore, their political affiliations (membersof the Communist Party of Great Britain) and influences(Mexican Muralism) directly parallels the muralism,of the Artists International Association, founded in Britain in 1933 in responseto the rise of fascism.SeeR-RADFORD Art for a Purpose:The for 1987; RADFORD, Art Winchester, 1933-19S3, Association, International a Purpose:The Artists Artists International Association, 1933-19S3,Winchester,1987; TATE GALLERY Murat Painting in Great Britain 1919-1939: An Exbibition of Pbotograpbs,London, 1939. LYNDA MORRIS and RADFORD, The Story of the Artists International Association, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1983. Following the completion of the Royal Oak Murals in 1978, the GreenwichMural Workshop embarked Street, Cable (1978-83) flank St. George's Battle The the of on wall of commemorating upon a scheme Town Hall, Cable Street,Tower Hamlets, London. While again pointing directly to the 1930s parallel be 1980s, Royal late 1970s to this than the more proved relevant and controversial and early the with Oak scheme,especiallygiven the number of raceriots during the period of its genesis,(e.g. Lewishamin 1977 and Brixton in 1981.) SeeC. KENNA Murals in London, London, 1985; and KENNA and LOBB, Mural Manual, London, 1985. 11ROCHFORT, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siquerios,London, 1993. 12DIEGO SEQUEIROS,"How to Paint a Mural", Art and Revolution, Lawrence and Wishart, London, p125.

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reinforced recognition of the architectural support, enveloping the viewer and forcing them to dynarnic their own recogruse large front the wall. of relativity in

Figurc 4.3 David Binnington, Office Work. (1976-78)

Peter Fuller, recognising the historical precedents that appeared to escape Kent, was nevertheless as sceptical as ever:

I regard the Westway murals as essentially formalist in character. They are derived primarily in relation to other works of art (especially Siquenos' hideously rhetorical Stalinist nightmares); they show no discernible attempt to make art through giving lived to experience in the world, in its actuality and becoming. expression plastic Other commentators have pointed out that the way in which Rochfort depicts labour can relate neither to the way Paddington construction workers experience it now nor (one hopes) to any potentiality within labour which may be realised within the future. historical The Westway is a montage of art-book clich6s, most of possible false first devised, they were when and which arc double false when which were 13 London today. reproduced in west

of course,this aids Kent's claim that, in their useof multiple viewpoints, Binnington and Rochfort had simply transplanted cubo-futurist spaceonto a inotorway flyover, with less lines formalist It Cork's flatly these that along was assertions results. were also complex Artscribe, David Sweet the journal in which pro-Modernist pronounced that "the in rejected but to the that the tendered that of the artist is not of artist at all, role new social is and against this vision and the spirit of philistmism which pervades it ill ustrator/clecorator, Cork by "14 Modernism countered the stand. stressing the point that the principles of it, that Royal Oak murals were not "simply whimsical decorations brightening up an oppressive locale. "

[Binnington] chose [ I to confront a central aspect of city life on its own harsh level. ... The result, far from applying ornamental bandages to areas that desperately need forcefully dehumarused the to out of wasteland so radical social surgery, appears grow 15 evident all around. 13FULLER, "Social Functionalism",

p27.

14DAVID SWEET, "Artists v The Rest:The New Philistines", Artscribe 11, April 1978, p38. 15CORK, "The Royal Oak Murals", Art Monthly, No. 15,1979, p 10-11 Cork here echoes Binnington's view of other mural schemes of the mid-1970s: "[The Evesights Project] Conceived by by Association Thames Arts (GLAA) London Television in 1975, was a Greater and sponsored the

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Yet it can be argued that suchclaims do justly hold againstall pictorialist mid-70s mural begun Gable Arts Council's End Mural The Scottish in 1974, commissioned scheme schemes. four murals as a meansof patching up the endsof tenementblocks severedby new motorways 16 heart Glasgow. John Byrne's 'Patrick' Boy the through of primitivist painting on running Dog Back, JamesTorrance's vernacular Celtic Knot, Stan Bell's abstract Hex, and John McColl's comically colloquial Klab F II (a homageto the enormoushorse musselsdevouredin blow Glasgow League Scotland) West the of art exhibited ups gallery previously at were the of far in involving The Artists. they success so as provided a were an undoubted way of works of broken by had been the new road schemes,encouragingchildren to that up communities 17 Public Art Workshop While in that the their something scorned. realisation, participate being far from discreetthe murals were a vast improvement on the fascistic monumentsof imperialist tobacco barons customarily favoured by Glasgow City Council, although they folk Scots harboured the culture neededto sell them to the all nostalgic qualities of guilefully 18 City. Second narcissistic According to Cork, its popularity notwithstanding, the Glasgow pilot schemestill

failed in that it did not takeinto accountthewaysin which Muralismmadeit possibleto stress both in between its integral terms the artwork and surroundings of structure relationship the have As The to claim would seem stand up. we structuralist seen,the matter. and subject limits of the pictureplaneof the EastandNorth Walls of the RoyalOak flyoverwereclearly from it to the to take context and give a wider working-class audience. gallery art attempt simplistic The schemebasicallywas to selectdesignsfrom those submitted to GLAA and plaster the East End hoardings. Much images to the the surprise of organisers, advertising commercial using these with benevolent hostility. Hamlets Tower this act of patronage with considerable received the residentsof A local campaign againstthe project succeededin stopping it, and the protest's organiserswent on from this to found one of the most progressive,effectiveand comparatively well financed borough for failed failed, it assumedthat all that ] [ Eyesights in Britain. magnificently, Arts councils and ... function liberate from it to the gallery social was to art a genuine avant-garde give an was necessary They it to audience. were reminded quite give a working-class confines and patronisingly have a culture, an art and a seriesof quite communities that establishedworking-class ungraciously legitimate demandsfor their artists." DAVID BINNINGTON, "A GenuineSocial Function for Artists: A Dream or a Reality", Art for Whom?,Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978, p56. 16"The first gableswere completedwithin a budget of about 11,00041,200... " Art Monthly, Number 21, November 1978, p3l. 17"... the admissionunder questioning, that the Westway muralists really didn't want membersof the hoc hoc to them post comments prompter preferred consultations that and community working alongside had look determine its PETER " the to to community the what at on wall... community would allow TOWNSEND, "Editor's ElongatedNote [Art for Whom? Discussion,Art Monthly, Number 18, July/August 1978, p23. 18"These murals and the thinking that goesalong with them can be found anywherein Britain. They are decorative motifs placed upon sad gableends,there to glossover the slum playgrounds of a city, merely lies, best is billboard 'this is it telling many saying as art'; a and at a pretty picture as about as meaningful do in happening They in to the social not point any way and political changes executed. competently Scotland", Art Monthly, "Greenberg's Number 15,1978, p30. LAWRENCE, EILEEN " this country.

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determining factors of the physical limits of the paintings, while the Glasgow murals were basically enlargedeaselpictures. However, Cork's secondclaim, that Muralism made it between integral the the artwork and its surroundings in terms of to relationship stress possible subject matter is entirely erroneous. Cork describedBinnington's eastwall mural as a "remorselesslysatirical panoramaof office life" designedto be seenby "people going to their 19 home Royal Oak Station. At the centre of Office Work sits an jobs and returning " tube via imperialist eaglewith a machinecog for a heart, a symbol of multinational capitalism's technological aggressionoften usedby Siquerios. Below this, huge thrusting handsgrab a intended to representpiece-workers,while nearby presumably smaller cogwheels of number Bossesleer at rows of identical secretaries,executivessnore, and automaton-like figures stamp documents. There is little doubt that Binnington intended to pillory issuesand problems facing bureaucracy, boredom illusion the sexism, and workers: of security and material collar white demanded be issues The to to such examinedon a motorway flyover, extent which wealth. 20 by 'audience' is questionable. Despite and the extent to which they were examined their 21 Rochfort and Binnington's consultation work, the predominately working classpopulace did kindly daily being by take to their to employment rightly not going patronised coming and has deservedly Office Binnington's Work their the to of professional activities. nature artists as from The Construction Workers: than graffiti more suffered Office Work has two negativefactors. It occupiesthe wall facing the only large, language lacking immediate its free in is in the area vicinity: and traffic paved humanity. Its theme is the way office work dehumanisesemployees,but it illustrates large in by the centre, supporting an American eagleand British a wheel this placing lion. Peopleare reducedto rather marginal and 'cardboard roles'. It may be that but language is this mural usesa mirroring that work under capitalism alienating,

19CORK, "The Royal Oak Murals", Art Montbly, No. 15,1978, p 10-11. 20 "Rochfort: Tell me, what do you think of it do you like it? Lady: I think it's very good, very clever. Rochfort: Do you know what it's about? Lady: No Rochfort: When you go past it, what is the thing because it? Lady: Well, I look first I just tell actually couldn't you, about really, notice only at that you don't know it Man: Well, I I there. tell all on what was couldn't you much about it, the colours really. but it looks all right, it looks nice. It cheersthe place up a bit. The flyover don't look nice, but with that it looks a bit decent. I don't mind it but don't know much about it. I walk past it every day and I just look at it. But I don't know much about painting, to be honestwith you. Elderly man: It's quite beautiful. It's cheerful, and the canvasesdidn't cost anything did they? Rochfort: Do you know what it's intrigues I'm No, looks Elderly But it that's you see. me, not that. what quite sure man: about about? know. do What Rochfort: it's Elderly tbink and colourful, you you cheerful about? man: very very, (after a long pause)Ah, you beat me there." CORK, "The Art We Deserve?:Transcript of a Film by Richard Cork, directed by JeremyMarre for the Arts Council of Great Britain, shown at the ICA at 7prn No. 1979, Artscribe, 20, November 1978" November 8* p5l. on 21The designswere shown and discussedby democraticorganisationswithin the district before being displayedon the site where the public was askedto write down their impressions.

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alienation, which cannot therefore engagethe spectatorin human sympathy. It can 22 being lecture the passer-by, more rhetoric than narrative. only The sorrow and the pity of the (unalienated)public artist for the alienated white collar clones. Suchapocalyptic thematic concernswere largely founded on condescendingand outmoded land blue-collar the never-never of a workers' paradise. They aestheticpredicates, romantic his In touch the their time. nihilistic of with punk aesthetic out of essay completely were also for the Art for Wbom? catalogue,Binnington beganby recalling how on "a concretebuttress has inscribed [active Flyover, Hammersmith the the an unknown spraycan poet supporting 23 failing for here, Binnington, irony 'fart to the see peace',, utterly real went on nihilist] words for how "call this seeminglyineffective action in support of a worthy causehas a to point out 24 for function for In deceptivesimilarity to the current calls the artist. a more relevant social fact, the graffiti which would be painted over had far more credibility as public art than the being droll Art Workshop, Public the an accurately encapsulationof many of productions of decade in 1970s Britain, in which incongruities dilemmas the radicalism of political and the insurgencybecameprofitable not just as a sign value: from Che Guevara Chic to Punk militant dilettantism. What was particularly astute about such mordant spraypaint reviews of the 70s bave they to that artists' rights a point of view on whitequestioned was subcultural zeitgeist hand, Social the generallyremained uncritical of their own other artists, on collar existence. form just Was their stance anti-bourgeois another of aesthetic sneering, meta-classstatus.

apartheid? view.

The overweeningidealism of the Royal Oak Murals would seemto corroborate this According to Cork, there was an alleged'dialectic' betweenBinnington's expressionist

heroic limbs idiom, "unashamedly Rochfort's their showing muscular straining at and style beneath being blue Instead crushed sky. of manipulative powers, these tasks against an open 25 forging future. destinies be " in their and purposefully of own to a new charge men appear blue-collar labour of the (male) depicting Wall, North the Rochfort's mural on the dangerous, both increasingly and physical and was whose work construction worker begged be It in to this ridiculed. society was precisely variety of post-industrial unnecessary idealist, macho, deterministic celebration of industrial and technological 'progress' which be built! While Cork Urban Motorway Westways to the was astute enough to occasioned 22NMCOLM MILES, "Community Murals in Britain", Art for Public Places,Winchester School of Art Press,Winchester, 1989, p72. 23BINNINGTON, "A GenuineSocialFunction for Artists: A Dream or a Reality", P55. It is very likely Situationist International late in British Heatwave, the this the the of carried out, wing that membersof 1960s. SeeChapter 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde. 24ibid. 25CORK, "The Royal Oak Murals", Art Montbly, No. 15,1978, p 11.

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be Workers busy The Construction that might producing yet another block of stuffy speculate for future in Binnington (keeping subject matter mural commissions?), he offices, 26This labour". "dignity begsthe of physical simultaneouslyspoke enthusiasticallyof the living, heroic, did if be it this to a praiseworthy culture, was why need question, re-presented by legitimised aesthetessuch as Rochfort? It what sensewas it representedat all? such as and As Cork rightly asked:where were the bitter disputesthat perpetually arise in the construction industry betweenskilled and unskilled labourers, site managersand quantity surveyors, bored, Where injured, negligent,and the technicians and architects, etc.? were all architectural importantly, Most where was there any engagementwith the workers? paid poorly disputes late directly British in industrial 1970s, that the the plagued economy and momentous brought about the victory of the ConservativeParty in 1979? Working-class cultures had been dying sincethe 1950s, the Royal Oak murals were expensivegravestoneson which the 27 inscribed. deceased'sname was wrongly Sucha critique, nonetheless,fails to investigatethe attraction of mural painting in the late 1970s. It would seemthat this lay mainly in an assumptionthat had remained largely had developed Atkinson, late As Conrad interest in 1960s. the who an since unquestioned Muralism in the 1970s, pointed out: There is no medium which is intrinsically more democratic than any other, and there dematerialization lot ideas in 70s the the about of art, about of mistaken were a films do democratic it to make or performancesor take whether was more because its Similarly, to that to than wrong assume one painting paint. photographs hangson the inside of wall and another is presentedexternally as a mural, that one is Yet democratic, I than the more socialist or other. when made more progressive more felt for it ideal banners they there said was an way a socialist were artists who the because banner just it's is A thing a progressive to not necessarily work. artist 28 accessibleto working people.

The basicanomalyof Cork's defenceof Muralism,then,couldbe saidto havearisenfrom his (painting) (cubo-futurism) traditional and representational systems art media privilegingof be These 'accessible'.. in to thought media and systems more were these somehow were since lend late In his disparity to to predilections. order conceptualist polemicalsupportto the stark 'overlooking' Cork the photoconceptualist conveniently view that everyone was wave, newest

26ibid. 27-One wonders whether the community streetlife to which Mr. Coik refers isn't largely a myth. British been is has in Scotland life this enclosed affair much a withdrawn, particularly very always so social for CALVOCORESSI, RICHARD find " "Reply Richard this. to climatic reasons can one and again Cork", Art Montbly, Number 19, September1978, p25-26. 28CONRAD ATKINSON, "People'sImagery:Trade Union Banners1976", in CAROLINE TISDALL & SANDY NAIRNE eds. Conrad Atkinson: Picturing the System,Pluto Press/ ICA, 25th Nov-23rd December1981, p19.

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must learn to read artworks notwithstanding what medium they are in, and that this 29 levels have differing in As of competency translating eachmedium. necessitatesreaderswill Cork would have beenwell aware, this relative competencydoesnot produce differing but in to to particular artworks within that particular media, relation qualitative experiences facilitate for kinds do Since that their the artworks greater scope of readers not media. have form in 'accessible' to particular medium, we can as one no rules what come necessarily defence in Furthermore, in 'difficult' take. presenting a simplistic argument of should art and desirability higher Cork the the of critical competencyrequired neglected traditional practices, 30 In The Uses Literacy, Cork was almost mimicking the high decode of overlooking art. to Conservative'sfavoured model of consumption aesthetic. FaureWalker clearly diagnosedthe Cork's in argument: contradictions

both lot in involved the depthandrangeof there's communicating of effort though a ... feelingopenedup in the modernmovement,anda lot of patiencerequiredin feel better let in I it's things that the trying to spirit, create alone understanding, limits, how its it is The to to that to range of content push not narrow problem option. down to that claustrophobicscalewhereimageryis instantly'accessible' and it's insulting Leger illustrative the to they to proletariat suggest as said, everything's 31 has liberated. forms images incapable and modernism of seeingthe new are As FaureWalker suggests,Cork and the mural movementin generalwere perpetrating some dangerousmyths about the nature of modern art. In patronising his imagined audienceby forever beyond he intellectual high their grasp, was remain art would suggestingthat his belief designed belief to traditionally elitist adversaries, a the ascribed very promulgating Such Cork the to was charge made against and the access power. people's to off precisely seal Public Art Workshop by rival abstract muralist David Rodway in the pagesof Art Montbly: leaves it that the time their perception, imagination and same "Their stylistic anachronism,at lay likely limitations doubt, in in the to the today only reinforce of seems the world relevance

fact lead Cork's intervention in This "32 that to was a us conclude might even public.

29 1

following in ideas the chapter. these outlinc someof

30Thisagainsuggests decision defy hegemony does Cork [ ] heart. "The 1974 In to wrote, a changeof ... hostility it. imply towards those to or who continue of uphold attitude rejection an not necessarily in the convictionthat oneof art's Ratherit doessignifya willingnessto experimentwith alternatives, language fresh framed for if in its is the which alternatives are even capacity renewal, principalmerits itself. CORK, " flout intrinsic "Introduction", Beyond the of art to character the outset appearsat by for bought Council RichardCork, Arts Councilof Great Arts Works & Sculpture: the painting Britain,ExhibitionCatalogue,1974,p4. 31JAMES FAURE WALKER, "Why Not Popular", Studio International, Volume 194 Number 989, 2/1978, p2l. 32DAVID RODWAY, "Muralism", Art Montbly, Number 16,1978, p2l.

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Conservative the viewthat visualart shouldbe a conventional tacticgiventhat it encouraged 33 from Cork's consumption aestheticswas the What 'language,. was omitted and restricted fact that new political and cultural structuresbreed new visual forms. Thesenew forms may be of interest in that they allow one power structure to be replacedby another on entirely different terms, while maintaining the possibility of communication. The denial of any legitimacy to modernism as sucha form effectively encouragedthe ascendanceof the high in favoured Peter Fuller, turn the of promoting resurgent conservatism neo-classicism cultural by Roger Scruton and Prince Charles.Of this FaureWalker was prophetic: 'crisis' and moving into the limelight edgesout to the periphery the talking about ... being done, keeps dialogue dealing in the the the area with actual works and questions 34 has initiative: the published words. where the critic

bewilling to praise Althoughthereweresevereflawsin Cork'sposition,we shouldnonetheless his attemptto particularisethe argumentsof the Britishartworld. Due to Cork, the implicit Arts Council "objective the the standards" of and manya mainstream underlying assumptions domain. for Cork forced into thus the was partly political responsible endingthe curatorwere by in While Cork drift Britain. the the some work chosen arts of visual consensual of form intellectual, interest in the to of consensus, practical, as opposed another represented by interesting talks took the eventually some crisis paths, spawned specificity cultural "providing identity,purposeanddestiny",and,mostimportantly,the promiseof "redemption fall "35 modernism. the of after We needto make up a critical tradition, critical of the apparatusof art practice, definitions that the preservecertain of art and exclude others, and structures critical of done dominant level is ideology the made or of actually of a what which on critical definitions, Any these these practices. maintains attempt to say that we are constructs by doing bypass in them, to to get a public a community and mural, may well a going fails it depth be highly But instance to the get anywhere near commendable. particular 36 kind of repository of privileged values. and extent of the problem of art as a special

33"What canbeconsidered dogma,thought,is that the newart mustexistoutsidethe peripheryof what languages knows in (multi-form) our be. Yet the the new culture-to-be. to nobody most art used betray by " impressive us referringto thepreviouslyexistent,not evento the present. wordsandconcepts KEVIN O'SHEA,"Book Review:TowardsAnotherPicture",BritishJournalof Aesthetics,Oxford UniversityPress,Volume19,1979,pl 88. 34FAUREWALKER,"Why Not Popular",pl 17. 3SFAUREWALKER,"The Claimsof SocialArt andOtherPerplexities",Artscribe,12,June1978,p19. 36 GRISELDAPOLLOCK,"The Crisisin Professionalism", StudioInternational,Volume194Number 989,2/1978,p84.

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ptua

I

i'sIII

CHAPTER 5 Photo conceptu A sm The politically left photographer wants to help correct society's false picture of its actual conditions of existence, to raise such questions as: Why this practice? What does it rnean? What interests does it serve? Such a photographer wants to hell) people become conscious of the forces which shape their day-to-day lives; to reallse that the beyond but thus order, and not a natural order is all change, social is made by people I by them. and can be changed In spite of their criticism of the traditional structures of the art world, conceptual artists were remarkably successful in manipulating them to their advantagc. A mere three years after the term had acquired any currency It was being promoted by all Gallery Hayward Survey Avant-Garde in the the at a parallel and at of exhibition Britain at the short-lived Gallery House. The Arts Council followed up Tbe New Art at the Hayward in 1972 with a touring exhibition, Beyond Painting and Sculpture Hl 1974, and Art as Tbougbt Process in 1975. [ I Thus any idea that conceptual artists ... had somehow dismantled the bourgeois conventions of art as all ideological by fact that that they were entirely reproduction was contradicted representation and dependent on bourgeois institutions of patronage, especially the state-subsidised 2 gallery. Robert Hewison here correctly cites the oft reiterated view that Conceptualism was ultimately institutional-friendly.

As we have seen, it was precisely this argument which was used hy Cork

his group of artists to support their rejection of modernist systematic practices. and Significantly, the notion was not that conceptualism wasn't discordant enough, but that it was beliefs been demonstrated, has As impenetrable. such were being mooted since the early 1970s. The idea of an 'art crisis', then, was specific to Cork's experience as a critic working ill The the state art administration and within system. pressures of the journalism mainstream 1976 art scandals fuelled his need to forge some connection between art and 'real people', and light When be this. we come to study the work of other of read in as such must favoured by Cork and his fellow Art Panel members, however, it becomes postconceptuallsts different debates. drawing of priorities they set and on very were clear that From around 1973, a number of erstwhile conceptualists began to explore captioning line This to was not a new photography. of visual enquiry. regards with and context Captioning had previously been explored by Berlin Dadaists who produced politicised by Situationists with their cletourned comic strips and subtitled and photomontage 1970s, then, was loosely informed by practices Photoconceptualism the early in pornography. from dominant discourse history been had the the modernist on of twentiethexcluded that

1 VICTOR BURGIN "Art, Common Senseand Photography",

Camerawork, No. 3,1975.

2 ROBERT HEWISON, "The Arts in Hard Times", Too Mucb: Art and Society in the Sixties 1960-75, Methuen, London, 1986, p242-243.

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image, format, The in the of albeit return a scripto-visual century art. revealeda great needto escapethe gameplaying of the modernist cognoscenti. However, unlike Conrad Atkinson and the mural movement, photoconceptualistswere extending the linguistic-turn of analytical findings bear bringing its to on visual culture as a 'whole way of life'. The conceptualism, literary remained primary. This madephotoconceptualismanother move in the uneasydeath 3 of modernism. One thing conceptualart has done, apart from to underline the central importance of theory, is to make the photograph an important tool of practice. The consequenceof been further distinction between has to the render categorical art and such moves 4 founded ill irrelevant. and photography For photoconceptualistsof the mid-1970s, Cork's support of Atkinson and the mural didactic, the taking example of representation of politics, a clear a movement was former For to the art and social problem of purpose. approach analytical propagandistic language, in interested the this was seenas an authoritarian uses and of abuses conceptualists, In stance. opposition, they advocatedthe politics of representation,analysingand deconstructingthe subjectivepositions from which we experiencematerial reality with a view dominant ideologies. In a seriesof works to tools the alter with which to giving people Elemental Conditioning, John Hilliard 1974 in the entitled performance artist produced in have the effects changes various simple captioning and with cropping could on experimented Rejecting insistence identical the modernist photographs. on the purity of the of the meaning Hilliard turned the mechanicsof photography towards contextual aestheticsignifier, for by Death?, Cause In the of example, use of a corpse covered a sheet considerations. dramatic in comparisonwith conceptualistausterity, a psychic subject matter constitutes a death, The the the subjective and emotional within register viewer. might reality which 3 "in the wakeof Minimal andConceptualArt, viewson the statusof paintinghavetendedtowardsone first, forms identifiable According 'Semio' to the with some two positions. of or contrasting of or other Art', paintingis now an irredeemably Semiological unmodernculturalmedium. As with othersurviving demands Furthermore it is its technologies. the and redundant exercise of outmoded crafts, practice follows It luxuries, individualistic. its that and products are expensive specialised time-consuming, boundto a certainsystemof distributionandexchange andthusimplicatedin an inequitableand indefensibleeconomicsystem.Fromthe point of viewof the constituency of the oppressed andthe The forms its conjunctionof photographyandtext, on the are of mystification. meanings marginalized, be it is indeed, if Because it is is hand, the argued, might modern medium medium. a modern other distributable throughthe samechannelsasadvertisingandpropaganda,the work of the potentially Conceptual-Artist-as-photographer canbecriticallyengaged, asthework of the paintercannot,with the forcesof exploitationandmystificationin society.Theartist thusqualifiedis in a positionto intervene in ideologyat the point of its generation,in the 'gap' betweenthe world andpictures:A job of the artist dismantle does is to existingcommunication codesandto recombinesomeof their one else which no be " CHARLES into to the new pictures generate of can used world. which structures elements HARRISON,"On 'A Portrait of V. L Leninin theStyleofJacksonPollockEssayson Art & Language, BasilBlackwell,Oxford, p136-137. 4 BURGIN, "Photographic Practiceand Art Theory", Studio International, Photography Edition, July/August 1975, p39.

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however, is presentedclinically, as documentation of an event or processthat demandspostby carried out a combination of editing and captioning. The upwards, analysis, mortem downwards and sidewaysaxesare anchoredto an 'elemental' regard for earth, fire, air and have been the agent of the body's death. We are therefore could water, eachof which include to our own (hitherto repressed)emotions in our response,while asked simultaneously of our varying reactions. reflecting on the conditions and consequences Like Hilliard, Victor Burgin had grown tired of the modernist "perpetual revolution he had been that exposedto as a student at the RCA (1962-65) and Yale (1965syndrome",

5 he Robert Morris Donald Judd. Seeingart asa form of labour, 67) where studiedunder and in bookssuchas Work and Commentary.In 1971he began his earlypracticewasrepresented 6 he in later images discourse. term a scripto-visual with texts what would to combine visual During this period, Burgin's growing list of theoretical commitments forced him to avoid, as far based later He art account of practice around single an object categories. wrote as possible, that there was

history For of art, a of representations... story me,and someother erstwhile another history, history that art opened up onto conceptual other a which conceptualists, longer history. be defined Art to practice was no asan artisanalactivity,a opensonto fine objectswithin a givenmedium,it wasratherto be seenasa set processof crafting field in of signifyingpractices,perhapscentredon a of operationsperformed a 7 bounded by but it. medium certainlynot Like many academicsin the 1970s,the rhetorical schemaof Marxism, psychoanalysis,and leading linguistics him Burgin, "to enchanted opposethat pervasiveand post-structuralist

5 BURGIN in TONY GODFREY, "Sex, Text, Politics: An Interview with Victor Burgin", Block, No. 7, 1982, p3. Judd and Morris' influence on Burgin can be determinedin his essay"Situational Aesthetics", Studio International, October 1969. 6 Burgin has characterisedhis practice as being in direct opposition to the return to painting initiated by Ron Kitaj in 1976: "It seemsclear to me that, apart from Cubism's moment of brilliance, like a star that burns most brightly in the moment it extinguishesitself, painting has beenin steadysernioticdecline since Absence " BURGIN, "The Presence: Conceptualism technologies. of photographic of and Postthe rise Kettles Form, Yard Gallery, When Attitudes Became Cambridge University, 196S-72 modernisms", 1984. Republishedin The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity, Humanities Press international, Inc. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey,1986, p36. Like much of his theoretical work, this Burgin's diatribe ignorance development to testifying the preposterous the on verges wilful of arbitrary had been decline". in "semiotic Painting On the contrary, sincethe clearly not painting. of modern in increase directly Cubism, By terms a of seen notable volume painting and serniotic variants. advent of "rise" Burgin "decline" the photography, the of painting with of negatedthe meanings associating denied He implicitly its in the practises of painting. around painting's conventions and and constructed its it that assuming commodity status socially, to must render communicate mute and power incomprehensible. Were this the case,he would render his own art production worthless. 7 BURGIN, ibid., Republishedp39.

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Photoconceptualism

dominating idealism in which 'visual art' is held to transcendlanguageand history. " 8 While this had beena primary concern of Burgin's practice throughout the 1960s, the English Althusser's "Ideology Louis of and Ideological StateApparatuses:Notes towards publication death knoll to his overtly conceptualist aesthetic. For in 1971 Investigation" soundeda and Burgin, 'representation' quickly becamethe site of ideological struggle. Given the enormousacademicgrowth of Marxist and Feminist theory during the 1970s, Burgin's interestsmight seemunremarkable,even banal. Burgin's theoretical position has to be examinedagainstthe Marxist debatesof this era if the intricacies and significanceof his practice are to be properly understoodand evaluated. It is therefore informative to description Burgin's analytical of art as a systemof "signifying practices", with T.J. compare Clark's historiographic concept of "notions of signification". In Clark's art historical work of form 1970s, of analysiswas part of an attempt to reconstruct a a neo-semiotic the early history in the wake of post-structrualist theory and the scholarship of art political reading Jaques Lacan Michael Althusser, Foucault, be and to the with scholars who were associated 9 Burgin's in influence formative theoretical and practical work the mid-1970s. While there on between differences them, suchtheorists were seento share similarly pragmatic are significant knowledge, eachpostulating that people arc 'written into' subject theories of power and for discourse. In in them the eyesof post-structuralists cultural constructed already positions by Marxists, to themselves cultures are seen maintain somehow selfand post-Althuserian historical Clark, For lay the such as materialists weakness of such a position regulation. human failure in basis in the to theory the agency, of of provide a concrete absence precisely for an effective oppositional political movement. This formed the basisfor Clark's infamous deconstructive forms history: facts "We Feminist of art and need attack on - about patronage,

10 dealing, " the the the structure about status of artist, of artistic production... art about By 1973, Marxists such as Clark had cameto the conclusion that Barthesianpostfree-play, in to meaning were particularly guilty of collaborating with structuralists, reducing in What the elision of the signified was access was at stake power. of panoptic the operations did held it This itself. unthinkingly, nor constitute a conservative position was not to power defenceof 'vulgar' Marxism in the mould of Bergerand Fuller. Underlying Clark's historiographic project was the notion that if discoursedid mediate reality, as post8 BURGIN,Two Essayson Art PbotograpbyandSemiotics,London,1976,p2. 9 in 1973TJ. Clark publishedtwo influentialstudiesof Frenchnineteenth-century painting,The AbsoluteBourgeoisand TheImageof thePeople,both which analysedthe relationshipbetweenclass French Nicos Hadjinicolaou's This Art History the publication of coincided with art. and and struggle ClassStruggle(Englishtranslation1977). Thefollowingyear,Clark publisheda call to armsin the "The Conditionsof Artistic Creation",for a restructuredart historydrawing TimesLiterarySupplement, factors. Marxism, ideological Althusserian to attention and a close material serniotics and on 10 TIMOTHYJ. CLARK,"The Conditionsof Artistic Creation",TimesLiterarySupplement, 24th May 1974.

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Photoconceptualism

frequency, then the meaningsit assignedmay still be structuralists claimed with monotonous challenged. [The artwork] may becomeintelligible only within the context of given and imposed but disrupt in its it turn times those can alter and at structuresof meaning; 11 structures.

[Theartwork] takesa certainsetof technicalprocedures andtraditional forms,and 12 ideology it, it. makesthemthe toolswith which to alter - to transcribe to represent By concentrating on the complex social construction of individual artist's actions and intentions, Clark's historiographic method powerfully refuted the notion that culture might be hermeticisedinto a self-sustainingsign system. The emphasiswas on the artist as a bearer than of signifying practices. a manipulator rather In Burgin's post-Althuserian schema,however, the artist was denied accessto material struggle:

but The text is not seenasa passage the the to of author, ratherasa placeof presence deploys he has in the what codes order reader work, a structuredspacewithin which but locus is 'author' ] The of meaning neither nor signifier prime to makesense. 13 he is is The the texts than the or she no more producer of author the subject. her his formations determine the which or texts spaces within prior whose productof 14 be down'text may inscribed. Burgin, therefore, makesan attempt to mergeClark's uncompromising materialism with postMarxist the the the theory, viewer over artist, while retaining privileging structrualist reader implications Firstly, The this theoretical of are numerous. when usedas a concept of agency. definition in Burgin's "set as of art a of operations performed a guide to reading production, field of signifying practices" depriveshis work of any communicative capacity sinceit offers demarcation: audiencesno principle of

initially In that the substances their coincide, an mecbanistic extensively signifiers of institutionalised distinct 'advertising', the practices as otherwise allows materialism 15 be in 4conceptual art' and 'photography'to treated parallel. 11 CLARK, "On the SocialHistory of Art", Image of the People,Thames& Hudson, London, 1973, p13. 12 CLARK, "The Conditions of Artistic Creation". 13 BURGIN, "Introduction", Two Essayson Art Pbotography and Semiotics,London, 1976, p2. 14 Ibid., p3. 15 Ibid., p2.

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I'llotocoliccPalaIiSill

Figurc 5.1 Victor Burgin. "Photographic Practice and Art Thcory", Studio International. Photography EdiLtion July/August 1975,124 1.

As Burgin was well aware, mecbanisticmaterialism soundsa death knoll for the concept of 'fine art' in the West. While his particular materialist model would seem to allow the fact environment, in practice entire visual It in our of analysis denies us even the arbitrary decision of dividing up the 'signifying (culture) practices' of into Linits endless continuum for analysis. This is not to say that such a definition of art is be to that never adequately specific it was inaccurate, merely 16 Burgin's down theory of reccption as a too] of a practice. use stripped into put convincingly for production resulted in a narrowing of art to basic questions surrounding the philosophy of Having (that the the out institutional issues of artworld, artistic value is played its reception. his Conceptualist to the system of commodity exchange) in capitalist work allied closely often Burgin 1970s, late 1960s increasingly sought to produce works which would early and of the force us to consider how our variously inscribed subjectivities, (shaped by the postmodcrn trinity of class, race and gender) might effect their interpretation. For Burgin, then, Clark's considerations missed the urgency of the role that the left be left Before the the might arts. value judgements considered should visual could play in

first examine those codesand practiceswe know de facto to be massconsumed. It is dominating ideology the and it is therefore thesecodes enshrine which thesecodes hence [ I be deconstructed: the in advertising to interest and photography in which are ... addition to constituting a practical critique of the institutional 1sedpracticesof official 17 becomes Art, left art practice a matter of practical work in sermotIcs. This allowed Burgin to presenta critique of advertising Imagery,using Its own Imagesand 16th, january February Between 18th 1976, Burgin themselves. and to undermine conventions ICA New Gallery London his the at photo-text works in of under the title series new exhibited UK '76. Here Burgin usedimagesresemblingwell-known advertisements,pairing image and be by that that set of associations a would easily introduced understood text together in a way 16 While such a definition is looseenoughto accommodatethe production and reception of all artworks, Cultural infinity it meta-theories textuality's are unhelpful; and unspecific. tool vague remains as a useful between discriminating Meta-theories to our experiences. us stop merely encourages of meaningsmerely hard This important is Burgin's an affect of reflection. of work which seeksto presentthe appearance embody the specifictopics of postmodernismthrough universalisingpolitical rhetoric. 17 BURGIN op. cit.

81

I'llotoconce ptua I is[11

familiar most viewers

with the

Visual and textual cues of the inas's media.

St. Laurent

Demands a

Wbole New Lifestyle

(1976)

[Figure 5.21, for example, is a photograph immigrant

taken by Burgin of an Asian woman working

on an electronics The photograph prornotional

line. assembly is overlaid with a

text for St. Laurent,

highlight between the to gulf production ant.1c011,11111pt which is intended 1,11in the capitalist The ways in which this work relates to the society in which it was produced are made being Western the thematic that, overriding transparent as possible, in Culture, Pleasureas world.

by for advertising commodities which require an unrealistic income in pervaded images are be Given that exploiting the working classes inexpensively produces such to possessed. order favour the an obscene result is imbalance of power and profits in of a small commodities, The St. Laurent Demands title appropriated carefully of of owners. a Wbole New minority Lifestyle tells viewers that adverts themselves never satiate our desires, highlighting the fact by happen purchasing the product, while pointing to the 'new lifestyle' this only will that demanded of producers.

The captions of such 'lifestyle' advertisingpopular in the 1970s intcrpellated people to lifestyle ideas consume as though they were religious commandments. and to pursue act, Burgin, of course, was familiar with the Althusser's theory of interpellation, the role of ideology in securing the consent of exploited people to their own subjection to the hegemony of hails or interpellatcs concrete individuals as Althusser that explains all ideology others. like Interpellation is 'Hey "by calling there' the someone out, you subjects. in street, concrete 18 he becomes The subject a subject. " this one-hundrcd-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, directed drawing to the to person calling the it and out, the is unconsciously call imagines 19 beliefs Of the the of and ideology speaker. value-system, course, the intended into reader by such advertising was of a society in which everyone was free to act in any given impression 20 from This their themselves to culture and scratch. they invent impression was chose, way

18 LOUIS ALTHUSSER, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes towards and Investigation", Lenin and Pbilosopby, New Left Books (Verso), 1971, p163. Representations imply that but do deal imitation directly thing, or copy, so representations the an not real seeing with not we are it. of give pictures they only reality, 19 For critique of Althusser and Gramsci, from whom he derived his ideas, see TED BENTON, "The a Rise and Fall of Structural Marxism", Macmillan, 1984.

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I'llotocoliccPtua Ii Sill

undermined in IJK'76 as Burgin rendered the exceptional systematic, while exposing the conditions of production hidden behind the mechanisms of advertising's ineans of seduction. The following month, Burgin produced a subvertiscment entitled It's Wortb Tbinking About

... Class Consciousness, Tbink

jr I

II

1 ri I

for & Social it 'Art the about Purpose' issue of Studio International.

lFigure 5.3121

An enlarged Ben Day dot The Rodin's of reproduction

:4

Tbinker was juxtaposed with a smaller photograph of i bored wornan, and the

( lass consciousness ,hil4 allikutit

following accompanying text, plaglarised khrcctlý from Raymond Williams:

How many supposedly middle-class people really own their houses, or their furniture, Most their of them are as radically unproperticd as the traditional working cars? or 22 in the sarne process of usury. class, who are now increasingly involved Burgin's two page spread directly followed john Stezaker's ten page image-tcxt piece, Tbe pursuit. Very similar concerns can be mapped out:

I've never felt myself affiliated with conceptual art, though what I've said in my been has always antithetical to conceptual art inasmuch as I've tried to writings for The I've only support expressed modernism. conceptual art has been Hl oppose 23 demise of modernism .... regarding it as the

Stezaker,seekingto reversethe dematerializationof art, directed his work against the silent from to attempt modernists constitute artworks as of separate ideology. Beginning inaction

20 "The ordinary salary-earner,thinking of himself as middle classbecause the differencesbetween of himself and wage carners[...1, fails to notice this real classbeyond him, by whom he is factually and RAYMOND " WILLIAMS quoted in BURGIN, "Why Photography: Edited exploited. continually lecture Art Reading University, Fine Department, 4th November 1975." Arte at given a transcript of IngleseOggi 1970-76, Milan, PalazzoReale, 1976, p363. 21 BURGIN in RICHARD CORK, (ed. ), Studio International, No. 19 1, Marcli/April

1976, p 146-147.

22 Excerpt. This is from the same passageof Williams quoted in BURGIN, "Why Photography",

p363.

23 JOHN STEZAKER quoted in PFTER SMITH, "Conversation with John Stezaker", Studio International, (Photography Issue), May/June 1975, p130.

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Photoconceptualism

kind be Stezaker to theory as of what art-object might possible, attemptedto an abstract with be in fashion. By attemptingto that not self-referential a conceptualist would produceworks distaste for popularideologyandsocialdetermination,he "hopedto overcomethe avant-garde 24 " associalmeanings. pursuethe a-contextualor transcendental My treatment of stories in the style of women's magazineromancesand from news forms ideological in to the these content of rhetorical only neutral are reportage constituting a different rhetoric which usesrather than promotes the ideological forms. for In I'm it other using words alternative content of ready-maderhetorical 25 ideological ends. In The Pursuit Stezakerreproduceda number of advertisements:'Freedom', a promotion for Spain showing a figure swimming in an open blue sea;a PanArnadvertisementshowing a girl free', for depicting beach; Fiat 'You by Panamanian a car and are an advertisement a walking driving through a field. Stczakeraccompaniedthe advertisementswith three types of discourse.The first was a conversationconcerningfreedom betweentwo unnamed individuals. The interviewer asksprobing Marxist questions,while the interviewee defendsbourgeois interview The freedom transcription this was subtendedon of and responsibility. notions of both Bentham, from Stuart Mill Jeremy John by advocatesof and each page passagesquoted by Stezaker's Finally, the accompanied notes, which were project was entire utilitarianism. in analogy with the dialogue of the work or this more specific context concerning the his dependence (and independence social on the concept of the artist's pursuit of social 'free floating intellectual') which similarly concealsand perpetuatesthe economic basis The is bourgeois the conspiratorial mutual to addressed. work striving, which of bourgeois intellectual and escapismrepresent the rationalism of precepts alienation of for device (contradiction) maintaining the movement of capital. a superstructural Social transcendence,the assertionof avant-gardefreedom is expressedas a cultural individual The in (Romanticism). bourgeois the alienated conformity negation of by its freedom inevitably opposing ends own tradition or the pursuit of artistic historical 'socialisation' of the individual idiosyncratic style and must shift its emphasis from a belief in the authenticity of individual to a belief in the authenticity of internal its free The (of the to artwork of external ties meansa change attempt art). relations 26 from is said to the manner of saying. what of attention deconstructing Burgin's the on then, advertisementsas examples As with emphasiswas work, false its "correct false-consciousness, to picture of actual conditions of society's of 27 existence":

24 Ibid. 25 ibid. 26 STEZAKER, "Notes: The Pursuit", Studio International, No. 191, March/April 1976, p135-145. 27 BURGIN "Art, Common Senseand Photography".

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Photoconceptualism

The messageis ideological not simply becauseit is wrong in what it says- simply to be be false-consciousness in is it is ideological to not necessarily a state of mistaken becauseit misrepresentsthe actual material condition of the world in the serviceof 28 interests. vested The ways in which suchworks related to the intellectual preoccupationsof the Left, then, were fairly obvious, and not particularly new. Suchworks seemedto visually re-enactedJohn Berger'sjuxtapositions of advertisingin Waysof Seeing:

It is this which makesit possibleto understandwhy publicity remainscredible. The future between it promises,corresponds the publicity actually offers and what gap feels between himself be the to the what spectator-buyer gap andwhat hewould with like to be. The two gapsbecomeone;andinsteadof the singlegapbeingbridgedby filled lived it daydreams. is This processis often experience, with glamorous actionor by working reinforced working conditions.The interminablepresentof meaningless hoursis balancedby an imaginaryfuturein which imaginaryactivity replacesthe his her daydreams becomes In the the active the worker or passive moment. of activity 29 The working selfenviesthe consumingself. consumer. The banal suggestionsand bullying imperativesof lifestyle marketing interpellated consumers for imperatives in the contrary resulting of an overload of options multitude to adopt a having build The to of constantly support systemsand philosophies pressure consuming self. leadsto neurosis,and therefore to the working self's lack of concertedpolitical action. The had destroyed in 'real', it the the the to autonomy of market of order reproduce space abstract both for Stezaker It is Burgin's this that reason and spectacle. photo works pleasurable as identified pleasurein the imaginary enjoymentof somethingas taking place in an imaginary forms in However, that such photoworks were, given one sense, of time and place. drearnscape,they remain striking in their impersonal,factual appearance. For Marxist's such ideology 'imaginary individuals', Althusser, Berger emphasised relationships of as and as defined circumstances. materially to and opposed structurally Were Burgin and Stezakerboth faithful to the Marxist view that imaginary pleasureis life for during the that the time of the of might and an evasion really exist merely a substitute illusion? Stezaker'snotes for The Pursuit, lying just outside the border of the 'work', situated framework. demarcated Its hierarchies ideological clearly of the project within such an discourse(Marxism > Utilitarianism > Conversation= Text > Image), signalled that there was a dpreferred'way to read the work, and this involved retaining the view that Marxism was a Althusser's Marxism, lay that claims structuralist or otherwise, metalanguage,corroborating Consciousness... Class UK Burgin juxtapose Although '76 (pictorial) ideology. saw and outside

28 Ibid. 29JOHN BERGER, "Chapter 7", Waysof Seeing,BBC, 1972, p148-149.

85

Photoconceptualism

'illusions'with materialist(literary)'facts',ashe hadin his earlierwork, both works signalled 30 his earlierscripto-visualpractice. Ratherthan 'commenton the somethingof a breakwith do, left juxtapositions freer for Burgin Stezaker to the the viewerto continued as commentary', interpret.This wasthe resultof Burgin'sreadingof LauraMulvey'spsychoanalytic1975 31 Narrative Cinema", Screenpaper"Visual Pleasure and which conceivedideologyasa space to which thereis neitheroutsidenor end;a spacethe subjectnegotiatesthroughtransitionsthat hierarchy Althusserian While Burgin's an remained unconscious. practice, predominately are his for in that the could read other ways, example,as viewer work therewerepossibilities legitimacy both discourses, Marxist. the of capitalist and epistemological undermining Despite theseapparent differences,Burgin and Stezakerremained similar in that both humanist being for implications It invalidate producer the of a of culture. was continued to in iconicity, intervene to they already modes of altering prevalent chosesimply this reasonthat initially intended images to communicate, that were promotional the explicit meanings dismantling codesand recombining them in such a way as to produce different, often Photoconceptualist the pictures thus arosethrough world. of pictures contradictory, juxtaposition and incongruity rather than through composedhumanistic 'inspiration'. However, despitetheir apparent opposition to humanistic notions of art as apolitical selfdiscovery, much of this work continued to be exhibited within the confines of the art gallery dealer's in "spacious Burgin rooms of classic white a avant-garde exhibited network. Covent in Garden of area where creepinggentrification an warehouse showplace,a converted 32 Street While Burgin Bond " the to trendy galleries. and alternative a will soon create Stezakercontinued the conceptualistuseof non-crafted materials such as reproducible his be by that multiples of work could acquired a photographs, they never produced affordable

30 "... it's not enough simply to opposeone discoursewith another, antithetical, discourse. One has to know the discoursethat is being opposedin order to assimilateit, transform it within the discourseof [a Feng (1973-74) "Lei Photography", BURGIN, "Why logical p365. communist type". ,Ahigher distinguishable from Gallery in Lisson 1974. It is Burgin is the the at showed soldier] a work which has The it in text to the as a complementary that piece. work guidelines serniotic more recent work has image Harvey's Bristol Cream large the repeated of each of which ad posters, consistsof nine ('another breadwinner in the family deservesa toast'). The imagerelies upon many ideological and fashion is It the successful the apparently model enjoying micropicture of an cues. psychological herself Vogue. family, displaying This is the cover on of the contrasted with the of collective solace form heroism dying in Maoist in in the the a parable, which of of a coal expressed prosaic sentiments dying battle. in is PETER SMITH, "Victor Burgin: " disaster (for with the society) equated of good mine ICA New Gallery, 16th January - 18th February", Studio International, No. 191, March/April 1976, p202-20331LAURA MULVEY, "Visual Pleasureand Narrative Cinema", Screen,Vol. 16, No. 3,1975. 32 CORK, "The Gap BetweenPhotographerand Artist", Evening Standard, November 4th, 1976 London 1979, p74. Art, Gordon Fraser, Role Social in The of reprinted

86

I'llOtOCOTICCPtLl;

l II ý] II

33 Givcn that his work was "dcdicatcd to supporting all ldcology at non-artworld audicnce. 34 Burgin his total variaricc with the way art is sold,,, riskcd being dismisscd as a hypocritical prcacher to the convcrtcd, much as Conrad Atkinson had hcen since the beginning of' the

clecadc. Figurc 5.4 Victor BUrginWhat Docs PosscssionMcan to You?, (1976).

An opportunity to acquit hiniscIf of this charge Burgin 1976, to when early in was emerge seemed by Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to the commissioned produce a poster to accompany a group exhibition of art "which is exploring basic concepts of our use of images and language as a means of communication"

held at

3-5 Gallery 3rd-24th April. The Fruitmarket Edinburgh's Scotland, for Possession, throughout was seen ensuring a wide audience poster, entitled Burgin's message. However, any suggestion that Burgin might have been looking to November turn the that gallery network was in circumvented private when the circumvent dealer Robert Self, Burgin his Garden Covent the art gave selector, a solo show at exhibition different The Lord Balfour to quickly controversy was exposed of a placard sort when gallery. 'crisis' than that artistic, a was political rather which was alleviated when the it complained SAC disclosed that Burgin had been a member of the Arts Advisory Panel and Awards to Artists subcommittee of the Arts Council of Great Britain since 1971. Following the

33 Unlike Stezaker,Burgin made'anonymous' subvertisementsfor exhibition cataloguesand art journals. However, Burgin nevercrossedover into mainstreamlifestyle magazinessuch as Harpers Queen or Melody Maker. See'Going Somewhere?ClassConsciousnessyou're nowhere without it! ' ROBERT BARRY, VICTOR BURGIN, HAMISH FULTON, GILBERTAND GEORGE, HANS HAACKE, JOHN HILLIARD, KOSUTHICHARLESWORTH, DAVID TREMLETT LAWRENCE WEINER, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 3rd - 24th April 1976; 'It's Worth Thinking About ... Class Consciousness,Think about it. ' Studio International, No. 191, March/April 1976, p146-147; "What Does PossessionMean to You?", Camerawork, No. 3,1976, back cover; "Centrefold", ZG, VoLl, 1981, unpaginated;and "Centre Pages",BLOCK, No. 8,1983, p34-35. 34 CORK, "The Gap Between Photographer and Artist", p74. Burgin had earlier claimed that this was dissident artist is thus caught in an essential his "We the and a socialist society are not of work: the point bourgeois setting, that of thinking as a socialist in that stance a affecting a proletarian of contradiction, Our is better Who in such contradictions. society rife with them as a capitalist. experienced eating while for job So, intellectuals. the socialist artist in our sort of society is to might say, a we than our artists and foreground these contradictions, and in so doing help society through its transition to socialism. " BURGIN, "Why Photography", p362. 35ROBERT BREEN, "Foreword", BARRY, BURGIN, FULTON, GILBERTAND GEORGE, HAACKE, HILLIARD, KOS UTHICHA R LES WORTH, TREMLFTT, WEINER, Fruitinarket GallerN, Edinburgh, 3rd - 24th April 1976..

87

Photoconceptualism

intervention of Burgin's dealer Robert Self, a new edition of the poster was commissioned 36 Edinburgh exhibition. without the referenceto the On the 21st June 1976,500 copiesof What Does PossessionMean to You? were Newcastle-upon-Tyne. According the throughout of to Burgin, the new version streets posted its Possession to source expose own covert meanings,printing the usedmass-media of large hoardings. It is significant in to that scale similar a of public advertising on photographs did himself, but rather purloined a cardinal Burgin take the that not photograph this case kind in his Given the the time. that of glamour photography used advertising at of example deconstruction had becoming brand for the transferring serniotic of risked means previous felt Burgin it to socially accountable a new artworld context, value necessaryto ontological from difficult distinguish his it to work advertising, thereby collapsing the more make even distinction betweenart and visual culture, or object and subject texts. This would ensurethat his texts purposively intervenedin the operations of power, operating on the sameterms as the he intended hegemony to challenge,rather than servicingto the semantically cultural like UK'76, Possession Hence, the expos6 of unlike operated a striptease,promising converted. but delivering had do it. This 'meaning' (the the to never of work) to much a product access for had force "no Burgin's the that serniotics way of accounting emotional of realisation with is internal is ('objective') ('subjective') areasin a relation of for "what and what external texts" from Althusserian Burgin "37 Marxism towards was slowly moving away affectivity. mutual fantasy. pleasure and photography as visual theories of sexuality, subjectivity,

On the onehand,Burginwasundoubtedlycontinuinghis practiceof pairing that negateor parodytheir with typesetmessages advertisements photographsof commonplace his however, from At language. The Economist time, the same use of a soundbite rhetorical fast drive its his the complicitous with narrative of advertising, purposely with work made device This desire for that ambiguous efficiently. suggests and our critical needto sellquickly knowledgeis alsopart of a questto purchasemoreandmoreproducts;our desirebeingto deemed The be is devour 'factuality' the text, therefore to of written meaning. as uncoverand Consequently, Possession it image the accompanies. wasmostunlike as questionable St.LaurentDemandsa WboleNew Lifestyle,promisingto stimulateadditionalcultural does desire desire ), (what this to through poster mean? through as else opposed consumption ) This distinction is Burgin (who/what subtle next? openlyapparent expose will consumption in the photographchosenby Burgin,whichrelatesto a moredirect,baseform of consumption desire, had St. Laurent: Mulvey the that voyeuristic-scopophilic sexual gaze than purchasing identifiedasbeingcrucialto visualpleasure.'Natural' desiresthen arealsocommodified;they 36 Selfhadcloselinks with MichaelSpens,who had becomea millionairewhenPilkingtonGlasswent his fashion, found become decided, in to traditional to aristocratic use new wealth a patron public,and by 970s, Studio International. 'socially the mid-1 purchasing avant-garde of responsible' the new of 37 BURGIN, "Introduction", Two Essayson Art Pbotograpbyand Semiotics,p2.

88

Photoconceptualism

to are inseparableparts of the network of capitalist relations. Of course, sexuality was a form of desirewhich advertisershabitually and wantonly exploited in the 1970s, with their routine feminine By types. plagiarising such images,Possessionconfirmed that useof masculineand the attraction of such imagesfrom the manufacturersand advertisersrationalised point of view lay in their efficiency, predictability, and calculability. Burgin's subtle manipulation of commercial signifying practicestherefore suggestedthat consumption was not the special lifestyle event it pertained to be. The politically 'Left' photographerwants to help correct society'sfalse pictures of its Why to this practice? What of existence, questions raise such as: conditions actual doesit mean? What interestsdoesit serve? Sucha photographer wants to help people becomeconsciousof the forceswhich shapetheir day-to-day lives; to realise that the beyond but by is is the thus natural order, and change, not all made social order 38 by be people and can changed them. However, while revealingsuch social structuresto be fallacious, Burgin's view of the meansof he did leave that the viewer with much sign system meant not a self-supporting control as

by be done to this that change system them. somethingcould optimism Given that Burgin was denyingwholesaleaccessto material struggle, doesthis mean dealing, "facts Clark's about art about the status of the artist, cherished that - about patronage, 39are " its to of critical production... no consequence of artistic analysisand the structure his brief began Burgin Following to reassert experiment with extra-gallery art, evaluation? he had institutions to the within of control (universities,museums,etc.) work that, as an artist, in order to find the most effectiveresonancefor his 'critique'. This, of course,was a for being famous had in been line Burgin, to who, addition argument a artist, of a convenient Visual Arts History Theory in School Communication, lecturer the the the and of at of senior Central London Polytechnic,since 1973. Burgin, then, was in a secureposition from which to fantasy fed by in into (helplessly) thrall to their the rigid codes of consciousness view a world his left-wing 'dilemma' own professedly mirroring a network, as artist whose communications by being The Burgin's (willingly) the art market. compromised reality of relative stancewas detached bad be his in to that there a position allegedly postsuggests empowerment Althuserian scripto-visual work. Despitethe subtlety of Possession,it remains to be seenif it for both "parallel Burgin texts to create which operate as a critique of was ever really possible it) imbricated in (even "40 By and as text self-critique. while making no attempt to their object draw conclusionsbeyond his own criticism of an existing text, the transferenceof ontological

38 BURGIN, "Art, Common-senseand Photography", p2. 39 CLARK, "The Conditions of Artistic Creation". 40 BURGIN in GODFREY, "Sex, Text, Politics: An Interview with Victor Burgin", p3.

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hidden faith left in the underlying principles and assumptionsthat would as still value was his 'critical' of photoworks, (suchas that made earlier in this chapter). Setting readings guide binary if even only to topple them, Burgin risked perpetuating the ideologies oppositions, up they authenticate. Even if we were to agreethat Burgin deconstructedthe subject-object dichotomy, we would fail to fully considerthe distribution and consumption of his work, and fact fail his deconstructive the that to recognise photographic parodies consequently falsified ideals to the substantiate critical art myth postmodernist not yet restructured themselvesby deconstructiveinversion. It was preciselythis point which was substantiatedby first issue Studio International his in 1976. During the of under critics stewardship, Cork crisis Paul Wood issue distribution Rushton Dave Possession's to take and with and admitted in a satirical comic strip: consumption

The irony's about to thicken / As we come upon: a Dealer - stricken / By lack of art deemedsocial, but refined / Enough to show in Newcastle ('pon Tyne). / Despite his / Our 'Self-made' / in Royal 'Twixt Social Purport sees cash, cadger no clash and roots begged, he / His base / Capital's / To In art market place posters makes a start a for by / Helped / He this work's collaboration art. politics wreaks a reclaim transubstantiation. / Of Victor's conscience,what's the price, / Now ripped off not believe don't The but / So / the twice? what posters say. messageis: Art Rules, once, 41 O. K. Rushton and Wood clearly saw an enormouscontradiction inherent in the genesisof Possession,a contradiction which they seeas being economic in origin (the work would never have existed without the intervention of Burgin's metropolitan dealer.) This controversy was highlighted in the sameissueof Studio International which by transcript to the of a series of responses posters an edited made membersof the contained 42 by Radio Newcastle 7th july. later be As the on of the casewith would public, and recorded largely interviewees Murals, Oak Royal the were unaware of the messagesthat Burgin was the feared lead that their to embarrassment. clearly voicing opinion would trying to convey, and In producing artworks in which "interlocking levelsof practice [i. e. high and low art] coexist in had interpretative intended Burgin to the to cater widest community possible, the sametext"43

41DAVE RUSHTON and PAUL WOOD, "Hovels and Palaces:1", Studio International, September/October1976, p133. 42 EIRLYS TYNAN, "Victor Burgin's 'Possession'",Studio International, 193, September/October 1976, p225-226. 43 BURGIN, Two Essayson Art Pbotograpbyand Se? niotics, p3. Later Burgin wrote "the word aphotography'namesa medium, whereasthe word 'art, namesa value which it implicitly confers on the is It in history' 'art has in the this that of name value this sculpture. and painting of country mediums defendedits frontiers againstpost-structuralism'sbarbarian hordes. The threat of 'theory' is presently being controlled by a policy of assimilation by selectiveimmigration. " BURGIN, "Introduction: SomethingAbout PhotographyTheory", A. L. REES& F. BORZELLO, (eds.) The New Art History, CamdenPress,London, 1986, p42. Burgin is correct to claim that'art' remains an evaluativeterm,

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leftist mode of production which would avoid the pitfalls of populism. a pluralistic producing What he acbieved,nonethelesswas a practical challengeto the New Art History which appearedto forego its hierarchy of metalanguages.Despite itself, the New Art History attempted to put the critic at a confrontational distancefrom the world, which would then be known. kind be It indulged in therefore to a of 'false transcendence'. Although they seized made no effort to appearomniscient, and insistedon the illusory nature of art, Clark and his followers were being accusedof standing outside from the frame of eventsin their texts thereby invoking metaphysicalnotions of homogeneous'reality' as the common referent to serveas an

44 indexof truth. The intelligibility of the photograph is no simple thing; photographs are texts inscribed in terms of what we may call 'photographic discourse',but this discourse,like any discourses beyond itself imagery is typically photographic engages other, laconic.45 While this aspectof Burgin's practical work was stimulating, as a theoretical assumption it legitimacy his denied his As belief in the the stance. corollary of radical a of paradoxically implied Burgin that there was a content to experience culture, construction of anthropological form. from belong its Were Burgin's this true, to the entirely photography would separable Clearly Burgin's is but things. the meaning of other work socially as constructed, samereality his images as rhetorical statementsabout culture necessitatesthe tacit of the role

46 from formal hierarchy Were their their this source of materials. acknowledgement hierarchicaldistinctionformedpurelyon an institutionalbasis,asBurginimplied,viewersof fact, and soto a his work would bereturnedemptyhandedto the barrenterrainof purposeless futile inertiawhich is altogetherantitheticalto the moral andpolitical imperativesof his 47 As Clark put it: work. despitethe besteffortsof Institutionalisttheoristto renderit categorical.Both Clark andA&L wishedto lest lapse into 'art' they term, relativism. an evaluative as retain 44"...historyis still conceivedasat once'over' (completed) and'over there'(distanced): art historical in latent is the the same past much way as certain working on chemicals seen as work on a research still be developed image in image, in to to adequately simply needs order an which emerge all photographic About PhotographyTheory", p42. its immutabledetail." BURGIN,"Introduction:Something 45 BURGIN,"Looking at Photographs",ScreenEducation,Autumn 1977. 46 By "formal hierarchy"I do not meana 'formalist'distinctionbasedon colour,compositionetc.. but a distinctionrootedin the mannerin which Burgin'sphoto-workspresenttheir argument,in theway in formal through their andtextualadditionsand subtractions. transgress criticise sources they and which 47Questionsof class,raceandgenderwerepresented undigested, peculiarlyandparadoxically for There Burgin tendency to makemodernistassumptions was also a arguments. art as universalised is "manipulation the essence practice: the of photographic of photography; regarding essence Common it. " BURGIN "Art, Sense witbout exist not and Photography".The pbotograpbywould fact lies in initiators irony the that the of suchan approachto artworks- Ferdinandde of sense greatest

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It may be that we are too eager,now, to point to the illusory quality of that circling back, that closure againstthe 'free play of the signifier'. Illusion or not it seemsto me be meanings can establishedand maintained: kept in the necessaryground on which being long enough,and endowedwith enoughcoherence,for the ensuingwork of dispersaland contradiction to be seento matter - to have to matter, in the text, to 48 work against. Burgin, therefore, failed to provide a valid theoretical method of discriminating betweenhis imagesand the imagesthat they critique. His theoretical work also poseda problem in Burgin's in his intended Modernist the work many ways continues to audience. relation fascination with blocking, refusing, and deconstructing'facile' pleasuressuch as identification, fictional immersion in involvement in the the subject-matter, any or with gaze or cleansingour 49 imaginary world that makesart possible. Moreover, it would seemthat the 'interests' of the boi polloi were patronisingly accommodated,as much as if to satisfy the naive 'dialectical' Art' While 'High Burgin's Burgin's theorising. of might comprehend connoisseurs conditions of disenfranchised history Nude, invited the to the the aesthetically were to of allusions comprehend 'lesscomplex' relations with advertising or with their own photographic dabblings. Hence, it might be argued,despitehis intention to interlock different levelsof interpretative Burgin in to serve one text, managed community, the only the same practice academiccognoscenti. Again, despitehis best efforts, parallels still emergebetweenBurgin's practical by historians during historiographic Marxist strategiesadopted orthodox art concernsand the historical degree in Clark's For 1970s. the materialist account of modern art, of example, the from his issues is inseparable In the caseof attributes of value. to political such conu-nitment Manet, for example, Clark arguedthat the pictorial inconsistenciesthat produced the effect of flatness "must have beensomehowappropriate to the social forms the painter had chosento

50 Clark thereforerelatedManet'spracticeto the 'flatness'of modernculture, show". describinghis techniqueasa metaphoricalmarkerfor a capitalistsocietyof illusory display, (what would becomethe 'societyof the spectacle'that Clark activelyopposedwhile a member late is here ) What important in 1960s. is Mob King to Heatwave the the manner note and of in which Clark insistedon the primacyandvalueof specificart objectsor eventsastools which defenceof valueseemedabstractand Clark's While ideology'. 'alter politicised could Sassure,the RussianFormalists, the New Critics etc.. - were concernedabove all to produce a method of facilitate the and enjoyment of understanding most richly-layered texts our would which reading in available culture. 48 CLARK, "Preliminaries to a PossibleTreatment of Olympia in 1865", Screen,Spring 1980, p30. 49SeeJESSICAEVANS, "Victor Burgin's PolysemicDreamcoat", Art Has No Historyl, Verso, 1994. 50 CLARK, The Painting of Modern Life, Thames& Hudson, London, 1984, p252.

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by his detailed fact it in only accommodated way of was theoretical, and salient examination 51 of formal structure. In Burgin's practice, however, the politicisation of value judgementsremained in its description to a cult of reception erotics which would reduce theoretical state, spawning art a Adopting the pseudo-analyticalstyle of than or philosophic. trivial spirited more led dismember historians, be it Burgin to that was experience art so could not poststructuralist facts ideas, Instead Burgin's tangled of a web of specific and writings as a whole. reconstituted independent class, race and gender of all concreteexperience,all of confront us with categories leading historical dogmatism. time, towards and all us an unhistorical actuality, psychological Moreover, having reducedart theory to a number of themes,Burgin blunted the Clarkian denying kind being ideology", forms "tools to the the with which alter viewer of notion of art held be force' Clark ideologically 'motor intense that to the experience of of unity purposefully 52

advancedart. Unlike Clark's complex analytical method, Burgin's post-modernist distrust of the

imaginationtendedto bind the limits of thought. Ratherthan askthe viewerto 'suspendtheir disbelief, Burginmadethe seemingly revolutionarystatementthat "Art is not truth", yet 53 irony: Picasso's without I want to stressthe imagenot as an illusion but as text, to be read. photography fact, it's form, discursive a social a practice of representation, as not a as as a be fact.. happens [ I You it just ignore to to a can choose choice, matter of personal ... less factual fact in but if fact, the then think that any you're a state of makes you a delusion.54

51 "Where cultural studieshave already impinged on the discourse[of art history], for example in the it Clark Griselda Pollock, T. J. still returns to the centrality of the text, and to and with work associated however, Cultural of art works. approaches, seethe questionsof what constitutesan adequatereading include its its circulation a whose other moments of circulation, moment particular a text not only as both its making and exchange,its marketing and promotion, institutions the surrounding production, by SEAN " BUBITT, "Videography: historical its audiences. contemporary reception and and, crucially, The Helical Scan", Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture, Macmilland, 1993,17. While Bubitt he do is Clark Pollock text, to that they to the wrong suggest not that return is correct to claim and delicate balance between indeed issues they create a all aspectsof of production and reception, examine critical analysis. 52 Despite the fact that Burgin also held this view of the art object, describing "the way objects transmit in " BURGIN, in ideology, their turn transform these. the photographs ways which and and transform Art Essays Pbotograpby Serniotics, Art Two Robert Self, Practice", Theory on and "Photographic and London, pS.

53 "We all know Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makeusrealisetruth, at leastthe truth that is givenus know his The to the the truthfulness convince whereby others manner of of must artist to understand. for the way to put overlies,he andre-searched, lies.If he only showsin his work that hehassearched, being different be [ ] Nature two things, the and art, cannot anything. same would neveraccomplish ... is * PABLO PICASSO, "Picasso Through not. nature of what our conception express we art thing. Speaks",TheArts, New York, May 1923,p315-26. 54 BURGIN in GODFREY, "Sex, Text, Politics: Interview with Victor Burgin".

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Burgin is correct in his observations. That art is often ideological, or an example of 'false however, We is indisputable. deconstruct that to might, protest consciousness', or demystify difference between important is ideology in this classicallyMarxist sense, 'fact' to this miss an ideological. in A artworks the many are which vast number of artist and viewers manner and hoping find ignore 'other' in art. Indeed, as to to contingency, art's something precisely seek from initially dominant ideology, the arose as a possible means of escape aesthetics an ideologiesof the Stateand the Church. Art, in this sense,seeksto suppressits contingency. Similarly, for Burgin, "what is essentialabout it [ideology] is that it is contingent and that fact is -55 However, its is it the the contingency suppressed. contingency of of artworks within different it disguised: is in than entirely spirit, rather an masked often suppressed The actor on the stageexpressessadness.Is he therefore sad? Need he ever have him No. All is that to sadness? required make a competent experiencedauthentic he know be he is to that sadness that should able competently represent should actor 56 fake it. how to

This clearlyrelatesto the dramatictheoryof Brechtfor whom the whole pretenceof what was between dramatist interfered 'real' the effective communication the with was stage goingon by Brecht Only that are acting, recognising actors argued,canthe audience and audience. in the dramatist'scritical presentationof reality.The beginseriouslyto involvethemselves it is detect entirely essentialto the productionof this to mask without removing art's ability literalism him important Burgin's distance. to miss an consideration;namely caused critical by disbelief, for be "captivated" entirely cannot suspend our artworkswe we must that to (artifice) is if that taking place: to artistry conclude we are recogniseslight-of-hand from but (showing (showing observation) gesture cloud), mime a the separates artist ... body's from latter, face detracting is in the the the since attitude reflected and without is wholly responsiblefor its expression. At one moment the expressionis of well57 managedrestraint; at another of utter triumph. It is, therefore, by forcing us to appreciatetheir contingencywithout subsequentlydisowning Brechtian 'alienation the to that produce artists are able effect' after which their productions,

55 BURGIN, "Photographic Practiceand Art Theory", Studio Intemational, Photography Edition, . July/August 1975, p4l. 56 HARRISON, "'Seeing' and'Describing: the Artists' Studio", Essayson Art& Blackwell, Oxford, p161-162.

Language, Basil

57See:BERTHOLD BRECHT, "Alienation Effectsin ChineseActing", 1957.

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Burgin strove. Burgin adds a materialist twist to this point when describing "fine art form of practice photography", as a

image fascination, the as a source concernedwith of a form of captivation,a sort of into the exercise trap for the eyein which one'ssenseof beingis somehowcondensed 58 faculty "mesmeric" of the visual schoolof photography. - what we might call the Certainly photographs are ideological in Burgin's sensein that they do not require viewers to beyond 'true' something the existent, but relationship with unequivocally a serious or strike up However, to refusethis "mesmeric" imperative is to of artificial way seeing. a particular, with have in (the the potential to transform the prevailing which art ways artworks refuse not only ideology), but the ability to generateand manipulate our own world. While correctly revealing be between Not, True False imaginary distinctions Is Is fails Burgin to and and or unreal, our identify d'art inform to that to the or absolutely refuse merge with objet to us would life-world. by destruction Moreover, its the of our adopting analytical approach to necessitate but destroy illusionary the the artworld which allows us to read world, not only art we may Burgin's photography as a serniologicalcritique of art. If Burgin underminesthe notion that a he do by installing the assumptions, can viewer's prior only so without operates a photograph his Terry Atkinson's theoretical preoccupations. namely assumptions, analysisof of set new be Burgin: to could equally applied the monochrome

built for the monochromearein a historicalbind, theyneedto claim The discourses highest to the they standardsof critical thinking and interrogative subscribe that do important the they time that same admitting so claim, whilst at and an procedure, first interrogate is the notionsof critical thinking to think the critically and of aspect interrogative procedure,which theycan't sincethis would underminethe and interrogative thinking are critical a priori assumptions which and and structural 59 procedure.

How elsemight we offer an account of Burgin's work, given his claims that "conceptualism 60? One history is be into Burgin's to style" possibility a of precisely examine slotted cannot infatuation with photography in terms of period vogue. Following in the wake of minimalism

58 BURGIN in GODFREY, "Sex, Text, Politics: Interview with Victor Burgin". This echoesa point "The by in Burgin earlier essay: characteristicsof the photographic apparatusposition the an made in subject such a way that the object photographedservesto concealthe textuality of the photograph itself - substituting passivereceptivity for active (critical) reading." BURGIN, "Looking at Photographs". 59 ATKINSON, "Mutes", Terry Atkinson: Mute 3 (Works After 1987), VestsjFllandsKustmuseum,Sorr; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Cornerhouse,Manchester, 1989, p29. 60 ibid., p38. Burgin's claim is weak, Conceptualismowing a great deal to the 'pared down' aesthetics fact became increasingly in Modernism, Late the mid-1980s as this cerebral style apparent which a as of was rejected.

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honesty integrity by evoked similar photography values of and way of an conceptualism, and illusory simplicity and coolnessof tone, a plain style in which imagesappear to limit themselves fashion This denotative in which Burgin's works the meanings. obscured to preciseand demonstrateda contemptuousirreverencefor veritable conviction, concern and political activity. Unlike Conrad Atkinson's work, Burgin's photo-texts predominately harnessedpolitical debate debate design. As the they offered were solely a consequence, possibilities of to considerationsof disregarding data his image-text to which might have been practice, preordained those adapted fit bi-polar his did if it the arrangement not comfortably within of work. of political relevance Burgin usedphotography to deflate and magnify bis artwork's status and the valuesby which its his by belief in invite being judged, to work undercutting the assumptionswhich status was A his the of all other artists. gameof one-upmanship and work work necessarilyunderpinned became hands, Burgin's In being a sophisticated,neo-conceptualist photography played. was indecency New Humanism: to the the without stooping of representation to with meddle manner do It just to the was uncool anything that aesthetic. minimalist shared everybody ... I intellectualise [ ] [ this. that shouldn't over one style, wasn't clean and austere. .... ... having luxurious in consumergoods, so there's a politics either not ethics there an was ... implicit or explicit in it. But that was lessto do with the austerestyle it was more to do but Donald Judd's Morris' Bob austere, sculpture was sculpture or with the materials. boy, did it sell. Judd particularly becamevery well off. So I chosenot to do something do his land his in buy to something that or condo, could and put on guy that somerich be literally, blow that that so cheap or something was nobody would seen away, would dead with it in their penthouseapartment, that was a certain sort of ethic, if you like, a 61 political act. of course, it was relatively effortlessto embracephotography as an alternative to the distribution network while still producing publications contaminations of modernist art's large by 'tastefully' volumes small number of pictures of artworks accompanied consisting of a In the towards theoretically this a covert shifting of agenda all, allowed commentary. of critical In For Burgin, Burgin. this was particularly agreeable. contributing minded artists such as historical doctrine, Marxist Burgin body and serniotic art the of academic to growing practically bestowedhimself with the satisfaction of having made a substantial intellectual innovation. In becoming like history Marxist the ironic a self-support group, much rapidly art was sense, an denounced. Despite its professedrevolutionary stance, it Modernism Greenbergian regularly Twentieth High in into fits tradition the century, namely of art Burgin's work a resolute squarely fact This investigations is that of cultural the scholars. a pseudo-scientific that conriectedwith for historical denied in the call specificity, a materialist requirement vies uncomfortably with his his in facile to apparently rational rhetorical tracts. Burgin's tendency universalise position

61 BURGIN in ROBERTSed., "Interview with Victor Burgin", The Impossible Document. Pbotography Camerawords,London, 1997, p92. 1966-1976, Britain Art in Conceptual and

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CHAPTER 6 Community Photography Without a sympathetic context for women's art and vocal spokeswomen, Filglish artists dared not risk direct depictions of such subjects as female Sexuality for fear they would be mistaken for traditional pornography. This fear of being misunderstood drove mally feminists away from the minefield of representation and fostered growth of a more feminists Borrowing the tools of structuralism, exposed theoretical approach. language. hierarchies These visual, and cinematic concealed within verbal, patriarchal hidden codes positioned femininity as the negative value against which masculinity I its cultural primacy. establishes The task of feminist art, they felt, was to peel back the layers in traditional in the very sanic tcrIIIS IAT the roots of oppression embedded and expose representation life The describe words and pictures of everyday contaminated were ourselves. use to being What favour we offered was were of academic analyses. abandoned in deconstruction as art. The art often took the form of photographic or diagrammatic format by that was typical of much socialist art at texts, a academic images captioned literature A theoretical grew up around these works reinforcing the time. copious the between The traditional theory and conflict pictures. words over new ascendancy of ' practice was temporarily solved now that theory was practice.

far from Stezaker Burgin In the mid-seventies, alone in their methods and concerns. and were in 1974 Jo Spenceand Terry Derinett establishedthe photography Workshop in London as an independenteducation, research,publishing and resourceproject. "As a socialist and a feminist" claimed Spence,"it has becomeuntenablefor me to work any longer as a labour having to my and my photographs in order to support sell 'professional' photographer, became fixed because I I This [ the part of an which and produced ideology images is myself. ... gender positions and which were not always in particular class, race into people constructed I " Spence Dennett I as a secretary. and now working went oil to coam their own interests. found the journal Camerawork in 1976 with the specific purpose of exploring "The Politics of ' Criticising the mainstream media's implicitly sexist and racist attitudes, Photography". Camerawork's inaugural editorial pointed out the poverty of current photographic mainstream's obsession with social realism and photojournalism:

More often than not it is an unjustifiably voyeuristic and one-sidedaccount of the stark live forced joys the to or of and sorrows of people are many situation in which 'JACQULINE MORREAU and CATHERINE ELWES, "Lighting a Candle", in SARAH KENT and JAQUELINE MORREAU, Women's Images of Men, Writers and Readers Publishing Co-opcrative Society, London, 1985, p23. 2

Ibid.

'JO SPENCE/PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, "Beyond the Family Album, Private Images, Public Conventions", Three Perspectives on British Photography: Recent British Photography, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London, 1 June - 8th July 1979, p7l. ' SPENCE, "The Politics of Photography",

Camerawork, no. 1,1976.

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celebrity life. [ ...I Printed in the masspress,or alongsidethe hi-fi and sherry adverts in the colour supplements,this imagery eventually becomesjust another commodity for us ' distraction for for in 'truth'. the or to thumb through our search Rather than being a platform from which to explore a Burginian 'politics of representation, Camerawork initially provided a showcasefor photography recording social conditions and

6

7

inequalities. Formed in 1974, The Hackney FlashersCollective, for example, originally aimed "to developan ongoing activity in the areawhere they lived and worked, producing "what has becomeknown as 'community photography' - or rather one of its many varieties."' In keeping The Hackney democratic Flashers' community exhibitions, such spirit, photography as this with Women and Work in Hackney (20th September- 3rd October 1975) were available for hire. This allowed photography to function primarily as an educationaltool, "a mirror to show by in 'un-newsworthy' the press"' such as women national working eventsconsidered

In Flashers the such works concentratedon the child-minding. and cleaning sweatshops, divisionof labourwithin the factory,examiningthe newproblemsfacingwomenasindustry by double Act into Equal Pay 1975 cutting wages and reorganising workforces to the adjusted day and eveningshiftsunsuitablefor women. UnlikeBurgin'spractice,suchcommunity form to the true to contaminationsof modernistart's alternative a seemed photography distributionnetwork,beingexhibitedinitially at the HackneyTown Hall in conjunctionwith before Council, Half Moon Trades Hackney travelling to the of the women'ssubcommittee debatable. Theatre." The critical success photography, nonetheless, of community remains

' ibid. 'See also JON BIRD, "The Politics of Representation",BLOCK, No. 2,1980, p4O44. 7SeePAUL CARTER, "Photography for the Community", Camerawork, No. 13, March 1979, p2-3. I LIZ HERON, "Hackney FlashersCollective: Who's still holding the camera?", in T. DENNET, D. EVANS, S. GOHL, AND J. SPENCE,(eds.), Pbotograpby/ Politics: One, Photography Workshop, London, September1979, p125. 'SPENCE, "The Politics of Photography". " In the 1980s, this democratic amateurismcameunder attack from new image feminists such as JacquelineMorreau and SarahKent: "Lucy Lippard suggeststhat American women artists were able to local highly because visible and of a woman's art movementwhich userepresentationand narrative historians into collectivesof English tended to themselves and organise their artists work. contextualised like-minded individuals and operateon the fringes of the art establishment." [ ...I "This attempt to led feminist hierarchies formation to an expectation that was not successful, and of undermine the The danger in no-star system anonymous. was relatively of reinforcing a women artists should remain for difficult it living. " to the very women artists while making make world a art of male monopoly MORREAU and ELWES, "Lighting a Candle", in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, Writers and ReadersPublishing Co-operativeSociety,London, 1985, p23. [ ...] ibid. footnote 14, p26.

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The propagandist useof Camerawork was criticised from the political left and by " deteriorating itself into the magazinewas photojournalism, photographersconcernedthat for latest into the crisis with thematic issuessuch as 'Lewisham: a political vehicle transforming What are you taking pictures for?"' and 'Reporting on Northern Ireland'. " Itwassomewhat ironic that Spenceintended Camerawork to opposecommunity photography. A more innovative visual tradition fosteredby Camerawork was that of montage, the only form which presenteda challengeto the social realism of the growing number of community photographers. Describing herself as an 'educational photographer', Spencehad long been interestedin deconstructingstandardisedforms of representationand subjectmatter. Although Spencehad documentary late in from 1960s the onwards, working mainly exhibited and educated lead Workshop Camerawork Photography to a series the and of the establishment photography, Faces the innovative photographic collectives such as social/feminist with collaborations of " first The indication Flashers. Hackney Beauties Camberwell the Group, the of a critical and Flashers' Wbo's Holding Baby? Hackney 1978, in July the the openedat when reaction came CenterpriseCommunity Project in Hackney: The limitations of documentaryphotography becameapparent with the completion of The 'window Hackney Work in Women a on assumed photographs exhibition. and the failed in the to of rooted the question notion reality through and camera the world' but The self-recognition could photographswere positive and promoted appearances. not exposethe complex social and economicrelationshipswithin which women's " is subordination maintained. Rather than social realism, the exhibition consistedof cartoons, collage, montage, and graphics As laminated 2000"). Hackney Flashers (36 the text. gradually panels with photographs and between form "indicate Burginian the to contradiction women's of montage a adopted began less in its to their the work appear politically media", experienceand representation dangerously in to to their close agitoften work which verged earlier contrast stark engaged, Althusserian Burgin's to the the This approach subject, met with also was shift prop.

" BOB LONG, "Camerawork and the Political Photographer", Camerawork, No. 16, November 1979, p10-15. SeeCamerawork, No. 8. Specialdocumentaryedition on the National Front RaceRiots. SeeCamerawork, No. 14, August 1979. Sally Greenhill, Spence, jo Margaret Murray Flashers Hackney The 1977 of By consisted (photographers),Ann Decker (graphic designer),Christine Roche (illustrator) SueTrewelk (silk screen McGovern. Liz statistician printer) and "THE HACKNEY FLASHERSCOLLECTWE, "The Hackney FlashersCollective", Three Perspectives British Photography, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, Recent Photography: British on London, 1 June - 8th July, p80.

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doesn't false "Advertising imageof ourselves;it placesus in that present us with a contention defines in it its images that thereby to such a way us."" relation For a long time now our visual arts diet hasconsistedof so called male compositional " it is Perhaps images. time the world reconnectedwith our meansof making elements. This form of practice had grown in popularity over the proceedingfive years as iconoclasts for image. text abandoned

in 1975[ ] SallyGollop,isolatedon the Isleof Wight, andKateWalker in London ... ... feelings by images the which expressed of womenconfined childcare startedsending for form Sally, domestic took the example, responsibility. of a miniaturekitchen and dresserwith shelveslike barsacrossthewindow. Cupsobscuredthe view andwith the " brain. hung hands anda crockery At the Women's Art Conferencein 1975, Goodall, a founder member of the Birmingham Women's Art group, met Walker and the Communist historian and social worker Tricia Davis.

FollowingGoodall'ssuggestion, this groupdecidedto establisha visualcommunication housebound faced, demonstrate by in to the torn problems womenartists exchange post order betweenthe needsof their familiesandthe needsof their work. The aims of sendingart-works to eachother are to developa visual languagethat is in it break their that to to corresponds with own experiences, and women accessible down our isolation. Often we learn to understandourselvesby making visible in some form aspectsof our lives - our processof selectionoften leadsto self-discovery. Each has by image/object the to she that received making either art-work an replies person her life, directly image that to the or perspective on responds of she something reflects has received." The network, involving women from all over Britain and Germany, becameknown as Feministo, a pun relating to the male engenderingof modern art found in avant-garde Futurist label infamously Manifesto, Marienetti's the misogynist as and generic such manifestos by The based Feministo produced the mail art was on their practice of mail art. given to

", in T. DENNET,D. " LIZ HERON, "HackneyFlashersCollective:Who'sstill holdingthe camera? EVANS,S.GOHL, AND J. SPENCE,(eds.), Photograpby/ Politics:One,PhotographyWorkshop, 1979,p125. London,September " PHIL GOODALL,"Growing PointlPainsin Teministo'", 1977,reprintedin ROZSIKAPARKERand GRISELDAPOLLOCK,FramingFeminism:Art and the Woman'sMovement1970-198S,Pandora, London,1987,p21311PARKER,"Portrait of the Artist asa Housewife",1977,reprintedin PARKERandPOLLOCK, FramingFeminism,p207. " GOODALL,"Feministo:Portraitof the Artist asa YoungWoman", 1977,reprintedin PARKERand POLLOCK,FramingFeminism,p206.

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domestic artists, mothers as women, and experiences workers. While harbouring the 'homemade' character and small scale of much mail based activity, a great deal of Feministo's production was allied to the project of photoconceptualism, utilising film, photo-collage and "' installation.

We usethe skills we already have- "female", "domestic" skills - crochet, knitting, 2' "arty" traditional skills. sewing as well as more Significantly, Feministo was coil ta nimati ng the minimal formal concerns of photoconcept ua11 sill by being aligned with what Goodall tacitly referred to as "feniale/domestic"

skills. This helped

to incapacitate the hitherto unquestioned conceptualist penchant for iiiinlinal forms and ascetic by associating them with the artisanal and the 'personal', concerns which were all mediums anathema to the conceptualist psyche:

Techniques vary. The show contains a great deal of drawing, but lot painting and a Is assemblage, some knitted or sewn. On one level the use of craft validates women's traditional skills and ernphasises how much pleasure there is in, for example, draws level draws it On another it crocheting. has been time to the way our and energy attention by our massive contribution to the absorbed domestic economy: knitting, sewing and furnishing " home. the

Figure 6.1 Ation./Feministo, CrocbetedBreakfast. Knife. fork and wool, (1976). Attempting to negate (male) modernist art's long-standing anti-craft position was mainly intended to weaken its (patriarchal) position of infallibility.

The separation between art and

differentiate between functioned had the creative activities of the ruling and workingto craft between function by This 'differences' -` the men and women. was extension, classes,and decidedly was anti-artisanal, adopting all obsessive maintained in photo-conceptualismwhich distaste for fine art values(albeit for politically progressivereasons).21This, of course,was a

"' SeeTRICIA DAVIS and GOODALL, "Personally and Politically: Feminist Art Practice", Feminist Review, No. 1,1979, p21-35. " GOODALL, "Feministo: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman", p206. ' PARKER, "Portrait of the Artist as a Housewife", p208. ' "The symbolic significancecraftworks had or have for women is normally overlooked despitethe fact draw historians feminist to attention to the content and social role of craft production. " continue art that Ibid. " "The contemporary Art sceneis just another spherewhere women have taken secondplace. Its elite has developed in interests False the of capital. standards,ethics and competition nature and obscure development inhibit isolate to Since the 'ideas' and artists to all of meaningful communication. combine

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detached, in its cool, super-minimal. Many Ferninisto artists adopted to own right, style hot, engaged,maximal, emphatically unprofessional: "Unlike much opposite characteristics, fine Art is in the the scene, work non-technological,non-academic. The contemporary work ' lives. " to context, materials and approach are related our everyday However, it should be stressedthat Feministowas not a coherent artists' group, it was more " ideas: for "The is forum " of aim communication, exchange an not perfect aesthetics. As a such there were many artists associatedwith the group who mocked the associationsbetween 'femininity' and 'craft', and whose work constituted a continuation of conceptualism'santicraft stance:

The materialsalsoreflectwomen'slimitedresources, andin somecases,a rejectionof has become "complex technology which the an integralpart of the established art flimsy because has is it impermanence And the much of work an which the scene". "' Most to than want makestatements rather consumerobjects. womenvalue. In all, however, the vast majority of Feministo artists echoedphoto-conceptualism's Hegelianism,in so much as the movementwas a deliberateventure to invert the preoccupations facade fraternity had been in longInversion to the order gain of radicality. a of a rival cultural feminist Such 'stance'. them giving a tactic artists, method and of a negations, standing however, failed to answer difficult questionsabout their own status as works of art. Feministo's miscellaneousnegationswere designedto provide an alternative to patriarchal As for by them the with a mirror. such, network was much maligned presenting practices housewives: in their role as confirming women The security of the home and its deceptivefreedom from intimate control operative in backlash. have lose You their own contact with any senseof the any work situation $real'world, you think in frames of referenceand a languagelooked down upon by frying After isolation to the this come relish a while you misery of as a most people. fire failure; being to the of exposure as a possible after years of usedto pan alternative living in a home alone with your children, you becometerrified of confronting the " family. world of work and other people outside your

factors become have Our these 'styles' unite products, especially prestigious against women. and from non-prestigiousfolk traditions. It is diverseand integrated into our lives; it is derived is creativity Contemporary ignore it standards either and worn. our creativity washed or rate as eaten, and cooked Artist as a Young Woman: A Postal Event", 1977, ROSS, "Portrait MONICA " the of second-class. Framing Feminism:Art, p211. POLLOCK, in PARKER and reprinted Ibid. Ibid. 27PARKER, "Portrait of the Artist as a Housewife", p208. " MICHELENE WANDOR quoted in ibid. p209.

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There is a strong sense,then, that Feministo'snegationspartially reinforced various aspectsof the status quo; indeedthe pre-eminenceof photoconceptualismwas necessaryfor their negation have Moreover, it is clear that to any whatsoever. meaning of artworld professionalism Feministo'sallegedinsurgencywas ancillary to obstinate metaphysicalmyths of 'femininity: Our isolation is broken by recognisingimagesthat are instantly knowable as to do with ] [ Some work on childbirth and our ambiguousrelationship with our women. ... female by indicating images Many the the the pressand advertising use of children. " life. isolation in Works a personal expressingsuffocation and world.

This fails to considerwhat would havehappenedhadmenbecomeanonymouslyinvolvedwith have been knowable do 'instantly Could to artworks not equally men's as with the network. have hand, On have it This the a of presented number problems. one would would women'? inadequate 'expression': 'genetic' theoretically to a without recourse concerning raisedquestions labelling,how couldanyonetell if womenhadmadean artwork? Academicfeministssuchas GriseldaPollock,of course,werecurrentlyembarkingon a thoroughcritiqueof 'expressionist' female Hence, idea being the theories that of creativity. genetic critical of especially theory, because to certain sectors of society simply of who made artworkscouldcarrymoresignificance hand, Goodall's have been On target the of such a critique. other a them,then,should descriptionof Feministo'soutput asincludingmany"imagesindicatingthe useof the femaleby is ironic. Was this not also the preoccupationof a most world" advertising and the press for have been Would their work mistaken women's numberof male,photo-conceptualists? if What been had it if theywereactingall along? artisanal? more work If Feministo's emphasison production seemedto lead to a number of problems, their Like most community photographers, equally problematic. concern with reception was Feministo avoided the conventional distribution network, choosing to show their mailings during in Manchester Housewife May 1976, Artist A Portrait the as and at title of the under during Coventry 1977. This much, however, Liverpool; Library; Central and Birmingham debates had Feministo the that taken the with place within that were unacquainted suggested display being in Despite the of mail art was public placed unusual contexts, mail art network. frowned upon by many mail artists sinceit encouragedtheir work to be publicly judged. Mail basis initiative indentitary that the thinking questioned of and very strategy art was a pedagogic had individual Mail the where in art. a collection of all art archiveswere personalcollections but be It the exchanged, senderand receivercould only could their to production. reactions deal with eachother's possibilities. This trapped Feministo and the Women's Art Group, who from for its the simultaneously artworld, while seeking to sympathy escape were attempting fact failed Ferninisto the that mail art can never remain stable to convey exhibitions their cause.

" GOODALL, "Feministo: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman", p206.

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Community Photography

by its Since is of existence. to mail art created self-declarationthere enough seekrecognition fixing display for judgement. be the of public and no rules, no can no possibilities In order to gain greatercoveragefor their activities, the Women's Art Group produced Mama, during 1977, a collageof feminist art eventsin the UK. Suchgroup exhibitions were deliberately proscriptive to the extent that they forced 'individual groups' to hide under their deliberately blur designed A ) (vaguer? to a strategy agenda, authorship. cultural wider feminist female for 'theme' the that this artists was renderedtheir practical, some corollary of breakdown Griselda Pollock's schematic semantically mute. of the collaborative contributions is enlightening: adopted contrary positions Firstly, there is what I would call cultural feminism which is characterisedby a This meansnot only the rejection of to art practices. commitment alternative but dealers, institutions, so also a refusal of existing and on, galleries, establishment forms Art Fine definitions to conventional and of restriction art and media. of exclusive The content of this kind of practice relatesto specifically female experience,both body [ ]A in and social or political art. second art, group as psychological physical and ... have a place of sorts within the establishment, or position exists of women who already [ ] sincemost of thesewomen are not part of the women's movement [...] their work as ... " determinant, is their sex of marginal significance. artists the main Mama was an attempt to move cultural feminists towards a "third position adopted by feminists who argue that it is important to acknowledgethe significanceof being a woman and in institutions intervene the is it main currents to and and of necessary engagewith that here. display Firstly, Two "" was public major problems emerged contemporary art practice. feminists beliefs to who wished the of cultural remain entirely separate and aims against clearly from the establishment." Secondly,professionalcuration servedto amplify the contradictions before The display in the end of 1977. group split art. inherent the public of mail More problematic eventswere to occur. In 1978, Feministo was given a retrospective highly in is display Mail The London. in to ICA such a context controversial art say of the at direct between individuals both is Mail least. a communication or collective, and private art the Mail is Galleries individuals. to no part. art play exchange only; and museums of groups isolate individual 'works' is impossible As it to mail art unless such, receiveartists must give. Femininity and Hayward Annual Exhibition 1978", Feminist "Feminism, POLLOCK, GRISELDA -' Review, No. 2,1979, p38.

" ibid. I "This presentscertain problems for this group of artists. Although it usually made and receivedin the be it included in its is intended, it for that politics are and such cannot character official which context drawn in is by in that the map at present which up way annual surveymap of current art practices Annual Hayward 1978", Exhibition Femininity "Feminism, POLLOCK, " and p38. surveyshows. due discredited in became to the inability of their practitioners to this Community arts country implement a rigorous analysisof the essentiallypolitical structures (Local Authorities, Arts Associations funds. derived from " HUGH ADAMS, "Anonymous Council) their Arts they principally which the and is a Woman: The Work of Margaret Harrison", Art Monthly, Number 44, March 1981, p7.

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Community Photography

they are sent to another mail artist. Archives are static; recycling investsenergy in the network. Feministo's mail art had servedits function as a form of communication betweenmail artists, became in the eyesof the traditional art-world representedby the ICA. Yet mail art in a art yet it Hence, by female is mail art, was mail art. attempts not gallery mail artists to democratisc did not achievetheir objectives,indeed they were largely responsiblefor the artworld clearly 'proposal' lead the the of to criticism of Arts Council Shows culture which would establishing following Annuals Hayward As the the over years. as we shall see,it was recognisedfrom such the beginning that the concept that proposalscould createa democratic working environment Proposals in were needed order to evaluateand confer status upon certain was unsustainable. The Feministo and processes. events, exhibition at the ICA confirmed that all works, writings, description relies on aspectsof the artworld to sustain it, to provide a frame to work art-related inside or outside, sincedestructivepropositions slip into the implicit postulations of what they seekto contest: The great Danger with the current situation in America is that this barrier will be ... be that artists content with a pieceof the pie so long dominated women will accepted, by men rather than continuing to explore alternatives. It is crucial that art by ... back by into be happens, it. If the this establishment sucked and absorbed not women back decade, find few where we started within ourselves another with a more we shall known in the artworld, with the sameold systemclouding the issues, women artists " beginning included to wonder why. and those women not

" LUCY LIPPARD, From the Centre,New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976, p139-40.

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Senii(o) Art?

CHAPTER 7 Serni(o)Art? The price of Conceptual Art's entry into polite society during the I 970s was surrender of its abrasiveness and anomalousness. By the middle of the decade much of what had been the Conceptual Art movement was transformed into 'radically responsible' publicity through appropriation of the methods of serniology. Though the ensuing coil Iu fictions of pictures and texts were represented as subversive and c1cinistificatory, the intellectual world in which they were produced and consurned existed to ratify precisely such forms ' of conjunction. 1970s disinubrication the the art conceptual which emerged in socialist the of codes of ... the bourgeois. (In other words look i ng-down -the-nose-savi ng-the-work i ng-class-f ronidignifying You the pages of the egregious BLOCK can see it advertising-bullshit. magazine. Socialist Tony Hancockism I suppose you could call it. One of the particular deformations of the rhetorically didactic moment known as 'conceptual art' was the by that out advertising of pointing was engaged in capitalists who wished to moment by )' their to products. you persuade Comparatively portentous anomalies had emerged in the epistemological fabric of critical 1976. Burgin's "left inception in paradigmatic that at its argument art practice photography [.. was.. ] a matter of practical work in serniotics", was fraught with difficulties. For example, the Burginian project of convoking all aspects of culture into textual units for analysis assumed all ' language. between This representations and verbal visual is implicit in the concept of analogy "visual ideology", the view that representations define and construct the 'sclf'. Although this view difficult to clarify the mode in which visual representations legitimate, it is extremely is presumably for while pictorial systems call have structure, they have no commonly the viewer, interpellate difficult how As determine to explain such, it is specific grammar. visual signifiers might available define It function to the whole. is impractical visual the signifiers of since changing meanings the of representation precludes a universally valid model.

Writing of Nelson Goodman and E.H. Gombrich's theories of pictorial representation, Martin Kemp has demonstratedthat relevant dimensionsof resemblancediffer from one by Kemp dot function this the to that next. illustrated point explaining III on a might III as representat ' CHARLES HARRISON, Art & Language: A Commentary on the Work of the Second Decade, Black Propaganda 1977-78, Typewritten document in Art & Language Information File, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1990, p23.

'MEL RAMSDEN, "Art & Language:Mike Baldwin and Mel Ramsden,Extracts from a Conversation with SandaMiller", Artscribe, No. 47, July/August 1984, pIS, it seemedat least a reasonableworking hypothesisto assumethat other forms of human communication -* basically lines. VICTOR BURGIN " have "Art, Common Sense similar along evolved and might Photography", Camerawork, No. 3,1975. Iý

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Serni(o)Art?

head-shaped for the context an eyewithin of a the minimum sign outline, yet outside the context be identifying to characteristics need added. more of such an outline

has determined is it the that to the the of schema problem no answer validity or essential ... form, but mustsimplybetakenasreferringto whateverpictorial motif may standin a for Enough be 'eyeness' the object. sense of required must presentin each givencontext but identification, the particularcharacteristics of 'eyeness'usedin eachcase to case permit ' be fluid. and their relativecomplexitywill extremely "Sincewe cannotfix on onedimensionof resemblance ashavingimportanceoveranother," he is hoc. it " "it that unsystematic resemblance and our recognition seem would of ad concludes, This in turn hasimportantimplicationsfor serniotics,for, giventheir mechanismof reference, language: differ from be "We 'units' to the units said of verbal greatly certainly could pictorial like language. in I it that any way a unit of seeno reasonwhy a works verbal assume shouldnot dot and the word EYEshouldbesubjectto the samesemanticrules,sincetheir basicmechanism of different. "' is quite reference Sinceit is difficult to claimthat linguisticandnon-linguisticsignsarein anyway fragile. There is in Burgin's therefore theoretical appear pretensions a sense which comparable, Burgin and his followers were relying on structuralism, not for its claims, but for its technicalities ' integrity. illusion In in this sensethat and critical of objectivity was a powerful created which Burginian photography was said to have interpellated its audience:"[Burginian photography] takes both intelligentsia is it 'the idea to that to the its up conceive of and the analyse world' as as premise

4MARTIN KEMP, "Seeingand Signs:E.H. Gombrich in Retrospect", Art History, Vol. 7, No. 2,1984, p235. ` ibid. "The condition is that the specificallyvisual nature of the systemof referencein the visual arts is linguistic from Arguments inherently to subordinate a model. as and not visual respectedas essentially languagestudiesmay provide useful analogies,but theseargumentswill be no better and no worse than any be identity in by taken the processes as reflecting the an essential should not analogies analogy argument different logically languages in their relationships to represented Visual are involved. representationand do in the in the to their of properties any of objects embody order perform that not necessarily words objects, function adequately. They are also fundamentally different in their rules of composition and the way the by itself A it assertsnothing. It can only make their painting cannot a statement: effects. make compositions language (or associations through misunderstood) with such understood as provides a make statements ibid., is " image the p241. mediated. visual which context within different faculties To in talk the of at of rationalism... work cognition may serve piece cooked nicely a ... image light believe bears but it in I the processes of making casts a synthetic which no philosophical clarity, The essentialnature of visual intermingled the mechanisms actual at work. the complexity of to relationship image-makingis that it exploits theseprocessesin relation to the perceptual structures specific to vision." ibid. p237. 6

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Scmi(o) Art?

The first essay of 'a picture' and then proceed to change 'the world' by Intervening in the Victur ." Art-Language Vol. 3 No. 3, published in June 1976, opened in large bold type on the cover:

OF A RADICAL CULTURAL LIFE; the gangrenous The for dry delicacies in quiet salons. market exposed stylishly of pretentious excrescence, leisured the the the opinion, corpulent choice, appropriation ..... I ... I This over-fed gentility, description kind of was a critique - or a - within which the majority of persons and by by The Fox or joined its contributors were seen as potentially activities represented lumpen But it was also tokens or as equivalents of those tokens. included, either as directed at 'socialism-in-one-artwork', the executives of the fashionable caring culture, lest they the that they should would change world reflects an claim anxiety those whose change themselves. '... "FHE TIMELESS

LUMPENNESS

Art - Language Vol. 3 no. 4, (Fox 4), published in October 1976, addressed the fashion for American (in 'university October the with art' connection which journal and was art serniological from Illustration Art Language Vol. 3 [Figure 7.1 4. 4)l Art (Fox & no. a culprit). as named Language (A&L)' seen Burgin's form of practice as manifestly illusionary.

Burgin et al were in fact producing the conditions

flawed to picture of their a improving resolve, they intended own conception: In his distrust of his own ideological position, the fearless develops (cultural) techniques rather than accept the exposer historical (complex that is an production assertion dialectical) rather than a psychological task. There's no fearful since of production the conditions objective stake in horror-shock is a project for approaching what the fearless Kunstler believes are basic conditions... his defence or ' his 'objective conditions'. quantification of "The French Disease", Art -Language Vol. 3 No. 4, October 1976 (Fox 4), p33. "One by intellectuals to to that are empowered create and and uncover meaning artists was common assumption level higher is that of consciousness realm some some above at meaning of which their occupancy virtue of determined for the unenlightened mass. The image of the mass in need of enlightenment was supposedly be demystificatory, is its (thus) Semio-art; to to that say, to necessary, claims and of the to success necessary & Language: A Commentary on the Work of the Second Art HARRISON, CHARLES " 'emancipatory'. Decade, Black Propaganda 1977-78, p23. 7 ART & LANGUAGE,

' Art & Language started in Coventry in 1967/68 with four people: Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge and Harold Hurrell. In 1969, Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden and Charles Harrsion became associated with the group. ' ART & LANGUAGE, "In Contradiction", Art -Language Vol. 3 No. 4, October 1976 (Fox 4), p14. This Art Social Purpose Edition Studio International earlier in 1976: "Such in been had the of and expressed view belief by in its ideology own authenticity the cultural minorities' representation of mass reinforces work only kind becomes It form the of same of cultural imperialism on the a manifestation in the of primitive rhetoric. level of style of all forms of ideology and consciousness which is perhaps most manifest in the illustration from Vogue incorporated in Jonathan Miles's and John Stezaker's Captions (of Cultural Detente). ROSETTA BROOKS, "Please, No Slogans", Studio International, March/April 1976.

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Scmi(o)Art?

Romanticism lionised the artist. Formalism focusedon the art object. Semio-Art sought to by based Semio-Art logical other people. was produced on operations understand representations instead of the intuition of perceptualgestalts. The searchfor iconic form was abandonedin favour logic. between based Drawing propositional on parallels on visual representation of an aesthetic from formal Semio-Artists language, turned the considerations of perception to approach and A&L's in terms. criticism of this approach might appear conceptual culture self-analytic hypocritical given that they had beeninstrumental in adapting structural linguistics as a conceptual late A&L integrity in 1960s. important for the were methodological coart's assessing reference developed from Saussure, Barthes, Chomsky, the theories the of aesthetics serniological authors of Wittgenstein, Lacan and Levi-Strauss(amongothers). Their realisation that the figure of speech had more to do with what could be known than the subject it addressed,prompted a number of for The models understanding and psychological art. new antito philosophical artists abandon form logic be that that the art was a of could assumption understood aestheticsoon created large had based 1970s, By language the theory. of conceptual artists early a number through becomeconcernedwith producing art that establishedits own context within the dialectics of into intent The discourse. to the realisation of art as a aesthetic sensibilities was provoke aesthetic

device. semiotic A&L and Semio-Artists thereforeundoubtedlyfoundcommonalityin their emphasison language. However, while rejecting what earlier movementstook for granted - that art knowledge failed Semio-Artists to the ontological explore non-discursive communicates logic Kemp "creative 'knowledge' tangle that cannot arrive at, producing what calls a possibility of fire intuitions, and actions which with multi-layered simultaneity rationalisations perceptions, of '0 According A&L, had " Semio-Artists bubbling to [ ]a cerebral processes. cauldron of ... hypothesis denied the relevanceof the behind that arrogant and themselves a reductive entrenched by developing intentionally ineffective A&L appropriately an responded numinous art experience. practice:

" be be done, [ I Ideological been, has is, Our work not mada. materialmust andwill ... locatedwherewe canpoint out its historicalmodalities.And this meansthat beingwrong (asdistinctfrom fraudulentor stupid,etc.) is an historicalproductof transitionalpractice. You can't havefightsaboutvanguardorthodoxybecause all decisionshavea nornothetic " librarianship. purport subjectto the closureof assiduous * KEMP, "Seeingand Signs", p237. * ART & LANGUAGE, "Us, Us and Away", Art -LanguageVol. 3 No. 4, October 1976 (Fox 4), pl. * ART & LANGUAGE, "In Contradiction", ibid. p13.

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For A&L, as for Clark, art practice neededto tread a thin line betweensuccessand failure. "Attempts to identify organising principles always failed or were sabotaged, while the possibility of conti nuing activity in the end always required that intellectual production be taken at ICast II on trust. ""

Art & Language's position was that the productions of 'Semio-art' were not possibly transparent or 'responsible' since mystification and irony are Inevitably entailed by the for No of artistic practice. the relative virtue of Art materials claim was made signifying Language's work (nor could such a claim have been easily sustained in light of Art & Language's recent internal struggles. Exhibited works of 1977-78 were travesties of various kinds, designed to drarnatise irony and mystification in the conjunction of pictures and texts. These were displays made with dirty hands, forms of 'black propaganda' launched 'ideologically the untenclentous proper' - world of scri-notic systematicness. supposedly on The work was resolutely irresponsible. " A good example of such a large the oil work was leur donnet Sang, Ils painting donnez votre Travail, immicd by Baldwin, Harrison, Pilkington and Ramsden, mid Sch Robert the at exhibited Gallery, London, Decernbci 1977 - January 1978 [Figurc

Z.21. The subject was taken from a poster produced by labour Vichy France. 1942 The Nazis to recruit industrial in in original poster showed all the factory, A lay triumphantly through marching with workers its gates. soldier wounded to Idealised for labouring. 'cause' A&L the they the were of which workers removed the soldier as a remind "A between the connection image ideologically unstable. thereby making was of suggested means "those the the working class expressed in original of and associated with the the idealisations

(possibly left-wing) avant-garde,with art-and-socialpurposeas its essentialservices....... (Art-

" HARRISON,

"The Conditions of Problems", Essays on Art & Language, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, p98.

CHARLES HARRISON, Art & Language: A Commentary on the Work of the Second Decade, Black Propaganda 1977-78, p23. " SeePETER SMITH, "Art & Language", Art Monthly, Number 13, December/January 1977-78, p28-29.

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Semi(o)Art?

LanguageVol. 4 No. 2 October 1977)." In causticresponseto Burgin's What does PossessionMean to you?, a large poster was madeof this imageand displayedin the Eldon Shopping Centre in Newcastle-upon-Tynein 1977.

Mike Baldwin'sconvictionthat an intentionalineffectiveness, an elitist indifferencetowards practical goals, would render production unamenableto co-option by the manipulative and 17 discourses A&L the to assaultthe related problems of myth and of culture, compelled managerial instrumental reason in Semio-art. According to Barthes' famous formulation, myth makes us think historical 'natural', the things are not products of configurations, produced by contingent that Myths identifications, encourage a set of subject creating a comforting sustaining circumstances. forcing imprison their them to acceptthe power of ideology. and seduce consumers pleasure,yet A&L's claim that "mystification and irony are inevitably entailed by the signifying materials of de-mystify is to the to the production of art through outcome of attempts related artistic practice" from liberating In critical reason. us corruptible and oppressiveideological the application of imprison in could our cerebralaffectations. As objects and predictable forces us reason traditions, begin to act in calculableways, consciousness-raising and emancipation fashion immunity in the form of a thoroughly concealeddomination. By 'exposing' the false forms of exploitation Semiofull image, a substitute world of mythological representationswhich artists created a pervasive lose be 'nature' their to and which would automatically to unmasked claim once unmasked needed by reason. Hence, for the Semio-artist,the world was not only objectified, it was full of myths only from, in finally paradise save us revealing a which everything was opaque. their reasoncould Hence, despiteits claims to redressthe myth of the Heroic Modern Artist, the Nietzschean'Urman', Semio-art was completely pervadedwith this romantic attitude, transfixed as it was by a culture it imagined it could successfullyovermastersimply by unmaskingit. Yet often enough, this urge to for is itself by to to partake: the a mask an urge either gaze unhampered other a guilty unmask despise by further hypnotising an already it to the apparent pretends rewards or enjoy conscience, bored and hypnotised audience. Soberingreminderswere not enough. PaceWalter Benjamin, given the aestheticisationof politics (e.g. by Fascism,though the less forms) dramatic in is and the politicisation of aesthetics(e.g. in the tendency prevailing doctrine of 'Socialist Realism', though etc. ... mutatis mutandis) the task of artistic both intractable is to to tendencies,while with respect critical and remain production acknowledging the actuality of their contextualising power and the possibility of their " ghostly symmetry. HARRISONandFREDORTON,A ProvisionalHistory of Art & Language,EditionsE. Fabre,Paris,April 1982,p59'HARRISON,

"The Conditions of Problems", pI 17.

18HARRISON and ORTON, A Provisional History of Art & Language,p60.

ill

Semi(o)Art?

For A&L, further contradictionslay at the heartof Semio-artin that its advocationof a conceptual between between the split artists a mythological and viewers, educationactuallyencouraged being between 'art' and the a split most commonly characterised world, as and serniologist-as-hero, ,life'. In directcontrast,A&L advocatedbreaking"up the regimentationof structureswhich .. be have In A&L . 'learners 'experts', this, to to might said some aimed makessomepeople ... knowledge, including in directed and self-knowledge, the of skills every accumulation emphasise hearers in day life": "sincespeakers and act a world of other utterances,echoesand exist and " " is part-manipulative. whispers,utterance part-conversational, The overallaim of teachingasenvisaged within A&L wasto enableand assiststudentselfStudents to wereseenthis time not as activity,and positivelynot produceacolytes. but behalf A&L (though their this to out) as agents wasnot ruled on own potentialrecruits learning A&L's School for were established. project activity and social the once grounds intended 197542involved to the of anonymous posters and circulation production of ' identification. for providea rallying-point thosewho madethe While A&L's work may haveconstituted a valid satirical critique of Burgin's practice, it " failings. Their its "all-tooto the aim redress of presumed many simultaneouslymirrored

" ART & LANGUAGE, "Somewhereto begin", Art-Language, Vol. 3, No. 1: 'Draft for an Anti-Textbook', September1974, p2. " "For centuriesteachersworked with the model that what they did in the classroomconstituted 'Education' from kind They With different 'Educators'. in the people. other were upheavalsof people they were that and far began the to that what went on outside classroom often teachers realise was of the twentieth century, inside. Moreover it is that than on was realised everyone an what went greater educational significance There from is learn insights. The far two to these in to are responses another. one one all we as $educator' so degrees deny importance to the the 'de-schooling to of credits, and grades, and emphasise society', advocate day life. knowledge, in including The opposite is to self-knowledge, every directed accumulation of skills and difference between book-orientated, is to the 'classical', education, emphasise that conceptual advocatea " RICHARD HERTZ, between "Philosophical the the and world. academy teachersand students, Volume 18,1978, Aestbetics, Journal Art", The Britisb Modern of p246-247. Foundations of 21HARRISON, "The Conditions of Problems", p101. ' "A feasibleresponseto thesequestionswill have to propose the dialectic (the culturing reciprocity) between (who have their (who situation) and art students may or may not of socio-historical grasp some may artists institutions", ART bureaucratising & LANGUAGE, "Punitive Art the of range have such a grasp) outside ART & LANGUAGE ", in & Art Schools... Art Language 1966-197S, is Focused Britain in the on Practice Museum of Modern Art Oxford, September1975. ' HARRISON and ORTON, A Provisional History of Art & Language,pS4. ' "The loyal opposition to Art with SocialPurpose,typified by Art & Language(+ lines emanatingmainly for for identical Duchamp) the the majority of the Marcel contempt working class from and propagates form. frankly " JEFFREYSTEELE, "Notes Towards its in but scholastic/occult time contrary, this artists, Number 18, July/August Art Montbly, New Kitsch", 1978, p20. Against Theses the Some

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automatic virtue of art as 'theory""'

by reasserting "the opacity of art" " was to be achieved by

linguistically the esoteric and philosophically abstruse methods obtainable, (Rc: "You most of way because fights decisions have have orthodoxy all about vanguard a nornothetic purport can't 27 librarianship. Accompanying ) to the of assiduous closure a "refusal to signify" with a subject Xwas a deliberately absurd theoretical challenge to Burgin, especially "refusal to clari fy,, _, if read as his on assault inflated poststructuralist prose. In another sense, it or satirical a manneristic functioned as part of A&L's long-running analytical critique of the chain of dualisms on which rest logic Aristotle's be both fundamental (the (A A on/off) of switch cannot the and not-A at the on

however, how What ) Either/or. unclear, is such cryptic rhetorical anomalies remains sametime. differences dissolution between between be the teachers to of the aid in and student's, seen could One Mel Rarnsden's more the of world. academyand behind 1972 the the reasoning of statements succinct

.

Documenta Index [Figure 7.3. Index at the Lisson Gallery in "In really old fashionedSituation'ist International terms, it requestsof the consumerto be a

1.2721 1111

And if the consumer was not a a way. participant, in did 'bugger the not mean off' - it then work participant, failed to signify. " 2'

far from botched dismissed the point as anyone would this philosophy were as "Critics who art as be who tried to dismissa Cubist collage on the grounds that It was poor Journalisrn- For many, however, A&L widened the gap, being too intellectual for the asinine and too asinine for the intellectual:

HARRISON,

"'Seeing' and 'Describing': the Artists' Studio", Essays on Art & Language, p157.

ibid. ART & LANGUAGE, HARRISON,

"In Contradiction",

p13.

"The Conditions of Problems", p98.

RAMSDEN, "Art & Language: Mike Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, Extracts from a Conversation with Sanda Miller", p14. BRANDON TAYLOR, "Textual Art", Artscribe, No. 1, January-February 1976, p 11. A&L were not intentionally philosophical. Despite their intellectual passions, they presented themselves as artists. Their false, is "It Conceptual intuitive than to that analytical: empirically even rather absurd suggest was approach Art's value is supposed to lie in its acceptability as a philosophical thesis. " ART & LANGUAGE, "Artists and Philosophers", Art Montbly, Number 26, May 1979, p34.

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Semi(o)Art?

if you're going to bring theory to art then the theory has to be potentially publicly .. have Language if Art & that was ever their no currency whatsoever, accessible. intention, outside the artworld; and in fact I don't think it was their intention, I think that how like Surrealists, I that's they thought of themselves:as an think the they were more I think you should seetheir work mainly as provocations. making group avant-gardist " don't intended be I think they themselves the time to though all satirical. satire, even A&L's criticisms also seemfallacious when held againstCommunity Photography, despitethe fact " logic of self-expression. that they similarly advocatedgroup activity as a meansto suppressthe One problem with the productions of A&L was that they tended to have more of a 'persona' than loosely Unquestionably, 'personalities' the affiliated groups of artists. more those associatedwith but development historical A&L the of a replacement obliterated, neatly were of the membersof helped to its 'identity' tropes and characteristic critical and metaphors, values own with materialist by This intentions. 'identification effect' was magnified such subtly undermine the participant's factors as the high cost of Art-Language journal, A&L's ties to the gallery system,and a wilful their that the and of production reception work remained ensured of which all obscurantism intricacies "Conceptual their the art of rhetoric: with conversant to cognoscenti tied a closely didactically hands, in to to content and restrict reflective an attempt as our certainly emerged, in the the to artist's closure on content order produce an of contribution, the consumer's reduce

work."" launching in in England, fundamentally important Harrison conceptual art Charles was becauseuntil that time, [When Attitudes BecomeForm at the ICA in 1969] the so-called doing I in isolation; thought nobody else was anything conceptual artists were working like the kind of work I was doing. [ ...] Now what happenedsubsequentlyto that is that both level involved, became at a and Charles personal professional with ever more closely know, in Language, Art & their selfyou quite who were, really aggressive the membersof his drop being he didn't he join Now them activities as a critic, continued and marketing. helped Art & Language he but this establisha was now a memberof given that a critic, That is there was always a preferencewhenever anything & Language. for Art platform ' historical importance Art & Language. by Charles, the to of emphasise written got

31VICTOR BURGIN in JOHN ROBERTSed., "Interview with Victor Burgin", The Impossible Document. Camerawords, London, 1997, 1966-1976, in Britain Art Conceptual p89. photograpby and 32-The very formation of Art & Languagein 1968 could be seenas symptomatic of dissentfrom prevailing individual Documenta Index 1972 is the the career, artistic while of of and personality stereotypesof artistic by device (or form the of which conversation interpretation means generation of of artistic as a to open from (or in " is actual conversationalists abstraction authors). examined and meaning) represented Problems", Conditions "The p9l. of HARRISON, " RAMSDEN, "Art & Language:Mike Baldwin and Mel Ramsden,Extracts from a Conversation with SandaMiller", p15. ' BURGIN in ROBERTSed., "Interview with Victor Burgin", p87.

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Semi(o)Art?

Indeed, since beginning work as an Art Historian with the Open University in January 1977, Charles Harrison has sought to guaranteethat A&L's practice was irrecoverably written into the History of Art sincethe late 1960s,much as Clement Greenberghad previously monopolised and institutionalised his favoured brand of formalism. Open University CourseA316 Modern Art: Practicesand Debates,standsas an informative and educational testamentthe possibilities of " critical gerrymandering. Although dominated by the collaborative efforts of Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge and Harold Hurrell from its first appearancein 1969, Art - Languagehad initially beenopen to contributions. Efforts were madeto democratiseA&L's practice in 1969 based New York Joseph invited Kosuth, Ian Burn Atkinson Mel Ramsden conceptualists and when be just demand be to the they to as groups must made, group. unmade.The to contribute depends do, actions upon of artists' what others a group and, thus, the preferences of consequences depend This they think what preferences upon others will reveal. should they reveal interdependencewas fundamental to A&L during the first half of the seventies,and one way to had to confront so that those situations interpret is it that the situations each artist to model include estimatesof other's possiblechoices. However, if artists condition their choiceson what do, do To believe then they that the should assume people will others will same. other they further, A&L during identical the motives of artists associated with were matters rarely complicate both fates The interdependent first of group members were and conflictual and any years. six their benign is A&L as environments activities untenable. group understandably assumption about departure: "We defence' 'psychological depends that suppose of a points no specific would offer like But 'not 'the is? "" to the text. who's sticking right text' about what something upon To what extent did A&L's attempt to take both interdependenceand conflict into to the taking that the collaborate extent artists would of calculations and assume account, dissimilar goals of others into consideration? The ironies of this situation were utilised profitably fringes the to of group, allowing some participants the the organisation operate on of the to negate 35There is, of course,nothing new in the deliberatehistorification of art practice. Most avant-gardegroups importance in in 20th their their over-estimated vastly manifestos century order to createan of the early instant genealogy,most notably Marinetti's Futurist manifesto which appearedon the front pageof Le Figaro! in the early 1980s Stewart Home wrote a seriesof manifestosfor the small, and relatively Conspiracy Cultural Neoist which sought to emphasiseand satirise this fact: " Neoism is a insignificant by Fluxus Futurism, Dada, Punk, which emergedfrom the Mail Art influenced and movement cultural Network of the late seventies.Neoism is a methodology for manufacturing art history. The idea is to individuals who are said to constitute the in interest the the personalities of and various work generate from the 'prison of art and 'changethe world'. With this end in mind, Neoists to escape want movement. image itself. " ANON (STEWART HOME) "Viva an with angst-ridden of society capitalist they present Neoism", reprinted in HOME, Neoist Manifestos, AK Press,Stirling 1991, p2l. ' ART 8c LANGUAGE, "Artists and Philosophers", p34.

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Semi(o)Art?

developed A&L its However, implied 'rules'. their as gradually own neuroses, group's increasingly unableto containthe group'sproduction,allowingartiststo appeared nomenclature distancetheir concernsasmuchaspossiblefrom the organisationwhich initiatedtheir This debt Given Atkinson Baldwin's in taken the much was as granted. game. and participation have been it business Investigations, A&L Philosophical Wittgenstein's the to could never of to for it but to make possible artistsandviewersto geta clearview of the state resolvecontradiction, 7 be danger However, before there the the that the might resolved. contradiction was of affairs be designed incompetence too that gapsand sustained successfully, might of appearance develop kinds A&L in to the allow some the of might members of administration weaknesses found A&L A&L that of theory repugnant, certain members namely, which might practiceand forms less Art' 'Political the becomeassociated or with rigorous of 'ConceptualArt'. By with A&L theoretical their to that their and work, the practical sought ensure of opacity accentuating discourse 'realist' into the of social or art. appropriation work would resist It was for this reasonthat Kosuth's involvement was subsequentlysuppressedby Ramsden

" by North based Oxfordshire. The Fox, Banbury, A&L edited around and the contingentof by by A&L Foundation Inc. New York, Kosuth's Ramsdenandpublished wasappropriated 'Provisional'Art & Languagein its fourth editionin orderto censorits brandof insistentandanti" largely from England The Fox 'Marxism' The Marxism. as intellectual of wasseen vaunted dogmatic betray lack Its tone to the adoption of a seemed sautomatic'. of sophistication and ' 'oppositional' fashionably attitude:

Investigations125. SeeLUDWIGWrITGENSTEINPbilosopbical from A&L in England,which canbeseenastypical 19761 3, Spring Issue three Fox, articles carried "[Tbe first, 2. The Fox 'Having-your-heart-in-the-right-place is English to not making responses of a rangeof the incompatibilitybetweenthe History', waswritten by Harrisonin a barelyironic Stalinisttone,to suggest by (though invoked in) liberalism talk the actual practices entailed not necessarily and artistic of pursuit dictatorship [ ] The from Proletariat. England the 'revolution' the of second contribution a was and ... about hominem Allies', Worst 'The the took principle up of ad attack made of all which text, quorate more Gilbert-Rolfe... ' in Fox [ I The English by 'Jeremy 2. Ramsden's text third published ... plausibleandattractive NormanTrotskyandDameFloraLuxembourg,manyof their Smith 'Chris confronts contribution. detected friends', in Fox feathered furry the of artistic was critical agonising and volunteering and colleagues, & Art Language, History A Provisional ORTON, of p45. HARRISON 2." and " SeeIAN BURN,"UtopianPrayersandInfantileMarxism", Artforum, April 1975. from what 40-[In the mid-1970s]somemembers of the groupin Englandwantedto dissociatethemselves form Marxism and of watchedwith concernasthe name- or anti-intellectual and insistent an as saw they became Art & Language a welter of cndeavours, confused with some apparently of mythology [ I identity, "It & Language Art the those others not". was perception of of many an with ... commensurable in New York forms Art & Language in that they in activities were engaged of of involved the extension forms The in in England tendency of political struggle. to actual and was consciousness-raising political kind if a of allegoricalgame- thoughnonetheless politics were with behaveas the artisticengagement Conditions being HARRISON, "The in " Problems",p120-121. determined so. of serious or critically

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Serni(o)Art?

The Fox becamea sort of political magazine,'the radical alternative to Artforum'- and it became it looked it. something which suddenly was so uncontrollable and very surely ... 'Political'. [ ...I We had to make a consciousdecisionto end The Fox becauseit had turned into such a monster. It was essentiallybeing pigeon-boledas the 'alternative magazine'. In 1977 dramatic changestook placewithin the group. Membership dropped from thirty to the three memberswho still constitute the group (Michael Baldwin, Mel Ramsdenand Charles Harrison). Despite A&L's dispute with their American contingent, the annexation of The Fox was an aristocratic phenomenon,a standardisingof all materialist opinion according to the model of fell The Fox "The of was an unbelievable purge people end out, people totalitarianism. [ I jail. Joseph Kosuth threatened other with suicide, people each was cornmitted practically ... denied any possiblepractical relationship with Art & Language;he could not mention Art & Languagein the samebreath as his own work again. This was done very deliberately. [ ...I The Fox was killed by a conspiracy,not by a 'naturally' democratic decision.""' This was one of many departure from dispute A&L in 1975. Their lead Atkinson's to with this ex-member reasonswhich day. this to continues

Who caresfinally aboutthe definitionof art?What doesit matter? I can't seeit, so don't it, it I just down it they this: to get or you and got either you never ultimately comes far fundaments, I And disappearing their as as concerned. own was my argument up were debate in I the to to some that, anywhere, said wasn't getting you've got get wasprecisely Well theymadetheir own turn to the subsequently social world. with sort of engagement but kicked it, into I I I'm the them think the writing that one who was claiming not politics, but long for it it took them them to time to getthere. there see, a wason the wall, was "' be in institutions. Definitionsof art areto performed practicewithin art despotism, inclusive, it A&L's that art was almost entirely community albeit was to In contrast "' Notwithstanding imperatives in initiated, the the educational practice. of often non-participative The degree becoming artist remained very open. a community only of closure the possibility of by it practising that that community was only art anyone would get an was remained which Mike Baldwinand Mel Ramsden, Extractsfrom a Conversation MIKE BALDWIN, "Art & Language: with SandaMiller", p16. "' BURGIN in ROBERTSed., "Interview with Victor Burgin", p90-91. 41--1thought that what Art & Languagewere doing was purely formalist and therefore uninteresting. it from form the their the they philosophers, that mimicking of publications, were style of clear quite seemed it but language, they the the adopting subject were position then substantially of philosopher more as their intellectual world. Philosophersset themselvesup as the in Britain the in to the of rest relation existed decide if by historian, intellectual this that or and would pronouncement the world a or this accountantsof 'valid', by it to according whether economist, was or political not would meet their a statement or that fact, A&L ibid. In " p88. were as scepticalof philosophers claims to or not. criteria of truth or value knowledge as Burgin now claims to be.

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Semi(o)Art?

be become. it it While is this about, or of what might might alsotrue of of what understanding for from democratic for increased those the excluded the opportunities artworld were art, mail Feministo in the networkwho couldsendanythingtheymadeto any other member participants for that they thereby critical their work. Wouldalways received a audience ensuring they wished, be mail artistsinauguratedthemselves simplyby sendingmail to anothermemberof the network; from which point, 'education'wasan organic,accumulative process. It was perhapsdue to the overwhelmingpopularity of such modesof production that A&L's interventions made little institutional impact on the artworld. By the late 1970s, diluted form dictate had individual 'image-text' hackneyed the to not only come of artists' of concepts and historians down but the country. the up and concernsof curators and art productions, be becoming in that to of was suddenly persuaded more wrong all were we what ... " did being It had to cease visual. not. theoretical, art For example, in 1977, the Arts Council invited Rudi Fuchs,Director of the Van Abbernuseurnin Eindhoven, to purchasework by British artists. Introducing his travelling exhibition of artists Fuchs image, wrote: and using word A photograph of a tree on a hill or a text describinga hill, are somehow closer to the real in than a painting - provided the photograph and the text are unadorned thing they portray itself. The descriptive. the text straight photograph and plain are almost reality and plainly have becomeinterestedin making work which In recent years a number of young artists deal directly in that work would a new way with reality to the world real would relate "' and openly. had (and Fuchs entirely missedthe point of the new photography was a point That many others) Three Perspectives Photography: Recent British in 1979 the on controversial when sorely noted 4' by Gallery in London The Hayward the at exhibition, organised opened Photography exhibition . be first biennial British Tagg, "was John Kelly the Angela to Hill, supposed photography and Paul

' TAYLOR, "Textual Art", pl 1. 's RUDI H. FUCHS, "Introduction", Languages:An Exbibition of Artists Using Word and Image, Arts Council of Great Britain, Harlow, 1979, p3. " PAUL HILL, ANGELA KELLY AND JOHN TAGG, Tbree Perspectiveson PbotograPby:RecentBritisb Gallery, South Hayward Bank Centre, Great Britain, London, 1 June - 8th July Council Arts of pbotograpby, 1979.

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Semi(o)Art?

being half had Hayward, its Art important, the at so annual photography, only as was show. "' Tagg discredited be " the show every other to year. a national given going idea - so dear to the left-liberal documentarytradition - that the 'truth' of photographic lies 'outside' image 'behind' the or somewhere and the institutional representation framework within which it is represented.The struggle around 'truth' or the status of 'truth' in photography is not a strugglefor something'outside' or a struggle 'in favour' of 'truth'. It is a battle around the rules, operative in our society, according to which 'true' battle It is institutions 'false' those a around are separated. representations which are and " discourse. 'true' in transmit privileged our society to produce and Tbree Perspectiveswas certainly one of the most representativeand concisepresentationsof critical be last: look however, Arts Council "The It to the took officials one at the was, photography. "' from happened it " conservativesand, mysteriously, never again. show and the complaints

47jOHNTAGG, "Practising Theories:an Interview with Joanne Lukitsh", Afteri"wge, vol. 15, no.6, January Cultural History, Politics and the Discursive Field, Art Dispute: Grounds in of 1988, p6-10, reprinted Macmillan, London, 1992, p74. " TAGG, "A SocialistPerspectiveon PhotographicPractice", Tbree Perspectiveson Britisb Pbotograpby, p7l. 41TAGG, "Practising Theories: an Interview with Joanne Lukitsh", p74.

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R.IdIC,11Ac.ulcinicism

CHAPTER 8 Radical Academicism Oil the left, the prevailing view of advcrtising tends to be olic of disapproval. the structures advertising of to rhetorical are the indifferent emotional and ... ideological value of the contents they handle; Inuch as, for example, all al-Ithilictical like 2 2 4 'doesn't care' whether we are adding up taxi cabs or PILls cquals structure tomatocs. In this view, therefore, dicre is no reason why, once the devices of been by have isolated scimotic analysis, they may not be 'rc-cycIcd' in advertising ' mcssage-making. countcr-ideological

Social realism is not realist in the way it prctends to bc. It's a regressive language. At least montage through jLJXtapOS1t1O11 Call C11gagC WIth C011traclIctoryimages and bcyond bUt important it's to that to achieve positive, more integrated go realities, languages. I Thel the montage idea of reality as product of a simple v1sual ... linutcd language lisl a itself vcry visual which always scciiis to need to juxtaposition labour to make its point. -I the capital rlictoric of or mobilisc Such assumptions, it had been observed, are the propitious fantasies of a section of the fantasies, I . Aiss. 11, the tell of ment 1)1-()CCSS ell Igh which is such [lot a process Of ruling 1tIOI1 I-CSLdtSIII MI ZILichenceattractive to the superior Ideological resources Of CI1IaI1CIj), lies forilis The thIS attraction Of III its very of critical the ruling class. ilLichence

' be dissidence balm. which may now exploited as plimilistic perception and

JiN,1979, Senuo-Art had provided the niStItUtIOIIal framework for a plethora of cultural analysts as chillingly consistent it, their alins and methods as the rationaliscd society to winch 'post-prodUCtIVISC towards artists many potential a steering Position. opposed, were the), Tagg's contribution to Three Perspectives represented something of a climax of Burgin's 'linguistic turn', a complete shift from the contingencies of practice towards the InallIpUlatiVe for his distaste discourse 'Theory', 'fine art photography' precipitating of and managerial history based the and practice Of COIICCptUally art in photography. crisis in something of a

Sense Pliotograpliv", Common BURGIN "Art, VICTOR and I

Cýznieraivork, No. 3,1975. .

STUART HALL, "Stuart Hall: Left in Sight", Canzerawork 29, Winter 1983/84, p 18. Hall's argu inent is remarkablv similar to Herbert Nlai-CLISCS critique of Berlin dada in Critique of Marxist Aestbetics, as does Fuchs] in 1980s: Fuller by -jRudi Peter the not understand the imaginative work of early 'adapted' lie the creates a transitional realitv, neither objective nor subjective, through which way in or the artist, I his I into a new and and conventional materials convincing whole. physical transforming ... form' deprives Marcuse, It 'is the wrotc abdication of responsibility. aesthetic art of 'Renunciation of , it hope'. form in " that the the can create other reality xvithin established one cosmos which of the very FULLER, "The Arts Council Collection", Art Monthly, Number 39, September 1980, p 16. ýCHARLES HARRISON, oxford, p 14 1.

"On 'A Portrait o/ V. I.

Essays on Art & Language, Basil IflackwL11,

' Stuart Hall's practical proposals are also subject to this critique: "The left has to look around and see It's date high language to capitalism speaks people to that in. consumer very Lip with a stress on the has to be professional. just look at the slickness of adverts designed to appeal The Left I j technology. ... Sight", Hall: Left line HALL, This had " "Stuart in p18. of enquiry consumer. mass already been to the little political effect. SeeChapter 14 Decline of the Englisb Avant Garcle. by to punk, pursued

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Radical Academicism

While taking accountof the determinations exertedby the meansof representation uponthat historiography him Tagg's led is to adopta modeof analysiswhich anti-art which represented, importance historical him to to photographs texts. This wasthe ascribe as political and caused logicalconclusionof conceptualist photography.Art wasnot to become'practicalwork in be by 'art' liberal left, On to the the was to be abandoned contrary, entirely serniotics'. by Marxism. the academic practice of structrualist predominately replaced In sucha climate,the emphasis quicklyshiftedfrom productionto questionsof consumption:

history; for further Tim Clark's seminal with art example there argument was a ... for him, focused Courbet. What I which, on a study of realism wanted to on work between debates is if there that, crucial connection a about realism and an suggestwas debates the significant on realism, on representations emergentsocial order, perhaps do in Perhaps the there are go on art criticism the of real, not alone. status claiming ' debate different levels take to and negotiation which might you very spaces... of other In 1979, Tagg's "different spaces"were remarkably similar to those explored by cultural for Centre Contemporary Paddy Whannel Cultural Hall Studies in the at and as such analysts Birmingham during the early 1970s. Towards the end of the decade,Tagg, like Hall, had left-Leavisite Althusser Antonio from toward the culturalism work of and an essentially moved Gramsci. Like Burgin, Tagg sought to bring thesetwo approachesinto critical dialogue with historicalcomplex often conflictual a and structuralism and post-structuralism, producing depoliticised imparted Tagg Burgin, As structuralism with an with critical practice. ' bringing his similar philosophical problems. Yet as indifference to the cultural value of object, his method becameanalytical, rather than evaluative,Tagg's contention that culture is as an lead form to practices a more stagnant of endgamethan was of signifying endlesscontinuum found in Burgin's practical work. The negation of artistry and evaluative 'art history' mainly development 'radical' critical practice of a peculiarly retrospectivenature, the of a encouraged drawing attention away from the critical potential of current, practical work. If Tagg was failing to make a successfulraid on the artworld, like A&L, he was being appointed as a researchfellow at the School of Academia, into fast inroads making Communication at the Central Polytechnicof London in 1977, and teaching at UCL, Goldsmiths, St. Martin's, LeedsUniversity, and UCLA. At the end of the 1970s, Middlesex Polytechnic - (incorporating the erstwhile bastion of British student radicalism, Hornsey Art School) - set up a number of coursesdesignedto intervenein the discoursesdominating the interpretation and validation of 'visual culture'. Following the cataclysmiceventsof recent ' JOHN TAGG, "Practising Theories: an Interview with JoanneLukitsh", Afterimage, vol. 15, no.6, January 1988, p6-10, reprinted in Grounds of Dispute: Art History, Cultural Politics and the Discursive Field, Macmillan, London, 1992, p78. 6SeeChapter 5 Pbotoconceptualism

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Radical Academicism

felt British in to examinevisual the a need was amongmanyradicalacademics artworld, years be found had broadly. Ways to to accommodate and analysevisualsubcultures culturemore high art. For participantsin theseacademic in the mannerthat critical theoryhadinvestigated due to a radical,post-Arnoldiananthropologicalconceptionof cultureas this manoeuvres, was life'. in however, For 1975-1980, 'whole the trends this subcultural participants of way of a find due following to to the to their of cultural commissars need new arenas police was entirely 'discovery'of the total culturalandethicalbankruptcyof high art. The hierarchyoperating from description Jon Bird's in is MAs 'Design History' Middlesex the clear of and within 'Visual Culture' beinglaunchedspecificallyasa meanof resisting"tendenciesto reproducethe descriptiveand historiographicalcategories of bourgeoisart history.,7In 1979,Art Historians logic "a BLOCK, Middlesex the cultural manifestationof of a newlyselfestablished at in initiative historicised the culturalrealm;and simultaneous allergic andpoliticised conscious, benevolent, history. Again, "' it in idealism this while would seem to the of art arises reaction by lived, living but by is it, from keep it it from to culture as not regulating up with a need part a distance. The idea that Middlesex was embarking upon a brave new path is questionable. As an building Middlesex institution, upon successes elsewhere,most notably at the was academic Birmingham CCCS. Yet, as a department of art history, Middlesex's most obvious predecessor had been Tim Clark's Art in Leeds, Fine department to the call at nexus of which of the was forms Art' in By 1980, Clarkian Social History 1975. in 'The its MA of of arms, establishing New Art History' seemedacademicallyestablished! The Association of Art Historians imaginatively titled journal Art History tapped into the discussionat this moment by adding The Oxford journal, in historiographical Art 1978, 'new' methods. established sectionson devoted increasing the began to articles circulation and of materialist number to an print also Clark's Confirmation in to the akin project. of a shift art nineteenth-century of reception launch history Open University's in BA 'Modern the the of came with art world of academic dominated by the new in 1983, Modernism' a coursewhich remainsentirely Art and " 80s. 1970s and methodologiesof the 7JON BIRD, "On Newness,Art and History: Reviewing BLOCK 1979-1985" in A. L. REES& F. 1986, My Press, Camden History, Art New The p33. emphasis. BORZELLO, 'BLOCK, "Introduction", The BLOCK Readerin Visual Culture, Routledge,London, 1996, pxi. My emphasis. ' "The 'new' art history differs from the old preciselyin that it seeksto restore to art history the missing dimension of lived social relations; the expression'new art history' therefore is another way of saying asocialhistory of art'. The social history of art is of coursenot new; what is new (or more correctly was history' become 'social is fifteen threat that the the the promise, or approach might ago) years ten or new, dominant one in university art departments." BURGIN, "Introduction: SomethingAbout Photography Theory", REES& BORZELLO, The New Art History, p4l. " For a critique of the OU coursein the history of modern art seeSIMON WATNEY, "Modernist Studies:The Classof '83'", Art History, Volume 7, Number 1, pl 02-110.

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Radical Acadcmicism

The protagonistsin theseprofessed coupd'6tatshavewritten muchaboutthis." Rather than addto the glut of self-aggrandisement surroundingthe 'triumph' of the New Art Histories,it might provemoreengagingto sketchout the internecinedogfightsof these intellectual manoeuvres: radical punitively Rather than a tidy description of one trend, the new art history is a capaciousand feminist, impact Marxist, structuralist, the title that sums up of convenient discipline ideas for its conservative and social-political on a notorious psychoanalytic " in in taste art and orthodoxy research. While the numerous debateswithin this academicrealm were posited on a highly complex, "fairly loosely formulated set of intentions and objectives",13" there was a senseof a ragged " Hence, line that of purpose". suggesting coherence without any single of consensualityand inquiry had pre-eminence,the fact that BLOCK demonstrates furthering for intention Berger John the contribution an of a asked from history Frederick Antal, Arnold Hauser, Max Raphael, Marxist art tradition of Meyer Shapiro, through to the publication in the mid-1970s of the work of T.J. Clark The German French Hadjinicolaou. Nicos theorists particularly as and work of and debates film through the on and cultural theory in Screen,was they were mediated important and BLOCK was dedicatedto recognisingand acclaiming work being done by contemporary political artists, an intention to which we remained impressively faithful, publishing examplesof relevant art work. " The first edition of BLOCK printed an "Editorial", emphasisingthe needto "address the dimensions ideological in the the and economic of arts societiespast and social, of problem by Atkinson Terry arguing about the relevanceof materialism to the article present"'and an "' illustrations Also included Tony Rickaby's, Fascades (1979) were of culture. visual analysisof from had been banned Arts Council's Lives the which exhibition the controversial paintings

"Open University Readerson Modern Art invariably reflect upon their own art historical methodology as difficult Conveniently, it forms discussion this to makes art. of modern separate such of their part of legitimacy as critical tools for sometime. For an from their thereby ensuring their object, analysis history feminist (at Leeds) is independent which art reasonably social and the of of rise of account Orton and GriseldaPollock's lengthy introduction to Avant-Garde Fred historical tasks, see secondary Manchester, 1996. University Press, Manchester Reviewed, Partisans and '2REES& BORZELLO, Tbe New Art History, p2. '3 BIRD, "On Newness,Art and History", p32. Seealso BRANDON TAYLOR, "The New Art History? ", Art Montbly, No. 100. "BLOCK, The BLOCK Readerin Visual Culture, pxiii. "Ibid., pxii. '6BLOCK, "Editorial", BLOCK, No. 1,1979, pl. `rERRY ATKINSON, "Materialism, By Jove!", BLOCK, No. 1,1979, p34-38.

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" that year. This muchwasintendedto signifyBLOCK's politicisedcommitmentto the present stateof the art. Jon Bird's "The Politicsof Representation"",printedthe following year, however,wasmoreobviouslyin tunewith the interestsof artistsandcritics inspiredby Screen " theory. As such,this markssomethingof a breaknot only with the Clarkiantradition of but history, Studio International,Cameraworkand Ten 8s explicitly art with social sociologicalconcerns. Among others, BLOCK provided a valuable forum for Burgin to presenthis challenge " Art in Historical Games. Much in line with post-structrualist and postthe the to contestants Althuserian photographic historians such as Tagg, he arguedthat the ' for history has the consequences no study of photography. ...the new art new art history being content simply to fill in the previously empty social spacearound the inherited 'masterpiece'with a glut of detail purporting to establishits 'determinations' in the (mainly economic)classrelations of which art in generalis seenas the more or less'mediated' expression.3 Although Burgin was certainly contributing to the then fashionablecritique of the Nude, he held contemporary criticisms to be insubstantial: "the unswerving positivism of the new art history rendersit incapableas was the idealism of the 'old' of examining the modesof discourses, its its objects putative within own and the positions (institutional, constitution of from discourses ) "" Of these etc. which sexual, are spoken. racial, course,materialist national, known for Clark Harrison historians (deliberately) their and such as were work on art historical (Courbet, Manet, Greenbergian Modernism). This, categories art established for bone Screen influenced contention of critics who thought that such interests a remained found in the writings of Barthesand Hall: the models culture anthropological of undermined However valuable and influential Clark's approach has been,two elementsmissing or his have been direction from BLOCK has to the work central taken over the excluded last two years [1983-1985]. The first concernsthe object of study. Whatever the displacementsthe social history of art has effectedupon traditional art-historical "TONY RICKABY, "Fascades",BLOCK, No. 1,1979, p48-49. SeeGOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson. "BLOCK, No. 2,1980, p4O-44. "Screenhad taken up a radical agendain the early 1970s,promoting ideasof the RussianFormalists, Brecht, the Frankfurt School and introducing sernioticsand Lacanian psychoanalysis.Most notably, Screenintroduced Althusser's structrualist Marxism to British cultural studies. " SeeBURGIN in TONY GODFREY, "Sex, Text, Politics: Interview with Victor Burgin", Block, No. 7, 1982, p2-26. ' BURGIN, "Introduction: SomethingAbout PhotographyTheory", p4l. "Ibid. p42. 'Ibid.

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Radical Academicism

discourse,for the mostpart the bodyof works looselyrepresenting the 'canon'has " in remained situ. The accusationhere was that social art history was merely a way of polishing up the tarnished but businesswith the hegemony institutions of art, perhapsnot ensuringnot business-as-usual, Hence, continued nonetheless. traditional canon a secondtheoretical input into artthe of historical discoursehad taken from the realist paradigm towards questioningthe epistemological away analysis forms, itself. In to this of representation relation specific cultural and values strategies intertextuality; is, that the traditional appealsto artistic their stresses approach intentionally, the determinantsof style, or the psychologizingof the artistic subject, diffuse boundaries by displaced the the upon play of meanings an emphasis across are biographies. Here influences individual the theoretical major specific and works of have come from film studiesand cultural analysis,particularly the application of discussion interplay the the of visual pleasure and of of concepts psychoanalytic " desire in text the the work of the reader. upon meaning and At the end of the 70s, educationalphotographerssuch as Spencehad also becomeparticularly 27 Spence,nonetheless,was dissatisfiedwith purely drawn to such post-culturalist critiCiSM. analytical approaches:

I'm interestedin strikingat the samekind of mythologiesasthe post-structuralists are but comingat it from a completelydifferentdirection. Sothe virgin, the bride,the Madonna,Hollywood,aretargetareasof mine,but ultimatelymy work is concerned " for do 'you this can unpicking yourself... with sayingto people Towards the end of the 1970s, shetook a number of stepstowards ensuringthat postdemocratic fused the practice satisfactorily with of community theory was culturalist BA Film and PhotographicArts degreeat the School 1979 In on a she enrolled photography. London Polytechnic,where, in addition to being taught by Burgin, Central Communication, of Spencewas able to attend Mary Kelly's lecturesin women's studies. This gave her a thorough her from 'Images Women'. talks to with own on which proceed of theoretical groundwork

23BIRD, "On Newness,Art and History", p33. Tom Gretton also disavowedart history any disciplinary by history he ideology " Instead "from the to articulated of visual material. which write adequacy have different histories image "other and more radical potentials", TOM GRETTON, may imagined "New Lamps for Old" in REES& BORZELLO, The New Art History, p63-74. Ibid., p37. SeeJO SPENCE,"What Did You Do in the War Murnmyh Classand Genderin Imagesof Women", in T. DENNET, D. EVANS, S. GOHL, AND J. SPENCE,(eds.), Pbotograpby / Politics: One, Photography Workshop, London, September1979. Spencehere adopts the techniquesof the CCCSto study the picture Post, a topic that by this stagewas becomingcanonical witbin the postculturalist milieu, being dealt with by critics such as Hall and Dick Hebdige. Is SPENCEquoted in JOHN ROBERTS,"Interview with jo Spence",SelectedErrors: Writings on Art London, p140. Press, Pluto 1981-90, Politics and

125

RALlital Acadcmmým

Also while at the CIT, Speiicc teamed up with Charlotte Ilembi-cy, janc Munro and Ann Kennedv to form tile Polysnappcrs (: ollccti'%, c.

The work involves what they tcrm filactic moniagc, employmg a variety of rept-csciitational devices to fallilly, l)CCoIjI(has 'the engage III ways In which live. III this work 'natural' to the way viewed as dolls, are used III PLICCOf I)COI)ICto L1VOijjIbc pr(d)/c/11";()I' cxploiling Pe(Th, I,,;'C'MI(T'l

I Fignirc8.1 Polysimpmrs(: ollck:tl\c Lamily, L.1171,15y. Pbotograpby). (1979)] . The use of duninues was once instance in the effort to reform radical photographic avoiding

practice,

the media's forms. To an extent, this ensured that the

the dangcrs of appropriating

Spence's work as a visual record of enlighminicia of understanding possibility

Nvasrulcd out M

favour of. ClICOUragingthe vieNN, crls cillancipatory actiOlls. In t979, Spence co-cdited HICIMILIgUral edition of the Photography Workshop's new I Politics/ journa Gallery

Pbotograpby.

ý`, follow

for being "too theoretical".

I ng her expulsion

fro in Camerawork

ý' From this point, Spencc's theoretical

from the theoretical shifted subtly away

reductionism

that had inflicted

by the I ia If M ooi I coninummits

photoconccptualism

slncc its mccption: Usually the woman's 'symbolic lack' (of the phallus) and exclusion from tile have been I but I; I the stressed much of current in work on women order patriarchal like her like "woman to the ask concept of as sign' if also would can illuminate would In I broaden 'synibolic to the capitalism? the order' of other words want in place decoding unages of woman to take into account not just the symbolic of question labour but lack, the also exploitation wornan's power under capitalism. of sexual Spence was not regressing to a 'vulgar materialism' but to a particularising insistence that depending but differ markedly on the context in which they are are not universal "" (class) type aULlICIICC. the of used, and

" LIZ WELLS, "The Words Say More than the Pictures: jo Spence's Work Reviewed", Cameraivork, 32, Summer 198-5, p26. DENNET, EVANS, GOHL, and SPENCE, (eds.), Photography / Politics: One, 1979. DENNET, EVANS, GOHL, and SPENCE, "A Statement from the Photography Workshop", Pbotography / Politics: One, p1l. Spence wrote only one essay for Canierawork. SPENCE, "WhJt Did YOU Do in the War Munimy? " p30, Ibid.

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Radical Acadcmicism

This quest for a particularising form of practice found expressionin Spence'smajor Family Album Beyond (1978-9): "Who pictures whom in family photography? the solo project Why do people not photograph family arguments,illness, failure, evenjust work? Theseare has Spence her "' Jo in family " to that, all, asked, the attempt above model questions album... demythologise find (long before we attempt to to ourselves ways must we .. demythologiseothers) so that we can begin to formulate different questionsabout our form This [ ] identity 'amateurism'; what take the type of a would radicalised of own ... Kodak to total the questioning a and overthrow amount of regime which would dominatesworld markets, and fills our memorieswith visual banalities." Spence'sreworked Family Album revealedthe relationship betweenthe poses,images,and identities promoted by the 'Kodak regime', the massmedia and those we believewe discoverin did by However, they the not always explicitly question concept of authenticity our snapshots. lines between drama kind in the the posedand the authentic, the clean which of playing out a deconstructed, for ideologically the culture and self are opting a subject, more and object ambiguous autobiographical approach. It was during this period that Spencebeganto developthe form of practice that shewould later in image is 'photo-therapy', the photographic which usedto explore personal work term history and conflicts." For Spence,photo-therapy allowed her to tackle complex and radical ideas about women, the body, class,health and illness, drawing on her own experienceincluding that of breastcancer- following her strong conviction of the inseparability of the personal and the political: I have examinedmyself as a systemof signification which can be recorded. This ... information. had This 'me' the the subject of the as well as mediator work makes deconstruct 'image', to to my own and then to start the work of start me enabled "' theories of visual representation. reconstruction within a wider understandingof Spence'swork now centred more firmly on 'herselPas a sourceof explorations, a fact " her In part, this obscuredthat fact that the by critics. the of majority celebrated 3' TAGG, "Practising Theories", p90-91. 35SPENCE,"What is a Political Photograph", Camerawork 29, Winter 1983/84, p28. ' Phototherapy, developedwith Rosy Martin, draws upon co-counsellingconventions, yet flouted those known The by is The Picture the example public. most well work of such work making of conventions Health (1982-1991), Spence'smajor collaboration with Maggie Murray of Format Photographersand Yana Stajo. ' SPENCE,"What Did You Do in the War Mummy? ", p30. m "Spence'sphotography dealswith the question of control at a number of levels. It is concernedwith formulating language body female difference. It is to the a visual and of represent control reclaiming how health individual the can retain power when categorisedas care and the of politics also about

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Radical Academicism

be There to transferable a was supposed skill. are now numerous phototherapy programme is whose work equally valid (but not as economically valuable) practitioners of phototherapy for Spence, focus ber The Spence's. that tended to perhaps, was most critics problem on as her her it though than reading practice on programme, as were a traditional rather work bourgeois gallery art. Hence, for Liz Wells, Spence'sexploration of the politics of health care far her into the personal."" In Property ofJo Spence, "the too work emphasisof tipped her breast her by Terry Dennet, "proclamation the of as property speaks photographed frequently fears too an operation mastectomy, performed all of as a result of strongly of decisionstaken by doctors whist the patient herselfis under anaesthetic. Spencetook this hospital is Family into Album the to remind of group, part particular photograph, which herself that she 'had the right to refusetheir treatment'.""' As Wells suggests,Property ofJo Spencepresentsus with the presenceof the body, asking us to reject the idea that patients are did However, it is important Spence to that stress not non-stories. voiceless,presenceless did it imply if to the the prior she not as existed photograph; to subject, represent simply seek by discourse. located Rather, 'self-photographer', the subject of created she was that she, as a her photographs in relation to discoursesof identity and truth. For that reason,shedid not be truer than the to of self any experientially other representations autobiography understand by forms less identity that than of produced other constructed any or to offer an between forms different Spence Although tensions of representation, retained representation. be less her deconstruction image', 'own to the a of appeared results to a number of viewers breast her battle document This against cancer. of was a problem than an autobiographical by by Spence's directly to radical photographic avoiding the reform practice measures raised dangersof appropriating the media's forms. Frank depictions of her mutilated body her (her the to of unsuccessful photography with subject-matter merge viewers encouraged from body both her her to cancer and medics), work understand of control to reclaim attempt designed in Burginian to the text enlist spectator than a writerly a as rather emphatically her Although discovery. to this analytical approach counter runs of - which was process directed against the notion of the artist as bearerof culture - it remains clear that to identify or her be "right 'her' Spence's to to to negate would refuse", see only as photography mergewith information. To "" "the the the subject as of continue to as well mediator subject, as opposed by however, Wells, is images Spence's equally problematic. as espoused analytically to treat is Spence's And identity taking about work control above all, of and of passivepatient or victim. drawing attention to the complexity and fractured nature of our senseof self." LYNDA NEAD, Missing Jackson Wilson Galleries, Limited, Leeds,1991, pl. City Art Leeds Lives, PersonslDamaged 39LIZ WELLS, "The Words SayMore than the Pictures:jo Spence'sWork Reviewed", Camera Work, 32, Summer1985, p27.

" lbid 41SPENCE,"What Did You Do in the War Mummy", p30.

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RadicalAcademicism

Adopting an anti-authorial mode of analysis,viewersmight view chooseto counterpoisethe female body Nude. Spence's the the to presumed sensuousness of conventional of encoding The problem with this mode of cognition is that it forces us to embraceas granted a half dichotomy dichotomy. By its Spence the confronting one of with opposite, pure/impure body, but does fixed dualistic 'feminine' the the the of category so within contestsclosure on Western metaphysics. of tradition An equally concertedattempt to re-negotiatethe critical bind of radical academicism from his departure Terry Atkinson. After A&L in 1974 by member over a ex-A&L was made dispute concerningIndex, he produced a seriesof photo-text piecesentitled The Bridging " historical images Index. Given that These Works. with satirical renditions of the combined -by 1973 the conceptualistphotograph could be, as was becoming,integrated into the harsh, images in Atkinson took a up painting non-aestheticised consequently regime"" detachedmanner. Atkinson receiveda modicum of critical acclaim for the way in which his between different his joins tactile, the the the of paintings surfaces visible corrections rendered blocks remaining clearly visible, thereby revealingthat painting is more than a transformation forms through to the 'reality', exclusively such of representation. world runs that our access of However, as Tagg pointed out, such deconstructivestrategieswere by no meanssignificant " If Atkinson was merely de-aestheticisation in painting. of post-war the manoeuvres failed he in 1970s), decorum, (if the thing such a still existed attempting to transgresspainterly has his from Yet Atkinson fonnally his differentiate that of peers. as practice to sufficiently his importance himself, the works of painted and physicality the of manufacture suggested be over-estimated: should not Art as negation, the negatingof establishedart moves,of which Minimalism was a for founded has the cultural administration. attraction now a well strong example, The culture industry has strong gravitation pull upon the negating,outer orbits, imploding them time and time again into the rebus of its central administration. This happensinevitably where the distinction betweenproduction and reproduction becomesblurred. [ ...I Adorno's nightmare of tyranny of method over material, which if in usinga photo-based 4' "Whilst I did feelsomeunease practicesince,in the end,the controversies, had been taken the text the over some such as pictorial, not the of is prioritising of they were, what that involvedsome to methe side-step necessarily lightly in A&L duringthe years1966-1974,it still seemed historically incongruous it incongruity historical practice turned photo-based was not out as risk of look for Hence in it the turn to by 1974 starting practices too respectable. conceptually was enough, be despicable death, intellectually ideological to and such Western consider would avant-guardism which The figure hence late Bridging Works, in 1974 Realism, to try to Socialist after out starting Soviet and as ATKINSON in JOHN ROBERTS TERRY "Using " I War World ed., works. the the makingof Pbotograpby Conceptual Art Britain 1966Document: in Impossible The 1974", and Photographs circa London,1997,p73-4. 1976,Camerawords, "' Ibid., p77. 41" heseemstemptedby facileeffectssothat his indecisionleavesus uncertainhow or to what we ... Robert Self Drawing, Gallery, History London", Atkinson: Art "Terry TAGG, " shouldattend. Monthly, Number4, February1977,p20.

129

A (I IL . 11 AC3 dL' TIIIL IS III

like and pci-haps overlaps, (, lark's "had dream of 111odernism" (T. J. is something Clark, Reconstructing ModerniSm, Boston 1990) ....... What was and remains of interest is the way III which Atkinson's works engaged with dicii debates, and tile way In which lie provided some groundwork (albeit against his owil current forthe ) I )S'()s serious critical reccptilm (d ý()Illc pcrforlllIllcc-Imwd Imilitilig of Ihc 1111d -,vishc,., (e. g. the paintings Canipbcll). instrunicntal

of Steven

Atkinson

was

aniongst erstwhile

British C011CCPtUalartists in between the the gap closing

critical possibilities of painting and photography in the wake of the debates around representation, thereby reinvigorating second"' order approaches to practice.

I Figua! 8.2 Icrry Atkinson Ideologically Battered Postcard Irmn Trotský in Coý-()aan i(, si, ilin in Moscow. dated 1938

...

( 198)L 82) j

For Atkinson, the fact that painting rcquired a greater degree of manipulation than text or fornis of practice, served only to cniphasise thesc issues. As John Roberts based photographic has pointed out, Atkinson "sees his work as being linked inextricably to an historically his The being both own agency as an artist. view of complex issue of producers accountable bearers as well as producers of cultural values is central to this. "'an cra before the arrival of the digital paint box would bring back the 'hand-madc' back into the critical agenda, this was premonitory.

On a formal level, then, Atkinson's

important into i an yet almost entirely neglected rc-introduced component the imageI paintings be by framing, the that itself may image manipulated, than in ways other its its text work, 1)), being by This have 'discovery' text. accompanied a written or in itself would context, however, Atkinson, the narcissistic nature of sernio-art. continued ensured that these merely formal concerns were allied to his concern with the ways in which human experience is

" ATKINSON, "Mutes", Terry Atkinson: Mute 3 (Works After 1987), VcstsiFlIands Kustinuseurn, Sort; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1989, p29. ' "T. J. Clark's historical project on nineteenth-century French painting is the most obvious and major COUrbet in the early I 970s is an attempt to draw painting back into His this. on to work contribution a be bistorically linked to to the claims of art's second-ordcr critical took painting perspective which History: The History Painting of Terry Atkinson", Postmodernism, Politics ROBERTS, "Imaging " status. Press, March 1990, p 127. Manchester University Art, of and

4Ibtd.

1.1o

Radical Academicism

threatenedor governedby the uncontrolleddevelopment of technologyand the media,and by the increasinglyrigid divisionof knowledgeandrolesagainsta backgroundof political crisis depression: economic and betweena disinterestedand contemplative model of learning through art in the split ... late modernism and a conventionalisedpolitical one in social realism, and the critique in 1960s 1970s itself the and continually undermined what painting was of painting best at: history. Or rather, it underminedthe understandingthat certain pictures " historical knowledge discursively. in to might stand a position generate In recognition of this, Atkinson's paintings displayeda resistanceof their subject matter to an inner ordering, postulating the absenceof a foundation for composition, or what has been 'awkward Atkinson's inappropriately packaged as authenticity'. activity subsequently form it 'acting': that through a of recognition was was registered Terry Actor - suggestingthe artist as an agent of (somekind of) action, no matter how historically puny when placed in relation to such an event as Hiroshima. Also perhaps decorative figure do theatrical to the as a and unable very much about artist suggesting but highly themselves visible on the ideological stageof those the relations of power for figure in West, The the a vanity example,exhibits using of the artist as a relations. " kind of cipher of the allegedvirtue of self-expression. In addition, there was a Brechtian form of recognition that literalist attempts to 'rectify' ideology, failed to produce the required 'alienation effect', sinceto "critically think and interrogate the notions of critical thinking and interrogative procedure", cannot be simply "this would underminethe structural and a priori assumptionswhich are critical as achieved had Profitable "'O 'intervention' interrogative political and cultural procedure. thinking and form be a of theatre, a play within a play, while simultaneouslyof consideredas therefore to tremendoussignificance. just as A&L had reactedagainstSernio-Art in 1976, so Atkinson usedpainting to discourse 'absurd' deliberately to the the managerial riposte of academic practical a propose feminist inspired Marxist, poststructuralist that and approacheswere quickly given artworld, becomingrespectable. Painting bad to be the chosenmedium for Atkinson's project precisely becauseit was so unfashionablewith the critical cognoscenti. By painting, he believedhe could historians. This decision be tactical the to art the of new proved glare operate outwith financial foundations being laid for fortuitous the then that and critical were given particularly The New Spirit in Painting, to increasinglyhysterical howls of derision from critical

'ibid. p126"' ATKINSON, "Mutes", p30. 'Ibid. p29.

131

Radical Academicism

" however, Atkinson's At time, the same paintings constituted a stylistic postmodernists. being by A&L. work produced produced artists such as the of mechanically to sort reaction Atkinson, however, did not paint with 'vigorous imagination'; indeed his paintings were almost blunt look lyricism, in Bad Painting devoid that crude executed and manner made of entirely

virtuoso. Despite the apparent visual similarities, Atkinson's practice was promoted by himself he kinds by by that to the was resolutely opposed of neo-expressionist and others emphasising boom from Europe States in the the to the and run up art of the early mainland work emerging 80s: The strong moral streak persistsamong British artists, preventing a wholehearted flight into fantasy - so the imaginative excessesof New Image have not flowered here. [ ] survival as a marginalizedgroup - is too insistent to allow the 'suspensionof ... disbelief' necessaryto embracethe state of graceconjured up the New Image rag-bag Cucchi, Clemente, Fetting, Paladino Chia, et at offer a of referenceand symbols. by his free "man", at spirit one with wild nature, governed a vision of universalised " fears and animalism. passions, On a formal level, Atkinson's paintings certainly differed radically from the provocatively frivolous paintings of the Italian Trans-Avantgardiasincethey were determinably neglectedin fetishistic d'art. There a was as object undesirable them completely almost made which way a knowing dilettantism in the treatment of the image,the ways in which the quality and finish of from differed how difficult Atkinson however, it In to see was the paint was suppressed. this, Schnabel Schnabel Anselm Kiefer. Kiefer Both Julian or and neo-expressionistpainters such as by fame including incongruous,perishableand unalluring degree had achieveda significant of fashion in impecunious in painting as as possible. while a tableaux style paintings, their objects his in to oil paint the texture and Schnabeleventook to painting on velvet order give appearanceof excrement. To what extent, it should be asked,did Atkinson's paintings differ from the simplistic ineffectively, Atkinson By to ridicule what sought painting postmodernists? critical of reaction Bad Painting be the and allegedly spontaneous the of to machismo they perceived be bearing Used in to theories painting. of what would soon expressionist of unconventionality banal false in As involved Image, New the the this and of claims. many most was the termed have freely New New Image the phenomenon would admitted, of production and promotion Image painting was deliberately and emphatically inauthentic; it was, after all, NeoExpressionist. Moreover, not only was Atkinson's 'critique' aimed at a non-existent straw keeping late His in its target. it anti-expressionism was entirely with of man, was thirty years had dominated late Modernist the art which practices since the traditions of post-expressionist "See Chapter 10 Nude Review and Chapter 12 Scbooling London. 5'SARAH KENT, "Critical Images", FlashArt International, March 1985, p24.

132

Radical Academicism

1950s (Neo-Dada, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualismetc.) If anything, Atkinson should have beencritical of this critical orthodoxy, which loved to continually debunk the artist as 'genius'. What failed to be addressedwas the fact that competentcritical judgeswere seenas geniuses themselves: The history of modern art shows,accordingto Becker,that the purely logical implications of the institutional theory had to be abandonedin order to blunt the developed Dadaism. The that while a snow of argument was relativistic consequences be it is just eminent can art objects a matter of managing the social a urinal or shovel have be first it in is to to the this a genius see you place; essentially correctly context Danto's view of Warhol's supposedlycolossalphilosophical achievement. Art practice death invent to talent to a special art seems require new games,new the of after laced insight the context, social perhaps with some of or wit. Post-art manipulations Warhol, Johns, Koons, Duchamp, Beuys, Richter et alia - turn cultural practitioners " be pretty specialpeople after all. out to Atkinson's paintings, nonetheless,could be read as mediating on this very problematic, this being that "the absenceof someintention for art, the once avant-gardist idea that 'If someone leaves Dictum') it Judd's "" In ('Don it's Art, it the world very much as was. opposition art calls his historical into implications Atkinson the work events, called political of which to this game, have borne a significant impact upon our perceptionsabout the world: the First World War, Trotsky, Second World War, in Vietnam, North Stalinism, Revolution, the Russian the war the Ireland, nuclear warfare and the domesticsurround. Atkinson attempted to deconstructthe has been by historical it the the the event as of reported media and picture conventional (anti)establishment. academic While representinga concertedeffort to reflect upon the complex interrelations betweenpower and knowledge operating independentlyof individual artists, suggestionsin the by CIA the alone ensuredthe successof Abstract 1970s that a reactionary conspiracy Abstract for Expressionism ends were vastly oversimplistic. propagandist Expressionism purely force Socialist Realism did "Socialist Realism be to the opposite since as not seen cannot simply doctrine [ I and never really constituted an exceptionlessor ] unvarying [ constitute a single ... ... history is Atkinson juggled Western In "" that negotiable, such recognition monolithic style. By definitions Soviet presentingmutually incompatible about socialism. European and

%kN HEYWOOD, "Art's World and the SocialWorld", Social Theoriesof Art: A Critique, MacMillan Press,1997, p2l. ' HARRISON, "On 'A Portrait of V. L Lenin in the Style ofjackson Pollock, ", Essayson Art Language,Basil Blackwell, Oxford, p139. 11MATTHEW CULLERNE BOWN and BRANDON TAYLOR, "Introduction", Art of the Soviets: State, One Party 1917-1992, in Manchester University Architecture Press, Sculpture a and painting, Western in 70s Following the of art the revision and early 80s, and glasnost in postmodernist 1993, p10. Totalitarian Art (1990) and Christine Lindey's Art in the Goomstock's Igor books as such the mid-1980s, Soviet (1991) the War art of the post-1920s. the critical embargo on Cold ended

133

Radical Acadcmicism

be decentering hoped Atkinson that to view would neither able predominate, assertions, by placingit in a permanentstateof unrest/collusion WesternInstitutionalistavant-gardism Atkinson In Soviet this, totalitarian art. was closeto the punk appropriation of the with bringing intellectual The its together of two vanguardist exhaustive game. swastika as part of ideologically incoherent world-views central to Atkinson's paintings provided the way in which A&L would later enter the areaof the pictorial and introduce a discursiveform of politics and history into their work, aiding the Hegelian argument that the creation of such contradiction heterogeneous dialectics In fundamental to the cultural of practices. a way, then, was Atkinson's history paintings of the 1970s,were inconspicuouslysymptomatic critiques of the Feminist Art Historians, in and of post-Althuserian who, posturing unrecognisedsociological dominance become hegemonic and subordination, could of easily relations their obsessionwith forms of cultural exclusion. the unwitting producers of similar

134

The NcNv I lumanisti,

I lic.,

Art

CHAPTER 9 The New Humanistic Theories of Art The ncw critic's relationship to the public is not unlike that of the anthropologist to a 'I'licir be the bclief that the public, as tribe. only justifiable motivation 11111st primitive folk has a valld ai-t which it creates and sustmis but which is a v.illd subculturc, beneath the morc sophisticated art strata that, with submerged and undervalLICd has dominate backing, tended to the Intelligentsia of the day. official to maintain that people arc only capable to ciijoying escapist ladles insulting is as it ... faces by to them as it is purple ignore painting monochrome abstractions with exotic 2 few for the who appreciate such nibrcd cxcrcIscs. There is a tremendous hunger among the general public to find out about art. So, Royal Acadcrny to the they go or the Tate Callery because they quite Innocently, be III 'niust Tate Gallery, mixed ill) with the there the the that work good'. aSSLI111C beautIftil Rodin statues, they see bits of bent wire and tin calls dangling all over the bewildered. If Tate be fact III totally the out it is in come must and it good. place it is bCCaLISC Arts buy Tate Council the trustees the the and it with taxpayer's in only 3 have little to say in the nlatter. precious money and it is in there, and the public People have turned Lip here, oil the whole because they know that a lot is wrong with deal be done before has kind to that a great needs it any and of organic modern art 4 relationship with the majority of the poptilation of this COLIntry. this talk about 'inoth-caten modcrnism', file Inadequacy Of the Tate's purchasing all ... has been frequently desirability the of populism, ctc., ctc., voiced within Your policies, [Art Montbl), l columns before. It came however, not from the 'New Right', front tile from but Far Left front Thatcherdorn, Andrew the and especially, Of Course, orbit of Brighton. A pcculiar 'consensus' appears to he emerging: oil tile basis of. johnson's Norman St john-Stevas devise Brighton could to as if casily employ scerns it article, for him, he his his to policies while attended many other govcriiillcllt arts and run duties. I I Who is letting the side down and how. Or is it just that Andrew Brighton ... does Could the sonic sort of post in new government? want someone explain really what is going oll? -5

I DAVID SWEET, "Artists v The Rest: Tile New Philistines", Artscribe 11, April 1978, p38. "... bv 1969 found American himself David Sweet, New in tile paradoxical posi tion of in British the manner, painter a defending abstract works that would have been considered outrageous or incomprehensible in 1950 for had moved into rnimmalisin and conceptual art. " ROBERT 'conservatism' tile radicals who against their HEWISON, "Tile Arts in Hard Times", Too Mucb: Art and Society in the Sixties 1960-75, Methuen, London, 1986, p235. 2RICHARD

CORK, "Art For Whom?, Art For Wbom?, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1978, p 10.

3DAVID SHEPHERD, "The"Fatc Gallery" in ANDREW BRIGHTON AND LYNDA, Towards Another by Artists Working in Britain 1945-1977. Midland Group Nottingham, Artist's Antbology Picture: an o/ 1977, p76. 4CORK, "The State of British Art, Session4: Why Not POPLIlar", Studio International, 5C. SILVESTER RICHARSON,

1978, p] 17.

"Correspondence: Who's for Populism", Art Montbly, No. 28,1979,

p29-30-

135

The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

Despite efforts by community photographersand feminists to encourageartists to reject the institutionalised artworld, the major battles over British art at the end of the 1970s continued by Arts Council. Until in 1980, Cork be to the the official art supported relation to conducted both in to conventional critical stance relation continued to support artists who maintained a like however, To Cork, to the taste system as a critics capitalist whole. and notions of popular Social Art was an experiment (in hypocrisy). If the work failed to gain public support, it been Unfortunately, by having its kudos this quickly oppositional. made stance would retain from The different that the maligned conceptualist avant-garde. of much ostensibly no larger knee-jerk to reaction political and economic oppositional aestheticwas somethingof a forces which were threatening the end the privileged status of producers and critics of high art, high 'politically artists and their supporters. progressive' especially Fearsof a monetarist privatisation (asopposedto deregulation) of the artworld were for Support Arts Redcliffe-Maud in 1976 the the report, when as early substantiated as England and Wales, encouragedlocal authorities to make further provision for the arts: The report was an important step in introducing the principle of 'matching funds', dependent for the made on raising equivalent sums arts was whereby central support from others sourcessuch as local governmentor businesssponsorship. Private for Business Association increasingly the co-oordinated with patronagewas founded ABSA in 1976. for Arts, estimatedthat such support grew the sponsorship from f600, OOOin 1976 to L4 million in 1979 - and E25 million by 1986. But support for thesedevelopmentswas not unqualified. Someanticipated the trend towards more by bodies ABSA, interpreted in the while others supported conservativeprogramming becoming less funds' demonstrating 'matching that the were a arts as the principle of 6 had been in for 1960s. the case the important priority central governmentthan In the emergingmercenaryclimate, modestcommunity-basedpracticeswould not attract businesses big hand, On the neededspectacularexhibitions of one corporate sponsorship. hand, in identities. On the their to corporate other order to associate blue-chip art with which become This ABSA for to to the art popular. meant pandering needed money, value ensure idea introducing to their the of 'high culture'. masses 'the people's taste' while At this point, populist crisis criticism of the existing Statearts institutions beganto by forged Cork. At 1977, different the that to clarification of a shift end of path rather a take form in business-friendly to the of safe-option appeared emerge towards what seemeda Andrew Brighton and Lynda Morris' relativist exhibition Towards Another Picture, for had January 1978). idea 26th Brighton 1977 December 10th Castle the got (Nottingham facets different his from the of the artworld: as a student at varied experienceof the exhibition in a popular print shop, and as a Schools, Academy Royal an sales assistant as the conservative he investigated divisions between high Art (where College Royal the the of researchstudent at distinctions, hung blurring As these the low 'fine exhibition was a meansof art'). and human landscape, devoted (pastoral, to various activities war, thematically with sections 6BART MOORE-GILBERT, "Cultural Closure or Post-Avantgardism", The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

hung industrial), several groupings of abstract and paintings according to subject and sporting matter. Notable inclusions in the exhibition were the works of academicand populist painters depicted Lord Cuneo Mayors Terence David Shepherd, trains, who and steam and as who such 7 African To in ignore trains and especially wildlife elephants. steam such popular specialised distort history by Morris Western Brighton to the of proposed, was and art excluding prints, be held fine Britons to the of precious examples vast majority of art. In this, works which Brighton and Morris were far from reactionary. While the 'social functionalism' promoted by Cork was particularly amenableto the favoured by Arts Council, Brighton Morris' the procedures and committee and control by it the artworld's managerial sectors who saw resisted as a threat to vigorously was selection Greenberg, Adorno, Benjamin, Gasset their they staked reputations. which upon the premises kitsch favoured between distinctions had that and avant-garde and promoted the proposed etc. former. What physical factors sustainedsuch distinctions? What would happen if avant-garde Could by identify important its forms kitsch the same viewers environment? art shared art and from forced form Torn Was their to share usual context, radical? morphological properties? looked What If the to them? the was visitor make of uneasy. exhibits all the sameroom, Andre made a last ditch attempt at re-defining the production of 'avant-garde' art discredited divisions, Morris in Brighton by theatre the and class nourishing economically, leaving it divisions to to their take visitors produce own up place, might such which Towards Another Picture In this what and art status on when. can confer of who explanations is demonstrated the product of contradictory and contestory that culture successfully ideologies,leaving the problems as unresolvedas they are in practice. 'Crisis Critics', this was a phraseof PeterFuller's we went along with. For my part, it been Having by time. that taught to of seeing at old academicians, way my never sang John Latham Caro's Greenbergianism and encountered as neo-romantics, middle-aged However, to of art, uncertainty seemed the school uses endemic art. out-of-art well as in retrospect Fuller's phrasedid have somevalidity. The presuppositionsof older degree by in induced the rise of some of crisis were artists and cultural mandarins Our [State Marxism, Britisb Art]tried Feminism, etc. conference of conceptualismand The I in Towards Anotber that was one advocated these strategy areas. to touch on all picture. Lay out the conflicting arguments,show the conflict and thus promote crises, foundations the of the professional orthodoxy propagate uncertainty and undermine looking Tate Maybe Council Peter Arts in the gallery, etc. and was then enshrined the 8 loved I just into Bergerian for a new way out of crises the mess. aesthetics,

Closure?,Routledge,London, 1994, p14. 7-My training was to follow the tradition of the past, when pupils were apprenticedto the great masters. hard learning best. is " SHEPHERD, the the the through way, which always then mill, The students went "My apprenticeshipand art schools", Towards Anotber Picture: An antbology of writings by artists by Andrew Brigbton and Lynda Morris, Midland Group Nottingham, 1945-77 Britain in edited working 1977, p58Email from BRIGHTON, @TateGallery, Friday 20th February 1998.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

The exhibitionwasalsoimportantin that it openedup this 'mess',the unwritten historiesof distinctions hierarchies important be For to there not and observedwitbin example,were art. had Cuneo trainedasan illustrator,and in the 1950swasfamousfor the popularprint world? his illustrationsof trainsin Boy'scomics.During this periodhealsopaintedofficial Royal propaganda-on-canvas of public or stateevents.By portraits and numerouscommemorative the 1970s,however,his originalworksweremainlycollectedby toy train enthusiasts, although formats in independent through poster printed and sold companies popular remained following his death. In contrast,ex-Stoweboy Shepherddid not cometo popularpaintingby by framed for but London Galleries illustration sale producing paintings at small and way of Gardens Embankment in 1950s. Victoria Following Show Air Open the the early at the he Student Robin Goodwin, hard by Slade, "learning trained the the under ex-Slade rejection best. "9 is the always way, which be fortunate is just because to creative,whetherin architecture, enough someone for laziness harder is the there excuse no you work the music,paintingor writing, 10 fasteryou will getto the top. Supported by his father (sic), Shepherdwas able to avoid designingposters for advertising his by depicting London Airport, Service Nigbt, Following a stint painting aircraft at agencies. by into British Rail. Aberdeen Cross Kings an advertising poster to sleeper, was made the Significantly, Shepherdbegun his train paintings at the end of the steamage: "... it is the older locomotives, aeroplanes,and shipswhich excite me. They have so much more character than And functional " they the evoke qualities of and counterparts. romance nostalgia. their more Shepherd'sromanticism causedhim to take liberties with fact; inaccuraciesemergedwith from for Kings Cross! It is the to this reason train emerge milk-yard at seemed signalling, one it Shepherd's inauthentically sought work; was never nostalgic rather train enthusiasts that toy for "For is the train the part of regret paintings evoke an than authentically retrograde. invented past when the British working classwas an industrious set of craftsmen taking pride in their work uncorrupted by the boredom of dieselenginesand trade union militancy. I 12 best Indeed, it " Shepherd's paintings. was precisely thesequalities that these are suspect for to their appropriate such who wanted an the class public aura to working appealed

9 SHEPHERD, "Art Training and London Adventures", The Man Who Loves Giants, David & Charles, London, 1975, p22. 10 Ibid. p23. 11 Ibid. p79. 12 BRIGHTON, "Books: The New Humanism and The Man Who Loves Giants", Studio International, July/August 1976, PerformanceIssue,p94.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

fireplace walls. 13 The elephantpainting, Lords of the jungle was published en massein 1963, followed by Wise Old Elephant, Winter and Plough Elephantsat Amboseli, all achievingvast Chemist. Boots the through sales

I wantedand neededto becomeknownto a wide public andwhenthe prints reached the 'top ten', asdid thosementioned,this meanta verywide public indeed. The prints be branch in in their thousands and can seen every of Bootsand other arerun off business for is in Anyone doing is it on a the who art purely money, and stores. chain fortune for long basis, One time. a and unashamedly can make retire a can royalty think of a numberof caseswherean artist hasthusruinedhis reputationso muchthat his work is no longerwanted. But this wasforeignto my way of thinking. First, I for long lived. be being I And I to after sought as as was not paid on my work wanted light least began I basis to two of my pictures the see red when at anyway. a royalty for I judged the top a particular year. evenoustedpoor old of all prints were Constablewith his 'Haywain'and Canalettowith his famouspicturesof Venice- all hardy perennials-14 Thus, in order to ensurehis status as a 'fine artist', Shepherd'spaintings were no longer sold as 15 is but "So 'paint-effect' 'posters' prints on canvas. anti-democratic profoundly as mere 16 Limited British culture that evenour popular painters are not populists. editions of 850 17 Almost for 4100 around each. every edition was signed and numberedprints were available bought out before being published. Of course,Shepherdcould have becomeone of the world's for his by the vast market elephant paintings, and embracing wealthiest artists simply distribution his by it company. own setting up ruthlessly exploiting it was tempting. I had children at expensiveschools. But at this stage of my life, for knew I if I that to months my originals, wait many willing when clients were be in I further the to churned out unlimited numbers, whatever quality, work allowed for demand damage If I Boots the my original paintings. stayed at quickly very would financial killing, but few I Chemists, and considerable make a quick after a might the be This being idea was not of probably worthless. a my would years,my work

13WitnessShepherd'sLords of the jungle reproduction on Derrick Trotter's living room in early seriesof Horses. Fools Only BBC's and the 14 SHEPHERD, The Man Who Loves Giants, p73. 1SAnother attraction was the mimetic quality of Shepherd'sart, the fact that it 'looked like a Shepherdwas a poorer illustrator than Cuneo, being more prone to Technically ' speaking, photograph. be illustration that which requires scale constantly considered. of engineering reject the rigid conventions have from deviate to may marked out his pictures as more expressive, convention Shepherd'swillingness found doing he difficult handle but it in 'art-like', to often so, simple matters of painterly, more depth did deter from handling illusion Poor the of pictorial not of people purchasing perspecti e* flaws because his in Jýs the they to see were unable Shepherds work, not perhaps work, but becausethey in interested the subjectmatter. mainly were 16 BRIGHTON, "Books: The New Humanism and The Man Who Loves Giants", p95. 17This was the issueprice in 1973.

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The New HL1111.11111tI. I worics of Art

18 dcal professional artist - art meant a great more than money. This 'gamble' paid off financially. Since the early I 970s, every Shepherd exhibition has sold drawn by ballot. For Shepherd, the night, many paintings opening arc even out in diversification in subject matter did not occur solely oil commercial grounds. 19 The elephant pictures were produced, since like the steam train, they were giants ill threat of extinction. That this 'thematic' concerti marked Shepherd out as all 'artist' was, again, much to his benefit. He was frequently in demand from television companies as a media friendly artist, a personality who could speak about popular subjects such as trains and wildlife ill relation to his art. This was not the result of unrestrained Warhollan business acumen, Shepherd was a 'sincere' business artist who used his position to raise substantial funds for the World Wildlife Fund. In 1973,850 copies of his Tiger Fire, sold at ý 150 each, raised L127,500 for the WWF',,i'()peratl()ti'Figer'. ligure 9.1 David Shepherd Tiýý(r Fire, Oil on Canvas. Rcproduccd as . an cdition of 850 prints in 1973, Shepherd also spent much of his forturic restoring and running his belovcd old steam trains. In 1967 he purchased a British Rall Standard Class 4 sicain train for ý2,800 and a 9F for L3,000, the proceeds from an exhibition held Shepherd's New York. in junc 1975, East Since paintings in opening of clephant Somerset Radway20 (running from Cranniorc to Ilfracombe) has, in turn, raised hundreds of for thousailLISof I)OHIII-IS the World Wildlife Fund. Despite the idcological contradiction bctween environmentalism and Shephcrd's

funds for fetislijon, Shepherd WWF to the continue raise one and carbon-monoxide another. readiness

21 to exploit

18 SHFTI IFRIVII)e

gencrosity the acsthetic

Man Wbo

impomice

to endangcred of the British,

wild while

animals

has masked

relinquishing

his

on his duty

to

Giants, p74.

I 9"...

he I Shcphcrd )avid the the the artist, of could not reject the Of specialticss while could reject IdCa specialnessof art; it meant 'morc than money'. To reject the speciahicssof art would be to endanger its for for is indissolubly (financial 'artistic'): the the speciahicss art status and claim of part of the and value marketing of art. " BIM If II ON and Nl( 'I IOLAS M. PFARSON, "I'lic 'Specialness' of Art and Artists", Art Montbly, NUIUbCr2 1, Novcnibcr 1978, p4. 20 Registcred as a charity. 21 In 1984 the David Shcphcrd Conservation Fund was established, and has raised over 42.5 million to date.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

honour their as a taxpaying citizen: return I am a compulsive painter and have to paint every day; but no one wants to paint all the time for the benefit of the governmentvia taxation, so it is simply a caseof diverting the proceedsin another direction. It is infinitely more satisfying to donate the painting to the World Wildlife Fund, so that the rhinos or the tigers are the ones 22 benefit. that As Brighton commented:

Relativeto his concernfor animalsShepherd seemsto be indifferentto the fate of man in thesecountries.This maystemfrom the manlycommon-sense ethic,his notion of leads him hold in bohemian Tate that to contempt the authenticity, artists, personal Gallery'smoderncollectionandart schools:'the world doesnot owe someonea living he is an artist.' This is the kind of right-wingindividualismthat at its just because human best be brutally be humorous indifferent its to suffering and at a can worst been by has Margaret Thatcher, be [ ] It recently promoted who must stoicism. ... 23 fantasy in irrelevant it is the ageof monopolycapitalism. an awarethat Following the rise in popularity of Pop, Impressionistand Post-Impressionistprints in the early 80s Shepherd'sstranglehold on the art print market beganto wane. Despite his desireto be Shepherd 'professional than a populist, provided the groundwork artist' rather a receivedas for millions of unscrupulousimitators, the most notorious being perhapsthe Franklin Mint from McDonalds Trek. Star 'collectors' tat to to relating everything expensive who produce It is enlightening to consider Brighton and Morris' claims alongside The Burlington Magazine's attack on the Tate's purchasingpolicy qua Andre's 'Bricks': if they really intended to show what is being createdin the 1970's, in all its variety, ... Tate hard be looking just in as at painters working a more academic should the latest Cuneo, is like Seago the very whose work popular, as at or avant tradition, had doing Tate intention full But the then the never slightest of garde productions. 24 'art' in justice, in an almost sociological way, to the variety and range of our time. By stressingthe show's 'grass-rootsappeal' with preciselysuch inclusions, the organisersof Towards Another Picture were plainly attempting to claim a non-art world audienceand Tate Gallery Arts Council British to the and alternative perspective on a radical thereby create art: history. is The history, task of those of cultural practised, part properly art ... is history in times to the examine and own understand of uses of art a constructing by the the to of one section evaluation of reinforce art market giving not our culture, 22 SHEPHERD, The Man Who Loves Giants, p105. 23 BRIGHTON, "Books: The New Humanism and The Man Who Loves Giants", p9S. 24BENEDICT NICOLSON, "Editorial: T1534, Untitled 1966", The Burlington Magazine, No. 877, Vol.. CXVIII, April 1976, pl 87-188.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

25 lineage. doubtful historical them In some ways the anthology which accompaniedthe exhibition achievedthis aim, promoting distinction be between is histories to that there observed a art's and an art recognition historical text. Producing the anthology involved collecting and selectingstatementsrelating to debates in Britain took the which and place practices sincethe 1950s, a period that of some host Given the ornnidirectional nature artistic to of and anti-art a plethora movements. played 26 forms. The these took statements concerned, numerous the object of this period of it to to provide a monolithic examine stylistic shifts, then nor was was not anthology for but justification to allow open consideration of the indeterminate practice, theoretical between institutions in Brighton the and practical/theoretical change artworld. relationships difficulty by illustrated Morris the critical of writing accounts of recent work refusing to and By to their make up own viewers mind. attempting to erode the thereby allowing write, independent critic concept, they aimed to foster the recognition that ideology constructs art histories that may be 'other' to producerssuch as artists and critics. As a text which combined Towards Another Picture at once, reminds us that the possibilities contradictory several different By history involves in the a suppression of possibilities. presenting ways making of institutions interpellate to other artists, and critical texts, the viewers, which artists aimed for anthology gavesomescope re-interpreting the recent past without adopting the pretence history by issues are capableof resolution: art posed that While diagnostic in intention, this anthology is only portentous with regard to its title. Its editors felt a needto bridge the autistic hiatus that was appearing betweenthe files [ I the the similarly serried of orthodoxy.... and ranks work artistic serried ... ... full bracketed be thereby allow as an open verdict and criticism to run as the should 27 final, unwritten chapter. This is not to say that no editorial policy was in place. The political impetus of late 70s art in which artists' statementswere arranged by 'issues' rather than dictated the manner clearly book was "itself 'self-referential' and 'self-generating' by its very However, the movements.

25 BRIGHTON, "Very British Triviality [reply to John McEwen]", Art Montbly Number 16, May 1978, p20.

26 TheTateclaimedto haverecognised this factor:"In fact,thereareno particularviewswhich areheld by the 'art world' asa whole,which at anytimein its continualevolutionmanifestsmultiple,diverseand follows And is it Tate be in there that no such view the since opinions. can no respect contradictory often however,muchinfluencedandaffectedby a wholerangeof often Gallery is, by The it. underpinned divergentopinionsvariouslyheldwithin the art world." NORMAN REID, "The TateReplies",Studio International,Volume193,Number987,3/1977,p221. Reidwas,to someextent,prophetic. Brighton is now Headof PublicEventsat theTatein Millbank! 27KEVIN O'SHEA, "Book Review:Towards Another Picture", Britisb Joumal of Aestbetics,Oxford University Press,Volume 19,1979, pl 88.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

irony inescapable Contained -28 of orthodoxy! an nature within the visual-theoretical impact of Towards Another Picture, then, were the seedsof postmodernist detachmentand 29 An frontiers. irony. exhibition without appropriational In 1978, the overall reception of the exhibition, however, was not favourable. It was not acceptedthat placing populist and academicworks alongsidethat of the international institution to the enough position was museum under scrutiny and attack the avant-garde "intellectual vacuity, indolence,corruption and self-perpetuatingmediocrity of the 30 Brighton helped by fact the that many of his intentions appeared was not artworld-. 31 To his friend Peter from Cork's Williamsian/democratic-socialist line. inseparable virtually Fuller, this endeavourwas inadequatesinceit failed to recognisethat institutionalised art was form of culture: an entirely redundant Somecritics are advocatinga solution involving purchasesover a wide range of art, including more acadernicistsurvivals. But this too, would be to institutionalise the hope for the survival of a modern art museum on the the to marginal, stake hegemonic the tutelage of the 19thwhich conventions arose within persistenceof few bourgeoisie. Buying a more academicworks would no more provide the century 32 function it debacle than would allow the present to continue. artist with a social Hence, while Brighton and Morris may have managedto place the power of the British arts Quango under somethreat, it was inevitable that they would fail to fulfil their offer of the kind have Cork it, "organic would an which, as put relationship with the structure of artworld majority of the population of this country", sincethe structures of the official art world were designedto suppress(to the Stateand the public) the fact that art no longer had any be said to have contributed to this function. Towards Another Picture could worthwhile

281bid 29-1 would have a problem with describingmyself as a postmodernistbecauseI though that all that in a sense,an extensionof modernism. My objection to them was in sense was, a was postModernism historicists, in in " they the would evaluate what was valuable terms the present of past. they were that Interview with BRIGHTON, Tate Gallery, London, February 1998. 30 BRIGHTON, interview with ADRIAN SEARLE,Review: "Towards Another Picture", Artscribe No. 10, January 1978, p48. 31 The following statementswould appearto corroborate this view: "While the visiting public does for it is if the effectual public as a whole, not an particular gallery on works; and even a status confer section of the public comesto understandand acceptthe ostensiblevaluesupon which the gallery decisionsthat flow from them." in the those the part creation values or no of they play will proceeds, BRIGHTON, "Official Art and the Tate Gallery", Studio International, No .1,1977, p 43. "[Genuine historians, becomes institutions of art, actually presentthe the critics, art central when art only pluralism] have lived the they culture really art with, rather than a pale reflection of the this with country people of international art market." BRIGHTON, "Why Not Popular", Studio International, Volume 194, Number 989,2/1978, p2l. 32 FULLER, "The Tate, The Stateand the EnglishTradition", Studio International, Volume 194, Number 988,1/1978, p16.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

illusion, focusingdebatearoundthe 'quality' of the works asphysicalart objects,ratherthan functions. for ideological Reviewing their the show Artscribe,Adrian Searle around commented, What kind of critic nods silent approval at it all, as though there were good in everything, and he would not changeit? One will have to make do with supposition, and guessthat the art which Andrew Brighton might prefer would be the so-called gpopular' or 'traditional' art of Cuneo, Shepherdand Seago.[ I Curiously enough, ... the market which supports thesefellows is the most riddled with corruption, carries the greatestburden of self-perpetuatingmediocrity, is the most intellectually vacuous, inborn and inbred, and is fosterednurtured and developedto snarethe punters. [ ] ... Popular art doesnot attempt difficult problems like complex feelingsor plastic form. It depicts things we already know in familiar ways. Therein lies its popularity. 33 In this, Searlemimicked the official line of the Tate Gallery: Gallery considersits main takes to be the acquisition of a range of work, the ... high demonstrate, distinctive through to those examples of quality, sufficient tendenciesfavoured by the Director and Trusteesin the periods for which the Tate has being including Money in the this tends present. short, practice to responsibility, highly traditional concernswithout adding work stays within exclude artists whose distinctive, however technically accomplishedtheir work may anything particularly be. Whether people like Andre's work or not, few can deny that its role in the developmentof art is more important than that of a Seagoor a Cuneo.34-Andre's degree interference the traditional of greatly reducing art's with things as with concern they are, with revealingaspectsof the world as it is. This attitude has had much 35 influence on younger artists..... In prefiguring the allegationsmade by Walker during the debateat the ICA The State of Britisb Art conference,Searlewas arguing that the kind of critical culture sought by the crisis critics in impossible the presentpolitical circumstances,the very concept of an educated since, was however, limits For Brighton, issues implied the on accessibility. were more cut and culture dry: One way of seeingthe Conferencewas as a debatebetweenthe socialist and liberal left's based The British the art. arguments were on the assumption state of views of from divorced be the economic, political and an activity seen as that art cannot ideological facts of our time. [ ...I The liberals arguedthat art is essentiallyan autonomous activity, primarily concernedwith the pursuit of aestheticexcellenceand light 'mainstream' [ I [For James the the the of of past. within example] conducted ... FaureWalker held up Anthony Hopkin's elucidation of music on the BBC as a model be Tagg John that should criticism not replied concernedto promote of criticism. it in the of modernism, rather march should question the unilinear step another 33 SEARLE, Review: "Towards Another Picture", p48. 34RICHARD MORPHET, "Carl Andre's Bricks", The Burlington Magazine, Volume CXVIII, No. 884, November 1976, p764. 351bid., p763.

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The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

account of twentieth-century art.

36

According to Searle,however, such a level of debatewas not realisedduring the course of the conference: Modernism was seenas a homogenousbody of work, the result of a single, but differences dissent constantly reviled philosophy, and and unexplained, within it amounted to no more than mere pedantry in comparison to its overall character and discussion this acted consistently against any all of particular works, artists, state or gains. [ ...I Throughout the weekendcritics like Fuller, Brighton, Cork, successes Tisdall and Tagg attempted to characterisethe stanceof artists who might be seento represent'Modernism' in such a way that their position was seento be untenable 37 had before they a chanceto reply. Brighton certainly seemedto confusethe issuesby oversimplification: "Not only is his ideology' itself 'visual 'vulgar Marxism', to socio-economic classes an example of of reduction 38 is inert but implicit the treatment to of art as an object upon which visit a methodology.,, ... He refused to recognisean old-chestnuts,namely, how might the public question the "unilinear first having learned form it through twentieth-century the art" without of of of account by Walker Arts Council? With in the this and praised question education mind, paternalistic Towards Another Picture, like Cork's Art For Whom and Art For Society, appearsas a wellintentioned, yet dangerouslyill-considered exercisein the politicking, patronising, Marxism. 'vulgar' Indeed, Left-wing that of class reductionism given unreconstructed foundations for Thatcherism, the and aesthetic provided political populism=monetarism Cork's later protestations againstthe SelsdonGroup appear highly naive, if not hypocritical: It is certainly true that modernism can only be wholly transformed if the society which democratic But it is the through transformed to conclude as well process. produces leads fatalist be done in to current conditions a can acceptancewhich that nothing for Take, instance, boosts the the the of classes. position reactionary merely Conservative in by 1978 Selsdon Group. thinking the a extreme of report revelations The paper called unequivocally for the abolition of government subsidiesfor the arts, by its and replacement the patronageof the middle-income society that would result from a generallowering of taxes. 'Art has always beenthe ultimate form of spending for the rich' declaredthe report, barefacedlyapproving of this tradition; 'there is every believe in that to a societywhere there are very many well-off people rather reason life develop. ' In few artistic and cultural would a richer other words, rich, than a by bolstering and mercantile the of aristocratic patronage the system old extend 39 bourgeoisie,and the rest of society can go to the wall. 36 BRIGHTON "Artnotes", Art Monthly, No. 15,1978, p32. 37 SEARLE, "The Stateof the Art Debateat the ICA", Artscribe 11, April 1978, p39. 38 BRIGHTON, "Book Review: Nicos Hadjinicolaou's Art History and ClassStruggle", British journal Press, Volume 19,1979, 84. University Brighton Oxford Hadjinicolaou for Aesthetics, pl rebukes of his to own crimes. similar somethingvery 39 CORK, "Collaboration without Compromise", Studio International, (Art Galleriesand Alternative Spaces)Vol. 195, No. 990 111980,p9-10.

145

Thc New I lum, mis(i, I

,ý, j ,\, I

In other words, extend the old system of intellectual patronage and bolster the New Class by a crisis, in art, and the rcst of artworld

promulgating

L:an go t(, ilic

40 ,,ý111?

Spending much of the late I 970.s working at College Of] the GUltmikian Foundation"" (volLISI111tilS Fnquiry into tbe Fconomic Situation of tbc Visual A rliý,I, Brighton never managed to retain the high profile of his friend Fuller. Towards Anotber Picture and Tbe State of Britisb Art nonetheless encouraged the British Arts

COUncilto commission another rclativist exhibition. In 1979 they asked Derck Boshler to curatc Lives: An Exbibition

of Artists Wbose Work is Based on ()tbt,?-

People's Lives, an exhibition which received notoriety by banning the work of Conrad Atkinson and Tony Figure 9.2 Barney Bubbles, Lives, ý19-,! ).

Rickaby.

Despite bringing some form of critical successfor Atkinson, this Arts Council scandal unfortunately ovc,, diadmved Boý,Iiicr's highly colitclitiolls his leading In Boshier (a introduction, pop artist in the early I 960s) curatorial stance. followed Ron Kital and David Hockncy's lead explaining that lic had intended to mount a "concerning or open to all or any people. " Siticc everyone can relate to exhibition populist for knowledge, lie the without need people other specialist art-historical of argued, an images figurative-hunianist bound be to content was with popular. exhibition If Brighton and Morris courted controversy

with the shrewd Juxtaposition

of

Cuneo and Shepherd, Boshier deliberately ellraged the cognoscenti Norman

Hepple's

at Goldsmiths

work.

with his inclusion

of

I lepple, educatcd

and the Royal Academy

Schools, was a former war artist to the firc Royal of many portraits. painter service and His paintings

parallel the spectacular

Fascist

he be Third Reich; bý "the as PLIt call it: illiterate moved the ilic, of art 4I plCtUres.,,

imigit.: of

Figure 9.3 Norman Hel2plc in his Studio

40--flicir

liberalism 113righton,Cork, Fuller and Tagg] makes them a dangerous and absolute threat to The is their manifestly to replace tile present artistic this purpose of efforts country. in artists bureaucracy by themselves and to administer patronage and influence (for whorn? Society? or the RALF RUMNEY, Revolution )" "Cultural their cotcrie? or Art for Social Democracy? ", Art of members Monthly, Number 18, julv/August 1978, p2 1.

41NORIMAN

FIFITLE, "Norman Hcpple", ill DEREK BOSHIER, "Statellient",

Lives: An Exbibitio? z of

146

The Nc%vHumanistic Theories of Art

There are no limits to the Possible 1-cfInenicntsof the work. In the old painters lies an field And of inspiration. most important of all mic is outside that awful world clidIcss AwJ)'s ILIvc The he like; to portrait will politics. art real and of it is the last and final 42 refuge of skill, that almost cxtinct painter's virtue. Surely such art was niore in nccd of critique line in Heppic's

the penultuilate

himself,

potted blography:

Perhaps not. 43

and the peasants"?

but from the other exhibits.

Margaret

Harrison's

interesting

reading:

than promotion?

Was Boshier being satirical

"Spends winter

I,Ilc real criticism

in Spain painting

was not intended

Included alongside Yicl)plc's

Rape (1978) IFigure 9.41. Harnison's

drudgery

text for the catalogue

1? AIIE

C:o

fact both despite the that they trained at the conservative were canvases,

In this, Harrison been preoccupied visitors

opened tip painting

as a possibility

with the scriptO-VISLI.11mode.

distinguish viewer circumvented

Harrison's

entirely

illusionism

in the consideration tradition'

'European the of

painting

the 'avant-garde'

assumption

to Hepple's RA Schools.

for feminist artists who had previously

Its inclusion

to the question of forni raised by Towards

was

inadc

deolo, .. 'if i Bcrgcrian Harrison's cal opposition Thus '-11 III1 stood appropriational painting 11 I.ingoistic

landscapc

to conic from Boshicr

reactionary

I have rediscovered a place for the use of ... craft of painting, a technique which was my been (having a student as main preoccupation during Acadenly Schools Royal the trained at for last had but 7 8 I 60's) the or years the found it an inappropriate nicchum for the had I I was working. material on which documentary in techniques order to Utlilised lives the of examine issues concerning I When I considering many current Women. ... attitudes to women one rcalises that the F,uropean painting tradition has much to do with the confirmation Of those ýIttitLjdcs, has taken on tile role previously advcrtising depiction by that the of i. painting e. occupied of women as objects.

with

Anotber

from Hcppic's?

in Lives, however,

returned

Picture: how, precisely, could the Was forill

flow something

to be

of art? If so, how was it possible for Harrison's

to carry any critical

that anti-acsthetics

weight?

use

Placed under such scrutiny,

guaranteed criticality

appeared waning.

Artists Wbose Work is Based on Otber Peoples' Lives, Selected by Derek Bosbier, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979. 421bid. 43,, Out felt Hepple, Norman 27 unable to sign" tile protest letter to the only artists exhibiting, one, of Great Britain over the CXCILISIOIIof Atkinson and Rickaby's work from Lives. Council Arts of the BOSHIER, "Lives", Art Montbly, NUnihcr 25, April 1979, p2 1.

147

The Ncw Humanmic 'I lworws

fAit

Other inclusions helped to complicate matters. Sue Wells contrIbuted photographs of Welsb Farming a

Community

by photoconceptualists. for Tatler,

( 1979), taken in the 'slice-of-life'

Formally

Desmond O'Neill's

indistinguishable,

Vogue and Harpers & Queen were windows

Given that Wells and O'Neill and photographers

into a wealthy

were both advocates of obsolete 'venst'

of (different)

To the average middle-class

convention

discredited 11111CIl

society photographs urban ruling class. photographic

practices,

-societies, what were viewers to makc of their relative ments?

gallery-gocr,

the world

represented in O'Neill's

photographs

v.,as

less both being Wells', 'real' in effect, the 'Other'. than that scen in more or no

Thc inclusion of Dick jewc1l's found photograph proiccts lielpcd to magnify such jcwell initially rccclvcd sonic critical attention in 1977 for his artists' book contradictions. Found Photos, which was produced as an ironic response to people's fascination xvith fall)OLIS. book Jewell's the of was comprised solely of reproductions of photographs discarded he had been insta-matic from that portraits collecting photobooths silice anonymous, the late 1960s. Significantly, these reproductions by texts; the abandoned were not accompanied for the vicwcr to presented simply were pictures flick through perceptively or myopically, however had been A approach similar used they wished. jewell Babies (1976) Cosmo in which with front lifestyle the covers wonicii's' of juxtaposed Cosmopolitan with equally glamorous magazine born baby . DCSI)ItC the ObVIOLIS girls. images of new Althuserian ovcrtoncs, there was never any explicit b critical of the this that could work suggestion flat being jewell the mainly nitcrcsted in media, Within Lives, the the context Pull. of of aesthetics 1 Figure 9.51 1977) Family ( Jewell participative the O'Neill's fornied jewell Family to near particularly pun in relation a pictures society project Family jewels); yet, jewell was not interested in ruptural avant-gardism. Indeed, this project had involved extending the extremist tactics of Vilesque mail artists outwith the artworld in 44 Relinquishing Vile that their seditiousness appear questionable. woUld the manner a such death, Jewell simply wrote to everybody in the and obsession with sex pubescent contingent's London telephone directory who shared his SUrnarneasking their permission to display any him. "It's nice seeing from you", they to to chose retUrn which photographs

he innocuously

concluded in tile accompanying text piece.

In Lives, jewel I's depoliticised works were forced to contend with Peter Marlow's 'agitational' reportage photoJournalism: "Distributing

pictures via agencies leaves the

44 SeeChaptcr 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde.

148

The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

kinds The has to the of open all misuses. control photographer overthe photographer'swork frequently do, disregard Magazines is can,and or changethe emphasisof the endresult small. The fact, " had the to this text captions. mere ability and recognise of course, accompanying long beenelevatedinto an (anti)artformby photoconceptualists suchasHillard, Stezaker,and Burgin. Boshier'sLivesforcedthe artworld cognoscenti to questionwhy theyshouldeverhave by what commercialimagemakerstook for granted. This point was beenso readilyimpressed finally drivenhomeby Boshierwho went onestagefurther than Brightonwith the unedited for Smirnoff,Clark Shoes,Elle and Benson inclusionof the 'enemy',Duffy's advertisements Hedgesall of which wereinfluencedby semio-art'suseof text-imagejuxtapositionand 45 detournement. Situationistinspired Contradictionemergedeverywhere.GeraldScarfe'ssatiricalcharacatures of the life Symonds' Posy comedies of manners on wereexhibited cartoon middle-class puissantand fanzines designed (mock) titles celebrated punk whose alongsidenumerousanonymously divisions & Scrapheap Ripped Torn. While Stiff, Bored impotence: and major class underclass biting burlesque both here, to common and appeared self-class-decrepetation werepinpointed design, labour divisions Greater the within world of punk grantedthat emerged of camps. sardonicdesigns JamieReid'ssatiricalartworksfor the SexPistols,and PeterChristopherson's for ThrobbingGristle'srecordsleeves wereclearlyauthored,makingthemcomparablewith divisions between design The fine in was not. that muchpunk graphic art a way works of blurred further by design fine and art were authoredpunk, anonymouspunk, commercial design Bubbles designer Barney to the commissioned catalogue'scover. who was graphic punk Bubbleswasprovidedwith a numberof photographsof anonymousfiguresprinted in the CountyTimesand Express,Welshpool,(whichwerealsoexhibitedindependentlyin the interspersed 'graphix-style', index These the then with an of mordantly were pictures show). found from Albums' included 'Photo Boshier Finally fashion in a number of dchic' magazines. his own collectionalongsidea sectionentitled'Your Life', which invitedreadersto createtheir did Spence. Jo own photo projectmuchas in the event,Livesdid provepopularwith the public. For the critical sectorsof 'cleansing'the exhibitsof however, the at expense of this was achieved popularity artworld, figurative Kitaj's For impetus. example,exhibitingpunk graphicsalongside their political funded from in newspapers a publicly gallery was photo-journalism and cartoons paintings, from it tearing the confrontational among many, one style as punk to relativise seen 46 hindsight, With it is it its critical vigour. and meanings probably gave environmentwhich 45 "The major inadequacyof Andrew Brighton's current position (which correctly includes wild-life be he ignoresadvertising altogether", FULLER, ) board-room to that to seems me etc. portraits, paintings, Volume Studio International, Professionalism", 194 Number 989,2/1978, in Crisis The 11: "Footnote p87. 46As I will discussin Chapter 14 Decline of the Englisb Avant-Garde, by the late 1970s there were many 'style'. It to as a mere punk remains clear, nonetheless,that punk regard pressuresupon artists and critics it in Lives exhibition. compared the initially the which was to media culture with opposed was

149

The New Humanistic Theoriesof Art

true to saythat the oppositewasthe case.Livescelebratedcontradictionat the expenseof totalitariancomplacency andsmoothpolitical transaction,askingviewershow theymight fine for 'critical the rights' of art. Unfortunately, Livestook placeat a account convincingly time in which the forcesof reactionhadsignificantlygrown in strengthwithin the British factions deal The the to of artworld's critical refusal with the difficult questions artworld. be judged by for Boshier the only considered can when against predominant the cases raised figurative The 1970s. the the the at end of combativeanti-avant-garde of assertions return Hockney, Peter Fuller Timothy by Kitaj, David Hyman Ron and servedasthe main made for catalyst the of British art in the early 1980s, a corollary of which was the suffocation of allegedly scritical postmodernist' discourseson British practices. Feminist, Marxist and performance led found forced 1970s dominated 'new' the themselves to compete against a who critics detriment Given its home the task to trenchant criticism. of new as a much reactionary voice, keep 'radical' to up with practical events,and as such, no was unable art criticism guard, longer seemedparticularly radical. If anything, however, this suggeststhe necessityof detail has in been 'reactionary than more postmodernism' previously granted such examining by its critical enemiesin the Universitiesand Polytechnics.

Ironicallythe conservative trendin the visualartsran riot. This wasdue,aboveall, to left the confusionand paranoia in the wakeof an onslaughtagainstmodernism launchedby pseudo-Marxist-writers, someof whom neverunderstoodthe basic left destruction They in (confusing the their wakewith no market). art with problems few did The difficult theories that to applyto the emerge were alternative. practicable by large they to and were addressed, and misinterpretation which traditionalmedia 47 in broughtthe old reactionaries out strength.

47DAVID HALL, "Artists Thoughts in on the 70s in Words and Pictures", Studio International, Vol. 195, No. 991/2,1981, p3l.

iso

Nudc Rc%i(-%v

CHAPTER 10 Nude Review In 1925, Ortega y Gasset wrote what is still probably the most fUndalliclital cssaN,oil modern art ever written: Tbe Dcbumanisation ofill-t. In it, he states that modern art from is the onset at a special gifted 111111ority. since it airried ill essence, is unpopular Whatever the errors of this situation nlay be, Ortega points olit, there is olle back. the about it: impossibility of point going immovable ()nc 'solution' is Kita)'s attempt to rc-invoke the visual conventions of all earlier historical moment when the artist still retained a clearly defined social role, but this 2 be only a short-lived, retrogressive step. call There are some fools around who will grasp at Ortega's old Idea that there are very few people who are gifted with receptivity for any kind of art. -3 it seems fated to nie that art should ILIVCtUrned away (in horror) to a great beset feeling but lost I am also with a of paradise, that all is not introspective romance, half digressive lifetime have dismantle I I I After to a my own unhappy well enough. ... 4 draw begin to all over again... resources and While the Crisis Critic's stance placed them in a controversial position at the close of the I 970s, kind for brief the of powerful position traditionally ascribed to period, In a it also saw them, have A the identified zeitgeist. who seemingly return to narrative trciid-settcrs cultural figurative

painting

had already eirierged with the formation

Peter Make on the 21st March

of The Brotherhood

of Ruralists

1975, a group of painters who would spend a working

by

holiday

Cornwall. Coombe in at together every year

Peter Blake has suggested that they were artists who chose, quite deliberately, to go ), less (as to the the opposed citN, In country an artists environment no as real and Nvork for the artist than the city, throughout oxentieth-century urban snobbishness tends to think differently-5

Wake had becomeincreasinglyabsorbedby the mythical aSPCCtS Of tile COLIntrysiclc In the carly folklore, fairytales, legend deal and I 9th century British art. of nitcrcst in 70s, showing a great I SUZI GABLIK, "The Human Clay: Rmewed by Suzi Gablik", 1977, p46.

Studio International,

193 (985), lanuary

2 PETER FULLER, "Crisis in British Art: Part 2", Art Monibly, Nunibcr 9, July/August 1977, pl, 3. 3 "RON. B. KITAJ intervicwed bYJAMES FAURE WALKER",

Artscribe, 5, February 1977, p5.

4 KITAJ quoted in STEPHEN SPENDER, "Introduction", R. B. Kitaj: Pastels and Drawings, Marlborough Fine Art Catalogue, London, AUgUSt 1980, P7. . 5 NICHOLAS USf IERWOOD, "The Brotherhood of Ruralists 1975-1980", Ritratists, Lund Humphries, London, 198 1, p5O.

The Brotherhood of

151

Nudc RL-%, i(-%v

A number of falry paintings followed, "lixing William Blakc with Victormn and Prc-Riiplmchitc fantasies.

Despite his chatige front flat

Wake's distinctively to oil, cryla paint sensual pop style rcinamcd

evident, albcit

in it more carly-Nctlici-landish Titania

manner.

(1976) 1Figure 10.11, for example,

was painted as a sexually aware adult, complete

with pubic hair and a distinctly

rnid-70s colourcd uncomfortable

pcriii.

The rcSLIlt WaS J11 between

contradiction

fantasy and verity, similar to that found in the magical realist literature

of Salman

Rushdic and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Despite their many fascinating concerning narrativc art,

the role of Romanticism, and figuration

The Brotherhood

manifesto,

ideas

in (British)

ýisual

of Rurahsts had no

no promotional

strategy, and

held no bureaucratic positions, Z111LI therefore made littlc impa,:t on 111C IIIStItLitionaliscd British described Moreover, that they themsclvesas a 'Brotlict-hood', it was assumed given artworld. hence had they receivedno attention from the crisis critics. true populist agenda, no that they Their first exhibition, Lit the 1976 Royal AcademySummerShow, scemcdonly to reinforce the critics somewhat misconstruednotion that they were a reactionary organisation. 'rhe following year Ron Kital voiced a Somewhatsimilar position vis a vis the status of Kital"s opinions were more audible and controversial sincethe modernist art. international Arts Council of Great Britain had asked him to curate The Human Clay, an exhibition of had been British 1)), artists who actively celebrating the primacy of the hurnan various works form in visual art. Clearly antagonistic to the forms of inodern art espoused by the I1 inst tut' 101111 by Council Kital's Arts funded grants, assertions seemed to prefigure the Populist polernics then Critics: Crisis the of If some wish to practice art for art's sake, so be it... but good pictures, will be made to lives When I'm has been like that, I told that can respond. many good which never art doubt it anti in any case, it seemsto me at least as advanced or radical to attempt a 6 more social art as not to. If, however, we make a close historical inspection of Kitaj's polernical stance, we soon corne to far from distant Crisis hmv find, for Critics. We the the was of It I)opulIsrn reallse example,

6 KITAJ, "Against the Grain", Tbe Human Cla)-, HaNlward Gallerv, Arts COLIIICil, 1976,

15)

Nude Review

that Kitai's educationat Oxford in the 1950sinstilledhim with an unequivocally'elitist' approachto picturemaking:"Most so-calledsocialistrealismI've seendoesnot renewthe depictionof peopleandsoit is not asadvancedasthe art of old Torieslike Ingresor Degasor 7 Cezanne.,, It was at Oxford that Kitaj cameunder the influence of the Renaissanceexpert, Edgar Wind, in addition to the writings of Erwin Panofsky,Fritz Saxl, and Aby Warburg; art historians who "worked by examining motifs within a work, rather than giving primary "the its to stylistic character", analysing way in which visual motifs were overall concern life by drawing between literary "analogies outside art" social with visual and connected 8 " Like iconological Kitai's the same subject. such scholarship, of early practice elaborations both his context with providing a as a of modifying the viewer's means revealed preoccupation his back his "preventing to the artworks world, at all connecting costs and painting response from becomingmerely aesthetic."9 Following the iconological method, Kitaj worked with a both Kafka, disparate 13th-century Ramon Lull, the texts visual and verbal mystic of plethora Erasmus,Nietzsche,60s popular culture - in an attempt to createa profound, intellectual 10 dialogue his with culture as a whole. record of It is important to note that the iconological method that influenced Kitaj was largely a humanist phenomenon,as Panofskyarguedin The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline (1955). Of central importance to neo-Kantian Humanists such as Panofskywas the belief that S. J. Wilsmore orders reality, as points out: the artist necessarily Humanists believethat personscreateworks of art, not that they are themselves but Such language its that they the are at crossroads of recreation. of out constructed humanist beliefsare, of course,themselvesthe foundation of the cultural conceptsof "imagination", "creation" and "originality" which make it still possibleto talk about

7 KITAJ and DAVID HOCKNEY, "R. B. Kitaj and David Hockney Discussthe Casefor a Return to the Figurative...", New Review 3 (34/35), januaryffiebruary 1977, p75. Kitaj's statement(and his works) Shaw in Roy he is "Elitist" the that sense upheld the value of an educatedcritical an suggeststhat Group's Nitszcheanconcept of elitism. He opposesthe new Bloomsbury the to as opposed outlook, because have its by disabling favoured the critics overt user-friendliness crisis may a critically social art effect. 8 MICHAEL PODRO, "From Springerto Warburg: Warburg and Botticelli's Mythologies", The Critical Historians of Art, Yale University Press,1982, p158. 9 PODRO, "Some Notes on Ron Kitaj", Art International, 22 (10), March 1979, p18. 10 For further discussionsee: [1) M. LIVINGSTONE, "Iconology as a Theme in the Early Work of R.B. Kitai" Burlington Magazine, 122 (918), July 1980, p488-97. [21 del RENSIO, TONY. "Style, Technique 11 July 1976, Artists, Art Iconography", p34-9. and and

153

NudeReview

humanist in In this general. of art way works valuesare necessaryto their very 11 existence. According to Humanists, evenartists who wish to expressdisorder must organisetheir modes of expressionin a manner that will (paradoxically) suit their particular world-view. In practise, this led Kitaj to juxtapose visual and verbal fragmentsfrom historical and contemporary if in his the manner, albeit meanings to a meaningful often remained cultures obscure 12 In this Kitaj differed somewhatfrom American contemporariessuch as Robert audience. Rauschenbergwhose jumbled screenprintcollagesneverthelessoften bore striking resemblance his had been Rauschenberg John Cage instrumental in the and mentor toKitai'sown-13 forms hierarchy in In the colours their work, of materials, and visual arts. any of rejection into "rather themselves, to their only as permitted occurred come than own allegedly elements 14 ideas being exploited to expresssentimentsof of order." While, on a superficially formal level, Kitaj conformed to the neo-dadacontention that "there was neither a socially and morally chargedimagery which he could take for granted and deploy, nor a range of factual referencewhich he could assumehis spectatorcould take for 15 the draw Rauschenberg Cage's conclusions epistemological of upon", and art granted and To Kitaj, Rauschenberg Cage, in under scrutiny. placed and prioritising were nonetheless dadaesqueindeterminacyover the artistic agency,had neglectedthe (Humanist) artist's moral duty of enforcing an interpretation on the world. "What had beenlost, to put it so, was an image of man, someorder of and in experience,both collective and singular, that could lomething... "16 itself constituting as propose Although Cage'sanarchic aestheticwas far from nihilistic, it risked being fawning and [which] however, is an affirmation of life "a Cage For purposeless play... art was uncritical. bring improvements but in to to out of chaos nor suggest order creation, simply not an attempt IIS. J. WILSMORE, "The New Attack on Humanism in the arts", British Journal of Aesthetics,Volume 27, Autumn 1987, p336. 12 "Kitai's intention in quoting from such sourcesis not to impressor dazzlethe viewer but rather to deal with a complex of themesin an economicalbut open-endedfashion...- MARCO LIVINGSTONE, R.B. Kitai, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, p15. 13 Noting the formal similarities betweenKitaj and Rauschenberg,Livingstone writes that the "deliberate scatteringof attention acrossthe surfaceof Kitaj's early painting provides an inducement for focusing images habit on specific to the attention randomly to as an equivalent mind's the mind wander, from idea. Ibid., " to jumping specific reverie a vague p12. suddenly of 14 John Cageinterviewed in IRVING SANDLER, "The Duchamp-CageAesthetic", The New York School. The Paintersand Sculptors of the Fifties, Harper & Row, New York, p165. 15 PODRO, "Some Notes on Ron Kitaj", p19. 16 ROBERT CREELEY, "Ecce Homo", R.B. Kitai: Pictures,Marlborough Fine Art Catalogue, London, 1977, p4.

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Nudc Revicw

17 living... life Although like " Kitaj, Cageand Rauschenberg to the we're up of waking a way Abstract Expressionism, his the angst of to existential out root goal was to "sail sought by his less than those waters navigated" contemporaries"towards an nihilist through 18 Adopting a more conservativeapproach, Kitaj believed ) redemptiveart". (ungraspable? directly him by Modernism's that tackled to subjects works produce neglected allow would Duchampian afterbirth. In a world where the centre would not hold, Kitaj increasinglyturned for succourto those who affirmed life in their writing and painting, in their allegiancesand his developing impression intellectually While the of working-self as engaged, convictions. Kitaj becameincreasinglyconcernedwith provoking a similar effect on his audiences. Allusive documentation his in exhibition catalogues,encouraging titles were supported with source investigate meaningswhich transcendthe empirical evidenceof the work, thereby to viewers facilitating their understandingand enjoyment. This approach, Kitaj believed,would ensure his leave his artworks as part of the conduct of a wider enter and audienceswould that 19 life. purposeful I tend to refusethe notion that pictures should just linger and be left to their be They is It taken up again and they always are so. can never autonomous moment. 20 history. in In his referencesto publicly available material, Kitaj appearedto be more concernedthan many had Providing images dealing in his the that public situation. with public a general peers of led Kitaj to produce a complex conundrum: modern society within to people relevance lessons by down the the past. of weighed artworks By the mid-seventies,however, Kitaj was beginning to tire of someof the more radical 21 in in His his transitional change attitude appears works such as process. working of aspects first On inspection of such works it seemsas though he was moving (1975-76). Not Not, If

17 JOHN CAGE, Silence:Lecturesand Writings, CambridgeMass.: M. I.T. Press,1967, p12 (My emphasis) 18 KITAJ quoted in ANDREW BRIGHTON, "Conversationswith R.B. Kitaj", Art in America, 74, June 1986, p102. 19 KITAJ, "On AssociatingTexts with Paintings", Cambridge Opinion, January 1964, p52-3. 20 KITAJ quoted in LIVINGSTONE, R.B. Kitai, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, p8. 21 "Surrealist ideaslike bringing imagestogether in unlikely and unfamiliar conjunction (in hope of I ideas, Now I me when was young. that attracted such can see other what may and magic), producing have seemedoutrageousand valuable in that practice was often only an exaggeratedform of what is I has life-giving in I in to that so say much to mean of all art... what care about art even substantial and do with the unfamiliar, prodigious, surprising characterof what a truly original artist does in his pictures 4. Footnote Ibid., " p42, anyway.

iss

Nudc Rcvic%v

For Modcrilist Kitaj High position. example, towards a was clearly continuing to declarc Ilis borrowings from literature, his Modcriust rcady allmi in Icss rccondite fashion. niodcriilty in Kital based the Nvork both on the mood and the collaged division ot lillagcs follild III -1-.S. 22 Like Fhot's pocin, If Not, Not stresses its own internal Eliot's The Wasteland. rclationships

pattemcd Moreover,

betwcen figures imparting

Kitaj wzis becoming Increasingly

images thinning expressionistic Faure Walker

factors, the

a sellse s of nictom my rather than metaphor.

Modernist

in the ways lie applieLl pýllllt - In sollie

little datibing thMI to more 3 wash, in othcrs it it ovcr a ground with fervour,

revealing an overwhelming

was critical:

do depend oil conjunctions

"The problem

preoccupation

for nie is that wlicii

\\ ith process.

Of this, jame"

I look at your pictures

they

of colour and Sl1apC,Oil fOrInal dCVICCS,IS IIHIC11aS On I-CCOgIIISJb1C

for if the thcy're obstructive anything jjjjýjgcs. 23 ordinary person to ititerpret.,, Figua! 10.2 R. B. Kitai If Not, Not. (1975-6)

While Faure Walker was surely correct

of art is an to insist that thCCOIISLIIIIPtIOII for by to the speak claiming acquired skill, lic repeated the patronising 'Inan in the street' bC It Critics. Crisis ShOUldaISO stance of the failed Walker FaLire to the consider that notcd lay Kital's that in approach in major change he Although hierarch),. maintained all intcrct system of

III literary ýources and title,,,, Kitaj

buttress less his to a compulsion of work with exceedingly complex began to experience he link Rather, his to now was seeking that character. work with the sweeping materials of both his Poussin, Gcricault or 11, choice of subjects and the historical paintings of his illusionary stage. On a transforming the compositions, calivas into all of monumentality formal level, Kitaj extended the links between the present and past through all astonishing Motherwell, Robert Van Gogh, Giorgionc, Michelangelo, the to paintings of array of allusions Cezanne, Goya, and Francis Bacon, among others, and the drawings of Degas.

Kitaj's tUrn to what might be considereda more acadenlicmethod was not wholly for hun to traditionalism; it allowed create works which would rather enipty an of the sake humanist during which occurred the twisting goals twentieth-century. of tragic the underscore 22 See: RENSESELAER W. LEE, Ut Pictura Poesis: Tbe Humanistic Tbeory of Painting. (As a Painting Kital be Inc. Company, 1967. & Norton W. W. could Poetry), said to create a High Modernist form So is lamenting the ascension of the concrete Painting, Tbeory in Humanistic Neu! of "picture or a poetry", of by his the stressing the and spiritual work", symbolic nlatcrialitv. over material the and 23 FAURE WALKER, "R. B. Kitai Interviewed by James Faure Walker", p5.

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For example,the "gatehouse at Auschwitzactuallyfiguresin If Not, Not, asoneof a number landscape in idyllic by intrusions inspired Giorgione's La Tempesta.,'24 otherwise an of sinister In this, Kitai obliquely refers to the First Great German Art Exhibition of Munich 1937, a by landscapes, dominated depictions pastoral was of a pre-industrial, 'healthy' show which by factories. Nazi ) Drawing on the hypocrisy (unblemished autobahns and munitions world life', idyllic 'simple Nazi If Not, Not, in the of the glorification presentsa superficially evident innocent landscape dystopian the with victims populated of an all-powerful populism. utopian Thus the efficacy of If Not, Not, might be seento lie in its morphological capacity to elude the dangersof the intellectual naivet6it depicts, its formal and practical conservatismbeing belief long-standing Kitai's that artworks should actively make viewers aware compatible with It in historical images their situation. of was providing points reality of access using the of Kitaj his be that to understood, aimed readily make work more accessibleto more which could 25 intended 'cure'. it to 'masses' was the Significantly he blends an acute historical awarenesswith a contradictory technical Post-Modernist pluralism while at the sametime pursuing parallels which achievement 26 ideal inherent in Modernism. the emancipatory and utopian for history images Kitaj to Although and inspiration in an attempt to continued mine art his 'Great Tradition' Pound the to a visual equivalent work within of convincingly proclaim felt that his quasi-mysticalquest for meaningwould be successfulonly if the he Eliot, and by his ideas in itself possible solutions presenting a comprehensiblemanner. suggested artwork Kitaj, then, was seekingways in which to make the realisation of the subject of equal form "Ultimate imagination the skill the and of work: to would seemto assumea importance human image is 'earthed' in the great in the compounded when painting plenitude fragments, have sacraments, confessions, prophecies, questions which compositions, enigmas, form Such "27 be the to art of painting. a of painting required a beenand will peculiar 24 -if Not, Not is basedon The Wastelandby T. S. Eliot (who is portrayed in the lower left corner). landscape from lush in Giorgione Gauguin first the tradition that to primal stretches a What at appears limbo be Eliot's poem. Everything festers. The terrible the Matisse, to of war-ravaged turns out and head, figures fragmentary is be Dali-like the to a rock phantoms, also a seem with terrain creeps from Eliot's Here kind in can we recognise poem the corpsesthat "sprout", the marsh. of drowning a heap broken "a insidious, "stony images". look And rubbish", of and sickly as we sexual apparitions, hill horrifyingly, farmhouse it, Auschwitz the we recognise on or as an the monastery closer at R.B. Kitaj, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, p35. LIVINGSTONE, " gatchouse. 25 TIMOTHY HYMAN, "Another Branch of the Family", Narrative Paintings: Figurative Art of Two GenerationsSelectedby Timothy Hyman, Arnolfini, Bristol, 1979, p6. 26 JIM AULICH, "The Difficulty of Living in an Age of Cultural Decline and Spiritual Corruption: R.B. Vol. 10, No. 2,1987, Artjournal, Oxford The 1965-1970, p43. Kitai 27 KITAJ, "Pearldiving", The Human Clay, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978.

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Nudc Rc%tL-%%,

qualitative transformation of existing idioins and techniques, a method of production that could change tile significance of tile matcrial given expression. I lencc tile piccellical quality oI Kital"s early collage works was soon superseded by balanced compositiolls, illipionistic space dexterity'. 'draughstmailly and

It was by imprinting his work with inflections absorbed Inmi history, felt, Kitaj his U111LILIC that lic might clarify Ills humanist intent to actiN,cly pci-sonal

trýln, t'()rm tile viewer's expcriciice of the world. In scAing to produce works which bc Kital theniscIves, in Complete ýNis would O."tellsibly

against the Illontagist

dommant

ill tile post-conceptual

acstIleth.: art of late

1970s. While semio-artists, fcminists, punks, and former friend Kitaj's as and such painters Bacon Francis actively mirrored the neighbour century's tendency toward senselessviolence, Kitaj' cTideavourcd to refract his tinies. An figurative Kitaj's of new authoritative example jew Etc. 1976-9) 1 Tbe. ( Figurc is allusionism

10.31,a work which signalled his growing his jewish own identity, the with obsession Walter Benjamin's later the of Influence Of part, writings with their underlying product, in judaisin. In liciijaminian terms, tile traveller gazing out the train to redemptive reference lie the almost monochromatic unfinished, uncertain in pilgrimage wherein may act out window his 'Own unfinish. ' Against this Diaspora, Tbe Jew E'tc. places Our elective affinities, the friend.ships,and families we forge in the midst of terror. While Benjamin and the Frankfurt Flochsclitile's sociology of culture played a Kitai's ideas about painting their model of popular high leading shaping in role art significant him to question the disrespect for figurative art - we should regard Kital's increasing emphatic froin his growing awareness of a 'fundamental condition' of the artist's as resulting insistence venture:

Acknowledging someone as a person, or an object as ail artwork, involves a willingness to take up toward thcm the sort Of attitude Peter Strawson has called "reactive": praise, blarne, outrage, anger, admiration, love, hate and so on. By contrast, to treat someone non-Judgenientally, or to see an object without feeling already to respond to it with any reactive attitude, is to strip it of its hurnanitv or 28 arthood.

28 FLINT SHIER, "Painting after Art?: Comments on Wollheim", Interpretation, Polity Press, Oxford, 1991, p155.

Visual Tbeory: Painting and

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Or in Kitaj's own words: "To put it a simple way: many of us like to make pictures of people becausepeople and their lives interest us more than anything else."29 Kitai's commonsensical he had little for intricacies (misleadingly) that time the suggests philosophical of the theorising Frankfurt Hochschule: "My Kulcher ain't as cultivated as most of the streetsmarttheorists, from Greenbergand Judd to the post-Lacanianpisbers,eventhough I've done sometheoretical pishing myself.-30 Nonetheless,we should note that while Kitaj was advocating a lessreflexive approach fact his 'comprehensible' in to mode of communication shift a more was to theoretical matters, literary from to references more readily available and easily obscure than move a no more 31 historical the the times. of a move much against grain sources, again, art consumable Although this seemedsuperficially plausible,when it cameto the matter of interpretation, as deal knowledge both a great of prior and of references required sets Fuller pointed out, has been done behalf "... the this when said all and about developedcritical ability on of viewer: does he [Kitaj] break the what subject matter, and all rest, how art should out, acquire a new fantastic historian The Orientalist, Golding, John Portraits and a and art painter of paint? imaginary figure, superimposedwith literary and art references.He makesthe samemistake as he opposeshimself to.,,

32

leitmotifs, his increasingly Kitaj In order to circumvent this problem, own made useof including figurative characters,from one work to another: "I like the idea images, recycling have been figure, in invent be the way novelists to a character a picture it a possible that might like Dickens, Dostoyevsky, do the out of people you remember character -a memorable able to depicted had Jew Etc, hearing-aid in The figure The "33 the who also made an with Tolstoy.

29 KITAJ, "Mondrian", The Human Clay, Hayward Gallery. Arts Council 1976. 30 KITAJ quoted in BRIGHTON, "Conversationswith R.B. Kitaj", p102. It might even be argued that favour "practical Kitaj in "instinct" ideological and wisdom", was unwittingly of analysis in opposing his Moreover, Kitaj's New Right. to himself tactics the art of move assimilate the populist with aligning beliefs his increasingly immobilised fixed testifies to also conservative and expectations into a pattern of honourable. Kitaj's intentions like Critics, Crisis Nonetheless, the were frame of mind. 31 In general,postmodernist art has moved from 'presentness',towards 'theatre'; literally the opposite direction to Kitai. 32 FULLER, "An Interview with David Hockney. Part 11",Art Monthly, No. 13, December/January lacking Fuller's friend Podro, Michael Kitaj while overt critical agenda,also scholar and 1977-8, p6. betweenKitaj's assumedliterary aestheticand his visual is, I "... think, tension there a noted this problem: betweenhis concernto make an emotionally chargedprivate art for a small group of initiates, aesthetic, Notes Ron Kitaj", Lynda Morris, "Some PODRO, " the on p23. on other art. resonant publicly and a books bit bearing irritated legend Wollheim, "One its the as a of gets effect: hand, correctly analysed basin breakfast LYNDA " jostle the table. Leger pudding on clock and alarm an with Gramsci and 26 May 1977, 97 (2510), Listener, The Front", "Popular p693. MORRIS, 33 "R. B. KITAJ interviewed by JAMES FAURE WALKER", p5.

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appearancc in 11'Not, Not, was again to appcar In Bad Faitb ( 1980 ý, Tbe jewisb Scbool ( 1980), The 1,istener ( 1980), and Cecil Court, London WC2 (Tbe Relugees) ( 1983-4) 1Fir.1m: 10,41 While lic has identifict-I the charactcr fricnd his joc Sitigcr', mother's whom a of as hc remembercd from childhood, Kital has 0

hini to nito "an archetype make sought reprcscntm,g a condition of man, and more lew, in the twentieth tlic. of specifically 34 Singer became Icitmotif that a century". Kitai could control and manipulate, changing Although to meaning. change context

bc familiar had Kital's to with now audicilces personal iconography liew works,

in order to make sense of

they were simultaneously

released

from the interpretative burdens of the Past, opCIIIIII, LIPC1101,111MIS realms of meaningful demarcation lie "Pound's that great advice was enough: spoke of between a possibilities: symbol which in effect exhausts its references and a sign or mark of something which 35 constantly renews its rcfcrence.,,

Kital"s useof charactcr invention was, of courw, not new to dic visual arts, William Blake being a notable precursor. Like Blakc's, Kital"s character invc1ition may be read as a Romantic attempt to gain artistic freedom from the interpretative strictures of acadernic and Howcvcr, Blake's the as was II listaricc with Iconography. symbolic obscurantisni, popular does degree over production not control necessitate a corresponding greater of gaining leading, language the of art; as towards reception it may, the over realm private of authority Kital's critics believed that his unorthodox tendencies made his Nevertheless, while games. held Kita) be this scholars to incongruous, quality the most alluring and work increasingly hand, his Oil the one work. a consummate example of the most compelling aspect of long-running Kita)"s the critique concerning and value work is the argument substantial Plagens: "Kitaj is 'interesting' because he's tricky, ambiguous and complex. by Pcter initiated Kitaj doesn't do more than embellish narrative enignias with graphic deftness; his work Bacon's - doesn't move you or scare YOUas pai.ntl 'ý,,ý. -36 Plagens seems to [Francis] unlike his inability to develop an affective mode of Kital's weakness, namely, inherent to point Michael Podro have, nevertheless, sought to counter Kital scholars such as communication.

34 LIVINGSTONE,

R. B. Kitai, I'llaidoil, Oxford, 1985, p34.

35 KITAJ quoted in ibid., p 17. 36 PETFR PLAGENS "European Painting in LA: A Grab Bag of Well-worn Issues", Artforim, January 1976, p4 1.

14 (5),

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having "the stainedthecanvaswith paint evokesthe exposureof a effectof this, arguingthat light-sensitive photographicplate,to which is addedthe drawnmarksof the graphicjournalist. This is part of his documentaryimmediacy.He doesnot invite attentionto the cuisineof 37 however, This, imply but the subject to to of matter.,, nerve seems a contradiction, painting Kitaj's Great Tradition least Pierro, in "Giotto, to the to professed allegiance of relation not Michelangeloor hundredsof yearslater Ingres,Delacroix,Goya,Degas,Cezanne,or in our 38 Kitaj Picasso". How Mattisse "documentary could and produce artworks time with a own For manyof his critics,he immediacy"which werealsothick in their textualreferences? forming deterrent his 'interesting' technique to the ultimately a affected not, could clearly failure Kitaj's Andrew Brighton fact Yet, his in as pointed out, critical may work. aspectsof for failure it imaginative Kitaj "stuck from was who with the of critics, culturewhenso result 39 hubris by Greenberg Marx. theoreticist with afflicted or were us of - whether way of many So, not being wise to advancedart, I never developeda senseof what you can and 'progressive' 30 do, I've these after wave of art wave years,progress watched and can't draw hit fan, dioramas, I hopeless to the the again shit until, when started and past my I was roundly cursedby many advancedart peoplewho are smarter and more wellliterary lot Now but (ugh) is I the as me. of as a newest wave not quite than am read literary (ugh) but I guessthat will passtoo and I'll be left behind again like a schmuck. 40 for feel Don't you me? sorry Towards the end of the seventies,Kitaj found sympathy from David Hockney: To me, a lot of painters were trapping themselves;they were picking such a narrow it. And it's Now in trap. there's a specialising nothing wrong and painting of aspect leave but lot have just it, it if if to takes the courage a of courage, trap you with the 41 history back in look the of painting. you by backward inspired late in Hockney's the Kitai, the confusion glance was partly endemic Like 42 by defend his Fuller When British to the work asked against critical artworld. seventies line in Kitaj: Hockney with responded reverie of the period,

37 PODRO, "Some Notes on Ron Kitaj", p2l. 38 KITAJ, "R. B. Kitaj and David Hockney Discussthe Casefor a Return to the Figurative... ", p75. 39 BRIGHTON, "Conversationswith R.B. Kitaj", p102. 40 KrrAj quoted in ibid. 41 HOCKNEY, ed. NIKOS STANGOS, "Realism turning into naturalism", David Hockney by David London 1977, Hudson, & Thames p104. Hockney, 42 "There definitely is a kind of crisis in the visual arts. [ ]I don't think it's a very seriousthing; I ... know it will be overcome." "Figurative art and the new synthesis",ibid., p130.

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We'vetalkedaboutart beingsbutin on itself Oneway of working towardsa be solutionmigbt to cboosesubjectsthat relateto the livesof a greaternumberof people. I agreeof course. That's why I am always painting the figure. You can interest people know figure don't is important the the much about painting; thing in most who 43 lives. people's Suchpopulist polemic was given its most controversial tone earlier in 1977 when a naked 44 featured New Review. Kitai Hockney and on the cover of were

Like Kitaj, Hockneywaschastisedfor his efforts.Most vehementwerethe comments in the ordinarily conservativeArts Review where it was arguedthat it was too late to revert to because figure "boundaries the the of content, or making pictures of people" of the primacy 45 beyond had beenirrevocably "extended recognition". While Kitaj and Hockney argue for a return to the figure, we would argue for a Why Why For the create? questions: art? of as the situation exists today, continuation 46 is important its to us than content. the quality of creation more It is unsurprising to find that Kitaj and Hockney's stanceshould have arousedthe suspicionsof if alike; especially we considerthat a central tenet of twentieth postmodernists modernists and has been by the that to art notion may only continue carry conviction century anti-aesthetics distancing itself from the Ptolemaiccertaintiesof the pre-modern era. Consequently,those Hockney's Kitaj concernswere making a well-versedphilosophical protest to and who objected in agenda of conservative reimposing a stultifying centre their a postapparently against Copernican era: [To] conduct a dispute around phraseslike 'depiction of people and things in the implies has a great narrowing-down and misrepresentation of what world' visible It in happened twentieth-century art. was exactly the conception of the actually

43 FULLER, "An Interview with David Hockney. Part 11",Art Montbly, No. 13, December/January 1977-8, p5. Hockney's statementis almost identical to Kitaj's: "many of us like to make pictures of lives interest us more than anything else." KITAJ, "Mondrian", The because their and people people Human Clay, Hayward Gallery. Arts Council 1976. Hockney, however, goesfurther, "I think that the for in is 25 the artworld crazy and ridiculous. It should be stopped; in people idea of making pictures it " be it that can't go on. pointed out someway should 44 KITAJ and HOCKNEY, "R. B. Kitaj and David Hockney Discussthe Casefor a Return to the January/February 1977, 3 (34/35), New Review ", p75-7. Figurative... 45 M and D. ACKERMAN, "Dear Kitaj and David: The Quality of the Creation is More Important Than the Content." Arts Review 29,29 April 1977, p287.

46 ibid.

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homogeneous 'visibleworld' handeddown from the Renaissance that wasbrokenby by but by only art also science,by physicaland socialscience,and modernart, andnot 47 by modernexperience generally. It was unfortunate that the binary nature of Hockney's reasoningshould have obscuredthe intricacies of his new work, for as he repeatedlystated, his turn to the art of the past was not but indeterminate dominant Hegelian tactic, the an route within arriere-garde account of an 48 modern art: I feel that someolder figurative painters aren't aware of recent art history at all. Their it; doesn't last fifty there's to the no reference great the show complexity of years. art I certainly begin to seethat there's great scopefor trying now to make the diversity ... 49 of modernism into a synthesis. Hockney's approach was in fact quite complex in its relationship with the dominant art broadly late In "synthesis", Hockney the speaking seventies. of a of was seekingto paradigms Dionysian has While Apollonian twentieth-century the of and aspects art. the art unite Apollonian inspirational, high been ideals, to as perceived aspiring reinforcing traditionally itself Dionysian, and good much modern the pure art concerned the with visions, our noblest dangerous,disruptive, violent and shocking aspectsof modern life which provoke distress. Hockney's proposedtask was complicated by the fact that the Dionysian impetus had come to dominate the art of the late seventies.Indeed,it was the obscuratist insistenceof Dionysian art blunt in Yet, it in their manner, reacted critics, against. was seekingto the crisis which Apolloinian, led Ptolemaic Hockney's being the that to sense of seemingly new work a resurrect condemnedas similarly uncritical and conservative. As Hockney's work appearedto illustrate, this issuesimply could not be dealt with in in 1970s. Coherent the posturing popular earlier the conceptualist critical positions terms of formed be had As longer Burgin the the around notion of avant-garde. recently could no late had become the the conceptualist of seventies work of as tired and pointed out, much beyond formalism it "... the which superseded: once the official closuresof as academic had found that they exchangedtheir prison for a desert. They 'legitimate' art practice many 47 GUY BRETT, "What is the Tradition", (Discussionof Kitai's Artist's Eye Exhibition), Art Monthly, figurative idea "The Brett championing traditions against someimagined of continues, 38,1980, p2. being is by both is from conflict a meaningless which used conservativeand populist abstraction threat " commentators. 48 "Given their fighting tone, it is not surprising that the casethey were putting forward was grossly both by their reputed supportersand by their detractors. The latter labelled them misinterpreted leaders former figurative", "return both them the as symbolic used of a to the while and reactionary, destruction Modernism. It was not Modernism they were the them of of as agents to tend regard parties but Modernist academicism." LIVINGSTONE, David Hockney, Thames however, attacking, Hudson, London, 1981, p189. 49 HOCKNEY, ed. STANGOS, "Figurative art and the new synthesis', p 130.

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definedin oppositionto learnedthat thereis nothingto bemadeof a conceptualism, Modernism,otherthan an 'official opposition';andthat thereis nothingto bemadeof SO history history Modernism. " Modernistart otherthan a of Indeed,while thereweresubstantialdifferences, the setof valuesandconcerns legitimatingconceptualism remainedsomewhatsimilarto thosewhich had proppedup impetus increasingly the rhetorical namely, of an art, epistemological modernist andessentialist It in be this that to was sense postmodernist production. art could saidto be approach indebtedto a teleologicalschemesimilarto that outlinedby ModernistssuchasCliveBell,and by Greenberg, critical value a similarlyincestuous self-supportsystem.Consequently, gaining historical development to subscribed such a of view werepermittedto enjoy manyartistswho feelingsof confidenceandsuperiority.Therewas,therefore,a greatdealof suspicionthat the different: followed was modernism not significantly art which I would have a problem with describingmyself as a postmodernist becauseI thought in that was, a sense,was an extensionof modernism. It was postmodernism that all Poppernian. My objection to them was that they were historicists, they would in in the valuable relation to the modernist art of the was present what evaluate 51 past.

While Hockneyfoundthat he hadno option but to locatehiswork within this rapidly disintegratingcritical schema,hedid so by utilisinghis developed senseof pictorial wit, thereby denyinglegitimacyto the dominantcerebralaestheticcharacteristic of Minimalist and Conceptualistart. Hockney'sevaluativeagendadifferedradicallyfrom the smugacademic late "To is idiosyncratic. The idea me, art, especially the seventies: modern art, of of mind-set 52 [ ] irrelevant In is interesting. " thing. the art an peripheries are more mainstream the ... dialogue little in with conceptualistconcerns,aiming rather to produce Hockney engaged formal urgency and figurative narrative paintings which retained the and some of candid integrity of modernist art. The quirky manner in which Hockney was seekinga practical escapefrom the debates is charmingly depicted in his portrait of the the of period critical claustrophobic formalist art historian and curator Henry Geldzahler, Looking at Pictures on a Screen,Oil on

50 VICTOR BURGIN, "Socialist Formalism", Two Essayson Art, PbotograPbyand Semiotics, Robert from different Although 1976. a vastly perspective,Burgin's statementis worth admittedly Self, [i. Conceptualists] "Often Kitaj's in in they're e. observation: thinking they're very wrong with comparing long because it's the rebellion passed ago, rebellion so sad to seeso any people some the midst of like sheepto establishvanguardism.There isn't only one new academy,there are themselves attaching Hockney David Kitaj Discussthe Casefor a Return to the Figurative... B. "R. KITAJ, " and dozens. p76. 51 Interview with BRIGHTON, Tate Gallery, London, February 1998. 52 HOCKNEY, ed. STANGOS, "Figurative art and the new synthesis",p 131.

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Canvas, New York, Andre Imincrich Gallery Inc. ( 1977). When asked to describe this work I fockney repeatedly sought to underscore Ills Kital-likC COlltClltlojj that "it is always figures that look at picttircs. It's nothing else.

You don't get Red and Blue Number

looking

Four. Number -53 Brown Blue and at

The painting is called Looking at Pic-lures on a Screen: Wis moms Wat be spectattw is having the same experience as the subject of the painting. If you've pn )imrsclf to hem, in fnmt of the canvas, whoever you am, then he is 61ing at p0turus on a but You kmkhg so are you. are even at bum on your screen as well as hN. screen, 54 be kN in, It's true unclosed, all closed mcant to

He's trapped with pictures. He's not looking at real things. He's living In a sillall world. -5-5 Looking at Pictures on a Screcn ( 1977), 1Figur J then, encourages an ironic emphatic response, from the closed of escape intimation offering some world of the modern artworld, yet ultimately knowledge. Thus, the of quotidian value negating like Kitaj, Hockilcy demonstrated a CLIltural uneasiness concerning the value of empirical naturAPS111. In Hockney's work, however, this uneasiness was presented in a seemingly comic

The Henn, Geltizabler the character of reflective table glass structural in and manner. Cbristopber Scott, for example,was accomplishedwith unashalliedlykitsch hieroglyphic diagonal lines. The difference betweenHockney's Apollonian pseudo-Popand Ills Dionysian American Pop counterparts is nonethelessstated. While artists such as Lichtenstein and jokes on painting, Hockney createdaffirmative jests witbin painting. Warhol madedadaesqLIC In his related seriesOf PSCLICIO-forinalist experimentsw''th art'stIc devicesInterspersedwith his Hockney his imparted this work with naturalism, in new identity; cultivating O%Vu exercises demonstrating "again figurative while obsessions, and that again all art whether idiosyncratic doing, however, "56 In largely Hockney so abstraction. is avoided the or non-flgLirativc liability of art historical appropriation or of personal iconography found interpretative

53 HOCKNEY,

"R. B. Kitaj and David Hockney Discuss the Case for a Return to the Figurative... 'I, p76,

54 FULLER, "Ail Interview with David Hockney. Part 11",p7. 55 CHRISTIAN 1978. p232.

GEELHAAR, "Looking at Pictures with David Hockney",

Pantbeopt 36, Julv September

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Kitai's work. It would seemthat Hockney rather than Kitaj was creating an intelligible "sign its "57 constantly renews reference. which or mark of something In his numerous,tentative experimentsof the late-seventies,Hockney effectively reform by humanist terms, on achieving materialist some agenda of synthesis openedthe it: internalising and context reinventing a The form of the painting has to be dealt with; it's very complex. That's where find be If has into taken that synthesis,then you to account. you could modernism be [ ) lay The fuse is it that would really worthwhile. something audience with could ... lessinterestedin formal Problems;but the non-lay audienceis interestedin them, and 58 between. in So I'm thern. wedged criticises Hockney, like his friend Kitaj, seemedto be suggestingthat it was art critics and scholars- with had bugbears however, Unlike, Kitaj, the missed point. - who their narrow set of personal Hockney did not (evenironically) seekour sympathy. On the contrary, Hockney revelled in his his highly-respected, With 'establishment outcast'. charming paradoxical status as an demeanourof agnosticpragmatism,Hockney was in effect one of the first British artists to formed had for long critique an the and which so of opposition rhetoric effectively violate lead, Following Hockney's for 'advanced' art. contemporary a number of index of value between began later Eighties Seventies the the to spaces early seek out and British artists of the day. their dominant critical paradigmsof The most important branch of British art to develop from Kitaj and Hockney's for by Narrative Painting Timothy Hyman in the the shape of selected came pronouncements from before it September 1979, October in Bristol Gallery to where was shown Arnolfini Edinburgh. This Stoke-on-Trent London, ICA, to the and alerted artists the to travelling drawing figurative Art Pop Peterde importance to while attention artists such as of continuing Francia, Jeffrey Camp and Ken Kiff. It was rather prophetically suggestedthat exposureof forms less kinds 'naive', induce theoretical than the of obtusely a art of social might work such hoped Hyman Like Brighton, for Cork's to to also encourage artists exhibitions. produced art histories. Unsurprisingly this to art merely amounted an non-modernist, alternative, explore Eurocentric the of modern art, strong vision placing emphasis on male, white, alternative lessonsof Leger, Beckmannand Balthus since they made "a nonsenseout of all those schema 59 has been "beyond", " viewed as a progressto, or abstraction. by which the art of our time

56 ibid., p230. 57 KITAJ quoted in LIVINGSTONE, R.B. Kitaj, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, p17. 58 ibid. plO 59 Hyman 'discovered' many of theseartists by placing an advertisementin the letters page of Art Monthly.

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On the onehand,this createdsomeinterestin a newgenerationthat includedlittle Englanderssuch as Anthony Green,one of the few contemporary artists who represented hand, On to them! the the exhibition criticise attempting other without middle-classurbanites Alexander Scottish Marxian Moffat. the narrative painter to gaveexposure Moffat was slower to develop;a passionfor Leger helpedcommit him to socialism, he factory. de Through John Berger Peter Francia, in he met a to and work and went he de Francia's Camden Moffat first I two years ago was preparing encountered when 60 for dry Moffat's Kitaj. I [ graphic surfacerecalls admiration retrospective. ... the Moffat in turn adopted Hyman's thesiswhen teaching at Glasgow School of Art, with unexpectedresults: During and after the performancescamea seriesof figurative paintings featuring a him had him I I Hunt. I time these the same was painting at all called person... single 1940s murder magazines-I looked down and saw the headline: 'Is it Hunt or is it ... 61 falls from heights. lot He is athletic, wears a raincoat, walks around a and great has Singer', Kitaj's 'Joe Hunt Campbell's the use of many parallels with character Steven useof despitethe fact that Campbell's narrative approachwas in direct contrast to Kitaj's, (obscure historical than sources). If Joe Singerwas "an readily available art literary referencesrather Jew, in twentieth the the more specifically of and of man, a condition archetyperepresenting his incompetent Hunt trapped shadow, an voyager-detective postmodern then was century"62, his leitmotifs, Campbell Kitaj, Like to continued make use of own in a painted world. from one work to another: "I went to New York on the Fulbright and turned images recycling 63 for became Such " 'visual Hiker, Lost the title the into many of pictures. which the [Hunt] following forced Campbell's important increasingly became transferral to the influences art' Roger Hoare's Media Mixed Drawing Painting the closure of succeeding and Department of became Campbell's had Campbell (where tutor pursuedperformanceart). Department, Moffat. In line with Hyman's thesis,Moffat earnestlystressedto studentsthe importance of historical in Analogous Balthus. Beckmann art references quickly multiplied and Leger, his describe Glen "Sendak to as and conu-nentator paintings one Campbell's work, promoting 60 HYMAN, "Ten Younger Artists", Narrative Paintings: Figurative Art of Two GenerationsSelectedby Timotby Hyman, Arnolfini, Bristol, 1979, p28. 61 STUART MORGAN, "Soup's On: An Audiencewith StephenCampbell", Artscribe, No. 48, September/October1984, p33. 62 LIVINGSTONE, R.B. Kitaj, Phaidon, Oxford, 1985, p34. 63 STEVEN CAMPBELL quoted in MORGAN, "Soup's On: An Audiencewith StephenCampbell", p33.

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BaxterandearlyBalthuson a Boy'sLife junketto Fuseli-land? "64 Certainsimilaritiesbetween Campbelland Beckmanwerealsoevident,asCampbell'scommentaryon contemporaryevents becameincreasinglyoblique"tanglesof myth, allegory,anddream.,,65 It is, however,absurd his Campbell that simply abandoned to argue performance work in order to absorbHyman direct In demonstrated Campbell Moffat's thesis. contrast, that the applicationof pictorial and 'languages'necessitated their extension;sinceall languages are'impure', the proceduresof 4narrativepainting'mustconstantlymutate. By beingrestrictedto paint asa medium, Campbellwasensuredthat his work would evokea senseof his struggleto cometo termswith form Rather 'language'. decidedly than this a of expressionism, struggle'was unfamiliar a an later Moffat the match with archaic conventions of narrative wrestling painting, as staged pointedout: His monumental pictures - vivid in imagery,complex in detail and rich in formal invention - retain the deviceof the dramatically struck posefrom his earlier Unlike New Painters,Campbell's work the vast majority works. of performance free has of stylistic eclecticism or quotation and never concerneditself with remains 66 expressionistangst. Campbell's art school performancesinvoked a conceptualapproach to figuration, leading him 67 device. from image being Far Kitajesque than the as sign rather as expressive a an treating to his early paintings were designedto be read as frozen draughtsmanship, in exercises human figure, gesticulating,posing, sometimesover-acting, was the wherein performances balletic positions. "There is a tinge of SamuelBeckett in these in Mannerist, arranged 68 Indeed, by isn't Campbell 'situations' in gloomy.,, representing only the static absurdities, Hegelian senseof the word, Campbell encouragedviewers to recognisethat the absurd cannot be representedor performed without resorting to clich6:

64 BARRY YOUGRAU, "StevenCampbell", Arts Magazine,January 1984, plo. 65 This also differentiatesCampbell from Hyman's implicit criteria that narrative painting "should be in its it in direct 'naive' imaginative life, that approach should present or an vision of rather somesense HYMAN, " "Another Branch Family", position about art. the a strategic of taking up p5. than 66 ALEXANDER MOFFAT, "Telling Stories:A New Figuration in Glasgow 1980-85", New Image Glasgow, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, 1985, p6. 67 "... 'imagination' is so subordinatedby 'fancy' in Campbell that it is only perceptible, in the spirited The the of contingent the marks, admissions nickname nature of of signs. unseatingof rendering banishment linked is in to the the of 'expressionism',still the acceptedModernist imagination work MORGAN, Campbell: " "Steven The Scotland. Case his in Waggling Leg", Artforum, the native of stance December1984, p60. 68 LISA LIEBMANN, "StevenCampbell, BarbaraToll, New York, and John Weber Gallery, New York", Artforum, April 1984, p75.

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First I did the drawings for the flikcr's Ballet and I thought it was a marvellous idea (d fern flatten Itrying to across a stage it with his knapsack I. FNCI'ý'art a guy chasing a I've ever seen has always been boring. I I So that's why I plit a 'pcrtormance' ... feel it, to the represent way most people child in who go along to these yawning 69 tIllllgs.

WhHe the nblicu in which perkwmance rnight dchne itself is delineated in his paintings, Carnpbcll's characters appeared incapable of initiating incasurcs that il"Nct

upon and change

Where in significant way. changes in situation did occ,, r, lýjn, any their SitUatiOnS or _lscjpc buildings, rather than characters were represented as chWf aguns (A changn 111 nwn Wst-d linibs hikers his in boys their travel through with curnhersorne a mMd and whIch came and as The inaniniate been have in topsy-turvy. turned =rld of objects cornes alive. one effect bad design, hundred fl building from architect accuses its of a is ngers pointing I a out painting bricks. In Fern's Revenge the unwitting hiker hurtles to destruction ill a dricd-up swininling fcrn. -70 11, (, by aj'IPbcll's paintings nothing ever turned out as,we a vengeful tripped pool, did fall frustrated; his not characters always or were not most of their actions might expect; if break out of the vicious circle of their futile, to achieve prod the), unable Licti vcn ess, were were fate. in short they failed to become agents of history for themselves. They were blissfully isolated from historical reality appearing to know nothing of the world which has determined destiny. their

Their only actions were things

that related to the structure

of the painting,

fabric the very of their therefore which was perceived

history.

Figure 10.6 Steven Campbc1l Fern's Revet=

On the other hand, it could be argued disappearance of authorial that the implied Carnpbcll (what the calls work command over "summing the mistakes") and up of the product fragmentary and appearanceof problematic forced to the participate in viewers narratives his the interpretation of production as well as from Their of an not just one inferring interpretation was a sequenceof inotifs problern opus. have done with the work of the), descriptions that they as understood, might of events or

69CAMPBELL qUoted in PETER HILL, "Steven Campbell interviewed by Peter Hill Watts Bar, , Manhattan, December 1983", Alba, January 1984, p20. 70 TONY GODFREY, "British Painting at the Cross-roads", The New Image: Painting in the 1980s, Phaidon, Oxford, 1986, p99-100.

169

NudeReview

fitting ConradAtkinson,but of understanding exactlywbat wasbeingrepresented actions in intelligible We together an narrative. could,of course,maintainthat what andcharacters Campbellpresenteduswith wasno differentfrom Atkinson'sallegedlynon-fictionaldiscourse by how his functioned model showing art a communication accordingto and try to preserve late 1970s/early 1980s New Image Alternatively, (anti)conventions of painting. the established fact little in is forsake the that there models, view communication of such agreement we could denying By 'real' 'conventions' the mean. completely possibility of authorsand aboutwhat for latter Again, Campbell the the opted option. vital paradoxwhich effectively viewers, by Campbell in interviews 'bogus' told the truth the that customarily spoke who remainedwas false. is revealingthat everything On the onehand,by resistingthe discursivelogicof Art & LanguageandTerry favour Campbell in Atkinson'spost-conceptual of the poetica-logicof assonance, painting late for 80s. hand, dimensions On the the artists of post-conceptual other openedup new late in 70s Nude Review Campbell's the a product antics part of of - may misunderstanding The have the neo-conceptualism. ascendancy of neither/nor,either/or allowed critical well formula,muchlike that become has device and paradigmatic a paramount evasive rhetorical found in manybranchesof religiousmysticism.

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Rck:onsidcring I'licory

CHAPTER 11 Reconsidering Theory 1111974 no public gallery III 1,011dOllWould accept an exhibition of -16 women by (7-500, IAICY [Appard. 1111980 the 1(:/\ housed till-CC selected artists, conceptual filin feminist a exhibitions, woman's scason, a series of panel discussions Iml a major Questions Woman's Arl Involving artists from all these diows on conference weekend from I-, igbt Artists: Women: NSO At the ACIIIC tile those related venture as well Lis I gallery. Women's Images of Men opened In October 1980 111a blaze of public1tv. ( )II average day breaking to the a came see work, attendance records at the ICA a thousand people ) as well as at each venue III the subsequent tour. Figurative work, they believed, WOUldbe above all accessible: 'Fo reach beyond, but including, the women's movement and the usual visitors, to galleries was ()lie of their 3 major alljls. Women's issues were taken up briefly last year and then dropped ill favour of this both be Shouldn't topic, Vital alld COI]tlllLlllig areas ot working-class art. year's Ironically the women's movement is still considered politically marginal Lit Ll concern? time when most male practitioners of 'social purpose art; are political voycurs', but have Women's Movement, the shared a grass-roots Involvement III artists women most have felt their political commitments deeply and have fought for them daily III their 4 live's. personal For many the debates surrounding the 'return to painting' in the late 1970s, were and remain denunciations The of painting as a commodity and negatively an exclusively inale affair. de-niatcrialisation helped is "I'll 197(), the to the continue pro'ccts of earlier gendercd niedia, historically untenable given that the end of the I 970s also saw a number of however, is view, I bccon-ung dissatisfied with radical tiona artworld circles increasingly veil con within women Spcncc for one had ccrtainly suggested a critique of KcIly's icotioclasni. Critical acadcmicisill. Spencc's Barthesian interest In myth of pictorial rlictoric, and confrontation photographers'

1 ROZSIKA PARKER, "Feminist Art Practices ill Women's Images of Men, About Time and Issue", Art Monthly, No 43,198 1, p 16. MORREIAU and CATHERINE EIWES, "Lighting a Candle", in SARAH KENT and MORREAU, Women's Images of Men, Writers and Readers Publishing Co-operative Society, London, Arnolfini The Gallerv, Bristol; SoLith Hill Park, Bracknc'll, Berkshire; The were: venues 1985, p13. other The Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; The Universitv of Wales, Abcrystwyth; The Third 1--yeCentre, Dublin. Art Centre, Project and the

2JACQULINE

3 PARKER, "Feminist Art Practices in Women's Images of Men, About Time and Issue", p 16. 4 MARY KELLY, "The Crisis in Professionalism", Studio International, 2/1978, p82.

Volume 194 Number 989,

171

Rcconsidcring 'I'licory

for proviLlcd a grOL111d women's intm, ciltion

in painting

and more triditional

fornis oI

I SC Ll 1-)t ki I-C -

1978 Hayward Lippard,

Annual consolidated

tlicsc vlovs.

female jury chosc the second I layward an entirely

197/7 cxhibition,

Followlill, Annual

the catalogue Provided Cxtcllslvc Information

by hicy sLiggcstl()Il .1 lidd

11119/ x. UnIlikc in thc

about [Ile artists and their work,

hand the 78' Annual was On Kent by Sarah the lntcrvicwcd cach artist. who one written for its cxtrcmc sclf-consciousness: liotable if the flayward Annual Of CUrimit British art was an 'art-political event' this second While be so. it is Of COLirscprimarily an art show, it was also more olle ShOLIld still 'bring to to the attention oI the publIc mind: political goal in overtly an with chosen Britain '5 the the of women artists in in context work of a mixed of show. the quality on the other hand it paralleled the Art for Wbom ethic: A national group show - if it is indeed a survcy of the art being Illade rathcr 111,111 the licing shown - ShOLIld includc artists of varied agc, political and acsilictic art already I)c location 'Flicre scx and and ycs racc. sonicthing should perSI-13SIOll,geographical 6 for cvcrybody.

'4), I;

a,

P

4, Marý Kelly's Post-Partum Document and 'feminist' such works as Included were canonical Susan Hiller's Fragments 1 Figures Fear. 11,1 (Detail) Approacb (1976-78) to Hunter's Alex's Tony Cragg (installation)] the with work 11.2 soine similarities of artists such shared as and both of whom would go on to achieve fame in the earIN 1980s as part of Woodrow, Bill and

5 LUCY R. LIPPARD, "Thc Anatomy of an Annual", HaNwwrd Annual '78, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978, pl. 6 Ibid., p2.

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RcconsideringThcory

7 Tisson Group' Within the context of the of of sculptors. group male the predominately 1978' Hayward Annual, thesesimilarities were not noticed. Hiller, who trained as an for her found her Focusing the artefacts as raw materials artworks. used anthropologist, by Pueblo Indian broken of pottery made women, she sought to question pieces on attention her had been Such theirs. role as an artist with work underrated comparing cultural context, by anthropologists by being relegatedto the status of 'craft'. Hiller pointed out that Pueblo from between interaction innovation, just ideas derived tradition an and their as a women fine Western artist might. contemporary Curiously, the practicesof artists within our own culture are rarely investigatedby derived from certain assumptions artmay perpetuate anthropologists, whose opinions historical descriptionsof the art of previous eras,which are then projected on to the 8 situations of other societies.

it dilemma that recreatedmanyof the problemsassociated with the was The with suchwork implying incorrectly intellectual', that anyexaminationof the givensof culturemust 'universal being it: from outside of a sense arise Hiller studied anthropology and so is able to turn her exclusion to advantage,studying 9 hill tribe. her society as though it were someremote being was overlooked in an effort to retain the Again, the central problem of crisis criticism feminist The Kelly, Hiller Hunter 'critical' work of and was politically practice. illusion of a feminist but by in intent, thereby simply women, not was which work alongside shown Each into diversity their artist was separated off own art. of women's the to testifying bourgeois of notions artistic autonomy, separating women's reinforcing space, exhibition flippant in The from their press responded popular usual manner men's. activity artistic humorous belittlement The Female Twist, in safe superiority and their coy "revelling No Deadlier Annual, Male, Ladies First, Ladies Night Own Girl's than Gallery, the Wayward 10 Side. " Distaff Hayward, at the

Thus,asthe eventturnedout, it wasthe locusof a conflict of expectationsand had by initiated The a show saw women artists aspart of a art world results. unexpected 7 SeeChapter 15 Who am I? Where am I Going?How much will it Cost?Will I needany Luggage? 8SUSANHILLER, "Art and Anthropology I Anthropology and Art" (6the May 1977), reprinted in Conversations Susan Art: Hiller, About Manchester University Thinking EINZIG with ed. BARBARA 1996, Manchester, p209. Press, 9 KENT, "Feminism and Decadence",Artscribe, No. 47, July/August 1984, p57. 10 GRISELDA POLLOCK, "Femininity, Feminismand the Hayward Annual", Feminist Review, No. 2, 1979, p43.

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'feminist'inspiredassaulton the art establishment.Expectingthe showthereforeto be feminist,it experienced somereliefwhenit wasnot so,which is evidentin the reviews. It wasafter all 'no deadlierthan the male'.Women'sdifferentsituationin art practice did boat the not rock asexpected wasthereforeobscuredonceagain;womenwho having back Feminists, offered a very good art exhibition. as on the werewelcomed did little few hand, that than more showa artistswho sawan exhibition other betrayal female, born be happened their that was of to and response at a wasted for failing in issues the art selected, to and address political criticism opportunity,of 11 band-wagon jumpers. as attackon the organisers domination by be failed it that the to critique of and exploitation made mentioned In all of this, have been Kelly feminist taken the as an example of might such as artists politically its the ambition actually mystifies theory, all-encompassing where of misappropriation from focused detracts Certainly, in the argument. a and more oppression specific of operations developments the the written since mid-80s, of such summaries postmodern of number between discourses discourse, the verbal and visual and playing incorporation of theoretical but be followed feminist by the the to artists, also agenda only not to exemplify taken was by is form, suggestingthat practice simply scripted theory, that work servesonly to exemplify the master text. become have somethingto which cultural and media studiesmake photographs ... but in practices, the the and this of genres specificity case reference, regular has diluted into systems of with generalised a concern the medium of environments for fragmentary a a moment, a metaphor appears as representation;photography 12 by larger story such as the domination of culture the visual. ideological imperatives, Thatcher 'women' Margaret 1979, in that proved as Coming to power bullying, as materialistic as any be prescriptive and matriarchal and exclusionary as could damaging, be blinkered. In cruel, and a certainly more could and patriarchs, or paternalists last stand to the reactionary climate of 1980, the ICA staged About Time, an paternalistic by installation, Issue: Social Strategies and and performance video women's of exhibition by Lucy Lippard. largely Both international were Artists, chosen shows show an Women forms in in 1978 politics explored of art exhibitions organised the politicised with continuous by latest Lippard Cork, Like the Cork. as a critic emerged supporting by Richard before 'socially to in endorse converting more purposeful' art, developments conceptual had Cork, largely While ignored the time, the at practices. art feminist and community had her by Lippard it to to used second women, give wind made art to political contribution balance based issue last ICA The the with a series of shows redressing was at career. critical

11 ibid. 12 JESSICAEVANS, "Introduction", The Camerawork Essays:Context and Meaning in Pbotograpby, 1997, London, Press, p18. Oram River

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ReconsideringTheory

by however, late, It by work too containing women. and was, women unwittingly organised failed: had the critics takingup where crisis The 'Issue' artists, armed with articulate jargon and backed,sometimesunwittingly, by strong Left theoretical positions, presentedtheir socio-political outreach work as the hierarchical dawn. Operating feminist within a scaleof progressand correctness new in women's art and a degreeof cultural chauvinism (both tacitly endorsedby the ICA), Figurative to most other positions. marginalise painting and sculpture, they attempted femaleimagery,the femaleimagination and sensibility, subjectivity and expressiveness [ ] were now regardedas inappropriate to the ideologicalcauseand ten yearsout of ... date.13

Despiteits merit, the curatorialstancetakenby Issuehadalreadyreceiveda bashingin the lacked based how USA, Lippard her pet critical in Being the a clear Britishart press. graspof that hadarisenaroundthe British issuesmight haverelatedspecificallyto thecontroversies four Council the Arts years.Much of the rhetoric,therefore,seemedasidealist over previous feminism based its The British biological that producers the attacked. critics andoutdatedas SarahKent andJacquelineMorreau,beingmorein tunewith the prevalentspirit of reactionin by far the to to them the critical opportunityoffered Britain,were moreadeptat responding Images Men. By Women's 1980manypeopleacrossthe political of ICA whentheyorganised left The 'feminism'. from the tired to of critiquesof were radical the right extreme spectrumfollowed feminism Thatcher's that victorywereasshallowand self-serving 'secondgeneration' her politics. as Mary Kelly made one of the most courageousfeminist artworks of the decade. In imagesand texts Post-Partum Document studied her relationship with her son over life, illustrating Lacan's first and extending analysisof the negative of years six the In its both the theoretically and sophistication patriarchy. position of women within 14 however, it formally - the work, spokemainly to those to which referred. Our [ ...I point was that a substantialgroup of women artists were using figuration and highly in ideas their personalways; they were neither represented narrative to explore by the feminist avant-gardewhich like the male mainstreamrejectedfiguration or by 15 feminist directly artists. the more feminists' Image continued to produce within the vigorous political and theoretical 'New during 1970s, incorporating by the early the movement actively women's debatescreated However, Post-painterly Text-asinto their processes. working media theory and reflection 13 MONICA PETZAL, "Questions on Women's Art Conference",Art Montbly, Number 42, 1980181, p23. December/january 14 KENT, "Scratching and Biting Savagery",in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, p4. 15 MORREAU and ELWES, "Lighting a Candle", in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, p13.

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ReconsideringTheory

longer Photo-as-Text Text-as-object, intrinsic and to the construction were no commentary, been had Kelly's The 'feminist', they succeeding work. as resultsof this paradigmshift, were of Alexis in Hunter: the of erstwhile practice sernio-photographer visible clearly [Hunter has] returned to painting, using it as a vehicle for virulent attacks on Considering Theory (1982) in shows a woman values. mortal conflict with patriarchal has been her downfall instrument that the of own and the excuse serpent the phallic for restricting her potential. The painting's title also encouragesone to read it as an individual 1970s that throughout the the stifled expression academicism and on attack 16 discouragedpainting and sculpture. This encouragesus to ascertainto what extent Hunter's paintings were a critique or a product long discredited by feminists individualism Marxists ideology expressive of and alike. of the On the one hand, her inclusion in Women's Images of Men was designed less to ensure a it than of women's representational art was to provide a polemic account comprehensive figurative Although Hunter's for its a subversive art practice. as recognition calling desire the as an art of and unconscious which nonetheless celebrated were representations fundamental 'real', to this seen a was as means ask questions about the interrogated the Other to to to self not-self or and conscious consciousness. unreality, reality of relationship by this to claim suggestingthat the New Women's Image Concertedefforts were made assert displacedthe male New Image. By accusingthe male New Imageof infusing the market-place be into it a vacillating performance could claimed of vacuous motifs, by transforming painting long-established Hunter's part of a serious, and critique of representation were paintings that 1978): Rape Harrison's Margaret of (e.g. The exhibitions made a huge impact on the British art scene. It can be claimed that Women'sImagesof Men acceleratedthe adoption of the New Image as the new avant17 [ ] New Imagetook from women's art a characteristicfor which it has garde. ... beencondemned- eclecticism,previously known as plagiarism. But where women refeminist ideas to their traditional craft skills project a and within work old styles framework, New Image indulgesin aimlesshistory-hopping or plunders popular failure [ ] The New Image for the to of purpose. artists say particular no culture ... figuration that working artists with women and narrative are anything new confirms 18 1980s. the true innovators of the

16 KENT, "Scratching and Biting Savagery",Ibid., p4-6. 17 MORREAU and ELWES, "Lighting a Candle", ibid., p24. 181bid., p24-25.

176

Reconsidering ThL'Ory

Figure 11.3 Alexis I funtcr, Passionale Instincts V1. ( 1983 ý

Jýyestablishing a critiqLIC of the character and politics of their feminist to rcpresentations with regard politics, narratives and myths, women finally have to produced ail were seen feminist possibilities in effective set of Nc\%, For the male unlike example, art. Image, it was claimcd, I luntcr did not did shu world, nor alternative an create Instcad the medium. of the pUrity assert fOrCCd the to void we expcricrICC articulate WlIC11 to C01111-011t tile 1111poSsli)IC, she anned her formation. As such, the task the of reversing unrcalisable own CUltural representing dissolving Image, New succeeded in ail order experienced as oppressive arld women's insufficicnt.

The idea that feminism's greatestcontribution to art was its lack of contribution to modernism is a tenuousclaim, especiallygiven its central role in the neo-niodcriust scinio-art of the 1970s.

Feminists may have greatly aided in the creation of 70s pluralism,

possibility

feminism of

relativism

this intimates. is something

artworld substituted

existing as a political

Rejection of the Modernist

history was Platonic.

Was Unilincar and conformist,

be excessively complex, art would too 'subversive'

therefore

a revisionist,

of art. As with art for society, the construction

If Modernism

to be understood

alternative

terms.

(yet

of this alternative

made up of heroes, then

made tip of thousands of artists/groups in modernist

of the

canon required that It be

(or revised) by an inside view of the feminist artworld,

equally canonical)

feminist

force would necessitate that it resist the absolute

Hence, the idea that women were able to escape the liticarisin

of a myth.

hcrstory

but the very

and

(Of Course, if feminism

really

hybrid it was said to be, there would be little basis for be discussion. the to ) allowed its were Essentially, Modermst

then, this was the self same Hegellanisin

which had driven the majority

of

history and C111tUralproduction. of accounts

In all, this raisesthe question of what constitutes 'subversion'. The subversiveand by implication the revolutionary was simply identified as that which transgresscs and contradicts Moreover, it was effectively equated with misrule, chaos and ideological dominant order. the The irruption of the repressed is itself seen as a radical event leading had Punk However, as transformation. already proven, the notion that resistance to real social be development through the 'negative', simply generated can the order the of social is one to double-think 'hip' to the patriarchy challenge in no age of presented monetarist Late which unconscious irrationality.

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ReconsideringTheory

Capitalism-19Indeed, like the 1978 Hayward Annual, Women'sImagesof Men was not but Once belittlement-20 "coy the celebrated. tolerated, repressively more, of the repressively been had it 'subversive' that not even enoughto encouragethe conservative signalled press backlashwhich met the Tate Bricks, or the moral panic which followed in the wake of Prostitution. Had this beenthe case,the Thatcher Governmentwould have beeneagerto designed by the to gain support threatening artworld expenditure with public cuts capitalise, for its (at this stageunpopular and unsuccessful)monetarist policies. 'Subversively'speaking, Women'sImagesof Men was not so much an insurrection of the artworld, as a cautious it. to modernise attempt There was a more substantial dangerfor women in equating them with the identify dominant This in irrational. to they the continues women as are unconsciousand in Women, illogical. This irrationalism. other words, are view was culture, with art and inadvertently encouraged. Following the crisis critics, Women'sImagesof Men suggestedthat be irrelevant debates to agency etc. were so abstruse as concerningrepresentation, practice and lives. Excessive theoretical the the the consideration missed urgency of role people's to most feminists Like Burgin, 80s New Image in Hunter the such visual arts. as women could perform for become 'feminist' However, this there to was call on occasion no art practice wished to act. 21 be it in the that simply should practical semiotics", assertion "a matter of practical work last had been dragged into All the by theory at too women's art minute, a often women. work in 'reading' continues to practice which modernist modesas explorations of theoretical adjunct has been / Kristeva. 'universal' painter. body woman usedas a new means woman radical of the feminine, for in determined in 'feminist' the women's value already over case to argue a feminine difference. As to 'Other' radicalise any attempt mark of such as an and as position for women painting for The in be to claims art's cognitive opposition significance. to reclaimed tended identifying is instances, in their artists women of painting with a number a result, 22 feminine Other. intuitive, repressed, because her it to to speakoutside the allowed painting that returned she Hunter's claim lack female implicitly theoretical of a competence equated with constraints of theory, 19 SeeChapter 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde

2-0GRISELDA POLLOCK, "Femininity, Feminismand the Hayward Annual", Feminist Review, No. 2, 1979, p43. 21 VICTOR BURGIN, "Introduction", Two Essayson Art Pbotograpby and Semiotics, Robert Self publications, 1976, p2. 22 JOHN ROBERTS, "Painting and SexualDifference", Postmodernism,Politics and art", Manchester University Press,1990, p166.

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ReconsideringTheory

The of this wasthe generalemergence within women'spaintingof selfconsequence creativity. The inadequacy female the avoidance of questions on adequacy of of consciousness. validating knowledge is Of defended is that the grounds objective male subjectivity. on course, theories function be in it in to some manner, must must possible exhibit ways giventhat representation feminism image different As functions. it that the claims new exercised such, a classof which desire determine in it logic, to the recognisable ways our which resisted which pictorial its Like Burginian justification to the cognise existence. politicsof no operates,provided feminism image it the to opposed, new to was partially ultimately refused which representation bestow helped A it its this that to the corollary of was own rhetoric. admitthe contingencyof its Given that the the critical of apologists. majority writings upon complexity of appearance discussion frame in female to the their of work all-encompassing refused painters the new of beganto defendtheir work with textswhich hardly is it that critics surprising theatricality, brand for Peter Fuller's Replacing been have the of mysticriticism. mistaken well might form detached the a of representation with more politically engaged politics of project allegedly feminist indeterminate the a competitive advantage, painters certain of mysticriticismgave defenders by devices that their the their supporting ensuring central arguments used rhetorical debate. Objectors located, in 'feminist' be to the new any a vantage point easily work couldnot be denounced. As believers image be the such, new must treated who naive as paintingcould logic 'will be that the to the given of the power', feminismcould seenasan exampleof 'convincing' to many: was deconstructive methodology be them turned to that the on and The women returned gaze usually refused how Tickner's Lisa In 'How It threatening, act. words, objectified. was a subversive disruptive, to return to the scrutiny; to attempt at least to stay author of one's own look; coolly to appraisethe male not just in himself, but as a bearer, rather than a 23 maker of significance., How 'subversion'. threatening or constitutes exactly, Again the question arisesof what, by (i. "makers it the significance" e. of men) mirroring their disruptive was to oppose Was work "providing a far-ranging appraisal of women's experienceof production? 24 demand for I [ as a querulous mistakenly role reversal"? entirely viewed society ... patriarchal deconstruct Theory did the that circumstances of patriarchy given the show in which senses how Did importance? deemed publicity, longer women artists simply need primary of no was be to rhetoric? attention paying without political they could Images Men] in Women's [included of was neither sophisticated Much of the work it had failed ironically, in succeeded where radical formally nor theoretically yet, art 23 PARKER, "Feminist Art Practicesin Women's Imagesof Men, About Time and Issue", p16. 24 Ibid.

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ReconsideringTheory

both the the the channelling rage and of general attention public maleand capturing female.[ ] And althoughmuchof thework waspoliticallynaive,the exhibition ... have be impact ironically, to than all the theoretically greater said political could, 25 'alternative'manifestations put together. sophisticated, This clearly rejectedthe structuralist critique of the assumptionthat political content can exist The impact is form in that populist claim political vice-versa. measured and without Thatcherite between figures the gerrymandered confusion mirrors critical success attendance had become by however, There that the common mid-1980s. were, and statistical success from feminism New Image "was itself illuminating": that the arose the that publicity claims

Critical discourseworkedto containthe discomfortprovokedby the show. On the denied 'fair', 'interesting', 'not hand it the was exhibition entirely was one highly flattering In it Amazonian', to the male ego. even other words was particularly feminine But to the the exhibitionwasoften stereotype. comfortingly to seen conform outpouringsof unrepresentative neurotics:an asthe aggressive characterised feminist by It 'sabotaged to to the seen conform anger'. was stereotypeendeavour 26 be dismissed denigrated. and ugly and extremist, able to

be barometer the these could celebrated show as providing responses, a of In the contextof its highlighting to the assimilate media's ability or negate critique of patriarchal patriarchy, be had been however, The It seen as a subversive strategy. press not values. couldnot, have into Indeed, had transformed the event as we seen, spectacle. effortlessly infiltrated, they 'subversion' identification the of actively encouraged of women the organiser'sunderstanding irrationalism. with The reception of the exhibition indicateswhy somefeminists consider that introducing bitter insufficient. For have itself is in example, somewhat experiences novel content imagesof women', though an important means 'positive feminists that called so shown have not beenable to radically challengethe among women, raising of consciousness 'woman' in Because depend of art. connotations meanings on narrow meaningsand how the art is seen, from what ideological position it is received,the most decisively feminist image of a woman can be recuperatedas body, as nature, as object for mate 27 possession. 25 KENT, "Scratching and Biting Savagery",in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, p8. had It is impact it the true to that politica of exhibition. say createdinterest in the the Kent exaggerates by However, 1980, the art of women's among the awareness public. press achieved a result as and press Women's Images Men art. out of contemporary capital of appealedto them making of had grown weary it was novel, enablingthem to ridicule both art and women. In no sensewas the because simply it by taken the simply wasn't of art, the sanctity seriously enough on attack an as seen exhibition patriarchal press. 26 PARKER, "Feminist Art Practicesin Women's Imagesof Men, About Time and Issue", p16. Parker's Note 'arguments' the that the exhibition. the of is of reception she cites are not representative more view behind but Again, the ' the motivation it regarding pictures' this is contents. questions clich6s, 'but art? but 'art', to the threat status of threat as a to seen rather not as a the was male values work that suggests decorum. fen-dnine beauty and of aesthetic 27 Ibid., p17.

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ReconsideringTheory

dealers The ICA seasonnot only gaveconfidenceto individualartists,but encouraged 28 to promotewomen'swork. andexhibitionorganisers While 'women' were certainly better able to progressin their careersas professional artists, it is important to rememberWalter Benjamin'scaveatthat to give the 'masses'an opportunity for is social a corresponding economic and equity a characteristic of without self-expression fascism. The passionfor 'diversity' manifestedin exhibitions such as the 1978 Hayward Annual and Women's Imagesof Men was dramatically at odds with and accompanied increasingly harsh governmentalpolicies towards the culturally disenfranchised,who tended to be the very groups that art institutions championedat the representationallevel. At what cost was the ICA show's success?Was it acceptablefor women artists to becomemore prominent after severelycompromising their work? Kent's quest for critical from for indistinguishable female for the quest commercial success, artists was often acclaim for "Honour, Power and the Love of Women". A fact neverpointed out by feminist critiques had fetishistic Kent Allen Jones' that, two staged earlier, an exhibition years of of the show was led Jones' Anger ICA. the to tit-for-tat that the at content of work a proposal at paintings Thus, images in be their to of men. present protest, part an opportunity given women should her own exhibition, provided the impetus for another show by Kent towards generated 29 little doubt that much of the outraged responseto Jones' sadois There by Kent. organised hot favourite liberal (then the among a more arthouse milieu of punkj was masochistic work, however, reekedof the worst excessesof 1970s artworld careerism. Kent's response, genuine. Vie desirefor women to accomplishthe highestlevel of achievementclearly exploited the long discredited notion of 'genericwoman'. For Kent to claim that women suffer artistically as denominators that they them than other mark as socially suffer under acutely more women be in that artist's primary allegiance should threatening as a woman solidarity or 'less than' or inherently to the conservative, appertaining modernist and romantic was women other with fantasy of total self-expression,and the signification of the gestureas a mark of the painter's have been Kent's constructed. anti-painting arguments pro-active many presenceupon which feminism was bound to be acceptableto the British art establishmentsince its basiswas

30 Darwinism. Thatcherite social with compatible

28 KENT, "Scratching and Biting Savagery",in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, p8. 29 TAM GILES, "Women's Imagesof Men", Art Montbly, Number 42, December/January1980181, P19. 30 "1 will support the effort of any woman to define herselfthrough her production becauseI know how becausea woman did it. Peoplesay to me there is. I it But difficult all work cannot support much more had I If in big choice and most the a women artists. women artworld are appalled star more any aren't having between Georgette the three I art stars who spend all more women money at this when say for health 400 women in the South Bronx I would pick the latter. Bloomingdales care and Clinger and

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ReconsideringTheory

To attackthe canonby promotingthe generically'female'riskedthe claim to be define limits. Having said this, if we cannot define limits (since to to culturally pure, attempt difference is 'real' is be destinedto there to no speak aesthetic of), society would everything become increasinglyconformist. Pushedto an extreme, liberalism might deny difference. Women's Imagesof Men could, therefore, be a justifiable cultural intervention only in so far as it extended the debateby taking it into the (male capitalist) marketplace: Lisa Milroy's rapid rise to attention would have beenunthinkable five years ago, household dress her items that would no of use of subject matter given or especially doubt have beendenouncedas 'feminine' or 'domestic'. Amanda Faulkner's doubtlessly have delight. than would provoked anger women rather confrontative ThereseOutlon's ambitious and elegiaclandscapeswould probably have passed 31 unnoticed or evengone unmade.

What is appalling to me is the idea of women within the artworld, entering the market, doing work, and have how " BARBARA KRUGER, "Barbara Kruger to struggle. are, and we we what with concerned not interviewed by John Roberts", Art Montbly, DeclJan1983/4. Number 72, p18. 31KENT, "Scratching and Biting Savagery",in KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, p 10.

182

Sch"oling

Londoll

CHAPTER 12 Schooling London It is ironic that it was in the heyday of conceptual demands for a return that angrý art human to concerns should have reached their most vociferous, since this art, with in art (by contrast its often provocative insistence on narrative and emotional subject-niatter with abstraction and Minimal art) was itself a symptom of the return to the figurative that we are experiencing now. It is always likely, therefore, that without interference from art institutions the deficiencies of one phase of art be redressed by the next. But again, what, meanwhile, is to be the fate of the finest art on which the community S does dramatically Are switchback rides not shine? or cyclical patterns desirable, or sun I fact, necessary? even, in

On the crest of this 'new wave' bobs a very famillar, large, dlscýirdedcork. I was interested myself in people like Auerbach and Bacon. Peter canic to tile School of London during a time in which they \,,,crc very well established. So I didn't siccthem as tainted by Peter, but I thought that it was Unfortunatc that their work was being perceived by young people as an illustration of what Peter was trying to do. ý' dealers They didn't like this the the the museum people, public, protested. artists, .. had been developed they the essential values as of of over the centuries art suppression 4 back in an explosive way. and are now coming In his introduction to The Human Clay in 1976, Kital had coincd the terin, the 'School of London', for Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Howard Hodgkin and Leon Kossoff. Observing links between their figurative approaches, Kital hoped that this group force, and would develop into something comparable to Dickens and 'potent' become a would T. S. Eliot. A difficult concept to grasp, given the variable characteristics of the artists involved,

Kital here made the observation that this 'School' ývasIn part defined by a monastic attItilLIC: Bacon has bccri painting in the same rooni for over thirty years a room so tiny it would fit In 11.1liallSchriabcl's bathroom. Freud and Kossoff and Auerbach have been in the . for Aucrbach's rarely working stopping. years, working and roonis small studio sarne looks like a dungeon. They hardly leave London. I don't think the), ever cross London.

RICHARD MORPHET, "A Curatorial View", The Hard-Won Image: Traditimi, 11Metbod and Subject in Recent Britisb Art, The Tate G,allery, Millbank, London, 4th julv -9th September 1984, p46. 2 PETER FULLER, "On Social Functionalism-,

Artscribc, No. 13, August 1978, p43.

3 Interview with RICHARD CORK, QueensPark, London, Februarv 1998. 4 CHRISTOS JOACHIMEDES, "How They Got it [A Netv Spirit in Painting] Together", Art Montbly, Number 43, February 198 1, p4. 5 R.B. KITAJ, The Human Clay, Hay\vard Gallery, Arts COUncil 1976.

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In 1977,the majority of criticsweredespondent of the kind of art which Kitaj and Hockney dismissive, Fuller, Peter typically was remarkingthat muchof TheHuman were promoting. Clay show"consistedof imagesby sweatylife-classtraditionalists,thosewho still wearEuston 6 Road spectacles...,,Lessthan threeyearslater,however,Fullerwas the mostardentamongan 7 held School London inheritors "Bomberg the of and the tradition" of the army of critics who in Western be the artists the world. accomplished most to

I think that moreandmoreof usarecomingto realisethat artistslike Warhol, Hamilton,Victor Burgin,Mary Kelly,Atkinson,Willats, etc,werejust decadentstylists has The Modernism. Late the greatestradicalsignificance art of recentyearswhich of by contrastoften hasno immediatepolitical contentor context. Furthermore,it elements containsmanystylisticallyconservative - suchasa commitmentto oneof the traditionalmaterialpractices,painting,sculpture,or drawing. The art of the seventies defend by includes, left in Creffield, Kossoff, the my view, works should which Auerbach,Kit.aj, the Wimbledonsculptors,De Francia,andyes,evenHoylandat his 8 best. The catalystsfor this critical shift were numerous. Fuller's close involvement with John Tagg, Andrew Brighton and Richard Cork saw him launch comparableattacks on modernism, and Council's Arts the relationship with the political avant-garde. concerning the controversies Unlike his fellow crisis critics, however, Fuller was somethingof a mongrel convert to populism. While studying at Peterhouse,Cambridgein the late 1960s, the influence of Walter Benjamin led him to attempt to formulate a seriesof 'Marxist' theories of expression: Berger9 John and I reject the idea that there is such a thing as a "scienceof aesthetics",or a legitimate lead identification "objective", "formal" to the a critic which can analysis of of method "permanent", "culture free", universal" or "fundamental" aestheticattributes within a I Things in [ the are without world meaning, or signification, or of art. given work ... between "formal" [ ] their parts, or or component aesthetic value. visual relations ... the consciousness of all the other viewers of the work are not and consciousness my ... 10 by history. determined is identical or fixed. Consciousness during late Marxism 70s, it was Fuller towards the to congenial Although claimed remain during the period that be beganto experiencea "growing dissatisfactionwith the aridity of

6 ]FULLER, "The Crisis in British Art", Art Montbly, Number 8, June 1977, p 8. 7 FULLER, "Towards a Theory of Expression", Art Monthly, Number 36, May 1980, p5. 8 Ibid. p6. 9 SeeFULLER. "William Morris", Art Montbly, Number 46, May 1981, p12-16. 10 FULLER, "Problems of Art Criticism", in BRANDON TAYLOR, Art and Criticism: A Symposium Art School Press, Art 1976, Winchester 1979, p22-23. School Winchester of of Held at

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11 left debate Unlike New " Right, Fuller the the the visual arts. about current of was much interestedin rescuingthe emancipatory view of the aestheticratherthan simplywith the finding 12 burdens Fuller's the to of capitalism. shift uncomfortable peculiarlynarrow somewhere led him believe Herbert Marcuse, (limited to to of one point) not only that an aesthetic reading dimensionwasexemptfrom the distortionsof capitalism,but that it wasthe potentialsaviour he began As to endeavourto redressthe consciousness. such oppressed and of repressed Grundisse by in introduction dialectic Marx (1857), to the the the namely, raised problem interpretationsof art andthe seeminglyconstantappealthat persists betweensocio-ideological in artworks,despitetransformationsin historicalor ideologicalstructures.This aspiration (1980), formedthe mainstayof Fuller'sthreecollectionsof writingsArt and Psychoanalysis Beyondthe Crisisin Art (1980),SeeingBerger-A Revaluation(1980). The writings of Raymond Williams, Perry Anderson, Edward Thompson, Sebastiano Timpanaro and William Morris on the subjectof Marxism had a particularly strong influence 13 On during Timpanaro's Materialism (1975)14, Following Fuller's this period. revisionism on Fuller came to believethat there were "enduring representations"in art - such as imagesthat less for love death, birth, possessing a or constant appeal and more reproduction, pertain to biological reasons: I have found myself forming the view that a central flaw within classicalMarxism was its lack of any adequateconception of man's relationship to nature, indeed of man, not limited but by ideological species, a relatively constant, as a specific entity, as an dependent biological upon natural processesand a natural world condition, underlying 15 he cannot command. features, in 'renaissance' essential namely the much questioned of art's a Fuller quickly ushered human "psycho-biological "authenticity". "the expression" and condition", categoriesof

11FULLER, "Preface", Art and Psycboanalysis,Writers and ReadersPublishing Co-operative Limited, London, 1980, p242. 12The generalemphasisof Fuller's argumenthad, at this point, much in common with JURGEN in HAL FOSTER, The Anti-Aestbetic. An Project", Incomplete "Modernity reprinted ed. HABERMAS' USA 1983, The Bay Press, Culture, Postmodern p3-16. Essayson 13SeeSEBASTIANO TIMPANARO, "The FreudianSlip", New Left Review, Number 91, May-June Timpanaro's Freudian Slip", Freud New Left "Review: RYCROFT, CHARLES and 1972, p43-56, 8 RAYMOND 1979, WILLIAMS, November-December "Problems of 118, Number and p81-8 Review, Number Review, 109, May-June New Left 1978, p3-18. Timpanarol", [Sebastiano Materialism 14 "... as the Italian Marxist SebastianoTimpanaro puts it, 'a man as a biological being has remained beginnings from to the present;and those sentimentsand the of civilisation unchanged essentially human facts have biological little! to the of existence changed very closest are representationswhich Expression", Theory "Towards p4. of a ]FULLER, 15FULLER, "In Defenceof Art" (1979), Beyond the Crisis in Art, Writers and ReadersPublishing CoLondon, 1980, p242. Limited, operative

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Although Fuller continued to ally these'permanent' valueswith contingent values, he in them seem contradictory, order to place greatestemphasison the made nonetheless his devotion biological Given to reductionism16, it would appear rather ironic transcendental. for Fuller to have criticised "much officially sponsoredart practice, an influential school of art history, and a great deal of art criticism," on the grounds that it tended to reduce art to 17 Fuller regardedcritical postmodernistsand Marxist critics such as ideology, tout court. Berger,Terry Eagleton,Tim Clark, and GriseldaPollock as a puritanical moralising clerisy who in Trinity 'race, the the artworld name of a postmodern of classand gender', policed virtually impulse inside What Fuller the of sixties the and early seventies out. emancipatory turning believedamounted to a philistine fear of art, perpetratedunder a false rhetoric of care and defenceof the marginalized,was seento dominate everythingthis oxymoronic 'radical disenchanted Thoroughly Left's Fuller joined the touch, touched. with miasmic orthodoxy' Tagg in in Brighton, Cork, crisis announcing a art. and with As early as 1976, however, the career-mindedFuller was sagaciousenough to state that his emphasiswas distinct from the Marxist principles of the core group of crisis critics; indeed become his to was soon maligning the politicisation which prevalent critical pursuits one of 18 The development Fuller's debates had encouraged. of critical postmodernist practicesand ideas in this period has to be seenagainstthe context of the changesin the art press. Brighton dominating Tagg join in Studio for invited John International he Fuller to them and claims that 19 his Cambridge Fuller Quickly and taking advantageof connection. left-wing art criticism,

16 SeeFULLER, "Towards a Theory of Expression", and FULLER "Art and Biology [following Number 132, March-April New Left Review, 1982, p83-96. In many ways Timpanaro]", Sebastiano biocriticism have be to the to clumsily revived something similar essentialist practised by Fuller can seen for formalism. in 70s For example in "Female feminist the as critics early a replacement and artists inany Summer 1, 1973, 1-14, Miriam Shapiro journal, Womanspace pl and Judy Chicago claimed to Injagery" by female imagery in The influence "central core" art women. of this view can also be able to recognise look forward "I be Kent's it Sarah in the to the time located criticism of mid-1970s: when will possible be being feminine this discuss of a woman's work without rejectedas a patronising approach. qualities the to but despite themselves manifest only exist, also attempts to suppressthem. not I believe that such qualities I in I that the their qualities appreciate and work artists, would unhesitatingly women I admire many describe as feminine. [ ...] Women must acknowledgetheir inner strength and potential as femaleartists, but inner through through learn their anger, resentment or energies not rivalry, an to sustain and in the value of their feminine contribution. " SARAH KENT, "Engendering Self Respect", confidence form This, 1977, March the International, p196. of course, was precisely of simplistic, Studio 'feminine' feminism which the new art historians and critical photographersof the later 70s conservative, feminist biocriticism BARBARA ROSE, discussion "Vaginal Iconology", For see of a reacted against. 1974. 11 February VII, Magazine, th York New 17FULLER, SeeingBerger-A Revaluation, Writers and ReadersPublishing Co-operative Limited, The Claridge Through Berger, Press, Seeing London, in 1988, 1980, p15. republished London, 18 -... my emphasisis distinct from that of Richard Cork; the differencesbetweenus are as significant as Art Criticism", "Problems FULLER, " p22. of agreement. of areas the 19- Peterwas somebodythat I'd known on and off, = sinceI was at Cambridge, I never actually met did do, but I Cambridge, oddly enoughwas write a review, one of the first reviews I ever what him at

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hole for launched his bid for in Fuller the the expansion taking of art press, advantage ruthlessly by disparagingly Cork in 1978, "'Social turning the against writing of supremacy critical Functionalism'[that] hasbeeninfectingthe fringesof art institutions,and lookssetsoonto flood its citadelsaswell", while declaringhis decision"to throw myselfin front of the wheels board for looks like bandwagon's impede than to climb on what an easy, the progress,rather to 20 if at times rather bumpy, ride,,. Fuller, then, went further, manufacturing a crisis in 'crisis

criticism': At a party, not 18 months ago, Cork was said to have surprisedhis listenersby Perhaps, after political art. with the changeof come next would what wondering aloud for him. has For, in Cork become has the the end, this question urgent government direction, floats be himself according to the ebbing of without to a critic who shown like buoyancy his is But that of a sponge:soaking up an more even the mainstream. his fluid him, his is theory of theory and vacuousas of art as eddying oceanaround developing from he the a theoretical spine writings of others without accretes politics; 21 his own. of Having himself made more changesover the past four yearsthan David Bowie, Fuller's far from his however, in bounds. He knew careeristchameleonarrierealone hypocrisy was, no began its increasingly Arts Council 1970s to At the negate the end of the gardism. defender In to the this was a response artistic value. part, of and arbiter an as responsibility had it that suffered throughout the obscenity and incriminations of paternalism, elitism hand, Conrad Atkinson claimed, abdicating responsibility in this On the other seventies. 22: Conservative incoming "the designed to government expansion of an appease was manner for (which to Council's easier and cheaper a regional centre touring are Arts exhibitions the for indicates "a the themselves)" arrival of state they create could the ones than rnount

They Union! Cambridge Peter's the were strangely expressionist, at well paintings of was which wrote, like finally knew he Kossoff. When I in people up writing, on ended what of maybe not so strange view favour kind be in he I long for the that to 70s time, much of was very of art seemed quite a him in the Critics Tooth Choice Gallery in I the in. a show called at with organising remember particular interested he kind I only Sculpture Painting a very supportive and wrote review. Beyond artists of lot and of a he keen he for Studio, him I I him know that to and was very and realised write asked when to got really his head. hadn't from being But benefit that given up until point we could was a writer of talent who found him but know. I We to to an easy person never get met occasionally, know eachother at all well. CORK, Queens Park, London, February Interview kind " be with to of mysterious. He always seemed 1998. 20FULLER, "On Social Functionalism", p43. 2 IJOHN TAGG & FULLER, "Richard Cork and the 'New Road to Wigan Pier'", Art Monthly, No. 30, 1979, p7. 22 "A short lived economicboom during the 1980sresulted in more funds for the Arts Council and a favourable for decade but a the not one was radical artists, especially in whole on the market, art surge JOHN A. 1960s. " WALKER, libertarian "Early 1980s" the of movements critical, with those associated 1995, Press, University Middlesex p139. Latham, John

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23 bureaucracy inflexibility.,, An timidity the utmost and of example of the Arts patronage Council's "timidity" arosein 1979 when four artists were invited to make separatechoicesfor 24 This was intended to avoid the problems associatedwith working as the Hayward Annual. lack decision that there the to of committee meaning was need no agree, a committee, made a 25 democratic directly againstthe more grain of the previous exhibition: like-minded thrives on small groups of people supporting the each other art world ... history. fits The theory with the conspiracy art exhibition is therefore odds and against Although containing the each small one-man shows. exhibitions of smaller a group know the most within selector's group separately, each other and shown artists are 26 by therefore contribute to the statementmade that group. John McEwan complained that "artists are the worst people to selectart", since "they grab one 27 between friends-. divide Allowing for what remains some of the main themselves and slot 'represent London) (read British in to themselves'played along with artworld the players Thatcher's policy on reducing the role of government. The democratic processwas merely

23CONRAD ATKINSON, "Correspondence:'Lives' Lives", Art Monthly, No. 27,1979, p28. figures, from ACGB's inflation-adjusted Grant-in-aid 1981, 1980 to the according central "Between and from; E27,034,000to; E26,130,000. ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN, Critical fell government ACGB, 1980/81, London, p42. Cutswere Thirty-sixtb and accounts, annual report judgements: from Grant-in-aid However, in 1980s. in "At the this central government rose period. made therefore face value, there has beena substantialincreasein the real value of central governmentexpenditure on the by deflator), [ I At GDP during 1980s. (deflated in the the the constant prices growth museums arts and ... by is impressive, increasing 48 the over per cent over period. expenditure revenue museum and arts does financial increased 1987/8 increase to this not represent an commitment to the up However, part of funding local in but instead the changes structure of at central reflects and government arts and museums, local The tier government,with the abolition of the metropolitan counties and the of levels. removal of a GLC, brought additional financial responsibilitieson central government. [ ...] However, evenallowing funding following the abolition of the GLC and the metropolitan counties in for the effectsof replacement 1986, the transfer of responsibility of the Natural History Museum to the OAL, an inflation as measured has increasedby 22 per deflator, the GDP on expenditure arts and museums revenue government by the ANDREW 1984/5. " FEIST AND 1978/9 in ROBERT to the period this occurring cent, much of HUTCHESON, eds. "Central Government", Cultural Trends in the Eigbties, Policy StudiesInstitute, London, 1990, p9. 24 Conrad Atkinson's complaints about the selectionprocessfor this show may well rise from the fact the lean for in heard being "Clearly, times, someartists are jammier than others. these once: his voice was not Margaret Harrison receivedtwo of her three GLAA awards, 79180and 80/81, during her husband's DALEY, Council MICHAEL "Arts Awards", GLAA Art Monthly, Atkinson) the panel. on spell (Conrad Number 49, September1981, p32. 255ec Chapter 11 ReconsideringTheory for a short account of the controversy surrounding the 1978 Hayward Annual. 26RICHARD FRANCIS, "Preface", Hayward Annual 1979, The Arts Council of Great Britain, 19 July 27 August 1979, p6. 27JOHN McEWEN, "Southbank Summer:The Hayward Annual", Art Monthly, No. 29, September 1979, P10-

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disguise incestuous The in to of a network power order relationships. will to avoid simulated bureaucratic curatorial interferencewas patently signified by (again) boxing off exhibits from in Helen Chadwick to the them one another only catalogue. choseto relating another, one Genesis by McLean, P-Orridge, Tony Sinden Bruce Jim Whitington: installations and, exhibit Many artists have chosento move away from the gallery as the predetermining place in have become demands Other the to appropriate spheres as work exhibit. more which for in to the theatre, operate: sculpture and performance suitable situations which festivals, This increased the carnivals mail. and as venues, accessibility gigs with music 28 best less is facilitates an exchangewhich more social and at elitist. The inclusion of P-Orridge seemedbrave and magnanimous,especiallygiven that he had been banned from virtually every gallery in the country. Of course,the idea this was anything other highly had Chadwick that questionable process was given selection elitist than the recurrently long beena neighbour of P-Orridge in Martello Street,then somethingof an artists' ghetto in Hackney. The equally nepotisticJamesFaureWalker took the opportunity to promote the 29 by flexed in figurative initiated Kitaj 1976 its faction", the reaction muscles 'Artscribe while himself alongsiderepresentationaloil painters such as Euan Uglow included Chowdhury Paul as breed from following This Kossoff. the Leon arriere-garde critics: of response prompted and Cynics would be forgiven for concluding that the whole [Arts Panel] operation is a kind but leaves dance in change occasionally positions no one ever partners which of ritual Great bursaries [Arts Council Britain] 1978/9 floor. The of awards and major the bursaries threef6000 two the and nine of the sixteen of presenta useful example: The C2000 to performance artists. remaining winners or conceptualists awards went ; figurative Not of abstraction. a single species the narrow minimalist most were all of fewer Out than eight the total winners, of nineteen no of award. artist receivedan Lisson, London the the the three avant-garde galleries, of one were associatedwith 30 Council's own galleries). Robert Self and the Acme (which is one of the be by figurative is to it shunned some membersof the ACGB painters continued true that While ACGB's 1980, the 1975 annual reports and accountsover the of examination between and by far the bulk of funding both in forms traditional generally received that art period reveals Lisson bursaries. Self Without Robert the such galleries as and terms of exhibitions and artists have beyond Richard in if doubtful would media survived non-traditional artists working it is however, By 1980, ACGB's sub-committee. non-conventional the exhibition Cork's tenure on because funding less of grossly misleading precisely protestations public even received media from ill-informed conservativessuch as Daley.

28HELEN CHADWICK, Hayward Annual 1979, pl 3.

29JOHN McEWEN,"SouthbankSummer",plo. 30JANET DALEY, "The Arts Council vs. The Visual Arts", The Litera?y Review, October 1981, p4l.

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Hence, despitethe attempt to retain a fairly comprehensivecuratorial cross section in the 1979 Hayward Annual, Chowdhury's personalview of British art quickly mutated into a "representative slice"31 of late 70s art in Britain, as his choicesrecurred in the first British Art Show curated by William Packer,art critic for the Financial Times. The exhibition - which Sheffield Art Gallery, (1st December 1979 Mappin 27th January 1980) the at and opened / Newcastle (February March) Bristol (April / May 1980), implied tour to and to nonon went had been behaving British Art itself Similar 'views' of that all audiences along. metropolitan British art were quickly put on show in Franceand the USA, exhibitions depicting "the English dropping 'timeless' through slate and walking wood and romantics of eccentric group a as landscapes,such as Un Certain Art Anglais and The British Art Show.-32 The 1980 Hayward Annual finally soundedthe death knoll for the Arts Council's 70s instead brand Fuller's to something remarkably similar establishing elitist of experimentation, mysticriticism: Painting is not easyto write about and I cannot describeor explain theseworks. I denies instant their that very nature and seriousness communication. would suggest They will not reveal all their secretsimmediately. If approachedwith caution and be Some identity their true recognised. will remain elusive,a will curiosity, gradually dusty mirror withholding secrets,that is their essence.[ ...] Painting doesn't needany 33 [ ] force. disallows It gimmickry. survivesunaided as a pure real gadgetry and ... ... learned description, Real be or understood quickly. art evades easy art cannot grasped, discouragesamusinganecdotes,confronts glamour and camp with a stony unblinking 34 land. in eye,and is not welcome colour supplement '17heorganisersof the 1980 Hayward positioned their ideological responseto British Art in a ideological the assumptions,thereby securingtheir audience's way which would accord with hegemonyof 'seriousculture'. The most successful to the subjection and their to own consent following Thatcher New A the influential the of era press-gang early came curatorial year, and Spirit in Painting at the Royal Academyof Art in London.

31BERNARD DENVIR, "A Sliceof SeventiesArt: Interview with William Packer" [British Art Show 1], Art Montbly, No. 34,1980, p4. 32CONRAD ATKINSON, "Books: The Countryside of the Poor", Uohn Barrell, The Dark Side of the Art 1730-18401, Montbly, No. 37,1980, p23. Seealso Painting in Englisb Poor Rural The j, andscape: Art Now' New in York", [The 'Guggenheimdebacle'] "Exhibitions: 'British MACMILLAN, DUNCAN Art Montbly, No. 34,1980, p13-14. 33JOHN HOYLAND, "An Introduction to the Exhibition", Hayward Annual 1980, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1980, pS. 34 ibid., p6.

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As this first gatheringtogetherof New Paintingwasto beheldat London'sRoyal Academy,it wasobviouslyincumbenton the organisers to includea reasonablequota did by finding This British they not equivalentnewBritish painters,but by artists. of figurative established to painters,FrankAuerbach,R.B. Kitai turning a wholegroupof For belonged Freud Lucien them. their their all to among virtues, work obviously and German A Italian different than the and contingent. moresatisfactoryparallel ethos a have been found developments in a groupof youngsculptors,Bill could to continental Woodrow,Tony CraggandAnishKapoor,who workedwith transformedmaterialsto 35 imagination. wit and of great work produce

By grouping Freud, Auerbach, Kossoff and Hodgkin and alongsideKitaj and Bacon, witbin an international context, the New Spirit organiserssuggestedthat thesepainters formed a group by from Although international is isolation the there avant-garde. some truth their shared merit of in this claim, it is apparent, evenfrom a brief examination of their work, that theseartists were far from being consciouslynationalistic. The organiser'spromotion of the zeitgeist as an escape from the 'art crisis', however, suggestedthat the isolated position of the School of London 36 for Critical 'British' harbour qualities. niches were easily carved to specifically allowed them favour in international 'authentic to modernism of an refute willing critic any opportunistic 37 directly Much Art'. this mis-appropriated the radical academic British school of criticism of

challengeto the canon: The revision that is desirabledoesnot involve demotion of the currently acceptedgiants but significant expansionof the pantheon,and recognition of the 'mainstream' doesnot follow the pattern of a railway line but rather the wide-flowing river fed by many 38 interweaving currents. tributaries and composedof be 'the here is the to that underlying canon' implication assumptions needed not lle be had but to that created,a canon basedon 'British a new canon destabilised or abandoned, National

39 Identity,. This

development. Earlier in the 1970s, Patrick Heron had was not a new

35TONY GODFREY, "British Painting at the Cross-roads", The New Image: Painting in the 1980s, Phaidon, Oxford, 1986, p89. 36The authentication of British national identity proved to be a powerful political force in this period. By Thatcher's Falkland Islands. forces the ailing, unpopular governmentsent a task Argentine occupied 1982 her by jingoistic Falkland Islands policy, Thatcher led the Bolstered Argentines. the of success force to the June 1983. in the elections of parliamentary to victory Conservatives a sweeping 37By 1986, FrancesSpaldingwas able to 'authoritatively' claim that British art had hitherto went because"a concernwith modernismhas blinkered critical evaluation of twentieth-century art, unnoticed historians, in its emphasison innovation, to look for a linear evolutionary development,a encouraging did banish dominant helped into has that temporary to the obscurity much not uphold tendency which " FRANCESSPALDING, "Preface", Britisb Art Since1900, Thames & Hudson, ideology. avant-garde London 1986. 38 MORPHET, "An Under-rated Art", The Hard-Won Image, plS.

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dominating York "What New his dissatisfaction the that artworld. was wasreallyrich voiced hegemony him, but it it Heron that the that that phenomenon of worried was wasn't was about NY-basedand not British. Forwardthe Light Brigade!He setout an intra-modernistalmanac 40 famous isn't be it New York " thosenasty modernists. - and certainly of who reallyoughtto by the A similar 'alternative'setof assumptions about virtues which British art wasto be by Fuller 1980s. During throughout the this period outlined explicitly more were understood, 41 form led Fuller "indigenous" British Ruskin Morris influence to a picture of an and of the higher human figure landscape in in intransigent, insular, the and painting. rooted tradition, The Other of this tradition wasidentifiedfirst as'Modernity' andsubsequently as'modernism' for historicism, history, its Modernist In 'internationalism'. criticised art was effect, and historicist less by the system which presupposed consistency and considerable a supplanted continuity of a nationaltradition. The 'British Tradition' apparently consistsof Constable,Bomberg,Kossoff, Hoyland back be British I [ "peculiarly Hockney traced tradition can the which empirical and ... four beyond" (one Bacon Locke, Hume, Constable, and philosophers). and painter to What happenedto it between 1837 and the 1950s?How did it leap from an early Jewish farmer's "immigrant Suffolk the to polish arms of an son nineteenth century 42 leatherworker's son? had from Royal Academy humanist for the examined the which Nonetheless, perspective many, that the this history context as precisely re-evaluative vindicated was painting recent of the destructive devastatingly 'serious' belief in This the effect on critical a resulted required. work in Typical British London School the general. of recent art of study and the of to approach faced Richard Morphet's Hard-Won Image (a detractors School's term coined with the of many Roberts Gallery in 1984, John Tate Hyman) the createda conceptual by Timothy exhibition at humanist interpretation and support of the group with the work of group: between the weld drawing, the integrity of the human figure, and the 'intense' relationship between ... intended the critical and projective against to closure as act are object and subject is The therefore about argument never art. self-modernising of assumptions but the act, about and political resilienceof public self-conscious, a as representation forms face in kinds the novel of representation. of more of genrepainting certain Discussionof the body, the landscape,the community is stuck within the frozen terms humanist subject matter. of for theTate 39 Morphet'shypocrisyshouldnot go unchecked.He had,of course,beena spokesperson by late he defended debacle, the the Bricks evoking purity of unashamedly modernist which during the canon. Artists,Modernism",StudioInternational,March/ April 40TERRYATKINSON,"Notes:Communities, 1976. 1980,p14. 41 FULLER,"The Arts CouncilCollection",Art Montbly, Number39, September 42ALAN GOUK,"PeterFuller,Art Critic?", Artscribe,No. 30, August1981,p4243.

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Thus, the Schoolof Londonwerecriticisedfor attemptingto providea putativeescapefrom lure The of suchcritical rhetoric,unconsciously gathersaudiencesinto his valuemodernity. he beliefs ideology. Roberts' is textual the authority over criticism and maligns system, fact he hiding inverse induction, his before his that the adopts placing conclusion convincing, human figure, ("drawing, integrity interpretation His intense the the of the and premises. between intended to act asclosureagainstthe critical and object are subject and relationship fact is in brief the a of self-modernising art") product of accountof the projectiveassumptions he There its to on make. which goes are,then,a numberof problems supporters argumentsof debate, Roberts Roberts' the that to almost entirely neglects works are subject criticisms. with in favour of clarifyinghis positionin relationto Modernism(not unlike his opportunistic his directed In the those they mistakes of criticism repeats whom are effect, opponents). historiographic in in ignoring to the an professedly order engage recondite work against, dispute. The old waysof seeingarenot allowedto die and bereplaced,theyretaincentrestage in order to be debunkedfor all time in a revolutionwithout aim. Roberts allowed his developedmethod to degenerateinto a set of narrow evaluative

be The insist School London judged he While that to of within course, correct of was, criteria. history, the problemremainedin that hejudgedthemagainstthe groupdefinitionsgivenby failing his to thereby check experience of their work andwritings supporters, their conservative Andrew Brighton's Such the of critiqueof such was nature againstsuchaccounts. stances: materialist uncompromisingly from discourse does invites that stems and a professional art not contemporary some ... be be Rather it the to cannot said. claims and what expressive value the embodied or heroic by 'pieces' the to the of artist and theory mouldy rhetoric produce of cleansed 43 handed precision. with clean failed Roberts, to respond to Auerbach's work Brighton critics such as materialist As suggested, 44 beyond discourse. inarticulate idea " "the textual experience,of things becauseit celebrates of deliberately have Roberts it. is idea not yet so, as misleading might slightly perhaps Brighton's beyond discourse does Auerbach textual paints something not entail a Accepting the notion that be indeed history, this understood if the works of the School of denial of position can only Contrary Roberts in to the their to social production. claims of and relation London are read did deny disparate School London detractors, the the the on whole, not so much of their many them. theory as resist postmodern of claims

43ANDREW BRIGHTON, "Frank Auerbach", Art Monthly, No. 141, November 1990, p13 44ibid.

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In orderto cometo someunderstanding of this conceptwe mustgivefirstly consider be 1980s. Painting is it the turn the to at of a painter a slow manual process. Within was what is where communication society, of postmodern rapid, painting Migbt seema the context 45 In the School 1980s, London by the early activity. of were subversive supported strangely 46 The between lines theseviews and the membersof the connection of reasoning. very similar School of London is not unsubstantiated. An exampleof the argument for the "resilience of face forms drawing in kinds the of more and oil painting novel of of representation" certain (justifiably detracted by Roberts) is Auerbach'sclaim that "television is a barbarous invention that sort of easycommerceof television perhapsis not conducive to an activity which has inventing for in do a and standing room something, to with somebody something line is in is What "47 the this manner which practical of reasoningwas surprising themselves. later used to defend the School at the expenseof the 'avant-garde': Dramatic attempts at surpriseand revelation turn quickly into mechanicalroutine. Or has it 'I Auerbach Frank wouldn't reject anything that seemedshocking or put as do for but it, I it its I the wouldn't own sake ... to would value contrary extreme ... on I fashion. becomes do it for its own sakethen part of the world of advertisementand For artist's to whom 'advance'is an imperative there is a grave risk, always avoided by be figures, their that work will strandedwithin the sensibility the greatestavant-garde fashion. Equally time such art may seemthe result not so and of a narrow span of 48 much of a passionatepursuit, as of a game. into for is distaste television an assaulton contemporary art. It culture converted Auerbach's derogatory description "stranded be the this that of an art within sensibility of a noted should fashion" is intended to to the the correspond time clearly art of seventies. and of span narrow by have been fundamental definition 1970s the to embraced artists as would Ironically, such a from Indeed, the their significance primary of such artists came of art. the continued existence been for it is has to a according always game played that undetermined rules, art recognition its it time. to claim any relevance that might such as only Does it follow that any interestingclaims can be made for 'traditional' painting if we its society? postmodern within contingency acknowledge 45As Westernsocietyassimilated the influencesof massmedia,philosophicnihilism,culturalplurality long-standing icons the traditions and of symbols cultural of culture, commercialisation the pervasive and lacked image intensity had before it The the ontological the painted lost their ability to affecta response. broadcast imagery. the the saturated visual sphere and video with production mass of technologies 46 "As Marcusepointedout, the aestheticandsubjectiveaspects of art constitute'an antagonisticforcein Collection", Arts Council "The FULLER, " p16. society. capitalist 47FRANKAUERBACH,"A conversation with CatherineLampert",in WILLIAM WRIGHT and Art Gallery New South Show, Beaver Press, Wales, Sydney,Australia, The British BOND, of ANTHONY 1984, 48MORPHET, "An Under-ratedArt", plS.

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A specialquality of the hand-maderepresentationalimage is its potential of realising form in full a permanent which, of its nature, makesthe the potential of an encounter encounterwith subjectand the encounterwith material one thing, which is completely is he begins [ ] Powerfully though the to the subject already present artist as new. ... discover has in it in he independent his to the terms sense a nevertheless of work, be has its In it that truly of own. order a work should a reality which new, material, 49 be must thoroughly wrought. According to this view, painting may resistthe over-saturation of postmodern culture by form As of critical resistanceto the such, the act of painting might constitute a creating anew. dominant modesof representationin postmodern society. Sucha view would appear to decreeing doctrine 'chaos' transcends that the of art the a work of to modernist correspond by being However, if life the an autonomous object. contradictions we consider and rnodern involvement Art & Language's "as with painting a meansof engagement alongside this claim the to the sections of art world were promotional preparing which that phenomenon with 50 becomes less While its in Painting" New Spirit tangible. conservative character celebrate as a A&L avoided talk of "thoroughly wrougbt" images,they clearly valued painting's potential impenetrability as a meansof curtailing theoretically obtuse forms of postmodern art demonstrated,it can be deducedthat A&L's paintings were as much a has been As production. Art'. 'University Spirit New to the they much slick professionalism of were the as reaction to here: dichotomies, decidedly in had "In A&L Harrison, a world mind of critical project For a for image. is is What face the the the quo a mirror required resolution of status of opposing the dilemma is that the opposing terms be brought into collision so that the whole circumstanceis -51 changed. In order to decideif Art & Languagemerely mirrored their critical targets,we needto by line to their resistance of critical postmodernism examining test this proposition, exploring level. has been demonstrated, As to terms also a more abstract central at opposing seemingly belief that individual subjects 80s late 70 the the early was theory and of critical postmodernist by knowing 'material they denied since constructed reality' are various of the possibility are for Hence, discourses, them. created positions are material through subject which texts and

49 ibid., p26. "As if we were subliminally aware of the frailty of his own rhetoric, Peter Fuller buttresses 'conceptual' insufficiently in of these media art are that non-standard any case it with the suggestion better, different, Before it is This to argument. we accept we shall need and perhaps to qualify. Wrougbt deal how form it (and its both with minimal art and object trouves) and its application, will know general by in 'conceptual' that by are no this, means all alike offerings or any other, to supposedly case, case BROOK, "Art and Socialism(Again)", Art Montbly, Number 45, April 1981, p29. DONALD " respect. 50 CHARLES HARRISON, "'Seeing' and 'Describing: the Artists' Studio", Essayson Art & L,anguage,Basil Blackwell, Oxford, p157. 51 ibid., p135.

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52 but by intervention. unchangeable conscious reality was regardednot only asunknowable To varying degrees,Freud, Auerbachand Kossoff sought to resist such aspectsof critical Kitai Hockney's In New Humanistic Paintings, to theory. similar a manner and postmodernist Freud, Auerbach and Kossoff were attempting to re-assertthat representationsare created by 53 people not vice versa. As a student at the Borough Polytechnic,Auerbach was taught to continually searchfor a 'true equivalence'betweenthe 'tangible thing' observedand the marks which appearedon the his his Following David he Bomberg, the example canvasses. of mentor, of surfaces painted but facts' in 'reality' 'quotidian It to to the paint recreate capture merely on canvas. not sought is nonethelessclear that Auerbach, like Bomberg,was aware that painting does not passively 'reflect reality' but actually contributes to the definition and production of our senseof the real. This is implicit in Auerbach's famous description of intent: What I'm not hoping to do is to paint another picture becausethere are enough hoping for in I'm to thing the world that remains in the the world. make a new pictures 54 living like thing. a new speciesof mind This does not entail a stubbornly empiricist practice but a recognition that painting createsa life-world, that production rather than perception is fundamental. To produce "a new species devices, but living is to the conditions to thing" not only actively shape of other's perceptual of literally that our cultural productions are the world. acknowledge To what extent did this differ from A&L's experimentswith representation? The Lenin Style Portraits V. L in Pollock the took on considerablymore ofjackson of of experience than the attributes of an analytic proposition. The paintings proclaimed their relevanceto the from included image. There implied that context art, status quo and a all mirror was an viewer conceptual circumstancesurrounding the perceptualexperienceof such an art encounter. It designed to reflect on itself and its nature as art; the encounter almost was a meta experience history its in to the to the viewer relation challenging realise value of art. A&L thus believed that painting could be reworked becauseit fulfilled the conditions of the belief systemof the rnyth in a way that alters what is known about art and/or about ourselves.Indeed, its relevance 52 SeeChapter5 Photoconceptualism 53 TheSchool London's difficult 'members' to assess of within Kitaj's terms. While aremore other FrancisBaconwascitedasa memberof thegroup,his work hadachievedinternationalacclaimbefore the re-assessment of the schoolbeganin the early1980s.AlthoughBaconmademanyof his greatworks duringthe 70sand 80s,a critical appraisalis outwith the scopeof this thesis.Howard Hodgkin'swork wasnot seriouslyrelatedto the'school'until the mid-80s.SinceHodgkin'swork doesnot complyeasily with Kitaj's figurativeschema,nor with the concernsof 'figuratively'mindedcriticsof the early80s,I brieflyreferto his positionin Chapter15, with regardsto thedebateoverthe first Turner Prize 1984. of 54 AUERBACH,"A conversation with CatherineLampert",in WILLIAM WRIGHT and ANTHONY BONI), TheBritisb Sbow,BeaverPress,Art Galleryof New SouthWales,Sydney,Australia,1984,

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in insured 1980 given renewedconservativeattempts to incorporate the viewer was particularly into painting's developingcultural mythology. Art & Language'sre-cognition of painting for its Parodic nature acculturatedthe viewer: "Action in the face of such a dilemma involved "commitment to a more-or-lessunpredictableoutcome."5S The realisation of painting had A&L deconstructive with metaphysical content. used parody as a value as a revelation strategy that recaststhe metaphysicaltruth of previous art into a new context that insuresa synthesisof burgeoning history In lies this a world view. extreme and self-reflexiveness the crux of viewer,

A&L's differenceswith Auerbach:"The actoron the stageexpresses sadness.Is he therefore have he No. All is him Need that to authentic sadness? experienced ever required make a sad? he be he is to that that should able competently represent sadness should competentactor know how to fakeit. -56 Despitewhat A&L thought,New Imagepaintingwas neverintendedto reassert If spontaneity associated with expressionist and painting. competence anythingthey of notions knew how to fakeit. Werethe kindsof deepsignificancereadinto Auerbach'spaintingsalso literally superficialcomponents of the painting'smaterialsurface?Althoughthe twisted, flesh he flayed Auerbach's his to that paintings appears suggest of approaches smearedand he fact builds his fervour in Expressionists, daubed the carefully of paintings. work with the Doesthis meanthat, like A&L's mouthpaintings,Auerbach'scanvases arerevelationsof their friend Auerbach's Golden Calf, Depiction In the and andcritical apologist own genesis? his working processasfollows: Michael Podro,describes [Auerbach]hasworkedcontinuouslyon his subjectto producenot a view, but a had By itself the the sixties perceptions. procedure established many of of summation hundred doing innumerable times the or more, as well as canvas a over working drawings,scrapingthe canvasdownmoreor lessfully eachtime, and startingagain, his hold he in in final in the thing whole could mind onecontinuous, stage until one 57 sustainedargument. formal-conceptual Auerbach, that seeks a suggests closure, "a final Podro, characteristically, formulation ", 5 8 rather than A&L's unpredictableoutcome. The evidencefor comprehensive formal Auerbach's from Podro's drawn is observations of works and statements: personal this

55 HARRISON, "'Seeing' and 'Describing: the Artists' Studio", p135.

56ibid. 57MICHAEL PODRO, "Depiction and the Golden Calf", in BRYSON, NORMAN., HOLLY, MICHAEL ANN., MOXEY, KEITH. Visual Theory: Painting and Interpretation, polity Press, Cambridge, 1991, p177. 58ibid., p176-177.

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The problem of painting is to see a unitv within a "I"Itiplicity of pieces of evidence. When the conclusion occurs and I feel I've been lucky enough to filld sollic sort of whole for this overwhelming and unmanageable heap of sensations and impressions, I think the previous attempts havc contributed. -59 Similarly, for Podro, painting takes place within

a horizon of possibilities which an object of experience WOUldý'icld, and tile indeterminate senseof those possibilities is governed , for each of us, by our own how the world is; for instance, our sense of how objects are set and general sense of perceived within the spatio-ternporal, causally ordered world, or our sense of the face body be a person's or may expected to undergo as circumstances modifications 60 altcr. Figure 12.1 Frank Aucrbach, Hcad otMi(-b, i(,l Podro. (198 1)

While acceptingthis, however, Podro attcinpts to dcný fact Auerbach's technique tlic that our proclaims that rnodes of reprcsentationand cognition are continuall) for lies Podro's The this in reason shifting. he Although is assumptions. methodological ,,committed to enlarging oil the phenomenological help in to chart a way which may painting character of its diversities in this century [he wishesto do thisl in i . the preserve sense of continuity of will way which -61 In later Podro this, procedures. reveak earlier and himself to be a "perceptLialist". Prcdicatnig his he logical positivism, suggeststhat thoughts on logically the represented are separable,that painting is a visual adjunct to representationsand basic belief does This 'reality' Podro to that the claim since enables not the primary event. be The 'truer' than truth-value of these others. systems can representational change, some basic be has the the the reality and art that measured against of can past a representations Podro formal This why that phenomenological stance explains insists not only similar goal. but Auerbach's that this unity is an index of their pictures, unity is eventually achievedin successas works of art.

59AUERBACH, "A conversationwith Catherine Lampert", in WILLIAM WRIGHT and ANTHONY BONI), The Britisb Sbow, BeaverPress,Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,Australia, 1984. 60 PODRO, "Depiction and the Golden Calf ", p 18 1. 61 ibid., p 177.

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During this period,A&L notedthat manysuchstudiesof the problemsof perception history disciplinary being the the opposite of social of art: pursued as were Work on the psychologyof artistic representationtends to assumea single and formula figure in Richard Wollhiem's to the as referred model: universally applicable informed, ' Yet if interest 'adequately spectator. we adequately restrict our sensitive, the in paintings to their iconic (picturing) aspects,and our understandingof representation have how to the to connected world, we will are graphically pictures to the matter of individuated in Schier) Flint (pace that terms of systems are pictorial acknowledge 62 [ For ] the that example: wiringrelative. are competencies competencies,and ... diagram which is a kind of systematicpicture for one person is a meaninglesspattern for another. Furthermore, (Schieragain), the iconicity of symbol is aspectrelative; it 63 be iconic qua one content and one non-iconic qua another. may Although being practically and conceptuallylessreflexive and experimental, Auerbach's Auerbach's paintings are similar attitude. a remarkably suggested nonetheless pictures language Wittgenstein's that that shapes we reality, view of the consequences on predicated his This is it. the crux of Seettlar have no accessto reality savethrough our representationsof his meditative stanceon painting and the nature of representation. Although in remattticism, harmonious flux his into Auerbach the his to subsume and efforts of speaks statements of some be believes impossible fact, he, in his task: this to an pictures, of structure elegant When I seethe great pictures of the world paradedin my mind's eye they are great hopes [ ] One leak images, into don't they things. are new imageswhich other ... degree has individuality, independence, that of similar a to something somehow make fullness and perpetual motion to thesepictures. But actually one hopes,although of 64 hopes in it, vain. course one won't achieve one actually

lacks Auerbach is issue. It the technicalskill to produce that not is This not merelya practical in but themselves their that are only seemingly great, 'individual' such pictures pictures, great his in The 'paraded consciousness mind's eye'. of as products perfectstatetheyexistonly be, because is them to that theygaina senseof we need implication that greatpicturesaregreat for Thus, bestow in decide it if them. the to arguing case upon we only grandeur and order fact from Podro in between the the and present, past the pictures approach of continuity the the the to and evaluate achievements of past which with criteria the analytical constructs immense to the Realising this an of unease produces sense as process the of circularity present. depending taught only seemly upon what we are the art of value value, artistic of precisenature he his is for. Auerbach's that similarly unsure about own look reveal statements to

62 HARRISON, "'Seeing' and 'Describing: the Artists' Studio", pl 30.

63ibid. 64 AUERBACH, "A conversationwith CatherineLampert".

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he achievements, is only ableto speakof attaining"somesort of whole", or of "tbink[ing] the 65 have Podro Auerbach's that contributed-, suggesting vastlyoverestimates attempts previous faith in his own cultural agency.Auerbach,like A&L, is awarethat the changeinvolvedis not history individual is not simplya seriesof triumphs the that the of agent, control art then within helps Auerbach his decisions This to the explain why makes most will. radical at the endof of do from bottom it it "I to top to tend scrape off and again after months or years each painting: This is in finally does "when time". to the that short even a relatively extent one working, of 66 before". finish the painting .. one tends to contradict what's gone Although I would strongly argue againsta deliberatefailure to signify on Auerbach's

finds it is Podro Auerbach it that than seem rather who resolution. part, would nonetheless by failing to determinetheworld by formal-conceptual Persistingin his incompetence between Auerbach to produce a vacillating relationship attempts sensory resolutions, It these the of sensations. nonetheless remainsapparentthat conceptualising and perceptions for Podro, who seeksKant'scomplexandharmonious'freeplay' of the imaginationand the free Auerbach's The unadulterated work may easily evoke aesthetic pleasure. understanding, however, forces is in it Auerbach tainted, that creates, peculiarly usto recognisethe play which heart "any theory, that to talk of ends, the attempt of post-modernist at self-contradiction lin-ýts,or the impossibilityof limits, presupposes preciselythe logocentric-metaphysical system Accordingly, Auerbach's "67 into it picturesmayprovidea complexsetof question. which calls in through their only apprehending character and content as anchored pleasures and problems level. from Auerbach them the structures which constitute on a primary specific and arising that is individualisingor text-centred,while allowing pleasureto be involvesus in an experience his becoming in them thereby of pictures without aspects anti-aesthetic. taken the conceptual being far from 'formal resolutions',Auerbach'sdrawingsand that, Examinationreveals between impliedpursuitof a centreand the latent ironic the clash an establish paintings his chosenmotif. in treatment of the violence It is this aspectof Auerbach'swork which impliesa critiqueof both analytical his Although invite its to pictures offspring. us adoptan postmodernist and philosophy

65ibid., (My emphasis). 66 MORPHET, "A Hard- Won Art", p19. By 1983, Art & Languagewere becoming aware of the [ I like finishing forms behind "The paintings were paintings: of of mask which an ... practical predicament ] did'Portraits be Ramsden: "When [Mel V. I. Lenin in the form we continued. could of work of elusive discovered did Pollock' Jackson that somewere better than and we nine paintings we about Style of had to be a reasonfor that. It rather sneakedup on us that this was connectedwith There others. . HARRISON, "'Seeing' and 'Describing: the Artists' thinking them than up things the rather making ..... Studio'", p146. 67PAUL CROWTHER, "The Produceras Artist", Critical Aestbeticsand Postmodernism,Clarendon press, Oxford, 1993, p94.

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do that they to warn us simultaneously so would involve the destruction ot analytical approach, life-world that provides them with their status as pictorial analytical the illusionary figures drawings Auerbach's As the and spaces suggested in and paintings appear propositions. forms disintegrate the which construct them, the viewer is called upon to lend very into to dormant Auerbach's in. drawings to to sce illusion, a paintings thereby support and emphatic dwelling being domain takes and of still that is not clearly that condition place our in a reveal bounded. For Auerbach, it is not 'Nature' or the 'Real' that may offer some form of faith in the possibilities of the Culturally constructed but Culture, our emancipation 'imagination'. Paul Crowther argues that

11MV beings; behaviour I [ this that means and no matter 111LICII our embodied is we are ... determined by cultural and ideological norms, there is always an irreducible residueof individuality in our out-look on the world. Those who merely produce are orientated but Those behaviour that over-dctcrinuicd. socially is rational who create art, towards free the towards and relatively residue of individuality a expressionof in contrast, edge 68 being. their rational Auerbach's work, therefore, both is and is not a form of secularromanticism, poised Imwecil bound by limits that the thought agony we should I-CInaln an underlying I)OStand of our the , distrust "speculative the iniagination". of modernist

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his for Since life's he does to to it? entire search work amounts continue nothing why centre, his false? ("of it") futile course one won't modesty achieve is entirely pursuit, more than a ffiguu 12.2 Frank Auerbach Portrait of Sandra, (work in progress). (1973-Z4)1 The answer to his uneasy relationship with analytical philosophy. this again rests in

For Auerbach the

68ibid., p8S.

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both void is a challenge (something which needs to be filled) and it threat (the analytical leads This back to the revelation of his pictures, namely that of signification=death). us absence to be alive necessitatescontinuing to make failed attempts to 'present the unprcsentable'. The 'death wish' is more properly understood as a longing for Nirvana, for 'entropy' all unattainable non-statc of stasis where identity is meaningless. The quest for the experience oI the pre-linguistic is ultimately contradictory, since it seeks to say the ""sayable, to represent desire, to translate the irrational into the rational and conscious form of representational for It Auerbach to voluntarily stop making pictures therefore that apparent is construction. kind the of closure that cannot come. As Harrison himself has acknowledged, represent would false be modesty: this, if anything, would

If the experiment had a 'conclusion', it was not that there was some new position to I)c for It being that rather practice art. was was a inatter of claimed cast adrift upon tile 70 polity, and of nevertheless seeking to navigate and to act.

To return to Andrew Brighton's thesisthat Auerbach dealswith "the idea of inarticulate 71, discourse,, beyond textual nonetheless,is invalid. Auerbach's pictures experience,of things beyond discourse', demonstrating 'textual fact futile there that is nothing while reveal our in drive to make senseof our experiences. FigUrc 12.3 Lcon Kossof Booking Hall. Kilburn Underground Station No. 2. (1977)

Lcon Kossoff's paintings are

Auerbach's since with often compared both artists sharedsimilar practical and the tuition of under roots philosophical Bomberg. However, in comparison to Auerbach's work, it is apparent that less from departure the example of Bomberg. Kossoff's Kossoff's pictures represent of a located his painterly webs. the is in complex surface positivism of unreconstructed

For

Kossoff, the painted surfacecan revealtruths, not only about an allegedly 'alien reality' but Unlike Auerbach'sslow (unsuccessful)process, places it connotes. and the people about

69 AUERBACH,

"A conversation with Catherine Lampcrt".

70 HARRISON,

"'Seeing' and 'Describing: the Artists' Studio", p95.

71ibid.

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Kossoff's method of practice revealshis expressionistintent: "... the surface is usually laid down lays board floor, hours. disposition Kossoff in the the the on and of of a matter quickly: often 72 body " Fuller to the rapidly performed owes much movements. surface across the painting by discipline "informed the the are precise, obsessive that marks of all painted to goes on note 73, in from drawings the act of painting,, preceded a vain attempt to prove which object those by image, 'hard-won 'truthful' Kossoff way of thorough account, a arrives at a more that does signal that is it Fuller Although investigation. suggests contradictory, what empirical Kossoff intends his mark making to be evocative. Kossoff's subject matter and nomenclature Constable's English Kossoff In to pastoralism, this paints allusion argument. clearly supports Summer Kilburn Underground: 1983, Children's (Inside and events recognisableplaces Swimming Pook Autumn Afternoon) appendingthe seasonin which they were painted to his literalist titles. As such, Kossoff seeksto wed Impressionistnotions of truth to site with Kossoff, Auerbach, is construction. unlike atmospheric expressionist notions of subjectiveand 'secular romantic'. a straightforwardly Lucien Freud's early practice involved a more complex approach to the question of 'the real': My object in painting pictures is to try and move the sensesby giving an intensification life itself [ I Painters the their with subject matter, working as use who reality. of ... life do into in in front in to translate art mind, so order them, constantly or of object be kept if is The it literally, this closest observation: must under subject as were. almost done, day and night, the subject- he, sheor it - will eventually reveal all without which knowledge life [... ] is It is itself this very of which can give art not possible selection becausethe picture from life, is independence independence that necessary an complete in order to move us must nevermerely remind us of life, but must acquire a life of its 74 life... in order to reflect precisely own, desire Auerbach's is Freud's 1954, here in to to produce "a wish remarkably similar Writing belief drive Auerbach's Freud " living that to our shared make sense thing. also of species new futile: is of our experiences ultimately A moment of complete happinessneveroccurs in the creation of a work of art. The but disappears felt in is it towards the the completion of the creation act of of promise be for it ] Were [ the could created this, the painting and painter perfect not work. ... 75 him drives insufficiency is It that on. this great could retire.

72FULLER, "Leon Kossoff", in WMGHT and BOND, The British Show, 1984.

73ibid. 74LUCIEN FREUD, "Some Thoughts on Painting", Encounter, Vol. 3 No. 1, July 1954. 75ibid.

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Freud soon moved away from the devotional anticipation associatedwith his early work and Auerbach in order to adopt the position of an arch-empiricist, advocating a of the paintings 'Realist' painting process which would produce works which that 111ailifcstpowerfully concrete sensations: I. would wish my paintings to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the far being [ I As I is the person. I want it to the them. as am concerned paint sitter, ... flesh does. for just as me work

Although often read as a straightforward avocation of 'Realism', the preciseposition offered In Freud's (M)famous statementis unusually perplexing. Certainly, Freud seeksa more 'direct' his from "an transforming painting intensification of reality" to the than previously, route Aristotelian ideal of "being" reality. At the sametime, however, Freud clearly maintains some Ills "independence" the strictly of painting, underlining autonomous the nature of in interest his What is "the " the that paint person. contention is noticeable, is the absence paintings with "great Freud's I 970s 80s his the insufficiency". of art's work in and no acknowledgement of longer posedthe problem of 'false modesty', sincethe existenceof the centrc is no longer both be found begins 'reality' FrCLid However, that can and captured, claiming in problematic. fraLIdUlCIICC Freud's creating repetitious conceits. to invite more the more seriousaccusationof his Rather from than the underpinning ideology encourageus existentialist inseparable art. is languish barren he his in 'fact'. to tcrraln wishes us in a of purposeless paintings, to interpret be his Freud to the to they akin objects which represent, merely encourages paintings proposing his d'art. to paintings simply regard as another to qualities, series surface of objet us to return Figure 12.4 Lucien Freud, Naked Man with Rat, (1977-78).

What Freud desires,then, is a kind of Minimalism, ail 'art of the representational his intended As to are paintings such, real'. be both iconographically and emphatically disengaged. Iconographically, it is highly figures do human Freud's not that significant look at the viewer, many look away passively, though sleeping or their as eyes close others dead. His working process is intended to inertness while discouraging this reinforce Adopting the realist interpretation. representatim', paying to equal of non-hierarchical carc and attention convention/clich6 depicted on the surface of his canvases. Formally, Freud's paintings evoke everything by illusory honesty way of ail and clarity sirnpliclity and coolness of tone, a of rrilinimalist values limit denotative to themselves to appear precise images and which meanings while plain style in

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dismaying in their denial of life-force. The result is paintings in which humans, animals, plants head Freud it, is just limb". "the inanimate one; as are rendered put another objects and Despite the claims of painting connoisseurs,Freud's frigid painting processdoes not invite his literalist (lack in it the of) meaning elucidates statements,suggesting approbation, rather kind formal is it be that to an end, representsa of stability. In this reduced nothing that to break Realist Rather Freud's the tradition. a radical with than the represent paintings sense, humanist empathy associatedwith Realism,we are confronted with a complete absenceof in forces. implied The inanimate the moral relativism sterility of objects, creative or mythic for human beings, is intended by the myth to capacity making and compel plants, embodied being repellant, the processof anti-interpretation encouragedby Freud's work leading us back living formalist Auerbachian "new " the thing. species erotics, of of the reductionism to This raisesan important critical point, in that by creating a pictorial circularity with a his finality, insufficiency". Freud "great If concern early with art's negates of sense satisfying indeed Freud's then would amount to no more than continued productivity this were correct, for for Freud, line Unwittingly this a major problem arises of series of repetitious conceits. literalist underpinningsof his practice ("I would wish my paintings to be of in the that criticism, factual, literal") like "I to appear not them", would wish my work once again the people, not from is there our various modes of that separate representationand a reality the notion nurtures have In this that to the already we encountered, raisesan old problems addition cognition. figurative deriving from his Freud's In the of elements presence paintings, chestnut. iconographic iconological significanceinto to and encourage us read process representational despite decidedly literalist is the anti-literal which outcome of such them, a manner of reading be said to be a failure on our part, Freud has often beenguilty of Although this could readings. leading the viewer to allocate 'themes' of alienation and sexuality to his paintings using such dogs fried and rats. as eggs, elements charged symbolically Hence, despitehis attempts eradicatehumanist conceptssuch as iconography, artistry by exposingthem to an amoral vacuum, Freud, in fact, is ultimately reliant on Realism and his humanist images. As such, to mulish, self-satisfied produce effects captivating conventional, his 'transparency' his the compromised, are somewhat of work method the radical aspectsof he for Realism intends to impair. it the that pass6 being such as to allow us to easily mistake

Followingsuchan examination,it would seemthat, of the entireSchoolof London, humanist defences is the Kossoff's the various with compatible of group. entirely work only historico-ideological has A&L's Roberts textual accounts, close sweeping analysis Unlike and historical interpretation, the to allowing to of possibilities us proceed opening of effect the be School London debates how The in to to the came subjected of critical only considernot but how, languished, if, be from historically have The they and them. should saved they which further by be found have As the analysing group's genesis. can we answerto thesequestions baptisement began Humanist School London in the the of the with of problems critical seen, late 1970s:

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The single human figure is a swell thing to draw. It seemsto be almost impossible to do it as well as maybehalf a dozenblokes have in the past. I'm talking about skill and imagination that can be seento be done. It is, to my way of thinking and in my own 76 do difficult in thing to really well the whole art. experience,the most

Kitaj herelaid the foundationsfor the viral work aestheticthat continuesto effectthe Schoolas figurative because is it is Kitaj's that painting good suggestion somehow vacuous a whole. have As be in has "difficult", to read context. we seen,this stancewasmadeat a time whenthe justify His immense their to existence. stancewas,therefore, pressure under visualartswere facile That Kitaj's rather statements weremet with propagandistic. uncharacteristically from The come as quarters should no surprise. anti-humanist effect considerableopposition humanist backlash humanist in however, that the unfortunately resulted account wasa created, but becoming the School the prominent absurdly overdetermined, account of only not the of Schoolper se. By 1978, following the populist impressioncreatedby the crisis critics, 'common-sense defences'of perceptualismhad becomeincreasinglyaudible in the art press: At last, artists are coming out from under the modernist dogma of purist- reductionism imagery in impoverished final has, in its the tradition creative of great so stages, which Western art. Neo-Platonist mysticism, flowering in a period of cultural decline and disillusion, lent a systematicideology to justify the retreat from depiction. [ ...] Now, 77 for a neo-Aristotelianism. perhaps,we are ready However, the most elaboratemisrepresentationto occur in this period was Fuller's resolutely heavily Herbert Marcuse's Drawing on critique of materialist humanist version of events. beganto suggestthat Kossoff and Auerbach createda kind of "redemption Fuller aesthetics, Read Fuller's be hedonistic form", theory to reparation. weakly, aesthetic appears a through Kossoff Auerbach For Fuller, to the were attempting and to achieve. what remarkably close 'formally Kossoff's Auerbach were redemptive' since they produced the paintings and however, described being like frisson Fry Roger "internal as an which of kind of optical quality The manner in which this thesiswas arguedwas remarkably similar to certain ejaculation". by culture creating an alternative a critique of formalist claims that abstraction entailed universe: [Many of Kossoff's pictures] are permeatedby an undeniablesenseof sadness,and life. frailty And impermanence of and yet the energy, awarenessof the anguish,

76R. B. KITAJ, "Pearldiving", The Human Clay, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1978. 77JANET DALEY, "New Figuration: Part III", Art Review,Volume XXX, No. 11,9" June 1978, p289.

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intensity, and sensuousness of the way they are painted provides a celebratory 78 transcendenceof their subjectmatter.

in his claims,Fullerentirelyunderestimated While thereis somecredence the importanceof the According Fuller, Auerbach's Kossoff's in to the motifs weresimplya pictures. and motifs however, An Kossoff's formally 'redemptive' examination of end. paintings, reveals meansto a for fact 'mood' in the the establishing morphological character sole reason and that motifswere disinterested, his iconographically Auerbach Although his was relatively mark making. of formal be invite did that the and conceptual ends can notion ultimately pictures not entirely achieved. his In the early80s,Fullercontinuedto makefurthermisreadings as invective Humanismurgedhim to makeever-grander claims. Drawingon the writings of Ruskinand had Kossoff Auerbach Fuller resurrected a secularsenseof moral value Morris, and arguedthat both Fuller Although to that continued claim painters in the visualcharacterof the world. his the another reality within existing one, producedan art of enduringquality,offering had believe led him transcendent impetus that their to of affirmation pictorial worlds Ruskinian beentransformedfrom the quotidian. Also in the earlyeighties,Fullerwascallingfor a return to the "sharedsymbolicorder" defence Auerbach, Podro's have in As there to of are perceptualist relation 'Nature'. seen we of 'Nature, At that the and representation are separable. claim severephilosophicalproblemswith by fell however, Fuller that this claiming achievement complicatedmatters the sametime, Kossoff Auerbach's British that and work stretched tradition painting, the of within entirely days Ruskin. line to in of great back an unbroken The question of tradition suggestsa fundamental contradiction in Fuller's brand of is "shared fully 'Nature', To to the symbolic order" of clearly return Ruskinian moralism. be ignored. The believes School London, that tradition can of the artist impossible unless involvement with the conventions of past art that were greater even an however, manifested believed School London is There Po-Mo. that the historicist of no evidence found in known for indeed they a group are as openly celebrating possible, was expression unmediated it can easily be demonstratedthat theseartists ascribedto the postAlthough influences. their difference is irony, 'double the intertextual the complete absence of or main sensibility, modern in most postmodernistwork. Unlike appropriationists, for example, the School found coding' influences into betray to their they synthesise attempted a their rather sources, did not openly from fact hand, difficulties The the different that, the arise on one greatest artworks. body of lack School's by intertexual the as signalling postmodernists of regarded was practice this lauded by it inauthenticity, the their was conservatives other, as proving on while postmodern The 'serious' spectacle of critics postmodernist painters. as sincerity and authenticity inauthentic, for being inauthentically while conservatives artists reprimanding unknowingly 78 FULLER, "Leon Kossoff" in WRIGHT and BOND, The British Show, 1984.

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heralded Hilton Kramer neo-expressionistplagiarists as god-like originators suggestsan such as atmosphereof great critical confusion.

With hindsight,however,it wasperhapsnot somuchthat the Schoolof Londonwere for but influenced influenced by too tastes, that they postmodernist were the wrong somehow 79 humanist Rembrandt's Tradition Great 'The of painting" rather than the tradition of artists, distaste by from A Duchamp. initiated the tenetsof modernist historicism arising the new The School London's in Great Tradition. to this of relation pre-modernist reading prejudiced From a Bergerianmaterialist viewpoint, it was simply assumedthat to be influenced by High European painting was to be complicit with its bourgeoisideological underpinnings. That Fuller openly celebratedtheseunderpinnings,made this connection all the more clear. What, however, are the ideological underpinningsof Europeanpainting specifically in question? During the 1970s, pre-modernist Europeanpainting was often characterisedby Bergerian fetishism by found in the the commodity with rise of centred equating subject niaterialists 80 Fuller's humanist philosophy, much to annoyance. While such characterisationsled to the historical did not correspond innovative they much needed and work, clearly of production London's School reading of pre-modernist painting. the of with

Freud,for example,oftencitesthework of Watteau. Ratherthan readWatteau's Freud the their centred subject, of concentrated on celebration anti-humanist as paintings his be he had In in that may this paintings ultimately the meaningless. sense much aspects, Fried's Michael French in Absorption reading of eighteenth century painting with and common Age Beholder in Painting the the and of Diderot, Universityof CaliforniaPress, Theatricality: for Chardin, by In (1980). the of paintings example, characterised the useof the Berkeley, figures directly Fried immersed in that the claimed their were mode, own world contemplative form in they that state of consciousness the no way a with so compositionor the activities, and impenetrable. The the they spectator: are physically of oppositewassaidto presence necessary figures in Watteau's to theatrical their world ratherthan inhabit appear mode: play be true of longer denied. is In Large Interior W.11 (After the spectator no of it, and the presence dell'Arte Commedia Watteau's Freud (1981-83), reads paintingPierrot Contentas vVatteau), for that the assuring contemplation while spectator cannot penetrate space a establishing his has become "In Freud's Pierrot, intrusion. Pierrot feeling picture son the of a without but his Freud if in himself, paints son persona, as the performing caved upon comedian, public 81 " While Freud'sstructuralistreading the the and of artist viewer. stare introspective,avoiding

79 ]FULLER, "Auerbach VersusClemente", Imagesof God: The Consolations of Lost London, 1985, Press, Hogarth The p6l. Illusions, 80 SeeFULLER SeeingBerger.A Revaluation, Writers & ReadersPublishing Co-operative Ltd, London, The Clarridge Press, London, Berger, Tbrougb 1988. Seeing FULLER 1980., and 81 BRIGHTON, "Large Interior W. 11", Art Montbly, Dec/Jan1983/4, No. 72, p9-10.

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I'mitioll

be history, Watteau art may questionable as an in relation to Freud's practice we must of being Watteau's pictures as of no more iniportance flian Frciid',; ýItter,, jiltl settings. consider

This demonstratesthat the hierarchies historians and artists are not of art identical. Figure 12.5. Large Interior W. II (After Watteau), 1981-83.

Freud resolutely remaineda cultural trickster, mocking aspects of humanist culture as he reconstituted its anthropomorphic

myths. From an

existentialist painter's self-analytic perspective, new painting parodies first before the paint stroke is the old laid. To this extent the most novel

J

bad to be seen as a rcconfiguration of previous approaches. Paradoxically, the selfapproach fragmenting heritage to the of art served stabillse nature structures of our cultural referential defining This by the credibility of its attributcs. negated paradox it as was also recogrused even Auerbach, who was also nurtured oil 'canonical' works by 'great masters'. He had virtually no bistorically his being specific the enterprises of such artists, "Ilain concern in to interest 'aura' for his own painting. His quotations served as loaded gestures, their appropriate his be seen as sharing leged that the painting should the viewer II pr v status once informing by history for It the traditions canonical to of art tile painting and Museum. was this accorded Auerbach drew so much inspiration from visiting the National Gallery, a 111useurn that reason Typically historicist, Auerbach the the appears still of past and mute. art which in context keeping 'art Imprisoned' ensured his the to or Understand past since reclaiin attempt no rnade flux formal by his tension the would exist which in extreme with residue suggested a work pseudo-expressionist

brushwork.

Although Auerbach'spainting was nostalgic, this did not entail his subscription to discredited notions of expressionism,rather it accentuatedthe differencesbetween predestabilising modes cognition, of assumptionsabout competenceand modernist and modernist by which the very idea of a Canontends to be finish and representativeness sustained. Intention, like Freud, Auerbach although it remainsclear that unlike Freud, Auerbach very was In this Fuller for to than merely represent rather it. cynicism, made to overcome siniflar clainis aimed Kossoff's work:

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For someyears now, Kossoff's work has included renderingsof great masterpiecesof the past. For example,he has beendrawn to Poussin'sgreat picture Cepbalusand Aurora. [ ]. Kossoff seemspreoccupiedby paintings like this at least in part because ... he enviesthe mythic world upon which theseartists could still draw to expressand 82 convey their innermost sentiments. Although Fuller is correct in his analysis,it remains clear that Auerbach's relation to the art less Kossoffs. Kossoff Where than committed sought to regain mystification, past was Auerbach revealedwhat had beenlost. For Kossoff, the art of the past managedto overcome 83 As for Auerbach, we can never know whether this was the case,all he presentedin dystopia. his works were intimations of 'wholeness'and 'success'.

The differencesbetweenthe variousmembersof the Schoolof Londonhavingbeen Auerbach, Kossoff Freud it is that clear and remains werestill the mostconservative elaborated, from found New Spirit less it the that they to exhibition given emerge problematic to painters in 'authentic' Moreover, than some sense more their were, representations most. given suggest hardly it is humanist that surprising an uncompromisingly upbringing, critical attitude their hold School finding 1980's, its to the throughout the the centre stage of was paintings towards bread-and-butter Fuller's journal Modern the of popular yet unfashionable art as apotheosis

Painters.

82 FULLER, "Leon Kossoff", in WRIGHT and BOND, The British Show, 1984. 83This was compatible with Fuller's belief system:"Fuller's proserises to poetic heights as Three he Kossoff's times stated aims. the of he respondsto expressionism repeats,'a faintly forgotten, long fourth experienced perhaps never a childhood', of and memory a glimmering for falling fallacy." ALAN his that the in of romantic nostalgia pathetic words, own time GOUK, "Peter Fuller, Art Critic?", Artscribe, No. 30, August 1981, p43.

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CHAPTER 13 Guaranteed Disappointment The pop fans despised protest as being naive and art as being posh, the protesting being being despised commercial and art as pop as pretentious, and the artists students despised pop for being tasteless and protest for being drab. ' The answer will surely lie in a synthesis of the modernist and the popular, whereby art does best differ, keep to to the even as the criticise and affront it its right retains forefront believe I the that an art the of priorities. in its greatest number welfare of been before has from this ever evolved could eventually arise unlike anything which ' merging of the elitist and consensus traditions. Perhaps the only thing that art is for today is to illustrate the contradictions and function day-t0its to any perform other and impotence III alienation of our society, day life is its saving grace. ' In 1977,1 argued that, for historical reasons, the British Fine Art tradition emerged belatedly and remained weak. In the 20"' century, it was threatened by the growth of for 'mega-visual I the tradition'; all means and processes producing i. e., what call a from modern advertising to television, which proliferate images, and reproducing lost his Thus the artist cultural centrality and social under monopoly capitalism. function, and the great traditional media - painting, sculpture and drawing fell into decline. ' These days artists must know their public; they must know what the papers say. ' different 1976 The art crisis of approach to the problems identified by also initiated an entirely far Left, W1111arnslan For factions the the those the on art world. mainstream of the various held be by Critics Crisis to the symptomatic of the class system that it was materialism adopted for Whom? %and propositions such as 'Art Questions 'Art designed as such to critique. was for the People', failed since they continued to promote a bourgeois concept of 'art'. Strategies be the undermine conservative not only political capital of to which would adopted needed but disseminate that which would enable the 'masses' to realise and it, the 6art' and institutions The Crisis Critics failed in to populism power. of panoptic encourage the operations intervene to the to the they adhere myth of universal Intellectual continued since consciousness critical a Runiney Ralf Situationist As English put it: as cultural adviser.

The organisersof the Whitechapel show [Art for Society] abOLIt'political' art are the 'JEFF NUTTALL, RICHARD

"Sick", Bomb Culture, Paladin, London, 1970, pI 14.

CORK "Art for Whom? ", Art For Wbom?, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1978, p I().

RALF RUMNEY, "Cultural Revolution or Art for Social Democracy? ", Art Montbly, Number 18, julv/August 1978, p2l. 4 PETER FULLER, "The Arts Council Collection", Art Montbly, Number 39, September 1980, p 13. i STUART MORGAN,

"What the Papers Say", Artscribe 18, July 1979, p 19.

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thought-police of official revolution. They fulfil a very similar role to that of thc French Communist Party which collaborated with Pornpidou to restore the bourgeois status quo which is the only environment in which Communist parti .es feel at honic. ' Hockney and especially Kitaj also failed their audiences by continuing to operate comfortably hierarchies 'art' the of and the artworld, effectively aiding and abetting constricting within his followers. Despite Fuller their reforming zeal, radical and of onslaught reactionary What than the an audience other modernist never achieved cognoscenti. artists was academic form that undermined the myth of the omnipotent universal intellectual, art was an needed localised ill circulates, as something never something which anybody's as power reconsidering

hands, but excrcisedthrough ýi nct-likc

By 1976, the COUM Transmissions performance art ensemble, a group dedicated to the provoking at shock and outrage within were adept mischief, narrow political non-aligned boundaries of the art network. COUM were one of the few avant-garde performance groups 1960's the the underground while gradually moving of preoccupations of to maintain many ' Attending Solihull Public School the the orbit artworld. of ill their activities within Warwickshire in 1965, Genesis P-Orridge' began to read "books on Dada and related stuff. from I I definitely, the that. age to Very of about sixteen, we used it was an emulation of ... ... but 'dances', to they to called we used put on all our to orgamse what us allow school our get [ I happening Overloaded had much very us. stuff. around of objects all sorts records and ... ...

' RUMNEY,

"The End of Art is Not the End", Art Montbly, Number 17,1978, p4.

See NUTTALL,

Bomb Culture, 1970.

' Born Neil Andrew Megson 22nd February 1950, the reasonsfor his namechange(by dced poll) are his he Genesis due to the fact On that nickname was at school, perhaps claimed one occasion unclear. happenings P-Orridgc the popular in with imagination. often associated was rock was that progressive he had having to on time survive porridge as to the a penniless when young artists commonly attributed left Hull University. On other occasions,he claimed that the 'P' stood for "Pillow". As with the meaning favoured P-Orridge it COUM, that signifiers, the unstable allowing seem audienceevery would of determinemeanings. to opportunity

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irnages,noiseand materials. "' Overthe next threeyearsP-Orridge'sdiverseinterests(Aleister Crowley, JackKeouac,JamesJoyce,Eric Satie,Albert Camus,Andy Warhol, William Burroughs,Rolling Stones,FrankZappa,JohnColtrane,The VelvetUnderground)led him to becomeinvolvedwith the mixed-mediagroupWorms,with whom he releasedan LP entitled Early Worm." On leavingschoolin 1968,P-OrridgestudiedSocialAdministrationat Hull University for a yearbeforetouringwith The ExplodingGalaxy'kinetic theatre'group (then known asTransmediaExploration). Returningto Hull Universitythe following year,N his own intermediagroup, COUM Orridge met CoseyFanniTutti" with whom heestablished 12Exploitinghis experience Transmissions. with WormsandTransmediaExploration,N COUM aswhat would in effectbecomeoneof Britain's first punk orridge beganto envisage bands: Basically,we thought, 'everyoneelseis making thesecrummy LPs; we can do thal too We just LT. wanted to make a record where you crummier can an even make - we didn't have to be a trained musician. [...] It had to be improvised music becausewe " definition it improvised. By was couldn't play.

As COUM, their biggestpop success camewhentheysupportedHawkwind in Bradfordon October 22"' 1971. Despitetheir propheticphilosophyof pop, COUM's actionsbecame increasinglyalliedwith the preoccupations of performanceartists,becomingmorecarefully became less less by "The the site. music confinesof and central,and programmedand refined became important. Eventually images and more more we went to a rock and the actions how it As ""' instruments, that shifted across. and was with their proto-punk concertwith no COUM's in intent: work remained primarily performance postmodernist experiments, musical Performances,especiallyoutdoors, are by their nature, more immediately inclusive. Benefiting from surprise and human curiosity. Often the bias against Modernism and " believe be COUM don't thus side-stepped. can you needspecial an art context training to produce and/or enjoy, worthwhile, significant and unique works. COUM GENESISP-ORRIDGEquotedin COLIN NAYLOR, "CoumingAlong", Art andArtists, 10,1975,p 22. 10WORMS, Early Worm, Black PlasticRecords,BRP 3471,1967. " Born Christine Newby, shechangedher nameto this playful, proto-'Bad Girl' parody on the opera Cosi Fan Tutti. 12"[COUM1 doesn't have any meaningexceptwhat it is now; it would be misleadingto say what it [ I hippie-type Cosmic Organicism Universal for, is the phrase a very of which originally stood ... Molecular. We found it worked more accuratelyto let people decidefor themselves.It became like Dada. done It just " P-ORRIDGE that was under name. a word. everything quoted with associated in MORGAN, "What the PapersSay", p17. 13P-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Courning Along", p25.

"' ibid., p22. 15P-ORRIDGE & PETER CHRISTOPHERSON, "Annihilating Reality", Studio International, July/August, 1976, p44.

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demonstratethat thereareno boundariesin any form. It hasnot all beendonebefore, bear has that valid reinterpretation.The possibilitiesremain which canstill and " endless. COUM's performancesbeganto engagedirectly with the de-definitional impulses which were force of sixties and seventiesexperimentation: site-specificinstallations, timeth e motivating based work, performanceand video; supplanting a narrow and inhospitable formalism with field' later for 'expanded Krauss In Rosalind termed the early 1970s, the group an art. what began to draw heavily upon the deliberatelyprovocative, anti-art strategiesof Fluxus. Porridge and Tutti undertook performancepiecesfor the Fluxshoe travelling show, an intermedia event curated by David Mayor in 1972-3. P-Orridge baffled pedestriansby dressing up as a Caterpillar and crawling from one gallery to another. During their period of residencyin Hull, P-Orridge and Tutti becamea focus of from in for 60s Hell's to the addition gangs underground of skinheads and refugees attraction " 'suggest' local Police leading they to that Angels, the move on. P-Orridge and Tutti pressand decided that they would be more welcome in cosmopolitan London. After moving to a SPACE fully COUM Hackney in 1973, Street, Martello 10 came within the orbit of the studio at institutionalised avant-garde. On the suggestionof their friend Mike Scott, they successfully founded Performance Art Committee; from Council's for Arts the newly a grant applied (predominately made up of clients from the Drama Paneland the disbandedExperimental for began Tutti ) At Committee. time, the posing soft porn magazinesas a way same projects 1974, her In March Peter income. 'Sleazy' this the attracted attention of of supplementing Christopherson, then a junior assistantat Hipgnosis, the pioneering graphic design firm which " Christopherson for It combos. was mid-70s rock numerous sleeves who produced album introduced the group to the performancework of VienneseActionists such as Hermann became by "characterised from their Nitsch, performances an uncompromising which point improvisation"" and the systematicbreaking of taboos. to and extremes physical commitment For their Studios of Lust performanceat the Nuffield Foundation Art Gallery, 16COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "Couming of Age" Typewritten Information Sheet,Undated, COUM TransmissionslThrobbing Gristle Archive, National Art Library, V&A, London, 1990. 17"PIG NEWS: Sincethe obscenitybust we havebeenvisited severaltimes by Det. Beanand Det. Ward been haven't forgotten be in drug that they to we ain't although court yet reminded and vice squad of the by it It done be them. that seems promises proper suits certain policemento and when good and we will for Harvey is in Ray for 15 in jail (leadsinger) COUM prison months shaping up. are of seethe whole floor he downstairs" Central. "fell Far-out the on ground of which after "assaulting a police officer" drugs bust. for for 23 drummer is inside " COUM Transmissions,"News from a months john, the second C,OUM Transmissions", Frendz, 13" - 28d'October 1971. " Born at the end of February 1955 in Leeds,Christophersonwas the youngestin large academicfamily living in Wimbledon and later in Durham. He was educatedat Chorister School and later at Quaker cohe levels briefly After A in StateUniversity of New Ackworth. boarding to sciences went at school ed York, in Buffalo studying fiction writing, computer programming, theatre designand video. On returning he joined Hipgnosis as a junior assistant,becominga joint partner '74 Summer in London the of to before the company split up in 1983. 19SIMON FORD, "Doing P-Orridge", Art Monthly, June 1996, No. 197, plo.

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University of Southampton in July 1975, COUM simply agreedon a general area of activity, be dressed that they would ordinarily, so that they could not be distinguished from any and members of the audience. fairly ordinary peoplewith a few ordinary objects - and then, bit by there three are ... bit, we lead them [the audience],across Things start to go wrong; things start to turn ... into something odd, slightly strange. Not quite normal. [ ] Bit by bit you would see ... fairly radical changes:Coseygradually sliced off all her clothes, and when she had her dress, knickers, big it tights and revealed a scar as if she had been sliced sliced off knife. it Then a would continue until there were anal syringesand candles, with feathers and old Tampax hanging from my backside;my trousers were around my ankles, and I would masturbatewhilst reading the [sex] book, and more and more blood was pouring from my mouth. Sleazyby this time was poking at his burns and be lighting Cosey all and would candlesand placing grazeswith a needle, undressed, them on piecesof her cut-off clothes, and picking off her fake scar until the wound just didn't disappear. ] [... We to registerany expressionsof pain or shock, so there seemed feeling that nothing mattered really. [ ...I just like at the to was nothing grasp onto, a beginning it looked like nothing was going to happen. Usually at the end there's a very like When in they talk, they talk thoughtful a church. silence, whispers. The quiet, ' break ' it. is that to wants so strong nobody generated atmosphere

Tutti would cut off a schoolgirlskirt or a body stocking, in numerousrelatedperformances, (aka Yoko Ono'sprincipalof transformationthroughdestruction),rubbinga red substance looking,Tutti's woundscould be into tearsin her tights. With prolonged,embarrassed be to prostheticsor the applicationof greasepaint, elicitingthe squirming ascertained discomfortof desiremixedwith revulsion.Tutti frequentlydislodgedthe supposedtruth body feminist intentionally in creating such a manner, art abjectspecialeffectsto of value herself feathers in jam for her covering and performance, self-mutilation satirical replicate Woman'sRoll (1976)performanceat the A.I.R. Galleryin 1976. In this, sherefusedto becoming Instead, to the codes of what was a conventional according manner. cornmunicate her her impulse titillating as a stripper, audience's experience voyeuristic to stare on sheacted intimate. the and at the private Tutti's disguisesof an erotic life revealedthemselvesin guisesthat suggestedthat COUM were not simply borrowing the conventionsof mainstream body-basedperformance Urmen, COUM Indeed, they artists, were and glorified themselves were not performance art. death, fear, humiliation. be Obsessionally "Art sex, with concerned selfmust as such: destructive we have lost contact with our shamanicselves. How to prove we are alive. Sadism, murder, revelation of our terrors. [ ...] Affirmation of existenceis art. All is lie. is "" For P-Orridge, is to to self-destructive understand violence an extension contradiction 21P-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Courning Along", p25. " COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "What Has COUM to Mean?: Thee Theory Behind COUM", Typewritten Statement,Undated, COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, National Art Library, V&A, London, 1990. COUM's follow up performancewas evenmore harrowing: "We have beengetting viler in our actions too. Made a video tape called COUMDENSATION MUCUS which was mentioned in the in issue. Has in letter black in this a corner slumped of me a white printed you room slumkid thee flat home Then E Like lit gradually cell. sleazy or mental an empty end up with candles,old clothes.

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deep human Humanity is representedas isolated, and a pessimism about society nature. of impotent, and numbed by its inundation with massmedia images. P-Orridge's answer to this in What has CO UM to Mean? comesfrom a Nietzscheanmetaphysicalframework, seeing dying in defining "identity life as the through action" as essential a culture, of and affirmation imposition of will our surroundings-a definition identical to Nietzsche's Will to Power. However, while Nietzscheclaimed that everything in the category of art is also in the larger held P-Orridge that that anything that affirms existenceis things existence, of affirm category for defining left him Since he this to criteria art with no other as opposed non-art, art. be boundaries P-Orridge the can art. of what also added another widened significantly having lost inner ideas: Nietzsche's to contact with our spirituality and our outer element left for imposition is the the of our will our selves,and the only way to object only senses, death death is, in to take the through self-destruction. the over role effect, of will of escape

In line with this, ritual purification,involvingboth literal and symbolicelements including bloodletting, defecation,urinary actions, and primitive body decoration were brought into contradiction with a great self-awarenessconcerning the inherently contrived hand Cosey On "not that the the would claim their one work actions. was of nature likewise but P-Orridge Tutti's "" (entertainment) thesis that asserted action art. performance -COUM is not 'about' entertainment," but concluded with the contradictory statementthat it direct, interpretation "concerned of actions to realisea uniquely personal symbolic with was "

incorporated two antithetical authorial COUM Hence, simultaneously perception. intentions: one anti-aesthetic,anti-theoretical 'direct' strategy designedto subvert the artworld by denying any responsibility for their work, and one 'symbolic' strategy whereby actions by fact The COUM's to the that acceptance achieve artworld. created were strategically did to any conclusion created a resonance the reach which permitted appear not actions dominance of their revisions,affecting and subverting the artworld though art, an desired by artists and anti-artists alike. achievement Indeed, COUM's ability to manipulate their bodies was, in effect, a manifestation of

found define hard fashion The between "it that they to claimed to group reality. their ability 24 " TV imageof theerealandtheemoviestheymirror. Accordingly,COUM's codedactions hanging feathers ALL out of my arsehole.E counitimesremoveone Tampax,syringesof pissandmilk, has deep fades Sleazy his lick he Camera it. is to who gash every so often on arm which or and chew he his is thread anaesthetic and as pulls without and needle, skin needle pulled with ordinary up stitching boys fucking he Later blood in pictures stitches of young out. puss oozes and and mutilated and upwards background flesh forearm. battered In his aresoundsof radio andmutedvoicesas to sewnup accidents if counioneis in flat next door awareof this scenario,yet unbothered.It is a truly reallybeautiful Vile,Volume3, Number2, Summer1977, [to ANNA BANANA]", Letter "A " P-ORRIDGE, videotape. p30-31. 22COSEYFANNI TUTTI, "Artist's Statement"TypewrittenInformationSheet,May 197S,COUM GristleArchive,NationalArt Library,V&A, London,1990. Transmissions/Throbbing 23P-ORRIDGE,"Artist's Statement"TypewrittenInformationSheet,27th August1974,COUM GristleArchive,NationalArt Library,V&A, London,1990. (My emphasis). Transmissions/Throbbing 24COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "What Has COUM to Mean?: Thee Theory Behind COUM", Typewritten

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basis behind designed to the artistic process,a processthat the magical glorify seemingly were remained inaccessibleto the audience. Initially, "the essentialprocessof reflection foctised tile between himself the affinities awareness, not on and the performer, but tile intrinsic viewer's samenessof self and performer."" After a period of 'orderly' behaviour, however, P-Orridge begin drink his leading to nonchalantly own urine, on to the breaking of as many might taboos as possible. In Amsterdam we did I a performanceIn the red-light district. The people in the kind lighting do "What theatre asked, of

T 4

you want? " and we said, "Oh, just put lights. Then " the we played red on all tapes of Charles Manson's LP, Lic, L:wup with soundtracks of trains going through thunderstorms, and we wcnt through all different kinds of fetishes Sleazy cut his throat and had to kind of do a tourniquet on his throat, and Coscy and I did this thing of spitting at each licking licking the then then all spit off, and each other's genitals, and then other and having sexual intercourse while her hair was set on fire with candles. There was an day heavier, 2,000 Each it got so that oil Easter Sunday I people. audience of around bullwhips, 2 human covered cross, with a wooden whipped in vomit was crucified on legs, had hold burning I to torches - people in and chicken while wings chicken and burning hear the skin on my hands. I Figure 13.21 And then I the audience could legs lighted her down Cosey's while she stuck a candle up vagina, so there urinated her flames Just ordinary everyday ways of avoiding the out of vagina. coming were " commercials on the television.

In all, a COUM action would take the audience's'customary' behaviour and slowly transform behaviour 'ordinary' 'deviant' actions, resulting in a subversion of of series which the a it into be In became this to the sense prevent. powerless audience a powerless would audience COUM's to self-referentiality. counter-movement Hence, while mimicking the spontaneous, plotless character of a Cageian happening,

COUM's performancesleft little or no room for audienceparticipation other than in all being by the sense of intimate involvement the audience's enforced only capacity, experiential The Cagelanisin the subtle performance. schism with their proximity with close of was matter For Cage, P-Orridge's the the of artist. conception audiencewas more in prevalent equally hearing his "the the work, indeed, of of the piece of music is creation than an equal partner in his own action -[... ] the music, so to speak,is his, rather than the composer's."'- Despite the Archive, Gristle Transmissions/Throbbing National Art Library, V&A, COUM Undated, Statement, London, 1990. ' HUGH ADAMS, "COUM in Southampton:Lay Assumptions", Studio International, Vol. 192, No. 982, July/August 1976. 2' P-ORRIDGE, "Letter", Undated, COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, National Art Library, V&A, London, 1990. "JOHN

CAGE quoted in ROSELEE GOLDBERG, "John Cage and Merce Cunningham ", Performance:

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'ordinariness' COUM P-Orridge be as performers/actors, to of conceived alleged artists "people who are more like magiciansor alchemistsof a different sort, people who are delving deeper than art problems, art structuresand aestheticsand so on as a kind of logical functional activity. "" For COUM there were no transparent forms of knowledge innocent of is Given that exercisedthrough the production of 'truth', power and repression. coercion COUM's cabalistic art rituals metaphorically battled against both the massmedia and its hand, demystifiers. On harder-edge the this to the one strategy owed much semio-artist of 60s had from COUM emerged: culture which counter If your communication is to result in action, in changeof direction, then argument, McLuhans's 'hot' information, the communication usedby CND, by all political by is The had the people useless. all politicians, advertisers ostensibly protesters, moving their way. What was required was an explosive planted straight into the human subconsciousto blow it off course."

Yet COUM alsohadmuchin commonwith the numerousself-mutilationperformances of the 1970s,mostof which wereofficially endorsedby the Internationalarts establishment, as " being Such indicated back 'underground'. the to performances a shift part of opposed focus the the and creativesourceof the artist asperformer,as writerly towards the notion of from in 1975: "The As P-Orridge the comes meaning somehow repetition remarked action. into line imbuing itself. "" In from that the the meaning action not action personality or focus COUM in to the the shift trend, seemed on artist as performer this evermore with disturbing directions: The pathological murderer, sex offender, is affirming identity through action, we arc high high is is there's art crime, crime no gap anymore, art without the same, he kid; deaths his Actions 23 in sex and young girls when with offal, was a theoretics. final action; Manson creepycrawling to status of Andy Warhol; Manson's integrity distract from We The Warhol's. is to truth. strive ourselves truth an all ugly excels humans die. just idiot We We this. without the senseto admit we spend are all simply Live Art 1909 to the Present,Thames& Hudson, 1979, p8l. 2sp-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Couming Along", p23. 29NUITALL,

"Sick", Bomb Culture, p154.

3"Thc Franco-Italian Gina Paneset the agendafor the ritualised sadomasochisticassaulton the body in in (1973) Sentimentale Action which shepresseda row of razor blades as 1968, producing actions such into her forearm. In the sameperiod cameAmerican Vito Acconci's Rubbing Piece(1970), rubbing his had he his hand fingers forearm produced a sore. In 1972 Stuart Brisley the left of until right with for Today... Notbing at the Gallery House, sitting two hours a day for two weeks in a And performed bath of murky water containing lumps of rotting meat. In 1974 the Californian performer Chris Burden be shot, crucified on the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle,kicked down two flights of himself to allowed formally drown himself. The sanctioned to movement reachedan alarming peak at attempted and stairs, Abramovic: inflicted pain on herself with both Marina Yugoslavian Bienalle Paris 1975 the when the knives and schizophrenicdrugs, and the Austrian performanceartist Schwarzkoglerkilled himself during an art ritual. 31P-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Couming Along", p23.

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" from lives random occupationsof our energy. conning purpose our in this, P-Orridge was also verifying the transformation towards the 'pop-Situationist' interpretation of body art dominant in punk. Particularly proto-punk was P-Orridge's debt to interest in 60s "the 'active their the underground, resuscitating of praxis of nihilism' the deviants - psychotics,the mentally collapsed,(it was somewhat hip to have been through a it institutionalised had to to order sell an that crooks""in artworld and petty asylum) rnental been it to take conceptual too and austerities with minimal any preoccupied notice. previously is apparent that P-Orridge deliberatelyappropriated theseconcernsin a manner which would followed Gina by Like Pane, P-Orridge the the artworld. straight them consumable inake body's body "the definition tragic the and pitiless art, stressing weakness, of established but its its ""' limitations, its tear and precariousness, wear and chose to couch of servitude of deliberately Charles Manson's by discussion offensive comparison with a sex establishing this late killers 60s, interest in As the this the the of sex such as underground casewith was crimes. Manson lay in their aptitude to arousean extreme response,to leavepeople in a position " joke. However, than the as a rather situation off a purely they switch could not where the masked a peculiar manifestation to of such analogies values, obliterate attempt nihilistic breaking displaying COUM's the goal of and most unrelinquent of purity. concept ornantic r from disgusting things possiblesternmed a puritan taboo, the most offensive, and the most desire to cleansethe dirt of the social structure by fire, wallowing in what was the most impure functions habitual that signs the of and morals world corrupt, as a numbing to violate in order for COUM's 'purity' 'truth' 'reality. between paradoxical quest and and explains people shell blood, faeces. Bodily bodily such as milk, urine, and excretions their obsessiveuseof honest 'real' individual. therefore and aspects most of an and the organic most excretions are free interior in the the than they surface of the person, are allegedly rather Since they originate it is impossible While to to return clearly phenomenological values. cultural or social of (the by by created the of meaning very charge realm made serniotic 'greality' abandoning COUM's language School London), to the resistance of reified was academic semio-art against falsity late 'recognition' 1970s the of corruption and of artist's fairly typical of the

however, in As the tampering effects the shock with of sex crime see, shall we signification. funded for less 1970s performanceartiststo challengethe state late of an effectiveroute was it that especially sensationalism, given the manipulative wasover hegemonyof mass-media's 32P-ORRIDGE, "Letter, October 1975", in "COUM", Arte IngleseOggi 1960-76, British Council, Flash Art (Milan), 34 Missions", December 1976, "COUM Reprinted 1976, as p36. p423. Nfilan, 33DAVE AND STUART WISE, Punk, Reggae,A Critique, Calderwood 15, pamphlet, Glasgow, c.1978 Alienation", in Everyday STEWART The Revolution HOME Music: End "The of of ed., reprinted as 1996, AK Edinburgh, Press, A Reader, Situationism?: p67. is What The Art Today, Everyman Art Library, 1995, p29. TAYLOR, in BRANDON PANE of GINA quoted -" de by Quincey in Thomas is the 1820s in an article for 35The claim that murder art was made Art" later Fine by Considered Andre "Murder Breton. Magazine as and entitled Blackwood's

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ý' busty had riscil on Flect Street. Sun" "brash the ten years since and

Figure 13.3 Vile SanFrancisco.USA. Vol. I No. 1, 'Valciltincs Edition' February 1974. Mail art magazinefcaturing 11-Orridge's

Up until this point, P-Orridge had been involved with the mail art movement in an effort to circumvent the elitism of fact (despite that COUM were the first group to the the artworld from Performance Art Panel the a grant receive of the gratefully ACGB). The mail art network adopted the long cherished strategy of the avant-gardc to brcak down the distinctions between artists and rion-artists, creating a spirit of openness between " Despite their aim to de-coinniodify the artwork, " mall artists produced corespondents. -11 t4l, " .1 ddition books, Xerox postcards, postage stamps, and rubber stamps, to mall ar I, artist's Vile" Canadian San-Francisco's the tabloid File. When requested by and as such art journals his Martello Street neighbour Helen Chadwick to provide a retrospcctive of his work for the 1979 Hayward Annual, P-Orridge presented three portfolios of letters and collages. This living by him Hollywood, Portland Sall Francisco three to associates in and sent was material 42 Al Ackerman ) during his six-year involvement with the Cazazza Monte Armst, (Skot and free-standing folios In the canvases and the of wall-hung context sculptures were movement. beneath displayed Tharnes. In they were, a the as window overlooking invisible, river almost line with this understated hang, P-Orridge insisted that these letters "were not produced as art, how live how they to three they are and respond people really where and who they they are know.

Precisely because it was not ever intended as art, because it is minus the awful demands

becomes Art Career Art World, but Market, Art "" it simple, curious, open really the art. of ... While P-Orridge posthurnously saw mailing as a means of dismantling the barrier between art

NORMAN SHRAPNEL, "Introduction", The Seventies:Britain's Inivard March, Constable, London, 1980, p16. 37See:CHUCK WELCH, Networking Currents: Contemporary Mail Art Subjectsand Issues,Sandbar Willow Press,Boston, 1986. " See:HOME, Plagiarism:Art as Commodityand Strategiesfor its Negation, Aporia Press,London, 1988. " Visit: TAM RubberstarnpArchive http://www. geocities.coin/Paris/4947/rub-arch.litmi `See: PATRICK FIRPO et at., Copy Art: The First Complete Guide to the Copy Machine, Richard Marek Publishing,New York, 1978. 41See:ANNA BANANA, About Vile, BananaProductions,Vancouver, Canada, 1983. 42AL ACKERMAN, The Blaster A/ Ackerman Omnibus, New York: Feh! Press,1994. 43P-ORRIDGE/COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts Council of Great Britain, (13th April) 1979, p27.

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life, his for own mail art was infamous and preciselythe kind of 'Art' qualities he allegedly 44 despised For example, Blackmailing, a mailing of fifty black postcardsto randoinly chosen . local townspeople, bore the sado-masochisticstreak characteristic of COUM's performances, drawing inspiration frorn the fetish art-actions such as Vito Acconci's Seedbed( 1971) and illore generally on the taboo-breaking examination of sex and violence found in most of the in 60s (Fuck You: A Magazineof the Arts, Birtb Press,()Z, the press permissive underground Indeed, ). immediately prefiguring the scandalover the ICA Prostitution exhibition, Petc. Orridge's aestheticpredilection for fetish art was to initiate one of COUM's most infamous held G. O. P-0, G. P. vs. in Highbury Corner Magistrates Court oil the 7th of April actions, 1976. In the mid 70s, P-Orridge had beenfreely experimenting with photomontage on P-Orridge designs London by pasting over tourist attractions. often these of mocked postcards from derived pornographic magazines,on one occasion transforming a postcard pictures small depicting Buckingham Palaceand the Queen by adding a glossy picture of a hand groping a he lady buttocks. "The On front (Queen) has her the the other side wrote, on mouth woman's filed her Of " P-Orridge because to this teeth points. are wrote: shut I usetext as purely graphic, verbal In much contemporary abstraction. art words are juxtaposed with do I the imagesand photographs. format. in exchangeable small same (It amusesme to parody real world " art world). Figurc 13.4 Genesis P-Orridgc. Filed to Points. (tol2 left), (1976),

Hence, while P-Orridge mimicked ideas familiar to sernlo-art photographers, like A&L, he was highly suspicious of the critical pretensions which resulted of its restricted distribution network (the University and the artworld).

In many ways, he might even be seen to have attempted to

forms P-Orridge's Propaganda'. demoCratise 'Black forms to of attempt similar Critical create by way of the mail art network was an uncompromising example of jo of photomontage Spence's advocacy of a radicalised type of 'amateurism'.

P-Orridge, however, aimed to

destroy the field of interpretation, the kind of altruistic critical agendas which would frame Spence's educational photography and phototheraputic programmes.

4' 'The simple nomination of an object as art appears sufficient qualification of that nominating agent as [but] level intentional this the use of causality on an extensional promiscuous and could artist, an historicity and meaningfulness of art. The fact that 'artist' is not axiomatically defined is no the endanger defined. being.. PHILIP PILKINGTON and DAVID RUSHERSON, for " its axiomatically not reason "Don Judd's Dictum and its Emptiness", Analytical Art", no. 1, July 1971, p4. 45P-ORRIDGE, "Statement by Genesis P-Orridge to his Solicitor April 5th 1976", G. P. O. versus G. P-0. A Chronicle of Mail Art on Trial Cournpiled by Genesis P-Orridge, Ecart, Switzerland, 1976.

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Girlie magsand modern paintings contain key symbols that are exclusiveto the initiated, that rely on a knowledge of their context and references,a technical involvement in their scene.[ ...I What sexual fantasy is to the person in the street, art is to the artist. [ ...I It is a form of Pavlonian conditioned response. [1] desireto negatethis formula of control and response,highlighting its absurdity."

For P-Orridge,radicalamateurismdemandeda humorousassaulton categorisationand intellectualisation.In manywaysthis servedto challengethe pretensionsof sernio-artand by kind into transforming them the of educational photography the nature of solicitous rectify jocoseforms of insubordinationwhich Spence would later term'cultural sniping'. However,POrridge'sbold assaulton the field of interpretationcreateda numberof problems.Although he completelyabandoned'classrooms'and 'discussiongroups',his negationswereenacted between form selectedmembersof the mail art correspondence closed of merelyasa limited for Spence's Pin Even the with rather audience work, comparison community. Orridge'smail art wasimmoderatelyexclusive,an unmitigatedlyprivatemethodof Rosy Spence that the to convincingly pronounce work she and more able was communication. Martin producedwas "ringing bells- very,verynoisybells- in a way that images,say,on by abstractanalysisintimidatethe audienceinto sayingnothingat fetishisationaccompanied discussion. into That is have images When the group erupts where whole up put our we all. behind hoping Because in in, democratisation the to remain we are not a sense. comes the `7 for. like Although, hoping the to agenda of what students ask shift theory teachers,we are Spence,P-Orridgederidedthe voguefor appendingabstrusetheoreticaltextswith fetishistic the political (asopposedto politicisingthe personal). imagery,he did so by personalising COUM have nothing to say and they're sayingit. Make your own theory. " it. have COUM no gameto play and they're playing failed P-Orridge bluntly to establishthe wider contexts in By maintaining a absurdist stance, for his to the or challenge stance viewers shift goalposts a critical retain work might which in His this that they contained compatible attitude with eminently postcardswere themselves. forms of pornographic writing (extracts from Whitehousemagazine)that are notoriously rigid, images Semio-artist's disallow to words and and suggestnew the manipulate ability of a down bucked his delight felt "we I "to tongue up and running my slit"; and my meanings: heaved,our mingled juices soaking our groins." P-Orridge's threat to the 'critical' artworld language. limited While to the uncritical arbitrariness of a mentality vulgar, and course was

"' Ibid. IJO SPENCEquoted in JOHN ROBERTS,"Interview with Jo Spence",SelectedErrors: Writings on Art Pluto Press, London, 1981-90, Politics p143. and

"What HasCOUM to Mean?: TheeTheoryBehindCOUM", Typewritten 4' COUM TRANSMISSIONS, GristleArchive,NationalArt Library,V&A, Undated,COUM TransmissionsIThrobbing Statement, London,1990.

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for language P-Orridge's manipulation, his control over what was allowed verbal and visual best. COUM wcrc unwilling to fully manipulate their tenuous was at ultimately signified audience's conclusions, that is, the artist's authority, once the work was in production, wits ignored: COUM project their lives and emotions into a public arena without any preconceptions develop, how these to may given thee variables of time, audience reaction and as intuitive improvisation. I ] They state no position implicitly, simply exposing ... themselves as they are to realisc the activities that create a moment that is both precious " and expendable. P-Orridge's mail art affirmed that he could not write himself into his work and hope to avcrt from being inti Far readings. of certain idated into "saying nothing at all", the the pitfalls his contact with work were simply offendcd. came into who uninitiated On the II th of October 1975, the Filed to Points postcard caught the attention of a Post Office Sorter in Hackney. Given that he always supplied a return address, P-Orridge was following his home He Hackney. Police the to to the traced in gave statement on the easily 21st of November:

I am a professional mail artist with work documented by various books, magazines by My Arts Council in the work supported is current exhibitions. of Great and Britain. The two cards were sent to other artists and I did not expect anyone other than the addresseesto read them.

Magistrates Court, London. 5" April 1976. From this it would appear that Porridge regardedhis work as a 'professional' practice, sponsored by the Arts Council and aimed at It is also probable the initiated. his did he niad art not intend that to manufacture a publicity situation, indeed, the accusations have not could of indecency for height COUM time the who were at of their career as 'professional' Arts come at a worse Council artists. P-Orridge was summonsed to attend trial on the 23rd February, yet was due to by Englisb Art Today British Milan 22"' the avant-garde opening the in on with their represent for Crystal Ball. Towards His be tbee the trial to request postponed to the 5th of performance

49

ibid.

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April wasexcepted,allowingthe Policeto openhis mail and seizethreemore Cobscene' postcards. This setbackallowedP-Orridgeto developa defencecaseand transformthe eventinto for five happening. Before he full-blown trial going on obscene sending collages, attempted a to enlist as many people associatedwith the avant-gardeand the official artworld as possible, for his invitations, pressreleases,and replicas of surnmonses,application sending wedding-style legal aid (refused),and the allegedlyobscenepostcardsto 162 guests,including Chris Carter, Anna Banana,Al Ackerman, Skot Armst, John Latham, Monte Cazazza,Richard Cork, Caroline Tisdall, Ted Little, Leo Castelli, Angela Flowers, The SerpentineGallery, The Whitechapel Gallery, Art Forum, Brian Eno, John Peel,Melody Maker, N. M. E, and Playboy magazine.

That P-Orridgehaddecidedto takea morecommittedstanceis clearin so far asthe Solicitor'sStatementon the dayof the trial seeshim questionthe claim of professionalstatus his Statement: in Police he that made No high technique,just scissors,glue and photos. I want to be sure that at least be do I it, thing. to want a similar part of popular culture, theoretically, anyonecould involved with everydaylife not an intellectual artist, in an ivory tower, thinking I am special,reveredand monumental.

both defend director ICA, Ted Little, PCork the the trial to Richard were present at of and Orridge'sactions,while BridgetRileyandWilliam Burroughshadwritten in support. To Cork, P-Orridge'sactionwaslike a literal manifestationof ConradAtkinson's"exhibits in a court room prosecution"" This time, however,the 'audience'wasside-tracked,by aesthetics and dazzling democratic intimations. In many ways G.P.O. vs. G.P-0 despite P-Orridge's performances, like debates Ruskin Whistler, Whistler's The of vs. and the vs. aesthetic moral paralleled Gentle Art of Making Enemies,it later becamea published artwork in its own right, G.P.O. by Coumpiled GenesisP-Orridge, Ecart, Trial Mail Art A Chronicle G. P-0: on of versus Switzerland, 1976. P-Orridge, the aesthete,was resplendentin Lurex suit, red socks, silver fingernails and unorthodox haircut -a triangle having beenshavedfrom his forehead to a blue his Colwell, Mrs in the arbiter of moral standards, wore a crown. the centre of point "' CORK, "Assault by the Factsof Life", EveningStandard, London, 25th April 1974, p32. "1976 was for Studio in 'Performance Issue'. I Genesis I the to an article write remember the year commissioned being quite disturbed by this article and wondering whether someof the illustrations should be used becausethey were quite raw, but decidedin the end that I shouldn't start censoringlike that. Then I him. liked have bit, He know him to turn the used to quite up at office a and and a talk started getting he looking back, Then Cosey the too. told postcard, me about which, was actually would come and it, complaining about the Queen? Ludicrous! It innocuous. postal wasn't some worker was quite Anyway, he said 'my lawyer sayswe needan art critic to come along and say that I'm a brilliant artist., I don't think that I was required to talk about his morals, I think I was required to talk about his worth as hugely We do it I as entertaining. saw the whole thing as a we all regarded remember a maker of art. law, begin it seriously. But there was an astonished to take the one couldn't the of part on charade law actually had teeth, in this respect,and could conceivablecausedamage. L100 in the that awareness lot CORK, Queens Interview Park, London, " February 1998. days money. of with a quite was those

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handled in classicobscenitystyle. Confusionreignedthroughout:the The twin-set. casewas Scottishmagistrate,Mrs. Colwell,insistedon callingP-Orridge'Mr Porridge'while the Post Office thoughthewasa 'maleartist.' Mr. Ridgeway,the PostOffice lawyeranxiouslyasked be 'work indecent. if David Offenbach of art' could a ever considered witness and every GeoffreyRobertsonwereP-Orridge'sdefencelawyers,neitherof themunfamiliarwith defended having OZ True liberal form, to theymaintainedthat Mr. magazine. cases obscenity Ridgeway'sdistinctionsbetweenart andpornographywerepurelya matterof bourgeois convention. A favourable article appearingin soft-porn magazineNational News accurately legal COUM's to context: advocacyof an aestheticsof reception a transferred SinceMr. P-Orridge admitted sendingthe cards in question yet pleaded not guilty on indecent, the onus was on the prosecuting solicitor that the cards were not the grounds designs/words that the on the cards were 'indecent'. When the prosecution to prove he design indecent? " "Is this not was asking an entirely rhetorically: solicitor asked inappropriate question, for indecencyis not somethinginherent in an object. Therefore it is simply not possibleto prove definitely that a thing or display is in itself indecent, for it is intolerable is the one this general public, equally an situation while and intolerable for the judge or magistrate. If he acceptsthat 'Exhibit A' cannot definitely be proven either 'decent' or 'indecent', then his function and the function of that court has beenseverelyeroded." Indecencyhas negativeconnotations due to the heritageof Classicalphilosophy which privileges signifying elements,which are aligned with reason,over phenomenologicalelements, is Since 'higher' the reason considered a sensibility than the appetites. with aligned which are appetites,violence, sex, or any spectacularelementthat may appeal to our appetitesare seenas lessworthwhile than elementswhich appealto our intellectual or aestheticsensibilities. To like further the meaning of the 'higher' things sex or violence must to these sensibilities, appeal for just immediate its than the existing rather pleasurethat they appreciation aesthetic work or Therefore, to prove that the sexual and/or violent content of their work the audience. give to further intended it is 'indecent' to that their artistic point. Had Pis not artists often assert Orridge completely refusedto take this bourgeoisoption, he would indeed have demonstrated its is is 'indecent' implied determines context and something purpose. Both whether that what be is 'indecent' judgement something cannot absolute. on whether of theseare subjective,so a However, as it stands,P-Orridge's contradictory Police Statements('professional mail artist vs. leave legal disrepute. The do in it) the trial the success of critical and anyone could

Case Genesis NAYLOR? ), P-Orridge Dirty "The Remarkable Postcards", (COLIN ANON the of and -` National News, Issue3, Kelerfern, London, 1976. There is a possibility that this article was written by following from ideas Colin Naylor it in the the of as closely resembles many contained or paraphrased but between is indecency? is An It "What thing a an not event. event outside stimuli unpublished article: (the object) and a person'sperception of that stimuli. This is supported by the legal definition of indecencyas 'that which offends sickensor revolts someone.' [ ...] Therefore: it is not possibleto prove definitely that a thing or display or any outside stimulus is in itself 'indecent." COLIN NAYLOR, "The Casefor Indecency", Typewritten Article, 8th April 1976, COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, National Art Library, V&A, London, 1990.

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his for by incoherent Magistratesunderstandably unconvincedof case a re-trial jury, P-Orridge for five Section Office found 11 1953 Post the contravening charges of act, and on guilty was in that it established fined L100 plusL20 costs.The trial wasprecedent-setting that a person for 'obscene' be sending postcardseventhoughtheymight causeno offence, can prosecuted have in belief "the P-Orridge's this that the power world restswith peoplewho testifyingto information. As "" information that control of the and a nihilistic satireon the to most access hegemonyof the law, P-Orridgefought backwith amusingineffectuality,manufacturinga new legend: PORNOGRAPHY'. bearing 'UNSOLICITED the rubberstamp The failure in court was grist to COUM's mill: E have lots of VILE pictures coming my way thesedaze. Unbelievableamounts, dribble fani fuck pics, pasolinis corpse pictures actually pathology, corpses,open know And in Rome from through there. a guy we the office coroner's scrounged feel have been known [... ] in to that make sick. people actions pictures of ourselves Now we are really underground again, finance is harder, we survive by prostitution in " death integral form. But anyway. to our way of that's every

SoextremewereCOUM's actionsthat veteranself-mutilatorsChris BurdenandJohn held Cease Exist NAME in Los to the at of Baldessari their performance walkedout of it 1976 23rd November Arts Contemporary that Institute saying was Angeles on of do butter believe don't ' "E 'not 'sickening' told you wouldn't art you we art. 'disgusting', and " be he for P-Orridge MUST it, Chris Boredom's acidly remarked. right", word take me;

Interviews: GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts "Four FURLONG, in WILLIAM P-ORRIDGE -' Council of Great Britain, 1979, p15. " P-ORRIDGE, "A Letter [to ANNA BANANA]", Vile, Volume 3, Number 2, Summer1977, p3l. language 'magick' is by Crowley's Aleister teaches that influenced of which system magic and Heavily in P-Orridge's their original spellings. the words mailings common most that we should avoid writing full of systematicmisspellingsand alternate capitalisations. made extensiveuseof a personalvernacular destroy intended to speakingwithout thought, consciously The manipulation of everydayphraseswas language has became house P-Orridge's his However, language the since to meet needs. changing defeating its Youth, Psychick Temple Thee original purpose as a semi-private rather languageof ov language. 14P-ORRIDGE, "Buster Clevelandvs. GenesisP.: A Friendly Exchange[Letter dated 24th January Angeles, Institute Los in 1976, "In 1977, 2, Summer 3, Number Volume the Vile, at of p32. 19771", drank bottle did I I Cosey I Arts (LAICA), was a of where naked, a performance and Contemporary blood, lot And I then then enemas with milk and urine, and tacks. myself gave of on a stood and whiskey floor front Chris in Burden and blood jet the of shot across broke wind so a of milk and urine combined floor. floor Then I 10licked it I the a concrete a which was not-clean got then off assortedvisual artists. licked floor I Cosey Then it, the the off and vomit to me vomit. inch nail and tried swallow which made her her floor. And lick trying to sever vagina navel with a helped me shewas naked and the vomit off the blood blade, her injected into from her it bladeto navel with a razor and she cut vagina she well, razor her vagina which then trickled out, and we suckedthe blood from her vagina into a syringeand injected it for And black, then to then tried we used we vomited again, which eat. into eggspainted which we large bottle drank it it into I I Then was still to glass all while a and needed urinate, so urinated enemas. floor licking And ) improvised. (This to the then crawled each other, we gradually was all warm. fair Chris leave it's insult like don't to ('cause to an art gallery). not after all, a mess, y'know; we clean. is his is for being "This known this art, not out with girlfriend, saying: outrageous,walked Burden, who's Undated, " P-ORRIDGE, "Letter", I've disgusting these thing people are sick. ever seen, and the most COUM Transmissions/ThrobbingGristle Archive, National Art Library, V&A, London, 1990. Burden forced into his being 'incorrect' In the type an of viewing. performances, self-mutilation at uneasy was

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Indeed,COUM hadwent to somelengthsto encourage the Cease Exist, to that such as actions were'real' notion Yet in this turn, of course, than or artistic. symbolic rather form of aestheticconceit. As Burden another simply was fifth left Baldessari with a along of the audience, and lack distance, the almost complete at of aesthetic unhappy

"You should have seen us at L. A. IX. A. In Lou Angeles. Chris Burden, John Baldassari and a girlfriend walked after 15 minutes out thee door saying, its sickening and disgusting and Its not art. 0 Gen9sis P.Orridge. VILE magazine

departure their was recorded on video as part of the event while Burgin's statementwas made into a promotional postcard for VILE magazine.[Figure 13.61 Although COUM's performanceswere becomingever more offensive in intent, for P-

Orridgethe problemof how to reachfurther outwith the insularconfinesof the artworld hand, On P-Orridgeadvocatedthe useof the massmedia, the one. one remaineda pressing have is You "fame that a phenomenon. a medium, not writing, paintingand maintaining fame. fame And if are very good at certain people operating as art-objects, and sculpture ... have become The being famous. like. is They, "ss Pthe themselves, medium. medium you Orridge,nonetheless, wasawareof the limitationsof this position: I believethe worst problem'art now facesis an industrial one, in two parts SAMENESS, the onward progressiontoward uniformity, the suppressionof individuality, the virus of like. Clone if MYSTIFICATION, culture. society you the massmedia, massproduction in keeping a monotonous culture and society under a control processone createsa facadeof expertsguarding knowledge information. The public at large feel, I am sure, that art is not for them. Artists have deliberately made them feel inferior, excluded " being in De-mystification duty. is trained of art. understanding through not our

This presenteda major challenge.While COUM'sactionswereseento lie somehowwithin 'Art', it would berelativelyeasyfor the pressto extinguishtheir critiquethroughridicule. in their own right, the Agitationalsituations,on the other hand,riskedbecomingspectacles for Situations had their own performances extremist political ends. manipulating easily press defile infiltrate be the press'vettingprocedures.COUM's and either to createdwhich would debt Jamie betraying Reid's 1973 Miner's Strike to a clear stickers promotional the natureof this problem:This esubvertisement' stickeractions'7-perfectlyencapsulated sticker Exploits COUM, COUM GuaranteeDisappointment,andAssumethis Pboneis Tapped. Tutti believedthat the answerlay in creatingcovertactionswhich werenot only but fool the to capableof confusingartworld, and non-artworld press, sophisticatedenough lower in the the appetites order to achievea purely aestheticand responses of suspend viewer must intellectual appreciation of the work. Given that COUM were appealing'directly' to the appetites This " "not their violence, work was art. was a point on which both COUM and and through sexual Burden were in agreement,but evaluateddifferently. " P-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Courning Along", p24. ' P-ORRIDGEICOUM TRANSMISSIONS, "GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts Council of Great Britain, (13th April) 1979, p27.

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audiences: Infiltration of massmedia and systemsis vital. It meanssubliminal performance reaches "[... I CoseyFanni Tutti models for pin up and an arbitrary, unchosen,unsafepublic. in her image. The public buy them, to order get magazines, magazines containing porno " her, do do know have know her, her it's to not not performance art. see Tutti's modelling work formed an action entitled Prostitution (1973-76), which was given its first controversial public airing at the ICA. " "Significantly, the media concentrated on the belongs because half to the team which she women still tend to be invisible..."" of mate Despite this, as P-Orridge pointed out at the time, the action was perhapsone of the most date: the to analyses of artworld and astute provocative [If pornography] were framed and mounted in rows in one of our minimal galleries,with its fashionable creator, would this make it acceptableto you? Is given as artist's name a " be If it is the then to the then art? artist chooses the photographer an artist? model P-Orridge has simultaneouslypresentedProstitution as a acerbic assaulton the complacencyof the 'institutionalised avant-garde':

I havebeenverynaive. But the showservedits purpose.It wasa parodyof all that is " fake final The ICA typical show was a the sarcastic rejoinder, a artworld. wrong with like had Wbitebouse installation In the mags we porn all museum-framed exhibition. had in Cosey dated. All We them them as a stripper and a of model... calledthe and " because for is 'Prostitution' art prostitution. obviousreasons, show COUM of course,were no strangersto sarcasm,their slogansbeing COUM: The Greatest Human CatastropbeSinceAdam Got a Hard-On and Don't Take it Too Art (27th March 1976). However, P-Orridge's belief that Prostitution re-openeda plethora of notoriously judgements his the and role of viewer, concerning value and attempts to complex problems inscribe the exhibition off as purely a stage-managed,satirical assaulton the artworld, are, in

17SeeChapter 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde. P-ORRIDGE & CHRISTOPHERSON, "Annihilating Reality", p46. ibid., p48. '0 SeeSexy Confessionsof a Sbop Assistant, Tabor Publications, London, 1976. 6' CONRAD ATKINSON "Art for Whom: Notes", in CORK ed. Art for Wbom, SerpentineGallery, London, 1978, p38. ' P-ORRIDGE & PETER, "Annihilating Reality", p45. 6'P-ORRIDGE quoted in CHRIS HOUSE, "Orridge Report for Law Chief. Yard Act over that Sex Show", Evening News, London, October 22nd 1976. ' P-ORRIDGE quoted in JON SAVAGE, England's Dreaming. SexPistols and Punk Rock, Faber & Faber 1991, p251.

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fact, compatible.

The successof Tutti's action hinged oil the gamble that censorship of

feminist, conservative or would be seen by tile liberal artworld pornography, whether establishment simply as a product of the middle classes' desire to guard high culture and fear distinction for between that the two might be too close to call. Faced regulate non-culture balt 1976, ICA the took the the anti vant-ga rde atmosphere populist of and stifling with -a did For ICA, Cosey's the this as art. pornography not constitute the attack oil presented held be, it ICA to the the the that oil contrary, press were eliminating 'clitist' populism boundaries between high and low, good and bad taste. Oil the Left, the ICA exhibition was life-world by the middle class' problematising merging It with attack, celebrated as a political 'Institutionalised' Such the avant-garde interpretation, as predictably was official opposite. its his Atkinson Margaret Conrad I larrisoll by Arts Panelists ACGB and wife in their outlined furore defend the the against in the reactionary tabloid press: exhibition attempts to Cosey Introduced to the ICA, a space which was reserved for the showing of 'art', the her her for her own sexuality as object, economic survival, won struggle reality of her [to Half for supplement perforinancesi. pictures a to pornographic pose necessity be in from ICA. strip-club, and most seen any the scenes can in such mile away " for displayed sale. newsagents similar photographs are openly

By bringing thesephotographs into the artworld, they exposedthe double debases An activity which general. society in standardsexisting in the media and bound fine is Lip in marketing and making money, when women as sexual objects but shocking in the artworld, a reflection of the attitude that art should be above feigned The from society. the of very papers which preoccupations and separate bonlicts the posing on women of motor cars puritanical shock showed ticar-iiakcd " Show. Motor at the opening of the A major oversight of this institutional position was that it failed to recognisethe manner in dependent Tutti's upon the institutions of the artworld ill order to action remained which became -rutti's ICA, Having the subversiveness of action the entered achieveits effect. her forcing that the action only to problem us consider questionable, functioned critically when viewed as an artwork. It is no surprise that

"I-I.

Prostitution was immediately co-opted by art criticism and shortly for history, by it is only within such afterwards performanceart be Ili Tutti's that all could recognised. agency situational modalities by kudos Tutti's the then, action was sustained the of Important sense, bourgeois the artworld, the very class which it was value systemsof by Only to relating this observation to the chinate Ill critique. thought

PROSTITUTION

7,

displayed do begin Tutti's to recogniseits true was we action which for 1976) Figure 13.7 ICA Promotional Leaflct Pro5titution (Oct. resonance. " ATKINSON "Art for Whom: Notes", p38. ' MARGARET HARRISON "Notes on Feminist Art in Britain 1970-77", Studio International, March 1977, p2l 8.

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The Prostitution exhibition directly followed the ICA New Gallery's display of Mary Kelly's Document, had been Post-Partum a work which constructed over approximately iconoclastic the same period as Tutti's. Kelly's involvement with the women's movement during the I 970s distinctively her fenunist her to artist, causing make a as an contribution work informed

to

Document Post-Partum was a colicalon of obiccts, imagesand tcxts which acsthetics. her Ills he her to through relation of motherhood in son as progressed own experience mapped beginnings from development, the of sclf-consclousncss and speech to the age of seven. early The work transformed the genre painting of mother and child (and above and beyond this

from by Madonna-and-child) the the experience exploring pairing, the did Kelly While not consider that there could a mother's perspective.

Fko5TITUT/ON

be feminist art, only art informed by different fennnisms,her her experiencevery specifically through text/Installation articulated based Freud the theory and on work of the useof psychoanalytic Maud developments the among others, of, writings in contemporary Mannom, Michele Montrlay, Melanie Klein, juha Kristeva andjaqucs

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Lacan, building the prison houseof language,the "remarkably selfhas been which it within sufficient and smooth-running mechanism" Figure 13.8 Posterfor Prostitution (Oct. 1976) discussedto the presentday." It is enlightening to consider Tutti's liberal proto-'bad girl' action in light of Kelly's body the the as a medium: use of particular theoretical reservationsconcerning ferninine foregrounds what you inight call art which there's of a category ... ,experience'. Most European performance artists are involved in that. Usually the fetish. Tbe herself course necessarily and of as a object, as as signifier, artist uses danger is that woman-as-sign is ultimately so recuperable, particularly ivitb tbeatrical ligbting, the mirrors, the video, and wbat bave you - Right. The artist needs sonic very forin This distancing. takes the of the text, or of the word usually powerful nicans of " as an intervention.

hence distance the useof pseudoKelly, was paramount, For the needto establishcritical Equally, in 1976, Tutti saw 'texts') (mystificatory psychoanalysis. as such structuralisms kind hierarchical the critical provide of that only conventional art institutions could desired the of prostitution/pornography, art meanings to manipulate order in she context Tini Clark later, Four to at pains make when which this was point a is years anti-art. and discussingOlympia:

67CATHERINE LUPTON, "Circuit-breaking Desires: Critiquing the Work of Mary Kelly", Art Has No History!: Tbe Making and Upimaking of Modern Art, Verso, London, 1994, p230. Lupton's excellent few concerted efforts to break the mystificatory fetishisation of Kelly's work within is the of one critique feminist milieu. the

" MARY KELLY, in TERENCE MALOON, "Mary Kelly interviewed by TerenceMaloon", Artscribe, No. 13, August 1978, p1g.

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it seemsto methat ambiguityis only functionalin the text whena certainhierarchy ... andagreedon , betweentext and reader- whetherit is a of meaningsis established hierarchyof exotericandesoteric,or common-sense and 'contrary', or narrative discourseandnon-narrativeconnotation,or whatever. [ ] To put it anotherway, ... therehasto be,stabilisedwithin the text, someprimaryor partially systematic signified,in orderthat the play of the signifier- the refusalof the signifierto adhere completelyto that onesetof signifieds- beconstruedasany kind of threat." Unlike Kelly's work, Tutti's action functioned as a threat by using institutions to toy detachedlywith the hierarchiesthat had beenestablishedamongst the late-avant-gardeand in Although Tutti herself circles. clearly was using artworld as signifier, as more conventional fetish, did in This is a manner which was, ultimately, un-recuperable. she so and object implicit in the differencesbetweenKelly and Tutti's responseto the populist assault on their Kelly's Post-Partum Document ICA New Gallery, Following the the exhibition of at work. famous Tate bricks, Gallery's "After the the new art is the pressrespondedautomatically: dirty nappies".' Kelly's responsewas equally reflexive, as shesought to defend her work on its own terms, (againstthe field of the artworld and her brand of feminist theory):

I know that it makespeoplehostile,but I want this to betakenseriously.I am not doing by been have because influenced doing it I joke. I the women'smovement, this asa am because I am an artist anda mother."' Despite the objective resolveof deconstructivefeminists such as Kelly, they were no lessmythic displaced. deconstructive Interpreted logo/phallocentric they as supporting the aesthetics than feminist arguments,Kelly's Post-Partum Document has since becomeaxiomatic in the dialectics of postmodernist theory. From Kelly's reaction to the press,it is not entirely ironic historical become iconic have For the esoteric artefact of an significance. the that pieceshould THE DOCUMENT images texts constitute emanatea sacred which the and objects audience, belief helped it The functions It the to system of symbol establish. as a numinous aura. become deconstructive masterpiece the transformative the would of transgressivesyllogism deconstructing Post-Partum Document In the existing myths, the new mythology. of symbol restructured the art myth.

Tutti's work lackedKelly'sintentionally. Its effect,however,wasinfinitely more feminisms, discourses By their and the populist critique. of art, onto radical,opening her Tutti to the read action as allowedthemthe artworld art, encouragingradicalmembersof both in the populistpressand the artworld's on critical approbationof participating an attack liberal however, hypocritical Having this the adopted view, values. middleclass " TIMOTHY. J. CLARK, "Preliminaries to a PossibleTreatment Of Olympia in 1865", Screen,Spring 1980, p31-32.

" R. MORRIS,"After the TateGallery'sfamousbricks,the newart is - dirty nappies",Daily Mail, 15th October1976. " KELLY quoted in ROGER BRAY, "After the Tate bricks - on show at ICA dirty nappiesl", Evening ... Standard, London, 14th October 1976.

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institutionalised avant-gardewere forced to suppressits reactionary aspectas outlined by feminist iconoclast Andrea Dworkin: Leftist sensibility promotes and protects pornography becausepornography is freedom. [ ] Freedomis the massmarketing of woman as whore. Free sexuality for the woman ... is being denied an individual nature, denied any sexual sensibility other than that which servesthe male. Capitalism is not wicked or cruel when the commodity is the whore; female is is the or cruel when alienated worker a wicked piece of meat... profit not The new pornography is a vast graveyardwhere the Left has gone to die. The Left 7' have its its too. whores and politics cannot

Equally,we cannothavethe actionasartwork, andthe actionascritiqueof bourgeoisvalues; for if we takesucha 'liberal position',(viewingpornographyasan artwork), we risk denying her by into Tutti's the action's turning commodity, paradoxically agency eradicating by for hand, If, (anti)-artwork. the on other sanctuary opting we seek critical existenceasan become (denying 'middle to the we effectively action),asviewers art status the classposition' "' John Cosey's 'frame' If for the with compare play with we responsible creatingpornography. Hillard's reframed,sernio-photography of 1974,we quickly realisethat Cosey'spractice " demandedmorecomplexreactionthan might begainedby mere"post-mortemanalysis. in a subversive Indeed,herewasthe problemof "differentiationencountered refusalof Art incompetence" & ineptitude ineffectiveness, which or establishedcodesand simple ' intractability. As an actionwhich cannot Semio-Art's for Languagestrove against (pornography), Prostitution be remains or non-art anti-art, art, as convincingly viewed COUM's mostsuccessful, assaulton the realityprinciple. and disconcerting The ProstitutiondebaclesawCOUM attemptto asserttheir agency,tighteningup fashion. Tutti's For ICA, in their the retrospective at research their act an almostevolutionistic in pornographicmodelling,striptease,andmusic' wasutilisedin a COUM collaborationas (TG), Gristle "much Throbbing 'industrial' the tighter, re-entering world music pop group the fan do Abba Chris in "" Token by influenced the art performances. what we muchmore

72ANDREA DWORKIN, Pornograpby: Men PossessingWomen, The Women's Press,1981, p208-09. 7' This destabiliscsJacquelineMorreau's accountof feminist art in Britain: Without a sympathetic depictions dared direct English for artists of such not risk women's art and vocal spokeswomen, context for be JACQUELINE for fear " female traditional they mistaken pornography. would sexuality subjectsas MORREAU and CATHERINE ELWES,"Lighting a Candle", in SARAH KENT and MORREAU, Women's Imagesof Men, Writers and ReadersPublishing Co-opcrative Society,London, 198S, p23. For a discussionof Morreau's ideasseeChapter 11 ReconsideringTheory. I CORK, "From Sculptureto Photography:John Hillard and the Issueof Self-Awarenessin Medium Use", Studio International, (PhotographyIssue),May/June 197S, p66. ART & LANGUAGE, "Correspondence",Style, Vancouver,March 1982, p11-12. For a history of Tutti's work seethe booklet accompanying:COSEY FANNI TUTTI, Time To Tell, Conspiracy International C`1193004 [UK], 1993. " P-ORRIDGE quoted in NAYLOR, "Couming Along", p2S.

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Carter, (a former TV sound engineerand light show designerfor YES), becameTG's electronic building his own synthesisers,guitars, pedal effects,cut-up tape samples,and sound engineer, but to mostly noisy, sound picture. Most of the songswere made cornet, presenta very varied, directly, unrehearsedon stageand were rarely remixed, as Tutti - in addition to playing guitar and providing the occasionalvocal counterpoint to the cold electronics - did violent and sexually confrontational stageperformances. Sleazytook control of the group's graphics. The COUM's sticker seriesand the ascerbicwit of P-Orridge's Paranoia Club business sarcasmof hate know know don't "E ("E really getting our information" you you write back cards becauseyou hate us") was mergedin a hardenedmanner for infamous posterssuch as Music From the Death Factory, Gainsbourgh's Blue Movie Boy, and Gary Gilmore Memorial Society. Figure 13.9 Petcr Slcazy Christopherson. GaU Gilmore Memorial Society, Postcard (19ý7).

Figure 13-10 lohn Kirvinv (B(-)ý) (iarý, Ulmorc Mcniorial Socicty

TG instantly found backing from john Kirvinc, the owner of the clothing company

BOY, which was in direct competition with Vivienne Westwood's Seditionaries boutique, Malcolm McLaren's Sex PIS1701S. During to the product their them punk alternative making found Gary furore Tutti Gilmore height. Cazazza, P-Orridge Monte A the and at to its visit design Gilmore's Gary Gilmore was sent out immediately after the execution to the of postcard featuring Tuttl P-Orridge, Utah newspapers several the and penitentiary and of warden Cazazzablindfolded and strapped into electric chairs as though they were in front of a firing hearts better loaded They their to at get reactions. gun pointed a real with squad, complete design The Porridge"). March 1977 ("Sickly 14th the the was quickly news on easily made by Kirvine, tee compete with pullky zip, and a chic ragged-sleeved shirt into transformed becamea hot favourite at BOY. Like the SexPistols,TG attacked the music-world orthodoxy late 1970s with exaggeratedpunk amateurism: "None of us call play, even now we can't the of 7' further hands. Blind Mice. , TG Instead of simply Tbree than most punk went even play learning three chords and forming a group, they abandonedthe whole idea of acquiring any technical capabilities, producing a seriesof atonal 7-inch singles. TG also reflected punk's deliberately provocative stance,a violently revisionist reaction against what young musicians -;8 P-ORRIDGE in FURLONG , "Four Interviews: Genesis P-Orridge", pI5.

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fans irrelevantrock musicestablishment: "We sawasa monolithic,overtlysophisticated, and tend to assumethat peoplewill comein at whateverleveltheycancope,whetherits insults, "" However,while Punkpositioneditself in directopposition curiosity, titillation or analysis. TG wereattemptingto operatean elaborate to -higher educationandtechnicalexpertise"'O, "crossover","to applythe analysisof the artworld to a popularcultural archetypeand not frighten off the kids, sowithout themrealising,we werein a way educatingthemor presenting to themconceptswhich theywould normallyjust poo-pooand ignorebecause of the way they " [ ] If it listen. Because they we said art packaged. was wouldn't come are usually along and ... music- it's just sound- they don't feel we sayit's just musicandnot evennecessarily threatenedor alienatedor that it's contrivedor elitist..."" Ratherthan seethemselves asa pop group,TG describedthemselves asan 'art-group, dedicated to non-allied political mischief. TG's 'art' lineagelay in their similarities with Antonin Artaud's Tbeatre of Cruelty", The Velvet Underground-Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Captain Beefhart,and Art 8z:Languagewho, in the Spring of 1976, had " LP Corrected Slogans. In TG entitled anti-Semio-art addition, wedded punk's an released aggressiveamateurismto the noisy experimentation of modernist music - such as that of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen- and the angry tonality of free-form jazz. " In all of this, TG from ideas dislocate to motivated conceptualist and processes politically were attempting form, Burgin to such continued elide neo-conceptualists as a problem which and conceptualist Kelly. Although TG betrayedformally conceptualistsympathiesin their music's formal CAN Kraftwerk, 'Krautrockers"such in as and electro with essence,this was a means similarity

ibid. CAROLINECOON, "Rock Revolution",MelodyMaker,28thJuly 1976,reprintedin 1988:ThePunk Rock Revolution. P-Orridge",p16. 81P-ORRIDGEin FURLONG, "Four Interviews:Genesis s2P-ORRIDGEquotedin MORGAN, "What the PapersSay",p16. ' "Antonin Artaud was engagedin a life long searchfor truer and more pure forms of creative forms director, He and challenger visual artist of all actor, writer, of conventional expression. was a poet, his his life he Through to sought shock and art readersand audienceout of the and static expression. lives depth them to themselves their experience truth, with everyday and more of enable complacency believed being had in He intensity. to the more spiritual the possibility of access states of which and his After Theatre Cruelty through to change confrontation. of and violent experimentsof renew capacity journeys Artaud incarcerated in in a series 1930s culture, a series of search of revolutionary was and the he for There, deportation French the threat suffered starvation a period of eight years. asylums and of of to the wartime concentration camps.He was also subjectedto a seriesof fifty electroshocktreatmentsby doctors. finally He was releasedin 1946, and returned to Paris to undertake someof his most the asylum drawings including his inspirational work, extraordinary and radio recordings.He was a and vital break down preconceivedcategoriesin order to createa more radical to sought artist who visionary facilitate that a total regenerationof society." ICA Homepage would perspective http: //iUumin.co.uk/ica/Bulletin/artaud/artaudinfo.html

" Lyricsby BaldwinandPilkington,musicby Mayo Thompsonwho in 1978reformedhis bandThe Red Crayolaandbeganworkingasa producerfor RoughTrade. ' Longsongsaredecidedlyun-punkish.Punksongswerebrief in durationsincetheywereconceived in a 'stadium'rock. of progressive spirit of reactionagainsttheoverdrawnpretensions

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to an end. For TG, popularmusicprimarily allowedthemto considerrhetoricand 'marketing' in order to increasetheir competitionwith the malignant"control processes""of the massmedia,de-conditioningpeoplewho'd cometo accepttelevised,glamorisedviolenceand horror back into suffering. Like true the the a perspective, andputting pain reality, restoring as ConradAtkinsonandmanyof the socialartistsof the late 1970s,COUM wantedto find a dealing intangibles in didn't blunt that the powerful such a with way aesthetics of or way interferewith the 'basicreality'. Theywere,however,in completedisagreement asto what believing form it "the that oppositional culture", wasnot only possible, of right constituted but necessary to "appropriatethe methodsof capitalismto exposeits faults."": The work is that it receivesa mention in a generalnewspaper. Art magazinesnever hear. Peoplecan enjoy performancewithout being aware of it. COUM model for LP " living flats, becomes is in in America, it a scandal resting rooms and no one cover, knows it was them." This essentiallyante-art stanceforced recognition that mystic residueswould always exist in duty. like declaration: is "De-mystification "" Indeed, COUM's our artworks, contradicting in Artistic TG dada inspired their own assisted mythologisation. actively groups, many 'real' the activities, while their about group's speculation espionageand conspiracy encouraged few days hours notice createdan aura of or tendency to undertake one-off gigs at only a but hypocrisy, This an admission that such matters could was not clearly a caseof mystery. have Performing TG, COUM Atkinson be might envisaged. as worked out as easily as not in hypocrisy to enrageaudiences order to encouragethem to engagewith utilised contradiction. Appearing as TG at the ICA on the 18th October 1976 during the Prostitution description P-Orridge the to material appropriately with a set of urban attempted exhibition, decay before leading into the lengthy Very Friendly, where P-Orridge spoke-sungan account of Ian Brady Myra Hindley, Moors last of the and apprehension and subsequent murder the Murderers." In this, COUM continued to push sado-masochisticperformance to its limits:

g6P-ORRIDGE/COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979, p27. ' ATKINSON, "Industry and Industrial Disease",in CAROLINE TISDALL & SANDY NAIRNE eds. Conrad Atkinson: Picturing the System,Pluto Press/ ICA, 25th Nov-23rd Dec. 1981, p14. " Throbbing Gristle's record sleeves,on first inspection seemedbland, a banal photograph of an everyday location, but to the initiated the spot was the sceneof a crime, usually a rape or grisly murder. P-ORRIDGE & CHRISTOPHERSON, "Annihilating Reality", p48. P-ORRIDGEICOUM.TRANSMISSIONS, "GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979, p27. " THROBBING GRISTLE, "Introduction" (1.01), "Very Friendly" (15.54), "Dead Ed" (4.32), Tbrobbing Gristle Live Volume One 1976-1978, Mute TGCD 10 [UK].

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Is it only legality that preventsthe artist from slaughterof human beings as [ ] Ian Brady Myra Hindley photographed landscapeson the Moors and performance? ... in England where they had buried children after sexually assaultingand killing them. Landscapesthat only have meaningwhen perceivedthrough their eyes. Art is perception Conscious. Action. Brady as a conceptualperformer? [ ] What the moment. of ... from Is art action? crime just unsophisticatedor 'naive' performance art? crime separates Structurally Brady's photos, Hindley's tapes,documentation." Set against an intentionally abrasivegale of noise so harsh as to produce an overwhelming TG's disturbingly, Most sonorities sabotaged any claustrophobia, glib response. of on a sense formal level, TG had truly crossedthe barrier betweenself-mutilation and actual physical frequency different information, "subliminal incorporating metabolic and control violence, 93 live by into their public performances. techniques used other organisations" You can usehigh frequenciesto get certain effects. We've done experimentson ourselves blindness, loss balance, temporary of making this tunnel vision, and ended up with feeling hungry low Then in the or sick with air, appear move, making patterns ... frequenciesyou can make people loose control of their bodily functions, have heart "' fits die. or attacks or epileptic

This perfectlyunifiedself-mutilationperformance with the Rock W Roll ethicof pushing behaviour.Yet it wasnot so muchCOUM's suggestion that "high crimeis beyondacceptable like high art", " or their sonicexperiments that led the artworld disownor ignoretheir " actions, asthe spiralof eventsthat took placeat the openingnight party: It went brilliantly. The stripper cameand stripped. I got attacked by a guy from the Evening News. He cameup behind me and smashedme over the head with a beer glass kicked he balls, he in Then ] [ the mad: somebody else went without saying a word. ... brick. let fine He with a with three outside got off a and policemen and then attacked "' long triggered the all media off. vehementslagwhich then wrote this

' P-ORRIDGE and CHRISTOPHERSON, "Annihilating Reality", p44. This view was expressedearlier in NUTTALL, "Sick", Bomb Culture, p126-131. "Both Brady and Hindlcy were working classlibertines in a world where the working classlibertine, from Sillitoc's Arthur Setonto Genet's Claire and Solangc, had beenculogisedby the rebel culture." p127. Papers Say", "What in MORGAN, the P-ORRIDGE p17. 93 quoted ibid. P-ORRIDGE and CHRISTOPHERSON, "Annihilating Reality", p46. " Despite the fact that P-Orridge and Sleazy'sclaim that "high crime is like high art" clearly continued COUM's critically admired and long running investigation of the links betweenart, sex, prostitution and furious. See: TONY ROBINSON, Sunday "Moors Murder Storm", 'Art' were the press popular crime, Mirror, 15th August, 1976, p9. As a result of pressmalpracticeand misinterpretation, P-Orridge death hypocrisy death To threats. the this these of satirically expose situation, a number of received threats later appeared on Dead on Arrival: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle, the cover of which alluded to child pornography. " P-ORRIDGE quoted in SAVAGE, England's Dreaming, p251.

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The scandal of the opening night signalled a possible direction, a way in which performance artists could "use existing from to the actually affect society situations

inside, to subliminally infiltrate popular culture aware of their perception as art but realising their redundancy."" Following in the Andre's 1976's art scandals major wake of 'Tate Bricks' and Kelly's 'Nappy Show' - COUM's 'Scx Show' deliberately provoked public scandal, the overwhelming press attention giving the whole affair a spectacle status at odds from have As Fluxus allegedly evolved. the it which we ideology seen, both the public with Parliament TG Members their the tabloid outraged views in expressed press, of calling and 4sick people', 'wreckers of civilisation' and worse. In heeding the public outcry, members of COUM's the the overseen critics entirely success of crisis subversive the artworld such as fact, had, distort COUM the their to infiltrated press, revealing cunningly ability in strategy. The for press reports concentrated on the sensational aspects sales and political capital. events headlines in Show "Sex Man's Amazing such as resulting the and performance, exhibition of Free Tour"" referring to the British Council's grant of L496 to allow COUM to represent Such headlines appeared alongside equally sensational reports such as "Myra Hyndley Beaten Up in Cell". What was missed by the crisis critics was that Very Friendly and Britain in Milan.

Prostitution as a whole emphasised the need for directness, dealing with sex and (sexual) lifeblood The the the of the society of these spectacle. malignant were press, as violence since COUM were well aware, would be unable to produce an unglamourised report of their highlight lack This their would which not only situation a would create of integrity, activities. but demonstrate the ways in which power produces meaning and cultural history. "" As proof of their satirical mastery of the situation, COUM actually included numerous

That had 'bad-press' the this exhibition. their part of strategy previously as own cuttings of beenadopted by Conrad Atkinson since Work, Wagesand Prices at the ICA In 1974, gave it documenting history, but COUM Atkinson, Like the were they erasure of greater resonance. bad COUM's focusing their incorporation of pressinto their artists. erasureas on were Atkinson's the of purpose iconoclastic clocurnentary serious subtly undermined exhibition " P-ORRIDGE and CHRISTOPHERSON,

"Annihilating

Reality", p47.

" BRIAN PARK, "Sex Show Man's Amazing Free Tour: Taxpayer Sends P-Orridge around Europe", Evening News, Wednesday, 20th October 1976.

"" "I think that the distribution of information is the key to change. I am very antagonisticto the being by Basicallythe power in this world controlled a processthat nobody wants. of whole concept have Pinformation information. " to the the access that who people most and control of with rests ORRIDGE/COUM TRANSMISSIONS, "GenesisP-Orridge", Hayward Annual, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979, p27.

237

Guarantued Disappointment

long be "You with anything as as can get away it isn't political; can as controversial style: you but like, bring last the thing the artworld will accept is any or whatever sex into it as you kind of political statement, which seems to me to be nonsense.""" By 1976 the artworld and last the thing it would acccpt, it would seeni, was sex. politics were virtually inseparable, COUM's use of sex was clearly an affront to Atkinson's approach, while their eagerncssýto post their obituaries as artists clearly for kind Atkinson's a search of ridiculed for ways in position of political effectiveness, deal "powerful with might which artists intangibics". Fivurc 1.1.11 Auschwitz louo uscd ku- 11-1-do'st ri'll Rccord, ý Figure 13.13 TG's Nazi-esque

hisip Iijýj . Appearing to draw on Herbert Marcuse's critique of collagist anti-aesthetics, Stuart

Morgan identified one of the major problems arising from this approach: Throbbing Gristle take their opponent's propagandaand turn it against them. It is a dangeroustechnique. Orridge has beenmisunderstood,well nigh broken by the British press. [ ...I to suggestthat the prerogativeof art is simply to touch on possibilities . he I I Surely insufficient is grasp of visual rhetoric. ... without comment surely showsan must seethat no amount of manipulation of context can redeemthe useof the [Auschwitz] gas-chamberlogo [for Throbbing Gristle's Industrial RecordsLabel ""j; In he terms, cannot escape,there are such things as a senseof which purely artistic diminished responsibility and a law of diminishing returns."" Indeed, as Morgan seemed to suggest, the rhetorical inconsistencies of actions and events such as the Prostitution affair enabled the press to sustain its attacks on the artworld, allowing them to present their political attacks as nothing more than the inane preoccupation's of the TG failed This that to convincingly eliminate their still in remained a major problem artworld. high art credentials. '(" This much was confirmed when P-Orridge and Tutti appeared oil TV did defend Unlike Sex Pistols, their the they art to work. the not use scandal two months after but triumph, outrage/publicity instead spoke to moral create another this as an opportunity calmly about the issues raised about media manipulation. ATKINSON

P-Orridge later complained that

in HARRY COEN, "Making an Art of Politics", Newcastle Journal, October 1974.

102Among the artists signedto Industrial Recordswere: Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA, Richard H. Kirk, Monte Cazazza,The Leather Nun, Chris Carter, Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, and William S Burroughs. lo, STUART MORGAN, "What the Papers Say", Artscribe 18, Jul), 1979,1)18-19. Morgan's Marcusian fashions, by in been Vivenne Westwood's had punk especially relation to the much challenged views debated use of the Swastika. SeeDICK HEBDIGE, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Methuen, London, 1979.

"' This is implicit in P-Orridge and Christopherson'squalitative comparisonsbetween"high crime" and "high art".

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GuaranteedDisappointment

COUM "were beingattackedasa symbolof all the artistsin fact, because we werean easier target. the actualfeelingwasverymuchanti-art,it wasn'treallyanti-COUM and it wasjust like Carl Andre'sbricksor Mary Kelly'sexhibition,it wasan excuseto havea goodbashand have traditional work was more therewasn't probablysufferedbecause evenartistswhose more solidarityat the time."" Similarly,Tutti remarkedthat The lack of united commitment to protecting an artist's right to exist in what ever area by he/she the vast majority of other artists, allowed a regressionto chose of expression empty repetition of old safemovementsand techniques,a new conservatism. So now, becausethe artist of today is often afraid to create and say what he/shefeels,we are heartless dishonest, is to that and therefore completely subjectedconstantly work "' by huge intended No our work. political manoeuvrewas ever worthless.

However,thereis a sensein which COUM's dreamsof 'artistic freedom'wereresponsiblefor this lack of solidarity,the spacebetweentheir work and the ideologyof which it formeda last bastion As COUM being the to too sheriffs of of aesthetic call. purity, saw close critique from forces The they the only way could reclaim power no possibilityof constructiveaction. destructive forces by 'destroyed' those themselves.Desperateat the them that was embodying impossibilityof buildinganything,theytore down,andthroughtheir destruction,they became dangerous lies Yet there problematicwithin the aesthetics a more they of railedagainst. what The ineffectiveness. militant refusalto signifymight motivatenon-converted and subversion by ideological their the to anger striking at vent economic and the avant-garde consumersof legitimisation More 'high commonly, crisesencourageviewersto art'. systemswhich sustain liberal institutions the to which succourthe avant-garde. attack seekold reassurances, COUM, in effect,helpedto justify andpopularisethe right-wingattackon the Arts Council have been factor in 1976, and may contributing throughout a took creatingthe place which legitimisationcrisesthat ensureda Conservative electionvictory in 1979.'07,COUM's antics inhibited backfired in inasmuch the they artworld as as a space which to produce alsopartially 'O' last-ditch Concurrently, the crisiscritics' effortsto reinvestthe artworld counter-ideology. failure had been doomed discredited the to since artworld effectively agency were political with The irony had force by that the was the critics crisis press. unwittingly right-wing asa political beenparty to this. In orderto avoida similarmistake,the avant-gardehad to givethe impressionthat theyhadentirelyvacatedthe artworld and its sham'values'.

P-ORRIDGE in FURLONG, "Four Interviews: GenesisP-Orridge", p14. COSEY FANNI TUTTI, "Artists Thoughts on the 70s in Words and Pictures", Studio International, VoI195, No911/2,1981, p17. "' SeeJURGEN HABERMAS, Legitimation Crisis, Heinemann, London, 1976.

" "Alternativeart spaces wereconstitutedin thepost-marketrelationsof developedcapitalistcultures. Theywerethecreationsof institutionslike the BritishArts Council,with their indirectgovernment funding." JOHN TAGG, "PractisingTheories:an Interviewwith JoanneLukitsh", Afterimage,vol. IS, in 1988, Groundsof Dispute:Art History, CulturalPoliticsand the 6, January p6-10, reprinted no. DiscursiveField,Macmillan,London,1992,p9l.

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Decline of the English Avant-Garde

CHAPTER 14 Decline of the English Avant-Garde becomes a convention: it is imitated for purely commercial reasons, every invention ... which is why we must begin a vigorous anti-stylistic action in the course of eternally 'other' art. [ IA new - and final link today completes this chain; we Nuclear ... I final denounce, destroy, STYLE. the convention, painters, in order to death. DESTROY THF MUSEUMS... our We assault your Gods... We of your -sing 2 fall blows be hUIIg Let the past under the of revolt. struggle cannot 011the walls.

Artists engaged in political struggle act in two key areas: the use of their art for direct social change; and actions to change the structures of the art world. It needs to be understood that this activity is necessarily of a reformist, rather than revolutionary, . Indeed this of character. political activity ten serves to consolidate the existing order, in the West, and in the F,ast. The use of art for social change is bedevilled by the close integration of art and society. The State Supports art, it needs art as a cosmetic cloak to its horrifying reality, and usesart to confuse, divert and entertain large numbers of loose deployed Fven the the the of state, art cannot cut interests people. against when umbilical cord of the state. Art in the service of revolution IS unsatisfactory and links because the of art with the state and capitalism. Dcspitc mistrusted IlUmerous of 3 thcsc probIcnis, artists will go on using art to changc socicty. Specifically nihilism

dCSIgIICd to COUntcract the problems encountered

adopted by Notting

their name from Christopher King Mob's numerous graffiti

I fill anarchists King Mob, a counter-cultural I libbcrt's

Situationist

graffiti

campaigns around Notting

group who took

f fill Gate In the late I 960s were

study after graffiti

5 Riots.. King Mob simultaneously

KFASONABLF, TFI as such slogans

that appeared on Ncwgate

made reference to Parisian

DF,MAND

THE IMPOSSIBLE'

'NF, VF, R WORK,. 6 Fconomic struggles were dismissed as simplistic system, as King Mob sought to appeal to the class of non-workcrs post-Industrial,

had been the active

1958 book on the Great Liberty Riots of, june 178(). 4

historical by his I libbert inspired who named prison during the (iordon

by COUM,

mirrors

and

of the logic of the

in arl attempt to CLIltivate a

future: post - prod ucti vist

1NUCLF. ARISTS, Against Style, 1957.

21q.ACK MASK, Black Mask, No. 1, New York, November 1966 reprinted in ANON. Black Mask & UP Against the Wall Motbcrfucker: Tbe Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea and The Black Mask Group, Unpopular Books & Sabotage Fclitions, London, 1993, p7.

3GUSTAVMF.TZGFIR, "Art Strike 1977-1980", 1974. 4(, l-llýlS-yOp,11:1ýHIBBERT, King Mob, Rcader'sUnion, 1959. 50n

iIIJUIIC1780 the rioters wrote on the wall 'His Majesty King Mob'. storming Ncwgatc PrIS011 ,

6 Malcolm McLaren later useda very similar line in polemicfor Bow-Wow-Wow's 7in single, W.O.R.K. (No my Daddy Won't).

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Decline of the English Avant-Garde

SAME THING DAY AFTER DAY TUBE WORK -DINNER WORK - TUBF- ARMCHAIR T. V. SLEEP I-UBE WORK. HOW MU(: H, %IORI-'.CAN YOU TAKE? ONE IN TEN GO MAI) - ONE IN HVI-'l CRACKS UP! / THE ROAD OFEXCESS LF,ADSTO THE PAI.,,\CE OF WILLESDEN /I DON'T BELIFVFIN NOTI IING -I FEEL LIKI'l I OUGHT TO BURN DOWNTHE WORLD -. jLJST 1-1-ITIT BURN DOWN BAIjy. 7

Assoclatcdwith King Nlob at this stagcývcrccrstwhilc Situationist Intcrnationai8 mcnibus Christopher Gray, Canibridgc art history graduatc Timothy J. Clark, the translator of Raoul Vancigem's Revoltilimi ()/ Livrý), Li'v I, ilc Donald Nicholson-Smith, and drug smuggler/undcrground prcss baron CliarIcs Radcliffe. As members of the Heativave group, they were expelled from the Sl in 19679 for refusing to denounce the hooligan politics of the New York based Black Mask group. '() In addition to 7 Graffiti under the Urban Wcstway Motorway between Ladbrokc Grove and Paddington, London, future site of the Royal Oak Murals. 8TIic Situationist International was founded in Italy during. july 1957 by a small circle of mainly French artists and poets who previously been involved with the International Lettrists (a 1cft-wing splinter group of the Lcttrists), the Society for an linaginiSt Bauhaus and the COBRA movement. Broadly speaking, SitUtatiOniStSbelieved that Western culture was played out since the technological cra had Opened Lip large aniounts of leisure time, and that a revolution was needed to transform the conditions of dailv SitUatiOniSttheory was a nco-Marxist critique Of COuSLImer CXiStC11CC. capitalism that had its own theoretical jargon. (; uy Debord's manifesto C011LIC11111Cd the Society of the Spectacle ( 1967), the passive cxl-)(-riciicc of the consumer economy. According1v it ,%, a,, important to create 'Situations' in which SUbJCCt'S Would be made aware of the repressive structure Of urban life; it was thought that they Would then bcconic rc%ponsiblefor their own actions and freed from drudgery: from going to work, for example, and toiling at a machine all day. I. ifc would be creative and spontaneous , it would be art itself. 9"... its policy of auning for constant agreement oil key matters, and fighting against the rcprOdLICtlOIl Of hierarchy and ideological freezing within the group, led to repeated exclusions... We parted company with the Situationists in 1967 oil just tlICSC(ILICStiOlIS,as applied to the S.l. 's actions in Britain and the U. S. We are not likely, therefore, to think the Situationi-sts always got these things right. " T. J. CLARK NICI IOLSON-SMI I 11, "Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International (Footnote 4)", and DONAID October, No. 79, Winter 1997, p26. I() - Black Mask's brand of political nco-dada was sufficient to influence the SPCCtO-SitLiationists in parts for the Dcbordists to consider franclilsing them as the American section of their Organisation. But after a considerable allIOLInt Of InallipUlatiOll On the part of Tony Verlaan, the Debordists broke with Benn Morea, who wa,, it central figure in both Black Mask and the Motlicrfuckcrs. This, in turn, led to the expulsion Of the Filglish section Of the SItLIatIOIliSt International for remaining in contact with Morea. From their early days as the British end of Rebel Worker Heativaue, the English section was then and as , far closer to the activism Of the Black Mask group than to the acerbic intellectualism of their French controller,.,. After their cxpul,, ion, the Brits transformed themselves into King Mob with the help of Dave and Stuart Wi,; c who'(] Moved to London after growing LIP ill Lcccls and attending art school in Newcastle. " STFWART I IOMF, Cranked Up Really High: Punk Rock and Genre Tbeory, CodcX, juk, 4995, p25. - Another factor may have been Chris Gray's boasts of a Notting Hill urban guerrilla arnly, which according to Fred Vermorcl in Sex Pistols: Tbe Inside Story prompts a visit from Debord himself. So the story goes, when Debord turns ill) at Gray's place in Cambridge Gardens, the best Gray call conic LIP with I., to Send him round to new recruit Dave Wise oil All Saints. There Debord is none to impressed to find Gray's guerrilla army, the brother,,, Dave and Stuart Wise, swigging McEwaris Export and watching M, jt, -b of the I)a v. Dcbord subscqLICIltly storms back to Paris and expels the Brit sits. Then Gray and the Wise brothers, form King Mob, which Verniorel reckons does in fact I1LImbcr up to 60 loosely affiliated members at its height. " TOM VAGUE, "Leaving the 20th Century", Anarcb), in the UK: Tbe Angry Brigade, AK Press 1997, p1,30

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Decline of the EnglishAvant-Garde

being joined by dipsomaniacNewcastleArt SchoolgraduatesDave and Stuart Wise, the exHeatwave membersgainedthe attention of Croydon Art CollegestudentsMalcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid when, in April 1968, they beganpublication of the short-lived King Mob Echo, [Figure 14.1 King Mob Echo, No. 1, (19UM a short news-sheetwhich included translations of Guy Debord's Situationist writings, and poetic slogansderived from Marxist and Hegelian theory. Initially, the Echo provided an opportunity for Nicholson-Smith, Gray and Clark to continue to'develop and practisecultural theory by translating Situationist material. Clark's theoriesconcerningthe avant-garde's'refusal to signify', his engagementwith the material conditions of art production, and his notion that artworks exist as situations or as a 'field of signification' can all be located in King Mob's efforts to unify art and life. Many of the group member's theoretical assumptions can be located in Norman O'Brown's article on Hegelian dialectics, "The Return of the Repressed" printed in the paper's first edition. "Dialectics is the revolt against rationalism the discovery that self-contradiction is the essence 11 The first issue Ecbo " of also carried a 'free' translation of reality the opening to the absurd. from Parisian Situationist Raoul Vaneigem's Traite de Savoir-vivre a Pusage des jeunes 12 (1967) Row". generations entitled "Desolation

The Wise Brotherslater explainedthe influenceof such aspectsof SI theory on King Mob's practice: The most derangedmanifestationsof hate againstthe presentorganisation of society were greetedwith fascination. Jack the Ripper, John Christie, ... and child killer Mary Bell. Look at the monstrositiesproduced by bourgeoissociety- isn't that sufficient to 13 hippie ideology? condemnthe golden afternoon of King Mob also drew on Debord's Situationist theory of constructing 'situations', in so much as they sought to produceacts of disruption that would imaginatively break with the logic of capital. This demandedthat the politically sanctionedseparationbetweenartistic and political activity be negated. The consensualLabourite Left, which had consolidatedits activities failing trade to realisethat unionism, was accused and of around professionalisedparty politics

11NORMANO'BROWN, "The Return the Repressed"(1967), King Mob Ecbo, No. 1, April 1968, of PygmalionPress,London, p3. 12 "The passivenihilist compromiseswith his own lucidity about the collapseof all values. Bandwagon after bandwagonworks out its own versionof the credo quia absurdumest:you don't like it but you do it anyway;you get usedto it and you evenlike it in the end. Passivenihilism is an overture to conformism. [...I Betweenthe two polesstretchesa no-mans-land,the wastelandof the solitary killer, of the criminal describedso aptly by Bettinaas the crime of the state. Jack the Ripper is essentially inaccessible.The mechanismsof hierarchicalpower cannot touch him; he cannot be touched by the revolutionary will. Revolutionis madness[...] there is a point whereMarat and Sadeare one." O'BROWN, "The Return of the Repressed"p2. 13 DAVE AND STUARTWISE, Punk, Reggae;A Critique, Calderwood 15, pamphlet, Glasgow,c.1978 reprinted as "The End of Music: The Revolution of EverydayAlienation", in STEWART HOME ed., What is Situationism?:A Reader,AK Press,Edinburgh, 1996, p67.

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Declineof the EnglishAvant-Garde

'total' resistanceto capitalist inStrumentalisationnecessitateda tenaciouselementof 14 This theoretical preoccupationof the SI, would appear to have legitimisedKing subjectivity. Mob's desireto practicetheir imaginative brand of hooligan politics, initiating happeningsand proposing somewhatromantic actsof vandalismand anti-art. "The active nihilist doesnot intend simply to watch things fall apart. He intends to speedup the process. Sabotageis a natural responseto the chaosruling the world. Active nihilism is pre-Revolutionary, passive 15 is nihilism counter-revolutionary." Ideaswere mooted in '68, which were sufficiently tastelessto horrify the prevailing hippie ideology and its older, more conservativeforms - romantic English pantheism. For instance,the dynamiting of a waterfall in the Englishlake district was suggested, with a messagesprayedon a rock: 'Peacein Vietnam' - not becausethere was a deep going interest in the war like there was in the United Statesbut becausethe comment had the to to be aggressively and was an absurdistresponse ruralism revolution 16 urban. For King Mob, as for the SI, the real 'art' of its agehad to be one that was neverfinished. Sincerules changein accordancewith the needsof time and situational modalities, cultural politics had to becomea gameplayed accordingto undeterminedrules: "My utopia is an environment that works so well that we can run wild in it. Anarchy in an environment that does fully The the work, automatic environment all public works. environmentworks, all a utilities or communication networks. Technologicalrationality can be put to sleepso that somethingelsecan awakenthe human mind, somethinglike the god Dionysus something 17 be which cannot programmed." The extent to which the SI influencedKing Mob, nonetheless,has becomea matter of debate. King hand, Mob were playfully plagiarising their it is On that the clear much one ideasfor their own ends. ReadingSituationismas a "philosophical update on Pop Art", Gray intendedto form the Christopher Gray Band, an atavistic proto-punk band that only

14"... (we

ask the indulgenceof those,and thereare many,who reject the term 'Left' as irrevocably compromised). This is a Left whosestruggleswith the late-capitalistStateare at presentlocal and multiform ('identity' and 'ecological'politics beingmerelythe forms that the spectaclechoosesfor now to (mis)represent- and many otherswill surelybe giventhe samecynical treatmentin yearsto come);a Left, however,that increasinglysensesthe enormity of its enemyand beginsto think the problem of contesting that enemyin termsnot borrowed from Marxism-Leninismor its official Opposition; a Left whose insubordination is the themeof endlessjeremiadsfrom the 'actually existing' Left, whosedismal battle cry - to unite and fight under the sameold phony-communitarianbanners- it persistsin ignoring." CLARK and NICHOLSON-SMITH, "Why Art Can't Kill the SituationistInternational (Footnote4)", p16. 15 VANEIGEM, "Desolation Row", p7. 16DAVE AND STUART WISE, Punk, Reggae;A Critique, p67. 17 O'BROWN, "The Return of the Repressed",p3.

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Declineof the EnglishAvant-Garde

18 far 'subvertisements' Victoria Coach Station. Nine years as somegraffiti materialisedas on later, not only had McLaren realisedGrey's idea for an anti-hippie, bad tastepop groupp 'freely' swindling a passagefrom the first issueof Echo to promote their cause:"Their active Extremism is all they care about becausethat what WHAT COUNTS to jump right out of the 20th Century as fast as you possiblycan in order to createan environment that you can truthfully run wild in. "19 This might appearto negateclaims that the Situationist influenceon King Mob and McLaren's brand of punk was completelynegligible. Nevertheless,Stewart Home hasclaimed that sinceKing Mob were clearly an undergroundphenomena,cast in the samemould as the Motherfuckers, any influenceon King Mob exertedin Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reid can hardly be considered'Situationist'. The Debordists made this state of affairs quite clear in Internationale Situationiste12, where they stated:'a rag called KING MOB... passes,quite wrongly, for being slightly 'pro-situationist'. The SI was self-consciouslyavant-garde,whereasthe wilder aspectsof the sixties counter-culture that fed into PUNK bubbled up from a lesssectarian,and simultaneouslyless intellectually rigorous, underground. Indeed, upon further investigation, Home's claim against the SI influence would appear to be fairly accurate. Notwithstanding his eagernessto plagiarise Sl slogans, McLaren was so bickering he Stalinist by incessant SI Debord's the that with other associates of unimpressed dismissed its iconoclastic "The [of Situationist text the programme: of point entirely but difficult. it it Just when you were in French: tried to was so you read magazines] was getting bored, there were always these wonderful pictures and they broke the whole thing up. 20for: bought In 1968, while studying at Croydon They were what I them not the theory. Art College, McLaren had begun to film a history of Oxford Street, fascinated by Hibbert's description of how this thoroughfare that had been redesigned after the Gordon Riots so as to inhibit crowds from gaining accessto the city. For McLaren, this provided a British context for a post-Situationist critique of consumer culture, the manner in which "power lay in a web 21 Loosely adapting the International Lettriste concept of invisible controls over the masses". designer filmed Wimpy interviews Bar McLaren 'psychogeography', with a and various of for famous impetus King Selfridges. This in Mob's two turn an of most provided employees of actions: the campaign to smash the windows of Oxford Street's Wimpy restaurants, and the Selfridges Affair, when they took over the toy department of Selfridges in order to hand out free presents to children, one member dressing as Santa Claus for the occasion. Despite here 18jON SAVAGE,England'sDreaming.SexPistols and Punk Rock, Faber& Faber 1991, p32. 19 OLIVER TWIST, SexPistolsManifesto, ChristmasDay, 1977. 20 MALCOLM McLAREN quoted in SAVAGE,England'sDreaming, p30. 21 PAUL TAYLOR, "The Impresario Do-it-yourself", Impresario:Malcom McLaren of and the Britisb New Wave,The MIT Press,London, 1988, p30.

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yielding lip serviceto the Lettriste/Debordistpractice of psychogeography,King Mob were predominatelypaying homageto the Motherfucker's Mill in at Macy's which had previously 22 New in York, following in issue taken place as they revealed the of their paper. Being largely theatrical in its politics, it wasn't entirely clear where such activity was

leading. While operating on the fringes of King Mob, McLaren becamegreatly inspired by the May 1968 student riots in Paris [3rd May Sorbornestudentsstarted a riot and took over the Latin Quarter] and the Hornsey Art School [28th May - 8th July North London] Action. 23 On the Sth of June 1968, three daysbefore the end of the famous Hornsey action, McLaren, Jamie Reid and Robin Scott initiated a sit-in at Croydon Art School. However, as was the case in Hornsey and Paris,the revolt broke up as the studentsleft for their summerholiday.24 Three typesof reaction can be detectedin the wake of the failure of '68. Intellectualssuchas Clark joined with their ParisianpeersLyotard, Baudrillard etc. fleeing into the classof economicallyreliable and politically chasteacademia(the 'socially reformed' LeedsUniversity) that the studentsof the late 60s had revolted against. Countercultural theory consequently cameto servicethe enemycampsof high art and academictheory. McLaren's responsewas late in 1960scounterculture. He becamea typical the the swinging more of participants populist impresario, selling50s clothesfrom a swish boutique on Kings Road, effectively

22 "Large numbersof peopleeither aloneor in small groups,flooded the store at its peak hour. None of them looked like demonstrators,and they were free to impersonatenormal shoppers,floorwalkers and staff in varying configurations. They movedgoodsaround in a businesslikeway. They soiled, broke, stole and gavethem away. Half-starveddogsand catswere let loosein the food department. A hystericalbuzzardflew around the china sectionsmashingmore and more hideouscrockery as equally hystericalsalesgirls either tried to catchor escapefrom it. Decoyswith flags and bannersplanted themselvesin the middle of groupsof straight middle-classshopperswho were promptly roughed up and hustledoutsideby copsand floorwalkers. Utter chaos..." KING MOB, King Mob Ecbo, No. 3, PygmalionPress,1969, p6. 23 They demanded "open an systemwherebyall individual demandscan be taken into accountwhether specialisedor comprehensive.Subjectsto be set up in responseto the needof an individual or group of individuals at any moment - thus the curricula will be in a continual stateof flux. Within the operational curricula of any one moment therewill be total freedomof choiceof options and combinationsavailable to everyone. Completefreedomof individual or group researchat any time with or without tutorial " ROBERT HEWISON, "Goodbye Babyand Amen", Too Much: Art and Societyin the Sixties assistance. 1960-7S,Methuen, London, 1986, p154. For more information seeSTUDENTSAND STAFFOF HORNSEY COLLEGE OF ART. The HornseyAffair, PenguinEducationSpecial,Middlesex, 1969; and TOM NAIRNE and JOM SINGH-SANDHU, "Chaos in the Art Colleges",in COCKBURN, ALEXANDER and BLACKBURN, ROBIN. (eds).StudentPower: Problems,Diagnosis,Action, Penguin Specialin Associationwith the New Left Review,Middlesex, 1969, p103-115. 24 "The

primary paradox is that the 'revolution' broke out not amongthe most oppressedf ...] but amongthe most privileged;young, chiefly middle-classstudents. A revolution of the privilegedis a political nonsense(though a counter-revolutionis not). [...] Part of the rhetoric of studentrevolt was againsta societybasedon massproduction, yet higher educationwas primarily intendedto train managersof a technocraticsociety- the 'technicalintelligentsia'celebratedby T. R. Fyvel in Intellectuals Today, publishedin the crucial yearof 1968." Whetherthey eventuallybecameteachers,doctors, lawyers- evenin a few casesprofessionalwriters or artists - studentsin one way or another were destined to becomereproducersof the cultural valuesthey inherited, though as transmittersof culture they were also in a position to after its messages.This is anotherreasonfor the often symbolicnature of what occurred. Studentswere not alienatedor oppressedworkers, but they could act out the alienation and oppressionthat they saw in society." ibid. p152-153.

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Decline of the English Avant-Garde

erasing the 60s from memory. Like King Mobber Clark, john Barker and Jim Greenfield also "began their revolutionary careers at Cambridge University, performing agitprop street 25 However, theatre.,, when frustrated by lack of results from the carnivalesque counterculture, Barker and Greenfield formed The Angry Brigade, launching a terrorist bid 1967 to provoke revolution. In defiance of fashionable revolutionaries a campaign in in such as McLaren, they bombed Biba in Kensington High Street, Chclsca oil Mayday 1971 for having manufactured l1fcstylcs. 'If you're not busy being born you're busy buying'. All the sales girls in the flash boutiques arc made to dress the same and have the same make-up, representing the I 940s. In fashion, as in everything else, capitalism can only go backwards - they've future boring dead. Life The there is nothing to to they're is ours. is so nowhere go do except spend all our wages on the latest skirt or shirt. Brothers and Sisters, what distant, drugstore, look bored, drinking desires? Sit in the empty, are your real sonic The only thing tasteless coffee? Or perhaps BLOW IT UP Olt BURN 11' DOWN. you can do with modern slave-houses - called boutiques - IS WRECK THEIM. You kick breaks. Just inhumanity. till it it just can't rcforin profit capitalism and 1ýcvolutjojj. 26

Looking at the historiographically stable Modernism of the Sixties and early Seventies, the apparent mannerism of today seemscausally dependent upon the contradictions in 'mainstream' modernism. 11unk-art,artistic Rocking, 'bad painting', right-wing enthusiasm for the 50s' epigoncs These for diffcrentiation identification. hiatuses and create little fugitive. There is in the way frequently vague and arc of stability in interests and conventions to enable a clear differentiation of the symptoms of decadcilcc and ruin from decadence. It is the cultural respect of critical activity in )7 have to work with. material we Glamour is perceived in the illusory nature of the transition from subject to object (private to public) expressed as They I Image to my images. allude inyth. is allusion. 28 have They the virus. reflect my illusions of that time.

Figure 14.2 Scx Pistols on the covcr of Investor's Review (December 1977).

For many, The Angry Brigade's turn to violence signalled the end of the 60s

25ibid.

p 152.

261'HE ANGRY BRIGADE, Communique S, May I st, 1971, rcprintcd in The Angry Brigade, Bratach DUH1 Documcnts No. 1,1978. 27ART & LANGUAGE, "Comspondence",

Style, Vancouvcr, March 1982, pl 1- 12.

281)U(; (i IF FIELDS, "Artists' Thoughts 14th 70s in Words International, PiCtUres", Studio the on and , AUgLISt1980, p27.

246

Declineof the EnglishAvant-Garde

experiment. With the reactionary popular presswhipping up panic, Britons soon countered the tide of political 'extremism' by narrowly electinga Conservativegovernmentin 1971. The Oil Crisis and the seriesof miners' strikes in 1973 just as swiftly lead to the defeatof Edward Heath's languid administration, as Wilson disingenuouslyespousedthe most revolutionary Labour governmentto date as meansof appeasingthe miners. However, as everyonequickly discovered,international economiccrisis meant that the cultural and political optimism of the affluent 60s baby boomershad to be severelycurtailed. From 1972, massyouth unemploymentbecamea new phenomenon,no amount of 'culture' could disguisethe following Youths the 1976 IMF crisis were the first economicsituation. who grew up generationforced to grow up without work, to be defined by the governmentas a new underclass,a permanentsourceof 'cheapsurplus labour' perpetually excludedfrom societyin order to squeezedown wagesand inflation. Leavingthe youngerpopulation with little to do, the late 1970sspawneda peculiar subcultural mix of 60s arty revolt and early crisis economic of 70s nihilism. While their methodswere controversial,and the results debatable,the legacyof King Mob, the Angry Brigade and COUM was an intriguing one:

The influenceof mail art was most strongly felt in the [Punk's] choice of bizarre stage identities (i. Johnny Rotten, Sid The Vicious, iconoclastic e. of punk nature names. SiouxsieSioux, Dee Generateand Captain Sensible)echo the assumednamesof mail 29 Tutti, Fish Anna Banana. Cosey Fanni Pat and artists suchas While this suggeststhat punks merelyadoptedthe appearanceof post-Situationists30, in some ways their approachwas evenmore uncompromisingthan COUM's. For example,in comparisonto Throbbing Gristle, whose 'art' credentialsremainedconspicuous,the SexPistols adopteda decisivelyanti-art stance: The SexPistolsmadetheir debut at St. Martin's Schoolof Art on Friday 6th of 29 HOME, "Punk", The Assault Culture: Utopian Currentsfrom Lettrisme to ClassWar, AK Press, on Stirling, 1991, p8l. 30"Thc SexPistols: they just wantedto be a rock and roll band. They didn't haveanything to do with Situationism. I know JamieReid who did all the artwork. When you seeRotten [John Lydon] talk these dayshe's pretty inarticulate. He's read all this pretentiousrubbish about himself and he tries to reproduceit, and he soundsabsurddoing it becausehe doesn't understandwhat he's talking about. The way they connectedit back to the SituationistswasJamieReid, and I askedhim, and he said that he was nevera memberof King Mob. King Mob containedseveralmemberswho were in the British part of the SituationistInternational. If you read the SI journal, it saysthat King Mob are not Situationists. All these peoplewant to build up Situationismby sayingit had a hugeinfluenceon punk. It's rubbish. The real influenceon punk was the harder edgeof the sixties. Punk was anti-sixtiesand anti-flower power, and it drew on the harder edgeof the sixtieslike the Yippies and the Black Panthers." HOME in ALEXANDER LAURENCE, "Interview with StewartHome", 1995, Http: //www. altx.comlinterviews/stewart. home.html Home's thesishas beenverified at times by John Lydon: "All the talk about the FrenchSituationistsbeing associatedwith punk is bollocks. It's nonsenselNow that really is coffee-tablebook stuff.. Everything is just somekind of vagueorganisedchaos." JOHN LYDON, Rotten, No Irisb, No Blacks,No Dogs, Hodder & Stoughton,London, 1993, p3.

247

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

November

1975. The irate social secretary cut the power after minutes oil stage and the band had created the first Them and decade. In the following months most people who heard their They booed accordingly. The Pistols just jeered back, branded ()Id tart"', '111'Iý"111-IL-d()11

five numbers. Only ten Us rock schisill ill over a music found it repulsive. the opposition 'boring

I()IIaIk )s,,,]till III" t licil-

IIIdI,,

audiences, The Sex Pistols created a s(ving which blurred the line between spectators mid performers, peculiarly demanding performance..,, which could not be held at bay through ccrchral detachment, a popular 'art' which rej'cctckl almost all formulas for populist ciltertaininciit. The Sex Pistols' aura of complctc Unpredictability proinotional

and violence greatly iniprcsýcd Slcazy Christopherson

who took the lirst

PICtUrcs of the band in 1975.1 Figure 14.3 Peter 'Sleazy' Christoj--Ihcrsoll

Pistols. Promotional

photograph,

( 1975). ] Financial backing, however, did not materialisc

until the autunin of 1976 when Malcolm Chanibcrs off Oxford

Sex

McLaren cstablished Glitterbest

Street to manage the band:

"Malcolin

McClaren

I. td. in Dryden

decided to manage the

Sex Pistols because lie thought they would be a good advcrt for his shop I SFXI.

fie wanted to

32 Mcl. by lot janue Reid, befriending -. McLarcn trouscrs'! arcn was joined who, sell a since of had Art April 1968, Croydon School contributed visuals for the post-Situationist at in of publication Suburban Press ( 1970-75). The Sidnirban Press had been Reid's response to his how 1cft-wing disillusionment "at and non-committal jargonistic policies had growing bccomc-33 during the carly seventies: I foUI)d SItIIJtIOIIISt texts to be fUll Of Jargon - almost victims of what they were trying to attack - and you had to be really well cducatcd to understand theill. I ... II wasn't so much attractcd to the Situationi. st theory as to how they approached media and politics. The slogans, for instance, were so much better than the texts. They were very became direct Thcy part of the language. immediate, very and quite classicss. 34 back huniour the media turning there there, and of on itself. was also a sciisc of .... As with (A)UM, controlling significant

his Reid's to recognition central work was

information.

While working

for the Suburban Press, however, Reid made several

attempts to break out of the mould of Situationist

31 CA ROLINECOON,

that power depends Upon

"1976", 19SS: '1'bcNeu, Wavehink

artiness and the left's agit-prop

Rock Explosion, Oninibus, 1982.

32 HOME, Cranked I Ip Really High, 19. p

33JAMIE RF.11)in SAVAGE.,Up They Rise:Tbe Incomplete Works jamie Reid, Faber& Faber, of London, 1987, p55. 34 REID in ibid., 38. p.

248

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

in-fighting by merging both forms of practicc: We always had a fear that the posters would end up as decor for trendy lefties' bedroorn walls. So we did images for We plastered specific situations. Oxford Strcct with the Tbis Store Welcomes Shoplifters stickers late one Sunday night IdUring the Miner's Strike of 19731, and spent the Monday watching the reactions. I Figure 14.4 larnic Reid. Subvertisment Stickers. (1973). 1Friends of ours went and shopliftcd quite openly and then, when .,,topped, pointed out the stickers to the store detectives in the poshest tones possible. They got away 35 with It. As the Sex Pistols art director,

Sion IFIERS PASSENGER YOUK

-eBus

SERVICE

SAVE PETROL J; L)JW CARS

Reid's graphics, typography

photomontage

encouraged by Camerawork

P WARM lliiý

WINTFR

AAKE TROUBLE

and black and white photographý

from letters newspapers, continued consisting of and pictures cut out appropriational

CONTROL

to ape the

et al. Unlike the Canicrawork

for distastc howcvcr, Rcid politically c1circi-minateand cictcrinining work. group, indicated Reid took a more politically ambivalent approach, adopting a visual vocabulary and style which was rccognisabIc, knowabIc and ctitcrtaiiiiii-,

vct ,trongly rcillilli,, cclit ()f kill(,,' Mob's

aclid absurdity. Utlillsing the Situationist comcpt of detournment, Reid 'found' other I)coI)lc',s graphics and a(Liptcd thein to the Pistol's contcxt with quite ditferent results, taking pictures I-rmn a Belgian Holidays brochurc for the scathim.,, Holidays in tbe Sun record sleeve lFigure 1,1.5. (Previous Page) lamic Rvid I lolidays in the Nun (14"' October 1977) 1: "I'lic result wa,ý vcrý succcssful: bright, unpunky global political

hysteria.

until you lookcd

The lklgian

it it cm-Oully; and complementary

tourist company, stied of course, and janlic

to the song's had to

dcýtroy the original work in front of it solicitor.,, 36 Unlikc the Cameraivork group, Rcid's, 'rip off' graphics and I-IcIcri Wellington-Hoyd's 37 Icttcrillg. 'ransom notc' coll,,,t, tLjtc(.1a fornildablc political nicnace, dircctly challenging

ý3-5REID in ibid., p43. Again this mirror.,, a StUnt PLIlled by the Motlict-fuckers in New York when they printed invitations for a major ghetto store iii the Lower East Side, claiming to be offering free goods. Fifty Motherfucker activists turned Lip at the said time, demanding goods to be handed over. See King Mob Ec-bo, No. 3,1969, all issue devoted to Black Mask, the Motherfuckers International the and . Werewolf Conspiracy; and Black, Mask & Up Against the Wall Motberfucker, 1993.

36 SAVAGE, Up Tbey Rise, p72. 37, I, lc, Wc1lington-Hoyd: "I was told it had to be something quick and we had no moncy for Ixtraset.

249

Decline of the English Avant-Gardc

bourgeoisvaluessuchas 'property rights', and 'bad taste'. POrridge style, Reid's graphicsfor the Never Mind the Boll"cks Here's the SexPistols alburn sleeve[Figure 14.61were also subject to a heavily publicised court action. On this occasion,

however, Reid and GlItterbest managedto defeatthe obscenity laws in a Nottingham Court, the zenith of their defencebeing

NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS , iruic urliEle IOL19L

01

OIL

when JamesKingsleya Professorof EnglishStudiesat Nottingham University solemnlyelucidatedthe 1000 year history 38 and use of the Anglo-Saxon term 'Bollocks'. Writing in 1980, Peter York noted the significance of Reid's contribution to popular culture: "The main thing that punk introduced was the idea of cut-ups, montage -a bit of Modern Artiness - to an audience who'd never heard of eclecticism. Punk was about changing

39 ', While PeterYork's grinning approval confirms punk's the meaningsof things. historical between drawing by Reid's the a critical and comparison recuperationinto spectacle; designs for CARF40, we late MINDA's 1970s the such as work, and anti-fascistiiiontagc of are forced to recogniscthat Reid's "Modern Artiness" constituted an uncommonly radical form of political 'art'. Beforc MINDA beganto confront the rise of Fascismby drawing National Nazis Party, Front in Conscrvativc between the the the and the of allusions images the late 70s, Reid had carried out a sustainedassaulton the iconograpby of fascismwhich made MINDA's strategiesappearalmost propagandistic. From placing a swastika in placeof the Queen'seyes(God SaveTbe Queen)to forming a swastikafrom marijuana leaves(Never Trust a Ilippy), Reid ridiculed fascismby striking at its very heart, de-ccritringits power by In Reid's its imagery. the addition, paradoxical useof a capitalist of problematising nicaning disseminate helped imagery (album to tee-shirts and such stickers) sleevcs, mode of production not only to solvethe problemsof the Institutionaliscdavant-gardebut of the Left per se: "... the fact that stickersweren't quitc artwork madethem more immediateand lesslikely to get stuck 41 his be Throughout likely They to as propaganda.,, used of) people'swalls. \vCI-C actually

I loved finding letters from different newspapers and making copies of little posters. " Vivicnric Westwood: "I Iclen did the first kidnap lettering for the handouts... She grabbed the feeling of what this Tbe Wicket] Ways of Malcolm McLaren, whole punk thing was about. - in CRAIG BROMBERG, 011111ibLISpress, London, 199 1, p 103.

38,,j:. liberal had from benefited Sex Pistols the the the consensusthey very ven cascwas crubarrassing,as ostcnsiblydespised.'Virgin had an ovcrcC]Llcated vicw of it all,' saysTiberi, 'the Bollocks case misconstrucdthe wholc point of it. ' Winning the casewas not the imagethis group wanted." SAVAGE, England'sDreaming:SexPistolsand Punk Rock, Faber& Faber 1991, p425. 39

YORK, "The Clone Zonc (Night of the Living Dead)", Style Wars, Sidgewick & Jackson, London, 1980, p47. 40((:

ampaign Against Racism and Fascism) SceMINDA, GOHL, ANDJ. Sl)l-'.N(: I-',,(eds. ), Pbotograpbyll'olitics: Scptcniber 1979, pl 25.

"MINDA", in T. DENNET, 1). EVANS, One, Photography Workshop, London,

S.

250

Decline of the EnglishAvant-Garde

involvement with The SexPistols,Reid's political intent remainedclear - the ability to change dispossessed. While artists such as Burgin and journals suchas the meaningsempowers Camerawork had advocatedthis, Reid initiated it, disseminatingguerrilla sernioticsen masse. McLaren, meanwhile,adaptedSituationist tactics of shock and agitation to revolt against musical expertise and

him This to capitalise corporate machinery of pop. allowed the

on the radical claim that swiping at the music business -a perfect example of consumer force (the the the to society of spectacle) encourage audience change. capitalism - would Commercially inspired by the Situationist belief that life should be creative and spontaneous, McLaren encouraged theSex Pistols to display anti-social behaviour. Practising this policy for their appearance on The Today Show hosted by Bill Grundy42 was enough to provoke a 43 Goaded by the host to "say something outrageous", the Sex Pistols replied national scandal. 44 fucker", fucking dirty dirty bastard", "What Rotter.,, "You and a spontaneously, "You Radio stations across the country immediately banned Anarchy in the U.K. (1976). Local

thegroupfrom town halls. Workersat EMI stageda wildcatstrikeand barrage TV The in the appearance. resulting of stoppedshipmentof therecord protestover Grundy's Like COUM The Sex Pistols the of career. and end the publicitysaw meteoricriseof

barred councils

Transmissions, McLarenquicklybecame releasingthe Sex a masterat creatingspectacles, (1977)during Pistols'singleGodSavetheQueen Silver A groupof MPs, Jubilee. theQueen's

Central MPforLambeth Lipton,Labour including Marcus andNevilleTrotter,Conservative ban Luxembourg independent Radio forced for BBC Tynmouth therecord, to the and member free be how furore expression could circumscribed. the overthesongrevealing easily ], a lot of revisionist stuff was going on , it was getting really difficult to By [1978 ... Art 1976 punk was an whether movement or a about, all was grasp what exactly 45 by big Malcolm McLaren con, put on political one or, indeed, just a ...

While the situationscreatedby The SexPistolsrevealeda critical obsessionwith both McLaren Reid Transmissions, COUM and to that systemsof control similar of listeners head and prompting on, polarising subsequentlyclaimedthat assaultingthe pop scene 41 REID in Up They Rise, p6l. 42THAMES TELEVISION, The Today Show, 1' December1976. 43The TV station is delugedwith complaints,one irate lorry driver puts his foot through his television screenin disgust. StewartHome explainsthat this incident relatedto 'The Frost Freak Out' on November 8th 1970 when Yippie leaderJerry Rubin was beinginterviewedby David Frost. Twenty Yippies stormedon the stage,their swearingprovoking an inquiry by the IndependentTelevision Authority. 44Quoted in MARY HARRON, "Punk is Just Another Word for Nothin' Left Lose," Village Voice, to 28th March, 1977, p56. 45 YORK, "Boys Own", Style Wars, p36.

251

Dcclinc of the Fnglkh Avant-Gardc

barbarism teen about renewed righteous warnings lot The Sex Pistols a of publicity, simply gave enabling them to get niorc gigs and make "Cash OLlt 46 Punk Chaos". ccrtainly was a boon to the of British competitive conservative press, as they sharply continually played up every disturbance and IFigUrc Dailý, Fxý)ress I` 14.7 controversy.

p

SS

now v I. CAI-Ily' PUNK? ,

-Ir Ti-IT31-4

Decembcr 1976.1 Another avant-garde movement had been coniniodified MILI HIStitiltIMMIUSCLI,ý'CtWILIt had been a party to their own iiioveillcllt's dusturbing its that protagonists was rernained

co-

been (anti)acsthetics Had the of indiffuence playcd out? Certainly, using capitAvt opt, 011.47 48 At fight the end of the 1970s, tactics to capitalism resulted in a stalcinatc of sorts. Glitircrhest punk claimed to have produced the UltllllatC situation, the death of Art. COUNI's finding been despite had fact suppression of mildisin, the nicaning that simultaneously nihilism desire has Their for a new that their no morals existed concealcd anger meaning. nothing language). If COUM were truly nihilistic they would P-Orridgc's (e. vernacular moral code g. have 'Ceaseldl to Exist', as their stickers advocated, rather than extend their activities within TG, Psychic TV, Temple ov Psychic Youth, Chris and Coscy etc. In this, thev failed to form by 'purist' Glitterbest punk, of nihilisill, that the as explored only alternative rccogillse would be to perform Out Of CraSS111,1terialism.Similarly, ex-King N/Iobbers, the Wise Brothers,

46This

dclibcrately McLaren in tile MUSICpress, in attempting to produce SitU110011S that was suggests Since Out had been Chaos' 'Cash channels. of to mass-niedia a Glitcrbcst slogan more popular addition from the outset, McLaren and Rcid had some reason to clairn that the Music prcss had IIIISLInderstood have been deliberate That is clear from the intent 'rip this misunderstanding ina to off'. their everyone ,v huge transformations which took place in the British music press between 1976 and 1978, as NAIF, Sounds, and Melody Maker, were drawn awav from promoting pop and progressive 'art' rock by tile intent Punk. While integrity' 'social tile political of of mainstream Punk bands SLIC11 as The Clash is The British forced Glittcrbest punk's reformed music to include The was not. press were unclucstionable, Sex Pistols aniong other 'bona-fide' punk bands in order to cope with a phenomenon which threatcned to destroy their sales. Having created a crisis situation in the 'art rock' press through aggressive promotion, (; Iittcrbcst in turn created a crisis situation in the reformed 'punk rock' press, questioning the value and intent of their socio-political criticism that had bccn hastily devc1opcd to promote the new music. For in) in British YORK, Own", Style Wars, "Boys the the changes popular music press see p]9-39. of account 47S,

e Reid and McLaren's "Ten Lessons", The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle, Polygram Video, 1980. "it is fair to say that McLaren's 'LISC'Of his Situationist 'knowledge', apart from tile ObViOLIS 'borrmving' of graphic styles (cictournernent) anti slogancering rhetoric, centrcd round tile theoretical iniplications of tile Spectacle's ability to recuperated oppositional practices. He knew that the more lie refused incorporation, the more they would try to rCCLIperatehim (here Ithey' are the entertainment and lCiSUre industries, 'he' stands for the punk pro)ect). In his role as the artiSt-bLIS111CSSIII, 111,McLarcii used the insights and analysis of the SI to do 'good business'. GEORGE ROBERTSON, "'I"he Situationist International: Its Penetration Into British CUlture", Block, 14, London, 1988.

48Thc Thatchcrite Right, of course, had long been mimicking the populist rhetoric of the left. Unlike the New Right's populist tactics, however, it would SCCIIIth.It the Left's attcnipt to buril out the ideology of the New Right was knowingly doonicd from the beginning, testifying to the Left's growing pessinusill during the 1970s. McLaren and Reid's subseqLICIItcareers indicate that the fragmentation which reSUltCd from this encouraged a growtb in conservative attitucles, McLaren becoming a consunicr/entreprencur par excellence, Rcid becoming a mystic 'artist' with interests in ancient Celtic culture.

252

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

Glitterbest's the of extreme pursuit of nihilism: point missed Punk is the admissionthat music has got nothing left to say, but money can still be made bankruptcy for its total all surrogate artistic with substitutes creative selfout of daily lives. like denial Punk is in the all art, our music, of the revolutionary expression 49 becoming of the proletariat. Of course, being truly nihilistic, punk had to be a denial of all values, whether dconservative'or 'revolutionary'! Take the money and run. Those who sought to continue found that the useof rock to shock quickly became dada, le bourgeoisie in In hence as epater punk worked not very shocking. predictable, and found in. McLaren Westwood by time, set and the cynicism quickly punk's second only once; for far deadlier. Since be and style were perceived refinement as props social atavism to form luddism a stubbornly static entailed of rock conservatism, control, punk's shoddy musical had The they envisaged. anti-art conventions of punk the than prank carnivalesque rather becamean obligatory code evenmore constricting than those previously rejected: "Punk's lasting contribution to rock criticism has beenmusical moralism. Recordsare judged for their intentions not their effects;credibility is the necessaryvirtue, hypocrisy the most damming

bands had in 'punk Continual "50 the about music press posers', who argumentsarose vice. become because had because it image than they marketable,rather andsound adopteda punk believedin the 'punk cause'.Whenthe assumptions underlyingpunk's critical apologistsare demonstrated be it that suchquestionsweresomewhatmisconstrued. analysed, can Drawing heavily on the Institute of Social Research'scritique of bourgeois culture, for its impulse Punk had emancipatory while maintaining a praised reformed music critics Consequently, for distaste 'Academic' theories culture. of popular punk was seento populist in Hochschule's Frankfurt critique of popular negative music, a critique the outlined to answer Theodor Adorno's famous essayOn Popular Music (1941). Adorno here argued that popular insure increasingly their to acquiescence to the and masses pacify music merely served Since the repetitious rhythms of popular music were essentiallythe relations. social oppressive former dominate factory, Adorno the that the claimed, enjoyment of sameas the rhythms facilitated an acceptanceof the latter. Resistanceto theseubiquitous forms of social control is, development be 'negative'; through that the the modes of critical of generated could only dominant, ideologicallyin the to cultural productions which stand contradiction thinking and basedforms of thought and experience- as Herbert Marcuse put it, forms which "desublimate 51 its Such "established discourse. " the affirmative nature of culture" and universeof but its bourgeois the stand as critiques only of of must not content also of culture, negations

49DAVE AND STUART WISE, Punk, Reggae;A Critique, p73. 50SIMON FRITH, "Consuming Passion",Melody Maker, March 10th, 1979, p14.

253

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

form and structure. It wason thesegroundsthat punk critics basedtheir understanding of 52 punk asa politically revolutionarymovement. Formallypunk waschaotic,irregularand harsh,while asa 'cultural production'it was highlysubversive in intent (or so it seemed): In retrospect what is amazingis that the insipidness,(within of course its own terms) of didn't 1970s/mid '70s early rock, produce an active revolt against the musical spectacle but merely the urge to update it. [ ] Punk rock usesthe desperation [... the ... disenfranchised I but only finally to reinforce this desperation. [ I As usual, the left ... ... lyrics form the the the content of and not concentratedon on of production and what makes them evenmore pathetic was their pitiful analysisof the sourcesof content with 53 dictatorship. in its the spectacleunchanged essential While Punk Critics were correct to praise Punk as a socio-political concept, in concentrating on its Bejaminian 'shock effect' they were overlooking the importance of its have from Reid dimension. McLaren What to the seemed recognised and aesthetic beginning was that Punk delinquent subculture, sincecreatedthough the channelsof the S4 Despite their anti-art tendencies,postmassmedia, could only simulate revolution. Situationist counter cultures were aesthetic,since their acts of defiancewhere primarily down. be As Marcuse than tolerated they rather severely put repressively would symbolic had argued in Counterrevolution and Revolution (1972): "[Subculture] may help to tear the 5S behind but leaves intact " ideological veil the veil. the structures Virgin might once of beenstrongly identified with the underdogsand iconoclastsof had been had Pistols but the the and changed, not signedjust in order to climate rock, further the aims of the revolution. The company had paved out L45,000 for the great 56 hopes, Branson was expecting spectacularreturns. and punk

51HERBERT MARCUSE An Essayon Liberation, Becon,Boston, 1969. 52A from kind the period is DAVID LAING's, "Punk Rock", Marxism this of writing good exampleof Today, April 1978. 53DAVE AND STUART WISE, Punk, Reggae;A Critique, p64-65. 54McLaren's actions were contemporaneous with the launch of October, the American journal of art and theory. McLaren provides one link betweenthe historical avant-gardeand the Baudrillardian in distinction 80s. Baudrillard's the to theoretical the popular early mid of collapse postmodernism betweenfiction and reality, as everythingentersa marketplaceof consumablesigns,was, in a sense, initiated practically by McLaren, finalising the recuperation of the 'avant-garde': "Since much academic discourseis grounded in notions of the authentic (and its loss), individuals engagedin cultural and media studiesfind the prospect of assimilatingthe 'radicality' attachedto 'avant-garde' ideasa very attractive book The Recodings:Art, Spectacle,Cultural Politics by Hal Foster, in which a proposition. bastardisedversion of specto-Situationisttheory is wielded in defenceof blue-chip art may be taken as typical of this trend." HOME, "Aesthetics & Resistance:Totality Reconsidered",Smile No. 11, London, 1989. 55HERBERT MARCUSE, Counterrevolution

and Revolution, Beacon,Boston, 1972, p132.

56MARK KIDEL, "The Hip Capitalist Dream Profile Richard Branson", The New Review, of -A

254

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

Indeed,it is absurdto think that punksmight havevaluedtheir 'subcultural'statusto the extentthat theyimaginedtheir existencemight changethe social,economicand political topographyof Britain. Moreover,for punksto regardtheir cultureasa possiblesolutionto the problemof the artist'scontributionto the perpetuationof an oppressivesystem,would make to the them guilty of the egotismandelitismtheydeplored.Hence,while elevatingthemselves had heroes, delusions tragic simultaneously punks no of about their (in)action. In status did limitations from the punk the of subculture, not arise spontaneously of recognition 'frustrationsof the working class',it wasconstructedusingan organised,'hip-capitalist' 57approach: "[The] overt recuperation of a bowderalized situationist critique in the UK was deceased inherent in [pseudothe active nihilism the activities of of capitalising really dearly beloved Mob King to exist as a nostalgic, continuing memory, static and stituationists] from behaviour Sex Pistols is in This "58 the the of clear and punks general. unself-critical. Punks went beyond traditionally defined delinquency,their violations being not so much illegal form. delinquency, is The knowing stance a parody punk of utilising attacks on style and as 59 breaks 'straight' culture. with mock violence, masochism,and theatrical

Whenpunk brandishedclasscredentialsit studiouslyavoidedthe flat cuesof the it its With tattered swearing and spit, clothing, public white working class. respectable lumpen damned: [ ] the the proletariat. urban vestmentsof chosethe marginalised ... Proudof its 'dumbness',punk wasyet the mostarticulateof subcultures:anti-art in denyingthe prevailingsenseof intention it adopteda politicsof ruptural aesthetics; 60 'class'and 'politics', it offeredthe mostexplicit socialradicalism. Volume 4, Number 45, December1977, p9. 57Mel Ramsdenof Art & Languagehas suggestedthat this approach was written into the ideology of Semio-Art: "I think our disenchantment(not that there was much , if any, enchantment)is with those There identify the correct cultural all moves. their making were once socialismto virtue with who seek in-one-art-work moves. This happenedaround the time conceptualart matured into up market graphics journalism We kind hand, into the on other. neednot concern ourselves of cultural a and on the one Art. The journalism is it McConceptual the problem with cultural that the graphics: up market with have did it it The have Well, to one: went straight management. practice. artist to of place no seemed by MEL RAMSDEN interviewed TOM kind " HOLERT, of executive. mobile as a was re-born upwardly "Art & Language:Painting By Mouth", FlasbArt, No. 175, March/April 1994, p82. 58DAVE AND STUART WISE, Punk, Reggae;A Critique, p70. 59"...

by fluid is the this various individuals of categoryand rhetorical usemade notion class actually a form harping be described This [ I PUNK theatre. on can most accurately as a of associatedwith ... 4epaterles bourgeoisie'missesthe point becausetransvestismis as likely to shock blue collar workers as their white collar bosses.Being more firmly rooted in generationalthan in classdifferences,rock usually setsout to shock parents in general,and not simply individuals who view themselvesas belonging to the [ I Of idea least is PUNK is 'oppositional', the that classes. course, or upper underground, or at middle ... in problematic terms of those postmodern theoriesthat view our epoch as a time of proliferating margins. But then that part of the PUNK audiencethat has any interest in post-modernism is more than capableof by death, 'ironic' 'contradiction' is Besides, this adopting a pose of consumption. coherence resolving from living the tensionsgeneratedaround clustersof contradiction. " cultures are generated whereas HOME, Cranked Up Really Higb, pl 0-11,17. 601AN CHAMBERS, "Urban Soundscapesl976-:England'sDreaming", Urban Rbytbms: Pop Music and

255

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

This would seemto confirm that punk 'anarchy', in contrast to other forms of anti-social behaviour, contained a strong aestheticcomponent. Thus, in line with McLaren's 'pop61 Situationist, intent,

for the punks was never so much about 'pure' or class-based anarchy

it as was an aestheticrebellion against controls which were not economically protest political 62 As Caroline Coon demonstrated, but in were normative origin. or politically motivated Johnny Rotten did not write, "protest songs,as such. He IS protest. In Anarcby in the U.K. he 63 He IS Its Hence, is not advocating anarchism. a subtle shift of emphasis.anarchism. despite its proud display of primitivism, punk retained a peculiarly nebulous 'artiness'. Since didn't departures, had invite McLaren the of punk artistry per se was suspect, conventions future. form Punk's its had its triumph conceit was glory, that a of art no sought to guarantee follow. to tough act suicide - all things considered,a The pastnessof art in its highest senseimplies that the work of art - once endowed with historical longer in that context out of religious and stands no an aestheticpresence64 becomes an autonomous and absolute work of art. which it emerged. It The baroque artistic creation's long-lost unity is in someway rediscoveredin the current is When all art recognisedand sought ... the totality art. of past consumption of the Once its 'collection baroque this of all rivals.... with art merges very production of 65 is it becomes history also the end of the work of art. possible, souvenirs' of art Come 1977 the punk explosion was everywhereand, at first, the soul set were excited. True to form, it wasn't McLaren's socio-political shenanigansthat attracted them but The Sex Pistol's youth and uniforms. Johnny Rotten wasn't an ideological iconoclast as his McLaren Vivienne for interpretation Westwood's togs of and much as a clotheshorse Popular Culture, Macmillan, Hampshire, 1985, p181. 61SeeFRITH, Art into Pop, Methuen, London, 1987. 621n be back McLaren's dialectical involvement implies that traced to can of separation critique this a all, I The distinction [ between is is inner Mob: "... King the principle reality schizophrenia alienation with ... false distinction, false [ I Marxist it is the principle. thought reality and a world/and external reality ... but for individuals classes,as external realities, mutually the of classes reality the reality of substitutes body. ] dead [ The but in is It takes one the place proletariat external, are not real either. really all ... Repressed", Return live O'BROWN, "The " Long is the of the pl. proletariat. proletariat us. 63CAROLINE COON, "Interview with Johnny Rotten", Melody Maker, 20th July 1977. Coon refers to in U. K. from & COOK 1976: MATLOCK, Anarcby lyrics JONES, ROTTEN, following the the

And I wannabeAnarchy And I wannabeAnarchy Know what I mean? And I wannabeAnarchist Getpissed Destroy... 64jOACHIM RrITER, "Asthetik", [An historical evaluation of Georg Hegel's aesthetics]Historishcbes Worterbucb der Pbilosophie, Basle,Schwabe,1971, p576, translated in HANS BELTING, The End of the History of Art?, The University of Chicago Press,London, 1987, p12. 65GUY DEBORD, The Societyof the Spectacle,1967, Black and Red, London, 1970. quoted in TAYLOR, "The Impresario of Do-It-Yourself", p26.

256

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

[ I to claim that they [The Sex Pistols] had any political significance is stupid. If they ... ... did anything, they made a lot of people content with being nothing. They certainly didn't inspire the working classes.66 Writing for The Book Witb No Name (1981), the first book of the New Romantics, Ian Birch preciselyidentified the punk legacy. Clearly cut off from its pseudo-political fabrication it was, an anti-aesthetic movement which the referents, punk culture was seenas gained its meaningonly as it stood againstother cultural forms. By 1978 it seemedthat, from its inception, punk typified what GeorgeMelly adroitly characterisedas the drift from "revolt into style." With the demiseof subculture was left an aura of romantic disintegration:

It maybe betterto disregardthe claimsmadefor socialart and readbetweenthe lines, acceptingit not asa meansof changingthe world but asa pretextfor a shifting style. True to form the newstyleinfiltratesthe elitist havensunderthe guiseof beingan anti. 67 for 'isms' all time. style,the endof The end of "isms" brought with it an end to punk nihilism. Style made a hedonistically triumphant return with dramatic consequences: There was more Art around - Art business,Art Therapy, Art fashion, Art planning - in development history This in the the that was out than of world. was a the seventies ever had had line Marx common sense ever observed,which was simply said or with what of bits) if became (or to the 'cultural hegemony' or, shot even that this: pluralist culture broadly, the notion that the dominant style at a given time is that of the ruling class, had hopeful left had been that one wingers such a self-evident always taken the always 68 be true. converseto As Peter York hoped, visual culture after punk had to cope with a major dilemma, namely the lack of a unitary culture to counter. To a number of post-punk artists it seemedthat Glitterbest's aesthetictricks had dealt a death blow to both 'affirmative' and 'counter' culture, hierarchies had between The critical them. the political and which gap sustainedthe closing longer index for it the could no operate as avant-garde, seemed, an of value project of sadvancedart' sincesuch hierarchieshad beenshown to contain a number of practical and theoretical contradictions.

Perhaps,then,it is reasonable to claimthat punk'santi-designstancehad alwaysmade the whole enterprisepeculiarly arty. Not according to another popular myth recently rehashed, this being that punk designerswere untrained, anonymous figures, their designsraw and hand biros, Xeroxes, that to anything using came uncouth, aerosols,and scissors,their aim -

661AN BIRCH, "In The Beginning", The Book With No Name, Omnibus, London, 1981, p1l. 67JAMES FAURE WALKER, "The Claims SocialArt of and Other Perplexities", Artscribe, 12, June 1978, p19. 68 YORK, "Style Wars", Style Wars, p13.

257

Declinc of the English Avant-Gar&

being to defacethe designsof happy hippies trained at art school. it is true to say that inany designersremain anonymouswhile designateddesignerssuch as SabastianCmirmi, who for 'rhe Clash, Yet material were self-taught. promotional many celebratedpunk produced designersivere trained at art school, and for thein plagiarism was more ofa carnivaicsque directed Western terrorism against property values. Malcolm Girrett than art political prank began designingsleevesfor the Buzzcockswhile still a graphics student at Manchester polytechnic, where he had developeda taste for International Stylc typograpliN by reading Herbert Spencer'snewly republished Tbe Pioneersol-Modern Typograpby: "I beganmerging a liked, I the pioneering type of graphic things of number like Futurism and Bauhaus from earlier in the

expainicias

Andy Warhol. -6,19 In from tile art and pop century with stuff future Assortcd fellow (and Garrctt's 1977, student summer of

L

MaGes co-dcsigilcr) Linder Sterling was finishing her

A

for Her photomontage on the sanitation Of Punk. 1 1 Figure 14.8 1977), Adifict ( Oiýgasm Buzzcocks while the

disscrtition

having obvious prcccdcrits III clada and surrealism, most closely 1)), kinds of anti-consunicri. st montage produccd nurrored the feminist community niail artists and Woman's as Such magazines irregular

Own.

photographers Certainly

and harsh, while as 'cultural

they appeared suhvcrsIvc

productions'

but wasn't a very similar

Assorted late 960s? AIA. I the since in most art schools

view, given that they were not anarcho-syndicalists,

chaotic,

in intent; all to be

'anti-acstlictic'

which had demarcated

found in the converse Hegelian logic of grunge-formalisin 'design'

from imagery

such punk 'designs' were formally

for any aspiring subculture,

laudable credentials

In the 70s, satirising

'fine art' from

became testament cs

to such j

but a duct of graphic designer-, who, as

by punk to cast aside their au-bruslics and set squares in been had inspired students, revolutionary

ferment: 'This is The E,vening Standard.

Now forni an advertising fashion, American

Consultancy.

This is Fiesta. This is a pair of scissors.

' Hence, Assorted iMaGes

"will

use any style; avoids

dognia; remains OHIVIOUS tO politics; deplores fads; dismisses trends; ignores cars; eats at McDonalds;

and sleeps irregularly.,,

adores

70 "The idea that you can still go

designer for last", Ben Kelly back Godlev do sleeve clainis at want coming you is what out and & Creme, A Certain lucky generation",

Ratio, and The Curc aniong others.

fortuitously

suggesting that sonic 'punk'

"I still count myself as one of the designers were luckier

than

71 If 1)), designer "version the the punk's, of CUlt of was reinforced individual anything, others.

69MALCOLM

GARRFTT quoted in "Graphics",

Creative Review, February 1998, p377.

A)ASSORTED iMaGcs quoted in CATFIFAINENLDERMOTT, "New-Wavc Graphics: AM. mual of StN11c",Street Style: British Design in the SOs, Design Council, London, 1987, p7l. 71 BEN KFLLY quotcd in DOMENIC CAVENDISH, "Thc Great Rock & Roll Exhibition ", Tbe Independent (Style), 31 st jallUary - 6th Februarv, p5.

258

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

the credo quia absurdum est: you don't like it but you do it anyway; you get used to it and you little designers, Copyright, issue interest like in it -72 to the an of end. previously graphic even becamethe hot topic, (battles continue to take place over the attribution of many Pistols least best designer individual? Generating ) Who the the outlaw; who was such was graphics. 73

contradictions, of course,was the whole point. On the other hand, not everyonerevelled in the ambiguity. From 1978, it was clear designs becoming were more absolute, while others that a greater number of record sleeve looked like baroque creations fit to challengethe collection of souvenirs of art history that inspired them. In most cases,however, the carnivalesqueand agitational side of punk seemed 74 Given that many to convert to an emphasisupon record-design-as-historicist-commodity. had designers quickly abandonedthe anti-aesthetic,the emphasison commodity sleeve fetishism was an ingeniousmeansof ensuringthat records did not loose their newly acquired by lead had been initiated TG in 1978's The ironic 'Industrial' the to up style which art status. Winter of Discontent, was reformulated and taken literally by technological determinists such Kelly Neville Brody designers Ben Eno, Brian Voltaire, Cabaret and who were such as and as 7S Aesthetic'. largely behind the 'Motorway Ultra-elegant Industrial sleevesinspired a plethora of designersto lovingly refine the 76 Drawing design. Garrett's on of utopian aspirations of ubiquitous modernist schools former Style, Manchester International school-mate and the successfulappropriation of back felt-tip his Saville Peter turned on and photomontage, and injected a Polytechnic graduate late highiacking disintegration by into 1970s the melodramatic sentimentof romantic boys' Kraftwcrk Berlin Bowie. 'pale for design raised on and of a new generation modernist

72"Thc passivenihilist compromiseswith his own lucidity about the collapseof all values. Bandwagon don't like but do it its bandwagon the quia absurdum credo est: you of you version own works out after it anyway; you get usedto it and you evenlike it in the end. Passivenihilism is an overture to land killer, [ I Between the the a no-mans-land, waste of two solitary the stretches poles conformism. ... Jack Ripper is by described Bettina the the the crime of state. essentially as so aptly of the criminal he him; be by hierarchical The touch touched the cannot cannot inaccessible. power mechanismsof Row", VANEIGEM, "Desolation " p7. revolutionary will. 73For

Versions, Bluccoat Gallery, Cover CHRIS KENNEDY, BIGGS BRYAN information and see more Liverpool, 1981; "Land of Hope and Glory", New Musical Express,13th June 1981. 74SeeYORK, "Culture as Commodity: StyleWars, Punk and Pagent", in J. THACKERA (ed..), Design After Modernism, London, 1988. 75Brody graduatedfrom the London Collegeof Printing in 1980. He was largely responsiblefor the design his See by from 1981 The Face in British typography onwards. graphic caused on revolution JOHN WOZENCROFT, The Graphic Languageof Neville Brody, London, 1988. 76This, in turn, was to influence the academicartworld: "Producing BLOCK was labour intensiveand drew heavily on the expertiseof a recent graphic designgraduate [of Hornsey Art College/Middlesex Polytechnic], Kathryn Tattersall, whose choicesreflect a contemporary interest in RussianConstructivist "Introduction", The BLOCK Reader 1996, in Visual Culture, London, BLOCK, Routledge, graphics". before BLOCK it it Despite time took took this, to some pop culture to seriously enough allow pxi See DICK HEBDIGE, Taste: Poor Notes its "In in Pop", BLOCK, No. 8,1983, p54-68. pages. on appear

259

Decline ot the Fnglish Avant-G'; IILIL'

Saville elicited a busy abstract SUblime,activated by an between look tension mass-produccd a and a engaging feel finishcd for handworkcd to the products painstakingly joy Division, New Order and The Durutti COILIIIIII.I Figure . 14.9 PeterSaville. Love Will Tear Us Aýmrt. (I 8th April I 9.ýq)j 1.77

His work is slick and technically brilliant with an eye for ilcar-pcrfect alignment of type and skilful use Of historical sources, from Roman lapidary letters of tile first century f.or, joy Division, to jan Tschichold and 78 for New Order. the Modernist aesthetic

The operative toric of Factory designs, rcmaincd hopcful and visionary, but exuded a powcrful lack of nicaning and place, crcating a look that was neither critical nor nostalgic, but brand 1)), Saville the optimism particular of engcndercd niodcriust resuscitated evolutionary. design, ensuring that his work would resist assimilation into the interior design market, rather 79 Kelly. than embrace it as WOUld The 1111plicationsof this for 'high art' were clarified as early as 1977 wIth jencks' Charles of primarily

The Language o/ Post-Modern

with architecture,

his theoretical

book dealt

Although

'Jencks' Coll, I'litnien ts were to become Increasingly

important

for a number of artists attempting

According

to jcncks,

Post-Modcrnisni

Archi'tecture.

to force a way through

the punk cul-de-sac.

to beckon architects and artists towards placing art back within logocentric tr. IL]lt]011S

was bcginning

a

by heritage modernism, rejected rich Cultural discourage, Adopting Iconographic and than allegorical readings. '111 which would assist, rather Mcbrated lie Jciicks vvhat regarded as the waill ng III pragmatism, attitude of amused, agnostic the rhetoric

of opposition

and critique

functioned

as an Ironic critique

established

landmarks

in Post-Modernism.

Post-Modern

heroics the of past achievements, of

and classical structures

in a totally

architecture

altering

quotations

detached and self-conscious

often from manner.

That such elements were often used as building blocks, without accepting their accompanying denlythologising had Post-Modernists the adopted some of explanatory systems, suggests that limvever, degree. In Jencksian lesser 1970s, the to ts, a tactics of critical post modern is albeit Post-Modcrnism went largely unnoticed by such artists and critics. It remains clear, however

77Sec MICK MIDDLES, Froinjoy Division to New Order: Tbe Factory Ston,, Virgin Books, 1996; MARK JOHNSON, "An Ideal for Living: An History ofJoy Division" ProtCLISBooks, London, 1984; STEVE TAYLOR, "InclUstrial Marioctivrcs in the Art", Tbe Face, Mav 1982, p50-55. 78CATHERINEMcDERMOTT, 79KcIIy's

"New-Wavc Graphics: ANIanual of Style", p73.

most celebrated commission is the 'inotorway Wilson Factory New by Anthony Order. of and owned The Face, November 1982, p5O. industry",

acstlictic' Hacienda night-club ill Manclicstcr, See "The HaCiCuda: New Steps for the leisure

260

Dcclinc ot the Fliglish Avant-(I'ardc

that jericksian

Post-Modcriusin

terms of forinal

and iconographic

itself where Kital and I lockney

plurality,

nonetheless, remain inaccurate

what Frederick jameson process of pastiche.

Laurie Ray Chamberlain reviling

Mick

and Conceptu. ilism.

li

to terin Kital and I lockricy's

later termed "the cannibalisation

Moreover,

ývcrc leading in

moving in intich t lie s.1111cspirit of

Mininialisin the refined, styles of overtly esoteric against

reaction would,

eclecticism

was manifesting

punk had added a different

practice as an instance of " of all styles of the past" in the mentality

to the CCIUM1011:

denounces Hockney

Jagger or The Who.

in very much the style of, johnny Rotten Some affinities are too close for comfort. 8()

On graduating from the RCA, Chamberlain had been a contestant In Andrew Logan's 1975 Alternative Miss World Competition. Following his encounter with such London society figures he became a Xerox

8 I for whoin art was the visual projection of an entire style of artist, living and thinking. In the nud-scvciitics he briefly found fanic for Ills I IjVurc David Bowie as such colour photocopiesof severitiesicons 14.101.The implication of Chamberlain's work was that pop figures bc kind that Bowic should of gesamptkunstiverk produced the such as His have as advanced art. the avant-garde rcpIaccd considercd to he Although simply could not conipctc. that, a VISLIal artist, as photocopies were recognitions he did not stop producing artworks, carly In 1977 he followed his courage of his convictions, fashion for International late Times. By the editor and Columnist getting a Job as a gossip had been his by Xerox found Chamberlain work adopted sectors of the post1970s, aspects of Ants, for by Music Adam -slogan Sex 'Ant the whose and notably most scene, punk pop dead "highly evolutionary Pcopic"' sumnianscd their entertaining end for the Punk Rock sub83 82 Adain designed Zjýý-ox, by Ants' the sleeve single of \vas which second and the gcnre.,, Adain Ant himself, paid homage to Chamberlain. Subsequently, (I'Ll"Iberlan, was enlisted to for Gluck's Zerox Stephanie Macbine from Richardson Clive the sleeve of video and select stills

84 CartI. Ants' Olible. third singlc the

80TERENECE MALOON, "Notes oil Style in the SCVC11tICS: I. \IOLiCSof Perceiving-, Artscribe, 12,11111c 1978, pI 5. In fact, with tile anarcbic on stage guitar-smashing Imformanccs of Keith Moon, The Who Substitute included formative influence Sex Pistols, in tlicir set.,,. the a of who often version on were a 81 See PATRICK FI RPO, Cop), Art: Tbe First Complete Guile to the Copy Alacbine, Richard Nlarek Publishing, New York, 1978. 82 HOME, Cranked Up Really Hýqb, p7l. 83ADAM

AND THE ANTS, ZeroxlWhip

84ADAM

AND THE ANTS, CartroublelKick!,

in my Valise, Do-it Records DUN 8, June 1979. Do-lt Records DUN 10, FebrUarv 1980.

2(-,l

Decline

of tile 1:111glisli Availt-(

"al-dc

Like many of his pop pcers, Ant had also liccdcd a number Icssons hip the of COUM, Glittcrbcst and pUnk in capitalist of Ant Flegclian I lighwayniall Adain ill [Figurc 14.11 as an gencral 19_81 Alit (thcil Stuart Goddard) studicd graphic dcsign at I lornscy _J. Art Collcge beforc forming the Ants in 1977:

He wanted to createan audiencenot cater for one. I le did not behind I I Adam the mastermind all to is want compete. ... 'Antgraphics', designingbadges,T-shirts, record sleeves,posters, likes: Eastwood, Allen He Clint else!! and almost everything Jones, Dirk Bogarde,Dave Berry, Sex Pistolscirca '76, jim Morrison, Lenny Bruce, Jordan,Ennio Morricone, joe Orton, StanleySpencer,Montgomery Clift, early Roxy Music, Charles 85 Bronson and original Sexclothing ... Alan Jones controversial protestation,

female studies, exhibited erotic

had lecture Tbe F'rotic Arts Wcb's Alan also a profound series on and

Aclarn Ant's taste for conibinations imagery.

at the ICA in 1978 to great feninust

of sado-niasochistic

pornography

On May I Oth 1977, the Ants aped the entrees of Throbbing

leather Ant ICA, dcl)utcd executioners wearing a at the when they his for Road Kings performance in

of their song 13eat 1ý1),(; 1jest.

effect on

and slick advertising Gristle and the Pistols,

niask from Wesovood's

Sex

86

I jLlStentered into the craziness. It was scary: I usedto wear rapist hoods',and Just Thc it That the was. audicnces,then, there N%,, way was Is 311 the aL]CIICIICC. attack like for first but danger, it was parachuting the there excitement: was elementof 87 til, le. The performance was abruptly terminated, tile band being forced to complete their 'Antsho', v' during the interval of John Dowics Show in tile ICA Theatre. Oil October 3rd 1979, McLaren later, following Three tile release of the group's months Just stepped in to manage the group. debut 1.11Dirk Wears Whitc Sox, McLaren had persuaded three members to leave and

WOW WOW, famous BOW his 'pirate' Whosc most proicct, prodUCt1*011 pop-group establish for Seejumýle.... design RCA), 1, (198 Egan's Nick a translation of covcr probably rcinains Manct's Limcbeon on the Grass. Suchbreaknecktheorctical pop culturc, demandinVa ktiowlcdgcable post-SittlatIOMSt C011SLIIIICI-S, clearly presciitcd an vigilant, clitc group of bcing by tin'IC-CO]ISLIMIng nictliodological the to the tiresome, ganics playcd attractivc challcrige

85ANON.

Adam and the Ants Catalogue, CBS 84549,1980. 1,11,CBS 84549,1980.

Includcd with Kings of the Wild Frontier

86 "Tic hit ine with a stick / Beat nic, bcat nic / Use a trLHIChConor a household brick / Beat niC Lip and blue, baby beat / Black I IOVCyOU... I-fit nic please make ine b1ccd... There's SOIIILICII and nic nic, happiness behind my tears / Beat ine, beat nic /I pray yOU beat me for ten thousand years / Beat me, beat 1. 198 Guest Deliver, CBS Beat B-Sidc Stanti " was the the my CVentUally released and as of single me... 87ADAM

ANT in SAVAGE, Filgland's Dreaming, p376.

262

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

88 bourgeois academicBritish art world establishment. This challenge,it would seem,could difficulty differentiating between be impugned the given of an academicart never satisfactorily both high levels 'innovative' kudos that theoretical to needed equally of scene world and a pop sustain market interest in their cultural products. Image is allusion, the only constant is change. Glamour is perceivedin the illusory (private to the to public) expressedas the transition object the of subject nature of direction inherently is Personality the surprising manifestation of under will. myth. The necessityfor motivation within an infinity of chance/choicecreatesconstant limbo is Shifting all viewpoints are relative, around the perspectives, conceptual crisis. 89 corner. This much is demonstratedby one of the earliest manifestationsof jencksian 'post-punk art' in Britain, the adolescenthistoricist neo-kitsch of Duggie Fields. As a student at ChelseaSchool Conceptualism, had Minimalism, Fields during Art with the mid-1960s, experimented of 90 figuration". hard-edge developing "a more Constructivism, before post-Pop I had a very strong conceptualphasewhen I did algebraic equations that I made visual imagery from and it completely dictated the image. Then I got more organic. Then I I just triangles and squares. stuck a again with period went through a very minimal figure of Donald Duck into one of the 5ft canvasesmade from squaresand triangles of bright colour. I got shouted at. The whole art department got brought to seethis 91 found direction. had I horror I in a thought obviously and painting Although the direction that Fields had chancedupon was highly synthetic, it initially owed a in Miro, interest Miro Pop-Art 1960s deal magazines and comics. pin-up on the the to great Wall (1973), for example, paid homageto Richard Hamilton's punning use of massmedia history. In decided 1975 Field's to merge the of art canon sourcesas a meansof subverting 60s style with what he seento be the '70s Style', the Body-Art preoccupation with fetishism 92 his figures. limbs heads of the and severing and self-abuse, Fields' first useof this devicecame in 1977 with Against the Inertia of the Seemingly

Impingesasa Dynamic StaticWholeEachNew HarmonicIncorporationof Life Seemingly Perversity,a paintingtitled after a quotationfrom the architectBuckminsterFuller. This 88SeeCHAPTER 8: Radical Academicism. 89 FIELDS, "Seeingis Believing", IKON Gallery, 1978. 90MARY ROSE BEAUMONT, "Biographical Note", Duggie Fields: Paintings 1982-87, Albermarle Gallery, London, 28th October - 20 November 1987. 91 FIELDS, interviewed by MIKE VON JOEL, "Duggie Fields:Dynamic Perversityand Other Such Stories", Art Line International - Art News, Vol. 3. No. 10,19 88, pl 1. 92-In fact, he admits candidly, part of the reasonsfor the truncations is simply that once, when painting difficulty face. he had body fine, but 'The head I figure, I just the with was the to so couldn't get work, a

263

Decline of the English Avant-Garde

degree fame Fields some of when, along with Conversation Piece, it became painting achieved available as a David Shepherd-styleposter published by Motif editions in the early 1980s. The central figure comesfrom an advertisementin a fashion magazineof the late 1950s. [ ] Then, with the memory of the missing limbs of the Victory of Samothrace,[ ] he ... ... figure flying her Behind (missing) head was originally a plain this with a skirt. painted black square,perhapsa nod in the direction of Ad Reinhardt. Whist the picture was still a sketch Fields saw in New York an exhibition of Lucio Fontanta which he found he decided and to slash the black moving, as a result powerful and unexpectedly 93 square. Dynamic Perversity not only mocked the allegedly radical cutting actions of punk and 1970s ... Unsettled but between as a whole. patterned of avant-garde relationships art, performance deliberately overstated,and sourcesabsurdly eclectic:making the were elements pictorial 94 both fashion. subservientto the vagariesof pointed suggestionthat style and content were Pubic hair was positioned on the outside of the clothing in order to allow Fields to "reduce to form. keep line " This devicealso figure the to and still quality of organic the a straight loss darkness for figure's light identity, Fields the to of substituting signal as she permitted becomesa stylistic icon, disappearinginto the undistinguishedsurfaceof self-imagesignified by her glamorous clothing. Fields also allowed the flat ground to cuts into her body, severingher head and leg. The frigid manner in which the paint is applied inflates the meaning of this distinct daubed is There the thin absence of a washes, expressionistic cautious cutting action. fervour, of the twisted, smearedand flayed flesh favoured by many British figurative painters. Fields, rather, choseto carefully build, his paintings, suggestingthat to be reducedto nothing is kind ironic latent it whilst establishing stability, the an clash of that a with represents an end, figure: in the treatment of violence the Fields believesthat when his figures are mutilated, perhapseven becauseof the incapacitates, their they representthe with amputations, appearingcomfortable dominance of mind over matter, the spirit transcendingthe flesh, obliging the viewer to 95 human for the condition. empathisewith the metaphor Indeed, by virtue of its conceitedly harmonious and elegantstructure, ...Dynamic Perversity dismaysin its denial of 'imaginative' life-force, alerting us to the consequencesof this denial for culture and our own senseof self.

TOPPIN, Art ELIZABETH is Where Is", Residence,No. 17, October 1988, p37. it "Home the off". cut 93 BEAUMONT, Duggie Fields Paintings 1982-87, p2. 94That this view was held by somecritics evenduring COUM's Prostitution exhibition seeTONY PARSONS,"But Mutilation is So Pass/e",NME, 30th October 1976. 95 BEAUMONT, Duggie Fields Paintings 1982-87, p2.

264

Declitic ot the Englidi Avant (1'.irdc

In 1978, Faure Walkcr obliclucly suggcsicd that Fields had surim,,scd ilic cxpermit"W, of Kital and I lockney. Fields' work, Walkcr bchcvcd, LiAcd wImt lic regm-dcd lo bc all tllL' "(111(". 11011 unticccssarily stifling conccrn with So"ll C011111111111CýltiOll, LICAllIg I'JthCl- W1111 ()1 how to correlatc stylc and function Nvhenboth arc in an indcterminatc context, oI how to makc being preo"upied

art w4hout MUM reception

and (ANterbcst, enviromnicnt

remained a priority.

with the appearance of nmhng

,7

96 In on"pirison

Fields was less interested in comprehensively through

rcAutionary

Like GlitterbCst,

gestures, although

with

shaping his work's

maintaining

an expanded

field

Fields had planned to Conquer the fashion industry,

breastless drcsses III m-der to CXI)I()I-c(lie pww'sibliltv hand panitcd shoes and cut up, producing following dissolution I)Ct\%'CCII I Ils the to work of lict loll Jild art Jlltl-art. continuing (list] of ,, hostility had the to to artworld's style, a project challenge which much ill coinnimi was answcr by fashion Glittcrbcst the initiated sartorial pranks revivalist ill with Piratcs Collection. 198 1-2 Icad the to the scminal tip

jolinny Rottcn would wcar a vcIvet collared drapc Jacket (tcd) festooned with safcty pins (jackic Curtis through dic Nov York scciic punk), massive piti-stripc pcgs (modmilst) a pin-collar Wcmhlcx (mod) CLIStOllllSC'iinto and Anarchy shirt (punk) and 97 brothel creepas (tctl). Like a pirate you Plunder CVCl-ythlllgyOUWallt fl-0111 Vour World like your treasure and you take everythilig there Culture... it's 98 human IFigurc 14.12 Nialcohn Nblaren that is great, warni, ... Collection, 198 Pirate ( 1 )1: VivienneWcstwood, and Fields adopted siniflar tactics of attrition, estranging historical art forms In order to subvert and deny the value sýlstenisthat accol"I'J"Ied the". Stylistic cliches, things that are already modified, arc the vehicles for Duggic Fields' have been bred his dictates The to the selectively pictures according in people paintings. Glamour Standard until their accessories - cocktail gloves and lock straps, chic chains of legs the to their the existence in way arnis and and tops and evening wear - are essential landscapes Presentation, incarnate: heads They they POSC in Mid arc extreme of are not. MOLICI-11 Art, beacons Greats themselves everyday clicliýs of the Of of with winking Stylc. 99

96 FAURE WALKER, "The Claims of Social Art and Otlicr Perplexities", p2o. 97 SAVAGF, -The New Hippies", Tbe Book Witb No Name, Oinnibus, London, 198 1, p4o. 98VIVIENNE

WESTWOOD quoted in JOHN A. WALKER, O'"ss-Ouers: Art into Pq), Ptp mh) Art, Conicclia, London, 1987, p88.

99JUDY MARLE, "Understanding Naturc", Seeing is Believing: Paintingsand Drauvigs b). Duggic Fields, IKON Gallcry, Birmingham, March I st - April 3rd 1980,1)3.

265

Dccline ot dic Englidi

Although

flavourcd

with motifs from artists he admired

Miro, -

Dali, Bacon, Pollock aniong others Field's for thcm seldom influenced the style of his work reverence Mondrian,

his appropriational

proccdurc

was adopted to produce a

vistial play as opposed to an 'art argument'.

ccicbratory construction

of a successful art argument

his work art status, achicving represented knowledge.

since

WoUld haVC CIISLII-Cci

its rclcvance through

While rcturning

The

its

to an art of objects,

Fields' was attempting to produce works which would make heightening the prospcct that \vc status redundant, of questions for than tcxts ilic artworks ratlicr writtcil may choosc visual important information on culture's unfolding ways.

100 This

Fields' that considu one of niost clarified if we partially idea is dccoration his flat 29 Wctlicrby Mansions, F,arls Court the of at works was represciitativc ()1 [Figure 14.131.1 SW5 London Square,

First he designed a sofa in the shape of a pair of lips n legs, in homage to Man Ray's lips he designed I I Next Mae West Dall's the sofa... a chair with arnis in painting and ... Made blockboard to match. magazine rack of chcap and a in simpIc shape of a palette, RlctvcId Fields' the version of chair. The palette thereafter pcrsoiialiscd shapes, it is became his trademark. 102 A shrouded shackled figure hirks ill the corner behind tile modern television and video sct-up In the bedroom, and on the only visible bookshelves Barbara Cartland sits check by Jowl with Brian Aldiss, Walt Disincy with Picasso. 103 Fields spent twenty years rccontextualising recognisable,

an aggressive, hard-edged quality.

of the ubiquitous

niod-Bauhaus

60s, with its penchant for pctrolcuiri-bascd Windows

markets of art in the sanic instantIv

brash Pop style; using flat areas of vivid colour on which

black produced matt aspirations

all rccogniscd

Fields lovingly

home and institutional plastics, vinyl leatlict-mc,

fornis wcrc outlined

in

refined the abstract

design of the I 9.50s and and acrylic fibres.

black and plastic strips, some walls \verc painted to simulate were covered with red

wood, othcrs with small versions of his landscapc paintings and relieved \ý ith found ot-)Iccts such as the torso of a mannequin, a wickerwork plantholdcr in the shapc of a pair of plaster 1001

take all Illy figUres from magazincs at some stage. I sit clown with a magazine and trace thern. [ ... I I go through the sarne old magazines and usc thcrii like a refcrciicc library for the sanic Image can prompt very different directions. I have lots of fashion and pin-up magazines.- FIELDS in FERRY ZAYADl, "Interview with Duggic Fields", Viz: Visual Arts, Fasbion, Pbotograpby, No. 4, April 19-179,p13. I ý)I Fields' pre-emptcd the 80s interior design boom, sustaining the market for his paintings by making them a part of the brassy 80s fUrniture. "Ile lives with his paintings for at least six months, and 11'sMost eager of buyers must wait, if necessary, to possessonc. " ELIZABETH TOPPIN, -Fiomc is Where tile Art Is", Residence, No. 17, October 1988, p37. 102 BEAUNIONT,

Duggie Fields Paintings 1982-87,1-)2.

103 TOPPIN, "l-lonic is Where the Art Is", p38.

266

Declineof theEnglishAvant-Garde

legs,andplasterhands.The coffeetable,firescreen,telephoneand powersocketswerepainted in tachisme,while blackand white paint wassplatteredon the floor, JacksonPollock-style. Giventhat the exuberant,periodcoloursand fantasticdesignsof suchworks emphasised designoverstructuralefficiency,everythingthat Fields'touchedwasreducedto the common denominator of surface,givingthe impressionthat stylewasinfinitely more aesthetic importantthan taste:"impartiality andexploitationof the artificiality of paintinggoesalong force, interest in Field's style stated asan autonomous quite capableof survivingin the with 104 from its " Fields twentiethcenturymedia-landscape whilst severed original roots. be disengagement by to to this attached any message, semantic ceased underscored vocabulary had historical his In Fields in Poppredecessors, this citation. common much with manneristic factors his link him directly Warhol, Andy there to time. yet remain which especially It is advantageousto relate Fields' preoccupation with style to the media expansion of

flow boom later 1970s, the of imageson an unprecedented the which permitted scale. a AlthoughCOUM hadsoughtto manipulateand subvertthe massgaestheticisation of culture, by striking at the market,Fieldspreference wasincreasinglyfor multi-mediamodesof for those the compete against of capital in the simply mass media significationwhich would dctournment Situationist Fields' McLaren, Like took the concept of not asa marketplace. but him to pick awayat tool to terminate culture, asa which would allow weaponwith which the threadsof cultural historyin orderto producea slicklyco-ordinatedconsumerpackage. In all of this, Field'sfollowedMcLaren'sprogrammeof 'detourningdetournment,redisrupting than cultural stereotypes, rather and exposingthemas celebrating and establishing hardly Situationist is "It the the surprising, strength given of of alienation: a product International'snarcissism,that this currentcould be developedin the 1970sand 1980sinto an 105 " of extremism. aesthetic apolitical In the pop world, this concept was having similar effect as McLarenite New Romantics maligned the nihilism and amateurismof Punk, re-establishingthe perfectionism of image increasingly 'product'. From 'power-pop', greater emphasis on and placing while pure this emergeda superficiality that would often border on neurosis. Following Fields' line of 106, formed The Moors Murderers Strange, Steve the ex-frontman of punk outfit reasoning

104MICHAEL BILLAM, "Duggie Fieldsat the Roundhouse", Artscribe, No. 24, August 1980, p60-61. 105ALISTAIR BONNETT, "The Situationist Legacy:It's All So Unfair! ", Variant 9, Glasgow, Autumn, 1991. Bonnet goeson to observethat this "tendency has beensupported by a secondfeature of situationism, its equation of the spectaclewith all-encompassingalienation. The trouble with this idea is that it doesn't leavemuch room for purposeful strugglebut only the directionlessmutation present realities, or what Vaneigemcalled 'active nihilism'. The logical conclusion of this theory is exactly the kind of tedious celebration of meaninglessness seenin the work of Baudrillard and many post-modern artists." 106The Moors Murderers were formed by Strangeand Chrissie 'Hindley' Hynde, later of The Pretenders, in January 1978. Wearing bagsover their headsto protect their anonymity, they recorded a single entitled FreeMyra, [Popcorn 1978] the lyrics of which claimed that Hindley was framed by Brady, and

267

Declineof theEnglishAvant-Gardc

'collective studio project' Visagein 1979 with Blitz DJ Rusty Egan, Midge Ure and Billy Currie of Ultravox, and John McGeoch, Dave Formula and Barry Adamson from Magazine. Announcing it "leisure time for the pleasureboys", they quickly found themselvesinvited to all the right cosmopolitan parties with rich high profile social termites so despisedby punk, and henceforth becamethe music press'whipping boy. Robotic beats, banks of varied synthesiscrs, flattened vocals, and the messageof terminally repeatedchorusesconcealedthe void between dead-enddaily jobs and night time fantasiesof the 'New Darlings of Decadence',who, deriding the conventionality of fashionableoutrage, heralded the new order of posing: "New fashion / New New they're to tapes / Oh my visage/ Visuals, roll modes, my shapes styles, future, / in / Past, Oh The " 1982 retrospective extreme styles my visage. reflex magazines, leather New infamous bondage York's dive, W (Polydor), The Anvil named after was album launched at Strange'svery own Paris fashion show. The album cover saw Strangein a Luchino Visconti movie still photographed by the master of soft porn and presentation incarnate, Helmut Newton. Inevitably, Savillewas responsiblefor the ceremonial graphics. Yet Fields' desireto substantiateand enrich his own image by depicting his own body had New his Romantic When Fields' this trait. quintessentially the preceded style source as highly stylised imagewas not cropping up in his pictures, the belligerent lines of his punkish his draughting being in hairstyle the mirrored equally contrived signature of were clothes and by blank in PR Warhol's the the effect, replaced winning smile of gaze was, man. manner. Fields "pushed the boat out for the new sensibility, self-conscious,equivocal, eclectic, Post107 While seemingto jettison the well-worn Pop Art preoccupation with the massModern. " fact in himself Fields luminary, stardom, the and was presenting as of glamour account media's as his own product endorsement. What remains remarkable, however, is that this preoccupation of Fields' went had It had his first Fields during then that seventies. was taste the early and sixties unnoticed his for "[Syd] his flat Syd Barrett: fame, swapped a pink Pontiac Parisian mini with sharing of in it Riding town was excruciating - everyoneused to come around push-button convertible. 108 Fields Although inside " went on to paint portraits of glam-rocker at us. up and stare Marc Bolan and punk luminary SueCatwoman, his status remains as the post-punk artist, a Acquired Mannerisms (1973) was reproduced his in 1980 acrylic painting tag clarified when band by The Californian Motels (Capitol/EMI Records Careful, new wave the of sleeve on Ltd. ), while his kiss curl androgyny, bondagefetishism and souvenir collecting mentality were

109 by The mediahavingacquiredhis tastes,Fields, Soft Almond. beingechoed Cell'sMarc be therefore released. The group were the subject of much tabloid uproar, following publicity should from Sounds. The singlewas neverreleased. 107 YORK, "Them", Style Wars, p127-128. 108 FIELDS quoted in ANON, "The Man in the Drip-Dry Suit", The Face,26,1982, p65. 109 SAVAGE, "Soft Cell: The Whip Hand", Time Travel: From the SexPistols to Nirvana, Pop Media

268

Dcchnc of the Fnglkh Avant Garkic

likc Glittcrbcst, was cclebrated in the Cý11-1ý, ciglitics IS Mi CX(Illiplar ot the I'll"sc/ faffe, postmodern artist capable Of IllallIpIllatIlltý thL' IIICIJIJ for his own crids. Although his work was featured in a IILlmhcr of scriOLISart magazincs I Figure 14.14 DuVgic FicIds on tllc cover of Artscribel, it was more common to find him in Vogue, Interview, I larpers anil Qiwen, I ligb Tbe Face, Maric Claire,

Fasbion,

Cosmopolitan, and Playboy, tile higher rcading figures of such PLIWICýMOIIS allcgedly bringing increased publicity and salcs. In 1983 in the Sbiseido Perfume Corporation of Tokyo was so impressed by Field's POPLIlarity and cmi-cprcrictinal spirit that for him. 40 it created a gallery especially bct", I 30th 9th the ccn and wcrc shown picturcs of january,

at Suzuc Guim, Dai San 3 Soko, Takesluba,

work wcre simultancously campaign

featurccl III a telff'sion,

for Shiscido pcrfLI111Cthroughout

bcginning the signallcd

of a chensliccl post-niodern

disposition low, commerce art and and -a professionaliscd

japan.

gcricration

Toyko.

Mcanwhile,

magazine, billboard

and subway advertising

For both left and nglit-, ývmg popillists, 1111s dissolution of dic bounclarics betwecti high

which became fully triumphant

of Young Britisb Artists

the artist and his

NvIth the

(yBas) III tile late 80s and carly 90s.

Others werc not so welcoming.

Considering FICILIS'movc in the wake of conceptualist and post-structuralist critICILICS funk fun the and the Of which formed Fields' diSgLI1SC colourfUl COStLIHIC author, of WaS grUdgingly dCIIOLInccdby a number of artists and critics as a corrupt device for exploitative for 'justification' the artist's re-participation in the to initiate an ingeniously covert artists heavily authorial ganic of modern western art. Fields was aCCLISCLI of infusing the markct-place by transforming painting into a vacillating performance of vactious motifs, indulging In aimless history-hopping rather than exercising a serious and long-cstablished critique of representation. The nihilistic vision portrayed in Po-Mo .vas a dying myth from its inception. is a carnival celebration of tile the arld inauthenticity iroily of much recent painting ... done Whether trickster. as artist in tile nallIC Of 'POPLIlarCUlture' as In the work of DUggie Fields et al, or in the name of 'high culture' in tile historical eclecticism of recent Gcrinan and Italian painting, the effect is the same: the rc-presciitation of history as farce. " 110 and Sexuality, 1977-96, Chatto & Windus, 1996, p 131-138. I() JOHN ROBERTS, "Post-Modernism: 1982, p28.

Arrivals and Dcpartures", Art AlontbIj., NLInibcr 55, April

269

FIIgI isIt Ava IIt ( 1.1 I )cý IIIIL,iAt 11L. rdc

In refusing Kitaj and Hockney's 'Icgitinlised, art exit, FICId'swas also accused of alding the populist phillstinism of the Conservative Selsdon Group's consumption aesthetics. York regarded Fields as ail important guide "to the new IThatcheritel Leisure Class that came up after"

III

him, a new moneyed clas'.. s which rejected the academic values of the III] ddic-ch Sws,

1 12 I Ia "pedantic 'good " taste' ... v"Ith ... rationality of replacing the pluralism of pleasurc. Although thi's appears to undcrnmic York's claim that Fields' particular brand of 1)ostModernism denied 'CUltural hcgcnlollý", It does SOIII a lllglllý' OHRJUCLIS111011.1ý, 1)0-1\10 CJCCtIC became the dominant

style at the turn of the I 980s, before it became the style of the new

YUPPIFN the class, ruling

However,

Thatcher's

emphasis on self-fultilnicnt,

freedom of choice had an obvious appeal to participants many of whom were impresarios

SLICIIaS Fields.

in the sixties cultural

authenticity,

and

revolution,

I Icticc, in Po-MO

liberalism, the consunicr is king, driven by the desire to 111aximisc pleasure. Fields was a part of the raw, uncouth, socially,

'901FF r-J'GLuE..

psychologically and sexually insccure new elite who were either unable or unwilling to attain the 'academic Values' aSSOCIatCd with citimiship,

PIý1QLS

had secured some mcnilms of the values which

EnTiR

the War. excluded a safe path to SuccessSITICC The fact that such chariges easily swept through all

x

decade the the at end of was not aspects of visual culture felt-tip The Ficlds' to graffito and advantage. necessarily

ý

PLUS

fanzincs Xcroxcd punk of such as Sniffin' typcwritten amateurism Glue I Figure 14.15 Mark P, Sniffin' Glue, No. 6, January III.,

'Soutb London Stinks,

Ripped and Torn, London's Outrage, Vomit, and Rotten to the Core could he detected in the for Design). Tcrry, jones' iD (an 'Instant I lowever, this magazine \%, acronym early issues of its leader, as the editorial emphasis switched entirely to transformed into a market quickly fashion, its punky ci-ccicimals distancing it from advocates of the 'graphix' style found in antiVogue fas'hion journals With Garrett

late 1 970s such as VIZ: the of

occasionally

Visual Arts, Fasbion, Pbotograpbv.

helping OLIt With c1csign, iD SLIccecdcd in switching

Fashion Press' cniphasis away from prosaic interviews

Nvith 'I'licin'

dcsigTicrs such Zandra

Rhodesand the Logan Brothers, and their artist friends Fields and Dick

III

the British

114 Instead

wa,ý

YORK, "Them", p127-128.

112 CHAMBERS, "Urban SOLIndscapes1976-: Thc Paradoxes of Crisis", Urban Rbytbms, p 199. 1130,,,

first farizincs, the tweINT I.SSLICS punk of Of %VIIICII were written, designcd and photocopied and by former bank together clerk IMark 1)bctN\,ccii July 1976 and 1978, before handing it over to stapled Danny Baker. Rcprintcd as IMICHAFI. DEMPSEY, Tbe Bible, Big 0 Publishing, London, 1978. I 14SeeZANDRA RHODES talks to lier good friend DUGGIE FIELDS, Viz: Visual Arts, Fasbion, Pbotograpby, No. 6,1979, p20-22.

270

Dcclinc ot the English Avant GIRIL'

lucid reportage of the outrageous faSI1101is being woril by unknown, working class revellers oil 'tile streets' and at Verities SLICIILISBlitz it, London's Covent Garden, whcro: inglitclubbcr, " had becil turning up as living works of art, dancing and trying to be scen. I Icre was a sharp, timely contrast to tile grubbiness of punk. Theatrical get lips; swashbuckling pirate clothing, Kabuki' masks, make-up, and transvestites werc all welcomed. Chelsea setter's slich as 1"IcIds, Jewell and Andrew Logan were all reguLIPS,but fOlII)d thCIlISCIVCS I-CgUlarIVUpSLlgCdby Sad . Pierrot clowns, majorettes, toy soldiers, puritans and Carmen N/Iii-andas hading Irmn the suburbs. VIZ went into receivership, while the Steve Strangc inspired Tightics Set' took oIf. Following

Roino clubs such as St. Moritz, Crowd'

116

two entire editions of Tbe Face (F.nglish for Vis,,,ý(, ) Llcý,, tc(l to t Hell, Le Kilt and Le 13cctr(ml were spawncd.

suddenly became an international

movement,

lavish Continental Time, lit and spread,, article ]it

host ()I .1

"I'lic Now

"I'lic Cult with No Nanie',

vvith an

magazines from Stem to Vogue.

Figurc 14.16 (left) Icrry joncs, Pagc from il) March 1981, showing street styles ranging from Traffic Wardcn to Punk.

Figure 14.17 (right) Steve Strange and Rusty Egan sporting the Uritarian

Toy

Soldier Stylc at Heroes, Covent Gardcn, 1978.

Such Po-Mo plays with the odd, the surprisingly kitsch and the historicallv rcdundant, knowledge historical by invited to the the acadernic estate. The claims of made erasure openly diffemicc define limits (since 'real' there is aesthetic Is no to everything rcfusal

to speak of),

be Thatclicrite be to an increasingly conformist complicit with societv. In this COUld seen

denled limiting discussion difference, liberalism To-Mo' to an empty rcany of such sense, introduction of the referent, an allistorical rc-invcstmeilt in already codified and established

"Contrary to niany people's assumptions, they weren't spoilt brats who aCtUalk' had enough 1110110 behind them to own the clubs. They simply took tile risk of hiring the places regularly one evening a week and taking enough money out of the receipts to keep themselves in porridge and cyc-lincr. Steve would stand outside vctting the punters to sift out the trouble makers and anyone likely to destroy the formerly RUStV F. atmosphere. the Rich Kids' and later Thc Skids' druninicr, was the D,J. gan, sympathetic His choice of music mixed Bowie and Roxy with more electronic 'futurist' dance tracks from Kraftwerk days lie In just couldn't get enough of it. " STEVE TAYLOR, -STRANGE the their clan. early and , TALES of Steve Strange (tic Harrington, soul boy, punk rocker, exhibitionist, leadcr of fashion and ... leader of Visage. )", Sniasb Hits, 22nd janUarv 198 1. H6 Tbe Face, Nos. 7-8.

2'171

Declineof theEnglishAvant-Garde

117 Punk's corrupt zone of intersection, mediation and cross-pollution, was further 'styles'. diluted to scepticism,irony and the replaying pre-establishedformulas. As such, Fields' denial be have 'authenticity' to of might seen wholesale provided a powerful practical guide for the aestheticmasking of the effectsof Thatcherite economicsby a plethora of ostentatious Po-Mo embellishments:

There is no understandingin this attitude that culture is something which can be lived, that different cultures can be incompatible and antagonistic. What the attitude also it is imperialism: is implicit the affluent Westernerwho can afford to reveals an foreign 'primitive' Third lands. World the cultures and of usually exotic exploit Members of Culture Club gaveidealistic reasonsfor their borrowings: they saw themselvesas harmonising'the family of man'. Suchharmonisation can easily be 118 but level imagery in of not so easily, alas, reality. achievedat the With hindsight, however, it might appear that such criticisms would have beenunfairly waged at New Romantics such as Fields. I think most of us are very brutalised by the environment we happen to live in. Its label be but, fault certainly what you glamour, can a counteracting particularly, nobody's 119 be be force. Socan usedand needsto usedas such. To place blame on Fields paintings for the effects of Thatcher's monetarist policies certainly Indeed, Field's has if not sensationalist. status as an entrepreneurial artist seemsover zealous, beensomewhatmisconstrued. Fields' claimed that his involvement with Shiseido,was a 120 design. Ironically Fields, than was a much a casualty as a rather of necessity matter benefactorof Thatcherite arts policy aimed at 'democratising the culture industry' by turning it in Arts Council The motivated cuts the politically spendingwhich to sector. private over for funds look in had Fields that created an environment elsewhere artists which necessitated

117SeeDOUGLAS CRIMP, "Appropriating Appropriation", Image Scavengers:Pbotograpby, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania,1983. 118 WALKER, Cross-Overs,p88. 119 FIELDS in FERRY ZAYADI, "Interview with Duggie Fields", Viz: Visual Arts, Fasbion, Pbotograpby, No. 4, April 1979, p13. 120 "1

bits little of media and then approachesto have exhibitions. Approaches...quite started off with like have here, this reception there, a TV documentary - that sort of you an exhibition extraordinary; different After of offers eventuallyone of them did happenand the one that worked had me thing. a year doing TV commercials. I had a lot of presscoverage,national television and news coverage...It was big business. [This was] Refreshingin someways but not in others, in someways it was complete hadn't by [ I [just] I got a clue what I was getting involved in. I got offered not me. exploitation. ... ... bills have that that problem of earning money. Living in England as pay would my and all of us money difficult for is anyone,and with the amount of support I have had from the English very artist an establishment,particularly difficult for me." FIELDS, interviewed by MIKE VON JOEL, "Duggie Fields: Dynamic Perversityand Other SuchStories", Art Line International - Art News, Vol. 3. No. 10,1988, P11.

272

Declineof the EnglishAvant-Gardc

121 his bills his desire in to paint, order to pay as an advertising agent. to increasingly suppress Fields' interests, it would seem, were powerless in the face of the Conservative's beloved tpublic endorsement'. The passion for 'diversity' manifested in Post-Punk 'art' was dramatically at odds with and accompanied increasingly harsh governmental and policies better Although disenfranchised. were certainly painters able to progress in their towards the lead, following important it is Fields' Walter 'professional to remember artists' careers as Benjamin's caveat that to give the 'masses' an opportunity for 'self-expression' without a 122 Contrary to the fascism. is a characteristic of corresponding economic and social equity Conservative's pre-election promises, it would seem that in the early 80s, culture was not business. but by big did by interests But, decided by the the of thernatics public, endorsed Thatcherism provide us with the 'culture' we deserved?

To suggestthat situationist theory has beenhijacked by the capitalist media is to credit it later did it former totalising the a power with not achieveand the with a critical rigor doesnot possess.[ I if we accept that the situationists not only createdthe total ... has been but this that critique recuperated,then we resign revolutionary critique 123 fate society allots us. ourselvesto whatever

121 "1 havenevermanaged be have I be to neverwanted who goneabroadand to a travellingsalesman but for if is have I America I I Had that [ sure, makingmoneywasmy money made to would gone one. ... 121 lot for I'm don't be 1 have life I in very money. to a of painter. wish a worked would never concern day day, do Fame is do I I to canmakeone after which paint. that can exactlywhat want thankful Suit", in DriP-Dry ANON, Man in "The " FIELDS the p65. quoted paranoid. 122 SeeSTEVEN WILLATS' Night People,a photo-text project on the New Romantics undertaken in the early 1980s. 123 HOME, "Aesthetics & Resistance:Totality Reconsidered",1989. "To stand back in disdain from is declare hostility its inadequacies that to of society,and your undying every manifestation, an the patent despair. " RICHARD CORK, "Richard Cork's Reply to Ralf Rumney", Art Montbly, of gospel eccentric Number 18, July/August 1978, p22.

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CHAPTER 15 Who arn I? Where arn I going? How much will it cost? Will I need any Luggage?

Does Objects and Sculpture conforin to my picture of sporadic interest and consequent neglect? Does it exhibit 'a whole new wave if sculpture' (ICA bulletin), or does it bring together another partisan tendency which call he forgotten by the next season? The young artist today is 40, because lie has not been looked at for two decades. Approaches have become more eclectic, there are moments of a certain anarchic hurnour, and many of the statements are personal and direct. The artists have little reason to see their work as consciously avant-garde any more, and tile self-confidence that this affords has allowed them to make work which can connect in A varlety of more interesting ways with other parts of the world. The thunderclouds of in over' havc to rolled away reveal a clem-er sky. self-conscious avant-garde in sculpture Michael Compton says success'is all art if] Its own right,., By Implication, success is That's the product. the art nothing new in itself. But only all commodity, now overwhelmingly passive market - unquestioningly accepting what tile corporate dealing system had to offer in a society determinedly resistant to ideas - could possibly be, 'success' in to creates which order successful, with no accept a manipulation . dismay. The image of successfulnesscomforts the anxiety; tile apparent signs of ' that Image. art with market seeks out an official Hit by the winter of discontent, many private galleries that had shown the new art of the 1 970s, such as Robert Self, began to close towards had gained a modicum

from the publicly of respect

new art such as numnialism

and conceptualism

the end of the decade. biased artworld

by exhibiting

at the Lisson Gallery in London.

Logsdail the refused to cash iii. market, onto came new iniage alternative

I Ic looked around

and selling When thc for ail

did which not appear to imply such a wholesale movement a set of practices,

late modernism. rejection of

Given that the emphasis had been on the Politics or representation

been little had for for 'sculpture' there or no place purpose, social and art late I 970s. There might be a case for establishing 'sculptors':

Nicholas, I ogsdall

Barry Flanagan, Gilbert

heritage for the 'St. Martin's a

& George, Richard

this gap in the market, Logsdail quickly

Bill Woodrow

School' of

Long and Bruce McLean.

Locating

lent his support to a group of mainly figurative

began had to produce work in the mid-70s: who Sculptors Anish Kapoor,

(as obiect) during the

and Tony Cragg (included

Richard Deacon, Anthony

Gormley,

in a group Lisson shows in 1977 and

MA RK FRANCIS, "Objects and SCUIPtLirc", Art Montbly, Number 48, JUlv/August 1981, p14. "How They Got it [A New Spirit in Painting] Together-, Art Alontbll,, CHRISTOSJOACHIMEDES, NUIllber 43, February 198 1, p4. TEWIS BIGGS, IWONA BLASZCZYK and SANDY NAIRNE, ICA and Arnolfini, London and Bristol, 1981, p5. MICHAEL

COMPTON,

"Introduction",

Objects & Sculpture,

New Art at the Tate, Tate Gallery 1983.

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' in 1979,16th July 9th August Lisson 1980). Like School, St. Martin's the the shows solo Lisson Group also rejectedthe welding techniquesof Anthony Caro, as well as the carving and Henry Moore. However, tradition of unlike the St. Martin's School . whose work modelling did not consist of sculpture as such, but of performances,temporary installations or had the sculptors new no reservationsabout producing objects. photography In the early 1980s important sectorsof the public artworld appearedto embraceand New Image, International find in the while others scrambled to around manage an attempt an looking 'British' tradition, at painters such as the School of London. At the same alternative different in Britain. Rather than look of curators was generation emerging time, a rather backwards, Lewis Biggs,Mark Francisand SandyNairne worked with their peers- Cragg, Woodrow and Deacon. Again, while most promotional areasof the artworld were beginning looked for to this painting, group a sculptural equivalent of the new a return to celebrate image. They did not have to look much furLr than Logsdail's gallery. Objects & Sculpture" between Gallery in Arnolfini Bristol 24th April May 1981 in London ICA and at -1 - was basedaround the Lisson Gallery stable of Edward Allington, Deacon, Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Margaret Organ, PeterRandall-Page,Jean-LucVilmouth and Woodrow, but did not include fact had been broken by Despite Cragg's the that the the group already work. any examplesof Lisson Gallery, this exhibition marked the beginning of a boom in British sculpture basedon the following principles: The work appearsto be decidedly'impure' in utilising either baseor rejectedmaterials frequent incorporation of actual real objects or imagesof real objects. It the and with has strongly human connotations either in its scale,in its tactile qualities, in its images it The in was made. the which work expressesa rejection of evident ways or through directly is form and exploration, of pure not connectedwith the as areas spaceand does involve It it is in not a concern with the planar seen. environment which little indicates interest in and and volume, a simply aesthetic mass of expression The figurative is line, work neither colour or material. nor abstract, nor rendering of It be is in is it termed associative, as abstracted. and some cases also simply could has different different Although every work meanings, and or metaphorical. symbolic both in they together to to those the seem refer meanings, objects ways of signifying world, and to sculpture given somestatus as a categoryof specialobjects separated from the world! 'RECESSION PICTURES(Alan Shipway and Ian Edmonds), "Dismay", Art Montbly, November 1983, No. 71, p30. ' SeeBEN JONES, "A New Wave in Sculpture,A Surveyof RecentWork by Ten Younger Sculptors. New Prospectors:ShelagahWakely and Tony Cragg, Lisson Gallery ", Artscribe, No. 8, September1977, p16. 'BIGGS, BLASZCZYK and NAIRNE, Objects & Sculpture, 1981. 1ibid. p5. This standsin stark contrast to Andre's view of sculpture: "Works of art fundamentally in the deep feeling. landmines That's linguistic The is than rather signs. my own of aspect of art class tremendouslyoverstressed,especiallyin the conceptualthing. It's part of the vulgarisation of our does it ' ANDRE 'What CARL " in PETER FULLER, "An Interview with that. mean? and all culture, Carl Andre", Art Montbly, Nos.. 16 &17, May/June 1978, reprinted in Beyond the Crisis in Art, Writers & ReadersPublishing Co-operative,London, 1980, p128

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This was not a straightforward rejection of the avant-garde. In fact, much of the new sculpture late from 1970s: the of concerns emerged [Bill Woodrow] is reported as sayingthat many of his colleaguessaw Art for Wbom? doing better... it in 1978 Serpentine they thought there that was a way and of at the Interesting isn't it that of all those exhibitions of the 1970s [ ...]a leading young however by issues ] [ to the that particular negatively raised should relate sculptor ... ' We may as artists be the scar tissueof Western Civilisation but for Wbom? Art show it's better than being the camouflage." Suchprinciples are clearly discerniblein Cragg's sculptural experimentsof the 1970swhen he St. influence Here RCA. the the of produced a seriesof ephemeralworks under studied at the Martin's School,taking a strong interest in nature and the landscape,drawing on the examples in Ackling RCA), (who Roger Fulton Hamish Long, taught the Richard addition to at and of Susan Hiller's McLean, Bruce George Gilbert and anthropological and and the work of research-basedactivity. For Cragg, the serniologyof vernacular objects of 'culture' (as opposedto 'nature') that had preoccupiednumerous British photographerssincethe translation of Barthes' Mythologies in 1973, becamehis sculptural preoccupationtowards the end of the decadeas he sought to "" fine "within a as whole. culture the arts relocate Popular culture, the massmedia, new technology have marginalized art's mediation of Carl Modernism If Late this as complicit with wanted, was culture as a whole. Andre said of his work, to createobjects that had no equivalent in the world - post12 icons back into itself has and rituals. sorting out signsand thrown modernism For example,the pseudo-scientificnomenclatureof Four Plates (RCA 1976) seeminglyrefers the viewer unproblematically to the medium and subject matter until we are confronted with the sculpture in question: Using four identical plates, Cragg broke three, spreadingfarther apart the fragments of fragments identity While these the of arranged as challenging eachsuccessiveplate. is (the because the plate) model unbroken plates, they are still perceivedas plates

'CONRAD ATKINSON, "Introduction", The Stateof the Art and the Art of the State:Power Lecture Given to the Power Institute, University of Sydney,Australia, October 1983, Working Press,London, 1991, p24. Ibid. p29. JOHN ROBERTS, "Post-Modernism: Arrivals and Departures", Art Montbly, Number 55, April 1982, p27. 12

Ibid. p27.

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because fragments in the circular outline is retained despite and each group of supplied " diameter. the expanding Cragg thereby draws our attention both to the instability of our serniotic categorisationsand to ýon-categorisation. A impossibility the of note of irony is added when we consider that the for deconstructive True 'mis-shaping' bent of the mid-tois the to the plate. artist responsible late 1970s, Cragg envisageshis role as an artist in terms of smashinggiven forms and differs his in logos Cragg intimation Yet be that the can never eradicated,but in conventions. fact sustainsthe project of the late avant-garde. Although Cragg's work may have retained the self-referentiality of the modernist art which precededit, it adds a subversivetwist of selfdecrepitating ambivalence,striking a difficult balancebetweenan awarenessof modernism's 'play' the common to all artworks. element of and purpose serious In addition to creating a developmentalbreak with modernist sculpture, Cragg's dialogue brand Jencksian the with a subtle of postmodernism established also experiments found amongstexponentsof the New Wave:

What is at stakein this newsculpture,andwhat takesit far in advanceof the "neutrality" of their generation'sconcerns,is the possibilityof makingsomekind of like be by it is to sense some of what surrounded retrieves only sculpturewhich not but It is to the putting-of-effectsto their their effects work. signs puts objectsand I "critical" This distinguishes call a would postmodernism. what centres work which between The job distinction familiar taking. making and of the post-modernist on a likeness identify is things, to to capture a or make with a particular simply not artist "' displace but literally identifications. take things, to to their emotionalstate, By following John Roberts' concept of "putting effects to work", we can formulate a distinction betweenCragg's bricolage and JencksianPost-Modernism. Fields sought to stress basis for a in the adopting serniological era, a approach as a postmodern the triviality of art deconstructivetheory of the image. By imposing on the viewer a significancethat was merely he Fields insistence the of what could presence not on produce, expressly an appropriational thernatisedart's inadequacyin relation to articulating the complexity of postmodern existence. in somesensesCragg'swork radicalisedJencksianPo-Mo, the collapseof any available found However, in his leading the object. the manner to atavistic which of use symbolic code Cragg puts his fragmentsto work suggeststhat he aimed to transcendJencksianagnosticismby from modernism'sruins. speculative sculpture constructing a In 1978 Cragg spurned deconstructionin favour of reconstruction, his procedure

becomingpredominatelyoneof finding,sortingandorganisingfragmentsof the modernworld into an objectiveand structuredform.

" MARY JANE JACOB, "Tony Cragg: First Order Experiences",A Quiet Revolution: British Sculpture Since1965, Thamesand Hudson, London, 1987, p58.

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The epistemological construct of reference object and fragments arranged withill a related shape, begun in Four Plates, continued to operate in Cragg's work for the ncxt two years. It appeared most significantly in 1978 with New Stones - Newton's Tones, which for Cragg was a breakthrough, furthering this use of the object. I ... II Icre Cragg used broken bits of everyday utilitarian items, predominately those made of found Cragg banal With this to work a means plastic. endow objects with expressive power. New Stones - Newton's Tones (1979) Cragg laid out small Coloured plastic in a rectangle following the sequence of Issac Newton's spectrum: dark red, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, dark blue and violet. The suggestion here was that art experience was no different from the life, life being by discarded fragments the everyday everyday colour in signified of experience from There by Cragg the the romantic and rustic of to sculpture. create was also a shift used Richard Long and I lamish Fulton in place of the urban and domestic environment.

As far as

little difference between Cragg's Andre's there was now work and concerned, arc materials discourse. However, while Stack ( 1976 evoked a non-art also symbolically mininialism, which Wbite Stack 1980) Black (Wuppertal 1980) RCA and clearly mimicked nuninialisin and and at formally (floor based geometrical structure) as structures they were contaminated, constructed from the mangled cletritus of modern society, revealing the disorder masked by the slick surfaces of modernist aesthetics. If New Stones - Newton's Tones floor Andre's to undeniably referred critically

. Owl-

7 ýfW

break decisive with works, it marked a for disdain aesthetic nininnallsin's 1conophobic decision making and pictorial representation. '['his ffigurc by Skin Red (1979) much was confirmed 15.1-1which saw Cragg position a number of rcd floor tile in a more painterly oil plastic objects fashion, constructing the image of a Native North Anicrican. 'I lie iconography ot the work links have to with new image paintings of the saine period, particularly very clear seemed Malcolm Morley's paintings based oil cliched Western perceptions of Native Americans. Fol lowing works such as The Streets are Made of Cowboys and Indians ( 1980), Red Indian (1983) and African Culture Myth (1984) made these links all the more explicit, by placing tile fragments oil the wall. In this, Cragg's sculpture began to bear ail increasingly close juhan Schnabcl's Cragg to seemed cynical of tile paintings. archaeological plate resemblance his trend nonetheless, satirical New Figuration (1985) wall assemblage as neo-expressionist insinuated.

11imMRTS, " NIARYJANE

"Post-Modernism:

Arrivals and Departurcs", p27.

JACOB, "Tony Cragg: First Ordcr Expcrienccs", p5g.

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A simultaneous shift away from such vacuous

IIV I

emblematiccultural icons carnewith an cxhibition of held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery 27th February works 22nd March 1981 which engaged directly with current social issues: Postcard Unionjack Purchased by the Contemporary 1981), Policeman,

Art Gallery the North

I,.,!

(250 x 400 cin Art Society for Leeds City

Riot, and Britain

Seen from

(198 1) by a life sized figure I Figure 15.2 1. This

procedurc rcached its apcx with Cragg's 5 Bottles installation, exhibited at the Lisson Gallery in 1982 (Tony Cragg: SCUlpture 2-21nd December) and in Tokyo (Aspects of Britisb Art Today, Metropolitan Art Museum 27th February -I I th April) IFigurc 15.31. Here, a number of discrete elements, each a fragment of a brightly formed object, were into simple, decoratively appcaling and easily coloured mass-producccl Each silhouetted inotif on the wall took its outline from the found plastic shapes. rccognisable bottle on the floor in front of it, so that the image presented was a hUgely magnified shadow

by cast a three-dimensionalartefact. In Blue Bottle (1982) 237 x 90 cm, a found bILIC liquid bottle Cragg's as served prototype plastic washing be Significantly, the prototype could seen to object.

comply with the rigorous construction standardsof design; it was marlufacturcd according to the niodcrnist Taylorist system of production and clearly displayed its functionality.

By setting this object apart, Cragg inibued

by the it with an aura often associatedwith works dcrnonstratcd Style. While hitcrnational this the the efficiency and beauty of pioneersof modernist construction techniques,Cragg simultaneouslysuggestedthat the modernist ideal was flawed from its inception by constructing a large reproductiou of tile prototype object from the debris of similar artefacts. The broken dctrltus of Modernism here provided a 'real for the spiritual and physical wasteland created by the structural rationale of massmetaphor' displayed love-hatc Cragg's thus society. sculpture a production relationship with modernism. While it retained modernist notions both in its minimalist forin and in its refusal to conceal the structure of its realisation, it simultaneously undermined this 'libcrating' aesthetlc by locating it merely as the seedbed of the modern disease of consumer fetishism:

The distinction between a healthy, natural and a diseased inclustrial/cultural world lies in the mystification of both. In their insignificance, categories such as these intensity

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fallacious is against a which solely gearedtowards either progress powerlessness man's " autonomousmateriality or scientific specialisation. In this there appearedto be somesimilarities with Cragg'sAmerican contemporary Jeff Koons, directly between fetishisation New The 1981 the the of addressed parallel exhibition whose fetishisation in Modernism. in the culture and of novelty and consumer progress goods new Here Koons placed a set of 'found' New Hoover Convertibles, in Plexiglascasesreminiscentof both display cabinetsand the minimalist sculpture of Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. In this Koons was asking whether the pleasureswe receivefrom new art objects was markedly different from that which we receivefrom new products."' Cragg's silhouette wall sculpture Hoover (700 x 200 cm Museum of Art and Industry, Saint-ttienne 23rd January - 8th March 1981), presenteda similar set of meaningswhen read in relation to conceptualismand he in Conceptualist that similarities were also often perhapsmost clear minimalist sculpture. for / Yet Koons in Duchampian 'found tradition. the assemblage and objects' appropriated Cragg there were slightly different iconological concerns. For Koons, the vacuum cleanerwas function blows). is implying Its (it to clean, minimalism's sterility. and sucks androgynous Cragg wallowed in similarly flat irony, the imageof a vacuum cleaner being constructed from debris. In Britain, there was the memory of a vacuum cleanerbeing sent to the Tate at the height of the Tate Bricks scandal. Cragg soon added a further twist to 'parody minimalism', applying the minimalist he In S Bottles, to the of practice reproduction. createdmassive concept of systemicprocedure found from He his the same other objects of material. objects was, prototype reproductions of found his sourcewhile maintaining a postmodernist stranglehold therefore, able to reproduce in Cragg Nonetheless, his this reminded us of the modernist notion of a agencyas an artist. on its Both ideas. the object and prototype representationwere self-containedrealm of form, becoming literal from thereby the took on same the and material same constructed design 'truth At Modernist to the sametime, this of materials'. concept the examplesof forming be the representationson the wall, the objects to mocked, since concept appeared different from took the on source object, clearly a series of the as samematerial although made Cragg forms. Hence, appearedto resignthe viewer to the poststructuralist notion shapesand form between distinction ideal fix ideas, hierarchy in have that the and our which to no that we is untenable. surface arbitrary

" ANNELIE POHLEN, "Possibilities and New Ways: Tony Cragg's Sculpturesas Experience'Made Real'", Tony Cragg, Societedes Expositions du PalaisdesBeaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Heinrich Winterscheidt, Dusseldorf, 1985, p20.

17Thetheoriesof jean Baudrillardwerefrequentlycitedin relationto suchwork. Referringto 30-second between distinction American Baudrillard televisual the the of culture, announced collapse attentionspan Suchdistinctionsareallegedlylost aseverythingentersa fiction andreality,betweenart andcommerce. becomes of consumable signs, art simply anothercommodity. marketplace

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Additionally,however,5 Bottlesalsoplacedminimalismandconceptualism under scrutiny. Having negatedthe concept of artistic agencyor expression, ala minimalism, the viewer is left to judge Cragg'swork, ultimately by the purely external criterion. Having his demonstrate that the sculptures might notion a critique of modernist design arrived at ideology, we remain struck by the idea that the representationalobjects on the wall appearto " form front in 'true' Having no recourseto the artist's the them. platonic of want to take on involvement with the production of the work in order to explain this, we are lead to read the work anthropomorphically. The successand importance of Cragg and Woodrow's work rests on the incorporation improvisation, (recycling, into the values self-sufficiency) sculptural of process-based " [ I What is Cragg so of consumerism. persuasive about and world ambient ... Woodrow's sernioticsof the object and what carries it away from Pop and the host of is (appropriation) that this process that supports, and product show epigones (mythological emblem,symbol) are inseparable."

It is preciselyat this point that the cerebralismof minimalist and conceptualist art breaks down. The rule of systemsover the realm of ideasis fundamentally shaken. The selfit (since involves ideology appears conceptualism neither self-evident underwriting referential (since it is incomplete). The than nor self-contained pure) rather that pragmatic are principles but by imaginative celebrated, not mocked are of contraction allusion, conceptualisteconomics by way of an emphatic insistenceon metaphor and metamorphosis. Although using the detached Real, Cragg's the the art of sculpturescreated an opposite of systemicprocedures iconographic by In in'. 'see the possibility of meaning to reintroducing way of effect, asking us Cragg forging impossible, dissatisfaction to this the concept, seemed achieve with a postmodern from deep an endgame,postmodernist world of surfaces: structures a new set of [My] initial interest in making imagesand objects was, and still remains, the creation don't in the natural or the physical world, which can reflect and that exist objects of " feelings [our] information the world and ... about own existence. transmit and The useof massimagery taking the form of consumerdurablesand packaging common to the Lisson School in the late 1970s soon becamesomethingof an orthodoxy in its own right. ReversingCragg's procedure, Bill Woodrow took the skin of one styled product and turned it " SeeGERMANO CELANT, "Tony Cragg and Industrial Platonism", Artforum, New York, Volume 20, Part 3, November 1981, p40-47. ROBERTS, "The SculptureShow", Art Montbly, October 1983, No. 70, p14. Ibid., p15. TONY CRAGG, "Pre-conditions", Tony Cragg, Kestner-Gesellshaft,Hanover, 1985, p39.

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from handcrafted for image another, a into example a washing niachinc and a cowboy film: Car Door, Ironing Board, Twin Tub witb Nortb American Headdress and Tivin-Tub and Guitar, (1981) 1Figure 15.41. The wit of the transformation was often startling and thc underlying sardonic and social comment clcýir. However, it was a form of imagery equally active in the professional advertising world of the early 80s. When Tbe Sculpture Sbow

o-

by Technologies United and thc sponsored GLC - opened in August 1983, John Robci-t,,

was roused to claim: The Lisson boom is dead. Over the past two years since its 'launch' at the ICA and Arnolfini its contradictions have become more and more apparcm. The conservative historicism) (or pluralismi the so-callcd rather arrivistc works' is revealed in ruture of British American little I)ckor. blatancy --' than a equivalent of more as all its The show - selected by sculptors Paul dc Monchaux and Kate Blacker and the critic Fcnella Crichton aild held at the Hayward Gallcry and the Serpentine Gallery - was one of the biggest being for being devoted London, tile all more remarkable iii entirely to art shows ever staged Woodrow, Vilmouth Allington littleCragg, and then and of young of tile new sculpture known artists such as David Mach andjulian

Opic. This second generation of [Asson sculptors

not only prefigured the 'instant' successof artists such as Steven Campbell in the mid-80s, but the entrepreneurial by Danucti pionccrcd the exhibitions warehouse sprit of Hirst at the end of 80s. 'Making It', became niorc important than cver.

3 As Opie I Figure 15.5.Julian Opic, Making It (I 2.ýA, put it:

The new language i's more personal than a pile of

bricks. Where the Seventieswere devoted to making sculpture that couldn't be bought, work now is more accessibleand artists are unasharnedto make money. more

cxcitnig.

Because it is less reverential,

21

it's also

2' ROBERTS, "Thc Sculpture Show", p14. " JULIAN ON I'l in DAVID. 101-INSON, " Intro", Tbe Face, Octobcr 1983, p9.

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However, the show can also be seen as a product of the 1976 art crises in that it was intended to be yet another PR exercise for public -art quangos. With Mach as the public marker - Tbc Sculpture Show was designed to promote the notion "that British sculpture had entered a populist, democratic and accessible phase.""

Notwithstanding,

precisely by being so high

brought the show out the tabloid scandal mongers in new force: profile,

It is almost as if though part of the show has been designed to deliberately play into the hands of the person who automatically assurnes that what is called sculpture today consists largely of random assemblages of garbage or, at best, of pieces of industrial In litter: litter scattered is the after room room pervasive impression inetal-work. of litter high' litter lovingly floor; displayed the piled painted and on or litter left to fend for itself. 2'

Claiming that the latest generation of sculptors had got 'Rubbish Down to a Fine Art', the Star differences between Mail the the mininiallsin and its newer parody version Hi order ignored and to focus on the 'fact' that Mach had been paid 60,000 for Polaris, a 170 x 20ft Sculpture i1i from 6,000 car tyres. This, in actuality, was the cost of the shape of a submarine constructed had been donated. ) Oil Sunday 2 Ist August (minus the tyrcs that the complete exhibition, 1983, Polaris was seriously damaged after being set alight by a "frustrated Ifurniturel

designer

"The "2' tastcs. most classical with constructive piece of art criticism we have seen this year, " was the verdict for Daily Gale George the writing of Fxpress the following day. jarnes Gore-Graharn, from West Kensington, suffered 90% burns from died in Queen the explosion, and Mary's Hospital three days later. It Polaris. decided to repair not was [Figure 15.61.

The Lisson boorn at the turn of the 1980s produced a new mixture of public and benefaction. Curators, funding critics and arts administrators were of inutual private birth had (photoconceptualists the the movement of new with written their own reinvigorated dealers had first For to theory), the exchange at Inflated and time In objects prices. critical

2' ROBERTS, "The Sculpture Show", p 14. 2' JOHN RUSSELL TAYLOR, "Playing into tile Hands of Those Who Pour Scorn: The SCUlptUrcShow, Hayward/Serpentine", The Times, Tuesday August 16th 1983. 26

FULLER, "Black Cloud Over the Hayward",

Art Monthly, October 1983, No. 70, p12.

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from free being hypocrisy to their as were profit work without accusedof many years,artists Lisson photoconceptualistsand object sculptors had beenin the late 70s. This reinvigorated further leading itself investment to thereby to promote as a success, attracting wanted artworld further growth. Following punk, the 'de-regulated' artworld finally learned that it needed free to publicity, and new money. attract scandal As the eightiesprogressand it becomesincreasinglydifficult to tell a radical from a has be 'apolitical' This to the an stance considered. of presenting strategy conservative however, is intended like in 1976, Punk that consciously a political strategy of stance, has be inertia, 'Banality, As jean Baudrillard to said, apoliticism used as provocation. fascist;they are in the processof becomingrevolutionary' (In the Shadow of Silent Majorities). The notion of an equalisationof all signscalls for a strategy of 'radical designed issue the to of the relative rather than absolute nature of raise eclecticism' imagesagainstthe aestheticisingformalism of art and at the sametime usethe "' life has become familiar the a reality of real strategy. authority of art to undermine One corollary of this was the establishmentof The Turner Prize in 1984 by The Patrons of the New Art, a group of rich contemporary art enthusiastspledgedto promote the visual arts in Britain to a wider (paying) public, awarding ;Cl0,000 to the artist who had the finest exhibition in the previous year. Patronsincluded Nicholas Logsdail and Charles Saatchi. Nominees included Malcolm Morley, Richard Deacon, Gilbert & George,and Howard Hodgkin (all of Lisson). Deacon Collection, Deacon Saatchi in had through the the selling works whom then did directly international it to the nor relate market commodifiable, work's was not so readily for a new spirit in painting. Gilbert 8z;Georgehad beenaround for sometime, and were more had been for Hodgkin, who also around some time, closely associatedwith performanceart. don't Won The Hard Image: "I in his by think of myself as part of a appearance was tainted hang Its to the of moveable that painting, nature on a wall, paintings simply tradition at all. has hardly changedin the last four or five hundred years,there have beenno new developments,there have beenhardly any new colours, other than synthetic and therefore more functions line, have And the tone of and colour, and not stable versionsof the earlier ones. lend initial British Hodgkin "" to to the too credence conventional prize, or was changedat all. internationally. In 1984, being there art visual contemporary the cutting edgeof on art, as Britain: in New Image painters were no established To give painting intellectual legitimacy and a coherent, and therefore marketable identity, it was necessaryto promote a complete break with the past, an antimodernist kind himself freedom. Morley this of view of as a also promotes revolt, a new free broke West, spirit who out of the shacklesof a courageousyoung man who went Modernism, a pioneer of aestheticfree enterprise." ' GLYN BANKS, "Any Old Irony", Art Montbly, Dectjan 198314,No. 72, p32. ' HOWARD HODGKIN quoted in SANDY NAIRNE, Stateof the Art. Ideas & Imagesin the 1980s, Chatto & Windus, London, 1987, p116.

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Who am I? Where am I going? How much will it cost?Will I needany Luggage?

As all things to all men, Morley seemedthe ideal choice for recipient of the first Turner Prize. The jury, of course,was immediately accusedof tampering with the laws of geography,given that Morley had lived in New York for twenty years. The choice was seenby neoconscrvatives and progressivesalike as rewarding Morley's part in the promotion of the New Spirit in Painting, out of which many dealers,critics and curators were rehabilitating their careers. Unlike awards such as the Prix de Rome which maintained educational and didactic ambitions, the Turner Prize was a quick reward for servicesrenderedto the new rote. Morley was disgustedat the way the judgestold him of his success- by phone at 1:30am - and branded the notion of pitting artists againsteachother as a "blood sport". Morley's scepticismtowards the following in initial in the the years which confirmed nomineesall were awarded. prize was Hodgkin won in 1985 - by this time a necessarygesturegiven how vociferous the neohad been Gilbert & George in in 1984 1986, Richard Deacon in and conservativeagenda 1987. No Lisson / Saatchiartist was left out. Tony Craggwon in 1988 followed, ironically, by Richard Long in 1989. Anish Kapoor was finally given his honours in 1991 when Channel 4 steppedin as sponsorto savethe prize, offering an increasedbounty of L20,000. Channel 4's role in presentingcontemporary British art as spectacledirectly benefited yBassuch as RachaelWhiteread, Damien Hirst, Douglas Gordon and Gillian Wearing. Undoubtedly, the Turner Prize was, and remains,rife with corruption, opportunism and nepotism; The Patrons high Tate Art New the their their with promote collections at a relationship abusing of the damagingly, level. Turner Prize important More international the was an catalyst of profile, the current tendencyof curators, Arts Councils and private sponsorsalike to stifle any deviation from the cultural packagingand re-packagingof a benign culture of entertainment. Was there any alternative to the official, de-regulatedquango's account of British art? " Certainly at Goldsmiths College,Julian Opie was an important example; he was having big shows, and I think he was very important psychologically, becausestudents just suddenlythought, Well hang on, it is possibleto do something similar, it is " possibleto get seen.

"WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK, "The Church of the New Art", Flash Art, January 1985, p29. It could be claimed that New Image Glasgowpainter StevenCampbell filled this role. However, before his show at RiversideStudios in 1984, Campbell only exhibited once in Britain. He therefore did not meetthe Turner Prize criteria in its first year. -' This shift in power towards the cultural managementsectorwas aided by the kinds of work being produced around 1981: "The notion of taking in postmodernismtherefore has a direct relation with the environment. The artist becomesa kind of anthropologist, or in Hiller's words, a 'curator'. " JOHN ROBERTS,"Post? Modern? Ism?", Art Monthly, Number 60, October 1982, pl 7. " CARSTEN SHUBERT in ANDREW RENTON and LIAM GILLICK Thames Technique Anglaise, eds., London, Hudson, 199 1, pl 1. and

285

In 1988, a year before he completed his courseat Goldsmiths College, Damien Hirst organised Freeze,an exhibition of his own and fellow students' work in a Docklands warehouse. Freeze has sincebeenheralded by many of its apologists as constituting an entirely new dialogue with the public: Freezewas instantly cited as being of paradigmatic importance even though artists had beenusing such 'alternative' spacesregularly sinceat least the late 60s. Deanna Petherbridgehad suggestedin Art Monthly in April 1988 that art beyond the gallery becoming by 'fast appropriated curators acting as entrepreneursin the field'. That was this was a well-establishedpractice was made clear by then Goldsmiths lecturer Michael Craig-Martin, when in a March 1988 article (i.e. before Freeze)for Art Monthly he wrote of how Conceptual art 'made possibleand new type of gallery. Singlerooms in office buildings, small shop fronts, enormous spacesin old industrial buildings were openedas galleries.' Freezewas simply a recurrenceof the founding " des Refuses 1863. Salon of myth of modern art: the

Quangosystemof the 80s The notion that therewassomesort of breakwith the de-regulated is tenuousto saythe least. Despite,or because of the controversysurroundinghis work, Hirst's attemptto dealwith the 'public situation'hasin fact simplyseena re-enactment of late debates institutionalised 70s the associated with avant-garde. the and problems manyof Hirst is veryawareof the problemsand his attemptsto dealwith themarecontroversial.Like COUM, he is astutelyawareof like been but It's if England in that, always anybody goes the with problem media ... ... dead lambs it. Whereas I the they media think can enjoy go, no, the are art, street off beyond don't People don't that. the think who read media and go really and people don't idea [ II think a real about what's get going on. the since exhibitions and see ... Carl Andre exhibited in the Tate, that fucked it up really. The way the media dealt buys bricks'. happens Gallery I is 'Tate think a pile of these they what that went with Sun The it think that the newspaper on people who working read graduates university believe it it. It idiots, then the this people who they stuff, read goesright write so are is is But there thing. someone who actually controlling what goes through the whole into the newspaper,and there's a kind of arroganceabout the way that they do it. [ I ... They go to an art exhibition and they go, 'what is stupid about this that we can shock between is in The So ' the the the the people and gap art media. a way people with? " don't have integrity, don't have fuck it they that any responsibility. up, they media

Like Andre'sEquivalentVIII, Hirst's work hasbeenmetwith ridiculeand protest. His formaldehyde filled have in with solution cases provokedreactions carcasses preserved glass from animalrightsprotestersamongothers. It comesasno surprise,however,to discoverthat the activitiesof suchprotesterswereprovokedby the press.TheTimestelephonedseveral suchgroupsto gathertheir reactionsto Hirst's Turner Prizewinning Motber and Cbild Divided,presentingtheir viewsasspontaneous expressions of outrage,ratherthan as "SIMON FORD, "Myth Making", Art Montbly, No. 194, March 1996, p194. " DAMIEN HIRST in Britisb Art Sbow 4 Website1995. (No Longer running)

286

journalists' to answers probing. In this, theyattemptedto recreatethe 'success' of predictable Colin Simpson'sarticlein the SundayTimesin February1976which wasdesignedto provoke by Andre's 'Bricks' over scandal creatingthe impressionthat a scandalalreadyexisted. an art What TheTimesandmanyother nationalpapersfailedto recognisewasthat Hirst, like a London-based 'YoungBritishArtists' (yBas),fundamentally greatdealof Saatchi-sponsored long-standing Arts Council,giventhat he often displayshis work the the aims of repudiates with the specificintent of offendingthe public sensibility.TheTimes'complaintshavebeen for futile hypocritical, it in late 1970sthat the culture their the was suggestion and particularly industrymust'democratised'by beingturnedoverto the privatesector,which allowedSaatchi " dominate British they they to art patronageandpromote verywork rally against. Of courseit be fact, be this that must well newspapers awareof and aresimply couldeasily claimed just in Hirst to to to sell newspapers, as create scandals order et at createspectacles continuing does detract from fact it is Press Given the that the true, this that not right-wing sellartworks. be hypocrites. it As ignominious such might askedwhy anyonecontinuesto pay attention are to their catcalls?The hopethat the Press'completelack of integritymight havebegunto backfirewasamusinglydemonstrated, when TheTimespredicted(i.e. encouraged) an animal" failed Turner Prize 1995 to materialise. showwhich rightsprotestoutsidethe To complicate matters for the press,Hirst has, to someextent, remained one step had itself in 1994 Away History in tank another already repeated when piece ahead the game. from the Flock, was attacked by an artist while on display at the SerpentineGallery's Some Went Mad, SomeRan Away... (a group exhibition curated by Hirst). Like Andre's sculpture, however, he blue This ink. time, the that attacker professed was the work was attacked with by from its Moreover, 'improve' the the supplementing meaning. work response attempting to Indeed, Hirst's of universal revulsion. this was not recent artist's occasion the artworld on book I Want to Spendthe Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever,Now contains a 'pop-up' translation of the work in question, inviting the reader to blue. More Hirst illustration the the work recently, came under turns of tab which pull a he his Society The from Pharmaceutical British when named new the restaurant criticism "SeeCOLIN SIMPSON, "How the Tate Spentil Million in Two Years", Sunday Times, 15th February, 1976, p53. "Saatchi's astutecommercial acumenhas allowed him to gain greater hegemonyover the Royal Academy in London than GeorgeHIM, who had a poor relationship with Reynolds,the first Presidentof the club. Sensationwas cynically engineeredby two mutual benefactors,formally consecratingSaatchi'syBasjust before they becomeunfashionable,while aiding the cash-strappedRoyal Academywith an injection of 4modishcapital'. Expectationsthat the pejorative term 'sensationalism'will metamorphoseinto innocuous art historical nomenclatureshould not be underestimated,indeed it was probably part of the Ad Man's plan. Moreover, it could be claimed that it has been specifically designedby Saatchito resonatewith the crisesin 1976-78 (seeANON. "The Times Diary: Anatomy of a Small Sensation[The Tate Bricks Affair]", The Times, February 19th 1976). Sucha claim doesnot seemexaggeratedwhen we consider that Saatchiwas the man who capitalisedon the 1976-78 criseswith his 1979 'Labour Isn't Working' campaignfor the Conservatives. 'See DALYA ALBERGE, The Times, 30th October 1995, p3.

287

Law protects the name '11harmacy' for use by chartered chemists only.

Pbarmacy.

hope was that he would

be stied as this would gencrate clicap publicity.

wcro: one step ahead of Hirst, his rcstaurailt

Hirst,

rcalising

that it would

I lirst's

I IoIATN'Cr, the BPS

cost hun more money not to mc him (until

has become establishcd. )

Dcspite such minor setbacks, the sensationalism surrounding his work has entered , like the Tate Bricks before him, into popular culture. Dissected pickled cows remain the

British the public's conception of qua non sine

of contemporary

art, despite the tact that the),

ý decade Much, first be Tate Bricks. Crucial the ago. course, Could produced a Said Of were differciiccs

between Hirst and Andre do, nonctlicless,

exist.

During

the Tate Bricks ,candal,

Andre rcrnamcd invisible. " Andre, was simply an American whose face, totally eluded the Popular press and their to mention name, not but Andre, The not concentrated on on the Tate for scandal readers. Indeed, Andrc it was a scandal which never money. wasting public being the sparked controversy not the which even exhibition courted, his idea. In contrast, Hirst is a household name and face, "the I lockncy famous living British ""' it his 90s"", "the artist. not that most is the 111st work is Linious: of life have leaving Bricks Andre's taken their a on of own within urban their mythology, whereas before, Hirst, for contrast, in stark is an and artist curator renowned as who creator as obscure " for his he iS as 111LIch work. I Figure 15.7 Datilien Hirstl This fact has often been levelled as lie is I first seen as a media manipulator (by the niedia! ) who simply a criticism: as against domain few livcý the public every nionths then and into work off the scamial releasesa new ` brilliance. for tile next coup tie until the time comes

Which, to restatc, werc madc in 1966, pUrchased in 1972 and cxliil, )itcd 'controvcrsiallv'

in 1976

ý' "I'm glad I wasn't in England at the tinic because the temptation to make a fool of myself would have like that is absolutely 110use to ail artist. It doesn't even help been enormous. MaSS Media CXPOSLirc brick have in like don't 100,000 You pieces a warehouse, a rock and roll group's alburns. commercially. I don't think I've sold a work in England since then. " ANDRE in FULLER, "Ail Intervic%%, %N, Itll Carl Andre", Art Montbly, Nos.. 16 & 17, PIav/.junc 1978, reprinted in Beyond the Crisis in Art, Writers & Readers Publishing Co-olicrative, London, 1980, p 110. "ADRIAN

SEARLE, "Tile Thirst for Hirst", Tbe Independent, November I st 1995, p2-3.

`DAVI D LF.E, "Dainicri Hirst", Arts Review, Volume 47, J1.1 Ile 1995, p6-10. Inch rarely concentrate oil his work. See for "Hirst often appears in colour SUPI)ICincias,the articles in %%, Flesh", Sunday Hirst ill Telegrapb, 28th November 1995, FARSON, DANIEL "Darnicil tile example kind is In there the this of attention to the artist with which figures such as Julian sense, a rebirth of p27. Sclinabel and Steven Campbell were inct in tile early I 980s. The papers are now more aware of tile ways from A they call profit recent spate of articles in Tbe Observer's colour which Such CXPOSLirc. in for example, were produced with the understanding that the newspaper would Secure rights supplement, to publish 'limited edition' prints of works by each artist featured. In Conjunction with I labitat, tile leftist beconle Observer is the that tile David Shepherd.,,of the early 21 stseeking to yBas ensure allegedly CentUrv, While Securing their own share of the profits. 42LEE, "Damicn Hirst", p6-10.

288

Who fill I? Where ;fill I going? I lo%vmuch will it cost? Will I IlCCdafly Luggage?

The use of scandal as ail avant-garde provocational tactic no longer pollits a way out of this inanagcrial

cul-dc-sac.

Sensation all cXhIbItioll

British Artists hcId at the conscrvativc

of the Saatchi Collection

Royal Academy galleries in Mayfair

of Young

at the cnd of 1997,

deal Mai-CLIS I larvcy's Wra - an enormous the controvcrsy of a great over inclusion of ran into hand I had Figurc 15.81 I-larvcy's template. child's using a as a paintcd painting sonic work succcss, its vandalism rcpresciitliig a challenge to the inedia's ability to control public designcd Press to causc moral rcports perccption. dic on sensational aspccts of provocation conccritrated the exhibition, using the policc picture of child-killcr Myra Hyndley which they madc a houschold face. The but drcaril 'false', that arc not images advertiser's define us, was borne out when the image was Yet the uproar was rather attacked. physically Harvey's that engagement with sex given surprising late 20th British century art crime is nothing new in (Jeff Nutall, COUM, Vivieric Westwood's chic God Save Myra Hyndley T-shirts, The Myra HinclIcys, ctc. ). In this context, Harvcy's (and numerous otlicr's) use of sex crime 'niotifs' is entirely passý.

In September1997 "BARMY artist RossBirrell" claimed that "a lunip of coal lie found in a pub is a work of ART worth 0,333. Art critics and politicians have slammed tile " his " Blrrcll 'madness. to managed stretch national press coverage as COLIIICIIsponsored show Street Gallcry, Glasgow's 18 King his Diamond Rougb over a number of at exhibition, of before k5,000 for f liscox by stealing it, under the guise of the the with coal insuring weeks Society for the Termination of Art (START), and holding it to ransom. David Bowic was next I April 1998. BOWIC Tate, Nat tile st on conned an the published SUCCCSSfUlly with act in on hundred Illcll Modern Painters lic York New (\\, readers of owns a audience and sevcral affluent large percentage of) into purchasing William Boyd's account of this fictitious Abstract Expressionist. " More recently a group of final year Leeds fine art students, trained t)y Terry Atkinson, used a college grant to go on holiday to Spain. The press sprung to attentiori Going Places. The 'performance', entitled their spuriously students immediately, attacking following The 13ýq Breakfast 4's holiday Channel their revelation that courtesy of were sent on the whole performance had been a scam. They are now enjoying equally sycophantic coverage in the yBa friendly art press. Given the range of people involved in faking art in the late I 990s,

4' NICK GATES, "Artist is in from the Coal", TlyeStar, SaturclavAugust 3rd 1997, pI 0. " As a patron, Bowie is interested in a vast array of aspects of the visual arts, though, as a performer himself, has a penchant for 70s self-inutilation performance. In his Outside: I alburn of 1996 lie casts his persona as an 'art-dctective', on the trail of artists who commit elaborate murders as their performances.

289

Who am I? Where am I going? I lovv much vvill it cost? Will I liced any hlggagcý

bequeathed longer to the the rewards most creative culture ample jammers, it is no and bcing bortic latc I 970s. that to the a class war the claim is out in artworld as it was In possibic Fveryone's cquallcd achicmimit

in this rcalm is now to appropriatc the aimi and romance of

desirability the to of their rcactionary cultural productions. increasc radicality

Some ýirc more

backing . It I larvcý"s than ilic is painting, with others. ot master proficient self-promoters kibitzcrs Saatchi and Tbe Sun, which will rctain the advantage of an instant mythology that has aircady ensured its ciltry into thc official annuls of British Art I listory. " Far from being dictoric British is the the such contemporary of pluralistic, rlictoric of capital, critical of art Saatchi, capitalism. if anyone, realises,that its exploration and postmodernist, post-industrial Is 'Other' the there any the compatible with service marketplace. is inherently cultivation of by for for Young British Artists No their those ends? people exploited own subversive voice Mle

is Innocent.

Figure 15.9 Italf Rugoff 'Yo Lirs-.Slnccrely' in Frieze Issuc 42 featuring Prcss Cuttings from The Lecjs 13 GoinW

October 1998.

t . rl

kl,. Tig - immAll

10

for

BERET FEARFUL LIDOFF BLEW

. es.

L/A 0

us

Scc.lolin A. Walkcr's forthcoming book Art & Outrage: Provocation, Controversi, and the Visual Arts, Pluto Prcss, London, 1999.

290

I ýi I) I iogra phý

BIBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER I T. 15.14 or not T. 1534? Is that tile Question? . Selected Newspapers: DE.NVIR, BFRNARD, Times 1-Jucational Supplement, 18.1975 ANON. "Article", Basingst()ke Gazette, February 13th 1976. SIMPSON, COLIN. "Tate Drops a Costly Brick", Sunday Times, Fcklaf-ý' 15th 1976. I low the Tate Gallery Spent tI -----------Sunday Times, IdiuarN in two years", million I 5th 1976, p53. ANON. "Top Talks over Tate Bricks", Shropshire Star, FCI-Mary I 6th 19 7/6. ANON. "Gallery Stoncwalls Bricks Buy", Evening Standard, Febuary I 6th 1976. ANON. "Tate Gallery Silent oil price of Artistic Pile of Bricks", Daily Telegraph, Febuarv 16th 1976. ANON. -Cost of Tate's Brick Buy Still Secret", South Wales Argus, FCbUary I 6th 1976. ANON. "Bricks Buy Doesn't Cement Feeling,, ", I'vening Gazette, Febuary I 6th 1976. ANON. -Tlic "Fate's Brick Wall of Silence", FcbLiary 16th 1976. The News Portsmouth, ANON. "Bricks? They'rc a Good BUy Says the Tate", I'vening News, Febuarv I 6th 1976. ANON. "Tate Stays Silent on Brick Buy", Jersey Fvening Post, FCbLIarv I 6th 1976. Western Fvening ANON. "Tate Brickbats", Herald, Febtiary 16th 1976. ANON. "Talk About Arty Bricks", I'vening News, Febuarv 16th 1976. Western ANON. "Gallery Stonewalling", Evening News, Febuary 16th 1976. Fuening Standard, Fcbuary ANON. "Brickbat", 16th 1976. ANON. "Hot Lips and "Fate Bricks", The Guardian, Febuarv l6th 1976. ANON. *'t6000 Brick pile Starts Art Row", The Sim, Fchuary l6th 1976. "Sir Norman Drops 120 FVANS, IMICHAEL Bargain Bricks on the Tate", Daily Fxpress, Febuary 16th 1976.

ANON. "Minister Flears How the Tate BOLIght a Pile of Bricks", Financial Times, FchLlary I 7th 1976. LUCIE-SIX41TI-1,EDWARD. "Do %%, c Need Toys Like this at the Tate", Fvcning Standard, FcbUary I 7th 1976, p 13. LEVINE, BERNARD, "Art May Come and Art May GO bUt a Brick is a Brick Forever", Tbe Times, l8th YcbrUary 1976, p 16. STAFFORD, 117F. R. "Brick SCLIlpturcNot the Original, Artists Confirms-, Tbe Times,

1"CI)LIaryI 8th 1976, p5. ANON. "Anatomy of a Small Isciisation", TillICS, F(A)LIary 19th 19-(,.

Tbe

I IUTCI IISON, SIR KI: NNFAI 1, FRS, -Arwýtic , Bricks", (IcttL-r to tlic Editor), Tim Times, 20th Fcbruary 19-6, p 15.

R 1:11),SIR NORMAN. "From the Dircctor at , Tippics, the Tatc Galler %-:Bricks (Icacr)", Fcbuarv 20th 1976, p 15. BALL, [AN. " Brick I lating Philistines I lpwl Nc\%,York Acstlicic", Dail), 'I'Clegrapb, k-huary 21st 1976. ANON. -Tatc Bricks 24th Fcbruary 197(,, 1)1. OVFRY, PAUL. "I"his Is So, Isn't It)", Tbe Times, I.cliuarY 24th 197(,. PASSMORF, VICTOR. "Ixtier", March 3)j-d1976. . ANON. "Thursday", 1976. FAIRBAIRN,

The "Imies,

Private FY(,, March Sth

NICI IOLAS in

THOMSON, "Adults onlyart -,howangers and NIP", Daily Alail, Tuesday

I 9th October

1976,

pl.

Books and Articles: ALFXANDF R, DAVID. A Policy /()r tbeArts: , just Cut Taxes, Selsdon Group, London, 1978. ANDRF, Artnews,

CARL "Vicws from tile Studio", Vol. 175, No., 5, Mav 1976,164. Later", Artlorum, Vol. XIV, No. 9, ---------------May 1976, P9. Studio **Corrcspondcnce", -------------Intcrnational, Vol. 19 1, No. 98 1, \ hyj unc 1976, p.31 1. Fhe Bricks Abstract", Art Monthly, ----------------No. 1, Octobcr 1976, p25.

ARN01.1), NI ATI 11:W. CultureandAnar, , Thomas Nelson and Sons, London.

-bv,

AUTY, GILES. Tbe Art of Self- Deception: An Intelligible Guide, Libmarian Books, 1977. BAKER, KENNETI 1. Mininialism, Prcss, NcNv York, 1988.

Abbcvillc

BALDRY, H. Tbe Case fi)r the Arts, 1982. BELL, DANIFT. Tbe Coming of Post-Industrial Societl,, Basic Books, New York, 1973. Tbe Cultural Contradictions of -------------Capitalism, Basic Books, New York, 1976. BOURDON, DAVID. Carl Andre, jaap Rictman, New York, 1978.

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BURK, KATHLEEN and CAIRNCORSS, ALEC. 'Goodbye Great Britain': The 1976 IMF Crisis, Yale, London, 1992. BRIGHTON, ANDREW. "Art Currency", Current Affairs: British Painting and Sculpture in the 1980s,Museum of Modern Art Oxford and The British Council, 1987, p11-16. CAREY, JOHN. The Intellectuals and the Masses,Penguin,London, 1990. CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL CENTRE, The Arts - The way Forward, London, 1978. CORK, RICHARD. "Richard Cork's 1976 Art Review", Evening Standard, 30th December 1976. for Everyman", Evening Search The --------------Standard,March 25th 1976. International, Studio Editorial", --------------Vol. 191, No. 980, March/April 1976, p94-95. Evening in Brick", The Message a -------------Standard,December30th 1976, p1l. CROZIER, WILLIAM. "The Redcliffe-Maud Report", Artscribe, Education Issue,No. 4/5, September-October1976, p2l. ELSOM, JOHN. "Whose side are they on", Art Monthly, No. 42,1980-81, p3-6, FEAVER, WILLIAM. "A Brick is a Brick is a Brick... ", Vogue,April 1976. FER, BRIONY. "The modern in fragments", Modernity and Modernism: FrenchPainting in the Nineteenth Century, Yale University Press, 1993. FORD, SIMON. "Doing P-Orridge", Art Monthly, June 1996, No. 197, p9-12. FULLER, PETER. "An Interview with Carl Andre", Art Monthly, Number 16, May 1978, p5-1 1 and Number 17, June 1978, p5-11. Reprinted in Beyond the Crisis in Art, Writers & ReadersPublishing Cooperative,London, 1980, p GOULDNER, ALIVIN W. The Future of the Intellectuals and the Riseof the New Class, Macmillan, London, 1979. GOSFORD, CHARLES. "TUC and other documentson art policies", Art Monthly, Number 4, February 1977, p6-9. HOBSBAWM, ERIC. "The Forward March of Labour Halted?", Marxism Today, Volume 22, Number 9, September1978, p279-286. HOGGART, RICHARD. The Usesof Literacy, 1957. HUTCHINSON, R. The Politics of the Arts

Council, 1982. JACQUES,M. and MULHERN, F. (Eds.), The Forward Marcb of Labour Halted?, Verso, London, 1978. JENKINS, HUGH. "Decision Making and Democracyin the Arts", Art Montbly, No. 16, Britannia Arts Publication, London, 1978. LABOUR PARTY, The Arts and the People: Labour's Policy Towards the Arts, London, 1977. LEVITAS, R. (ed.) The Ideology of the New Rigbt, Polity, Cambridge, 1986. LUBELL, ELLEN. "Carl Andre", Arts Magazine,Vol. 50, No. 7, March 1976, p16. LUCIE-SMITH, EDWARD. "The Art of Bricklaying", Art Review, April 1996, p34-35. MEYER-HERMAN, EVA. (ed.) Carl Andre Sculptor 1996, Krefelder Wolfsburg, 1996. Kunstmuseen/Kunstmuseum MINIHAN, JANET. The Nationalisation of Culture - The Development of StateSubsidiesto the Arts in Great Britain, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1977. MOORE-GILBERT, BART. The Arts in the 1970s: Cultural Closure?,Routledge, London, 1994. MORPHET, RICHARD. "Carl Andre's Bricks", Burlington Magazine, Volume CXVIII, No. 884, November 1976, p763. MORRIS, ROBERT. "Notes on Sculpture:Part II, " Artforum, Vol. S. No. 2, October 1966, p20-23. NICOLSON, BENEDICT. "Apology", The Burlington Magazine, Volume CXVIII, No. 878, May 1976, p516. PACKER, WILLIAM. "Carl Andre's Bricks", Financial Times, May 3rd 1977. Financial Andre's Bricks", Carl ------------ -Times, March 17th 1978. PERRONG, JEFF. "Carl Andre: Art vs. Talk", Artforum, Vol. XIV, No. 9, May 1976, p32-33. PICK, JOHN. (ed.) The Stateand the Arts, City Arts, London, 1980. SHAW, ROY. "Arts for the People", Art and Patronage,Department of Extra Mural Studies, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and The Welsh Art Council, 1976. - ------------- The Arts Council's Deliberation (and disgust) About the ICA Exhibition", Letter to The Guardian, Saturday23rd October 1976.

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lilbliograpll. %

The Culturc Gap", [Revic%,,, Books: ---------------of Tbe Culture Gap: An experience of government and the arts by Hugh jenkinsl, Art Montbýv, No. 31,1979, p27-28. Elitism Populism in the Arts, vs. -------------City University, London, 1978. Tbe Arts Peop/c, jonathan the and -------------Capc, London, 1987.

BRETT, (IM'. "JI[St W11.1t IS MOLIL'I'llISIll", Art Al()iztblv, No. 32, Deccinbcr/Januarv 19-9/80,1) 32 -33.

Sl IRAPNEL, NORMAN. Britain's Inward Alarch, 1980.

BROOK, DONALD. "Books: A Cautious B()b F.ach Way", I Richard Cork, The Social Role ol Art], Art Monthly, No. 37,1980,1-)21-22.

The Seventies: Constab1c, London,

TATE GALLERY, Tbe Tate Gallcr)-, Bicninal Reportand Illustrated Catalogue ot Aquisitions 1974-6, The Tate Gallcrv, 1,011don,1976. 13ielllliLlI Tate Gallery Rel)ort I-be -------------and Illustrated Catalogue of Aquisitions 1972 4, The Tate Gallerv, London, 1975. A Child Six Could Do It! o/ -------------Cartoons About Modern Art, Tate Gallery Publications, London, 1973. TISDAII, CAROLINF. "Art Controvcrsics of the Scvcnties", in SUSAN COMPTON ed. Britisb Art in the 20tb Century, Royal Acadcmy, Prestel-Verlag, MLIIIICII p84. , TWI-'.EI)Y, COLIN. "From Maecenas to Manager", A Celebration of 10 Years'Business Sponsorship of the Arts, Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts, 1986. WALKE. R, JOHN A. Art in the Age of Mass Medici, HUM Prcss, London. YORK, PETER. Peter York's Eighties, BBC Books, 1995.

CHAPTER 2 Crisis Criticism ART & LANGUAGE (Ncw York), "Appendix", Fox 3, Art and Language Press, junc 1976. , BARANIK, RUDOLF. "US/UK Dialogue on Social Purpose", Artscibe, No. 14, October 1978, p54. BEARDSIN/10RE, R. W. "Review: Art, An Enemy of the People", Britisbjournal of Aestbetics, Volume 20, No. 2 Spring 1980, p] 82-184. BRIGHTON ANDREW, "Official Art and the Tate Gallery", Studio International, No. 1,, 1977, p 41-44. BIRNHAM

BONNIE, Tbe Art Crisis, Collins,

London, 1977 BRANDFN, SUF. Artists and Pcoj)lc, Routledge and Kcgan Paul, London, 1978.

BROOKS, ROSETTA. "Pleasc, No Sl()gans", Studio International, (Art & Social Purposc), Marcli/April 1976. COONAN, RORY. "Style in flic 70s", Art Alopably, No. 29, Sclitcinher 1979, p 14-15.

CO R K, RI CI IAR 1). 1?eiwnd Painting & Sculpture: ýVorks bougbt lor the Arts Council by Ricbard Cork, Arts Council of Great Britain, FA111blitIO11 CýltIlOgLIC, 1974. Social ) Purpose% (cd. 'Art and -------------Studio International, March/April 1976. Survey (cd. ) "A of Contemporary -------------Art Magazines: Artscribc", Studio International, Art Magazines Issuc, Scptcnibcr/Octobcr 1976. FULLER, I)FTER. TAGG, ind -------------- ]OFIN. BRIGI ITON, ANDREW. State of Britisb Art, Conference at ICA, London, I Oth I 2th February 1978. -------------- " Art For Whom?, Art I-or Wbom?, Serperiti ne Gal lcry, London, 1978. -------------- (cd. ) Art For Societil: Contemporary Britisb Art wab a Social or Political Purpose, Whitcchapel Gallery, London, I Oth May l8th June 1978. Art We Deservc? ", -The Artscribe, -------------No. 20, November 1979, p47-52. Cork'sReply Richard to Criticism" -------------Art Montbl),, No. 32, Dccci1ibcr/.lanuar) 1979/80, p3. Tbe Social Role Gorden ofArt, -------------Fraser, London 1979. DALEY, JANET. "Thc Arts Council vs. The Visual Arts", Tbe Literary Review, Octobcr 1981, p40. Art Critic's Art", The Tbe Literary --------------Review, No. 9,9th to 22nd FcbrUarv 1980, p28. Response joanna Drew ACGIV, to the of -------------Art Montbly, Nuinbcr 57, june 1982, p23. DIMITRIJEVIC, NENA. "Un Ccrtain Engagement", Art MoyablY, No. 3 1, Novcniber 1979, p 17-20. FAURE WALKER, JAMES. "In Defcnce of Artscribe", Art Montblv, No.. 34,1980, p10-12. by. lames Richard Cork interviewcd --------------Faure-Walker", Artscribe, No. 7, MaN, 1977, p4l-44.

293

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james Faure-Walkcr Replies [to --------------Fuller's responsc to 'Painting Now']", Artscl-"', No. 6, April 1977, p34-37. Towards a Definition of the --------------Progressive in Painting", Artscribe, No. 3, Summer 1976, p 13. FARR, DENIS, "CO11110iSSCUrshipand the Museti"isjournal, Vol. 75, No. 4 Curator", March 1976.

FULLER, PETER. "Subversion and the Artists' Placement Group", Art and Artists, No. 6, December 1971, p20-23. Artist? ", Art and Artists, United " -------------No. 7, july 1972, p12-14. Further", Connosicur, Fuller Goes --------------No. 18 7, September 1974, p7D. Hernaphrodite for the Prize " -------------histitutionalised Avant-Garde", Connosivur, No. 187, September 1974, pl. Has Been Turned into a Mona Lisa --------------Trade Mark for Art", Art News, No. 74, April 1975, p3 1-32. Art Objects", Art ami Value -of -------------Artists, No. 10, April 1975, p36-37. British Art", Troubles " with -------------Artforum, No. 7, April 1977, p42-47. Now"', Responds -'Painting to -------------Artscribe, No. 6, April 1977, p3l-34 in British Art", Art The Crisis --------------Monthly, NUrnbcr 8, June 1977, p8-9, and Art Monthly, NUMber 9, July/AUgUSt 1977, p 10- 14 Art", Unpublished in British Crisis ---------------paper given at the Arnolfini, Bristol, November 25th 1977. for the Arts? ", Arnolfini Future "A -------------Review, january/FebrUary 1978. Tate, The State and the Flic ---------------English Tradition", Studio International, Volume 194, NUnibcr 988,1/1978, p4-18. Professionall sill", I-lie Crisis in " -------------paper given at The State of British Art, ICA, London, I Oth - 12th February 1978, -reprinted Volume 194, Number in Studio International, , 988,1/1978, p77-80. Social FUnctionalism", Oil ---------------Artscribe, No. 13, August 1978, p43-47. Social FLinctionalism", Art --------------Monthly, Number 19, September 1978, p26-27 TAGG, JOHN. "Richard Cork & -------------and the 'New Road to Wigan Pier-, Art Monthly, No. 30, October 1979, p3-7. Beyond Crisis in Art, Writers & the -------------Readers Publishing Cooperative Ltd, London, October 1980. HESS, HANS. "Art as Social Function", Marxism Today, Volume 20, Number 8, August 1976. HEWISON, ROBERT. "The Arts in Hard Times", Too Much: Art and Society in the Sixties 1960-75, Methuen, London, 1986. JONES, BEN. "Editorial",

Artscribe, No. 1,

jillILIary-Fcbruary 1976, p4. MAI, ()()N, 'lTRF. NC1F., "Notes on Style in the Seventies: 1. Modes of lIct-cciving", ArIscribe, 12,1mic 1978, p13-16. MARTIN, Artscribe",

BARRY. "'I'lic Surface Bctorc Art Monthly, NO. 34,1980,1)12.

McF. WAN,

JOHN. "PAGF TWO JCork's rcsignation front the EJ,cmPig Standani I", Art Montbly, NUmber 7, Mav 1977, p2-3. PI 1111POT, CLIVE. "An Insular View of British Art Mags", Art Montbly, No. 1, October 1976,1) 1-2. ROBF, RTS,. j()liN. "I'lic Dialectics of Postilloderillsill: 'I'll a tcllcri sm and tile Visual Arts I ", Postinodernism, politics and art, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1990.

I'YF, PATRICK. "SOCIA WC010,9LICS", llýl Montbly, No. 3 1, November 1979, F)16. TAYLOR, BRANDON. "Writing on the Surfacc: A Rccent Tcndcncy at Artscribe", Montbly, No. 33,1980, p3-5.

Arl

Avant-Giardc St. Flic Martins", --and -------------Artscribe, 'IAucation Issuc', No. 5, ScptcnihcrOctobcr 1976. Textual Art", Ariscribe, No. 1, --------------1MILiary-FebrUary 1976. . TAYLOR, ROGER. Art: an Fnem of tbc PeoPle, RoutIcdge &- Kegan Paul /I,vlarvcstcr Prcss, 1978. TAYLOR, SHAUN. "A New Way of Looking Art", Art Montbly, Number 34,1980, p27Lit 29. TOWNSEND, PETER. "P-Orridge's Gruciling Days", Art Monthly, Number 2, Novciill)cr 1976, p1 -2 AbOLIt Standards Ncws [Cork's --------------rcsignation from the Fuening Standard 1, Art Montbly, NUmber 7, Mav 1977, p 1. WALKER, JAMES FAURE. "In Dcfence of Artscribe", Art Montbly, No. 34,1980, pi 0- 12 Social Art Clainis -Thc of and -------------Other Puplexitics", Artscribe, I 2, june 1978, p 16-20. WILLIAMS, RAYMOND, Culture and Societv 1780-1950,1957. Penguin, Tbe Long Revolution, -------------H arnioildswortli, 1965. Culture Vocabulary Keywords: A of -------------and Society, Fontana, Glasgow, 1976. Problents in Alaterialismand -------------Culture, Verso, London, 1980. 1981. Culture, Fontana, London, --------------------------- lViarxisin

194

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WILL. "The Partial Eye lCork's rcsignation from the Evening Standard 1, Art Montbly, NUmbcr 7, May 1977, p 16.

WILLIAMS,

WOLFF, JANET, Hermeneutic Pbilosopbyand the Sociology of Art, Roudcdgc and Kcgan Paul, London, 1975. Ideology, YATES, MARIE. Art, Politicsand (Andrew Brighton, Victor BUrgin, Peter Dunn, Peter Fuller, Margaret Harrison, Mary Kelly, Lorrainc Leeson, Griselda Pollock and Martin Tolhurst. ) Conference held at Dartington College of Arts, Novernbcr 2nd-4th 1979.

CHAPTER 3 GOD SAVE Conrad Atkinson ARTIST'S SPACE NEW YORK, Britisb Art from the Left, New York, 1979. ATKINSON, CONRAD. Strike at Brannans, ICA, 1972. Work, Wages and Prices, ICA, -------------1974. Grccn, An Orange Edge, A Sbade ol -------------Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 1975. Ireland 1968,; Mayday Nortbern -------------1975, Art Nct/Midland Group, 1976. Reality, Northern Arts Approaching -------------Gallery, Newcastle, 1977. Audio Arts Art Ideology", -and -------------1977. Realism or Socialism in Capitalist --------------One Person", Skira Annual, 1977. Towards the Attitudes Radical -------------Gallery, Art Net, London, 1977/78. System, PhItO Picturing the -------------Prcss/ICA, 1981. for Whorn? "', Art Polemic: 'Art -------------Montbly, NUmber 19, September 1978, p23-2.5. Lives: An Artist's Statement", --------------Fxbibition of Artists Wbose Work is Based on Otber Peoples' Lives, Selected by Derek Boshier, Arts COUncil of Great Britain, 1979. Lives", C 'Lives' oorcspondencc: ------------1979, p27-29. Art Montbly, No. 27,. IL111C The Countryside of the Books: --------------Poor", [John Bartell, Tbe Dark Side of the Landscape: The Rural Poor in Englisb Painting 1730-1840, Cambridge University Press., 1980.1, Art Montbly, No. 37,1980, p22-24. April, John Lennon", Art Montbly, ---------------1980. Action/ Active Passion", Passive --------------Artforum, I 9th September 1980. BOSHIER, DEIREK. "Lives" Art Montbly, No. 25, April 1979, p20-2 1. This page also contains Hockncy about vs. Tatc. arguments BRADEN, SU. "Alienation and the ICA" lConrad Atkinson], Studio International, 191, March-April 1976.

BRI"I'T, 6LJY. "'I'lic Tatc Dcbatc- Art AlonthlY, No. 2.5, April 1979, p2 1. CORK, RICI IARD, "Assualt by the Facts oI Life", Frenbig Standarti, London, 25th A111-11 1974, p3 2. Atkinson Conrad Interview ---------------Studio International, 19 1, March-April 1976. b"vening Ulster The hittcr Picture-, : ---------------Standard, London, 6th May 1976, p24. lie Art,, ( ouncil: (;. IIIL.l-Ics, -I, ------------- ,I Exhibitions and the Public Beyond", joamia Drew intervimcd 1)),Richard Cork, Studio Internatt"nal, Vol. 195, No. 990,1/1980,115362. Collabolation Without -------------Compormisc-, Studio Internati"nal, (Art Galleries and Alternative Spaces) Vol. 195, NO.990 1/1980, p4-19. DICKSON, MALCOLM. Art Activist", F'dmburgb 1987, p 105-1 18.

"Conrad Atkinso n/ Review, NLIIIII)Cr 76,

DORMER, PETF. R. *'()I-)I)rcsivc L111gUagC Part I", Art M"ntbly, NI-1111ber82, April 1982, p29. FIEWITF, Atkinson",

JOHN. -LJK Revims: Stutfio Intemational,

'Juk,

1975, p77-78. RICKABY,

Conrad 189-90,

TONY.

Lives "Coorcspondcnce: Art Almabli-, No. 32, political censorship", 1979/80, p26.

TOWNSEND, PI-JER. "Polcmics: 0 God! 0 Ulstcr! ", Art Montbly, No. 22,19 7/8-79, p2 I22. WALLACH, ALLAN. "Conrad Atkinson: Thc Dilcmma of political Art", Arts Magazine, 54, Dcccinbcr 1979.

CHAPTER 4 Fart for 11cace ATKINSON, CONRAD. "I'cople's hilagcry: Tradc Union Baiincrs 1976", in CAROLINE TISDALL & SANDYNAIRNE cds. (' 'onrad Atkinson: Picturing the System, PlUtO Pres's ICA, 25th Nov-23rd Dccember 198 1, p 19.

AUTY, GILES. "Vision and Subject Mattcr", Art Montbly, NUinbcr 19, Septenibcr 1978, p26. BINNINGTON, DAVID. "A Gcnulne Social Function for Artists: A Dream or a Realltv", Art for Wbom?, Arts Council of Grcat Britain,

295

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1978, p56. Muralism", --------------17, June 1978, p25.

Wincliestcr, 1987. Art Montbly, Nunibcr

BRIGHTON, ANDREW. "The State of British Art", Art Monthly, Number 15, March 1978, p32. RICHARD. CALVOCORESSI, "Mur al, mural its, IIILII-al ism", Art Montbly, Nunilicr 18, july/AUgLISt 1978, p33. . Fxternal Walls", Art Montbly, -------------Number 19, Scptcmbcr 1978, p25-26

CORK, RICHARD. "'Flic Royal Oak Murals", Art Monthly, No. 15,1978, p 10- 11. Gocs PUHIC: Strect Murals Painting --------------in Britain", New Socicty, August 25th 1977. Muralism", Art Monthly, Number --------------17, JUIIC 1978, p24-25. Cork's Rcply to Ralf Richard --------------Art Monthly, Number 18, RU11111CY", july/AUgUSt 1978, p22. . Walls", Art Montblj, Extcrnal --------------Number 19, Scptenit-)cr 1978, p25. CRAYK, FRED. "Muralisin", Art Montblj, Number I 7,. junc 1978, p25-26. DUGGEIR, JOHN. "Corkers", Art Montbly, NUmber 16, Mav 1978, p20-2 1. FAURF WAIXF. R, JAMES. "The Statc of British Art: Scssion 4 Why Not Popular", 1978. Studio International, Crisis and HARRIS, JONATHAN, "Capitalist Artistic Culture During the 1930s: New Deal 'dernocratic realism"', in PAUL WOOD, HARRIS, FRANCIS FRASCINA, JONATHAN Modernism in CHARLES I IARRISON, Dispute: Art Since the Forties, Yale University Press, 1993, p25-27. JONES, GLYN. "Mur al, InUral its, mural ism", Art Monthly, Number 18, july/ALIgUSt 1978, p32-33.

KENNA, C. Murals in London, London j 985. LOBB, Mural Manual, London, and -------------1985. KELLY, JANE. "Reply to Faurc Walker's 'Claims of Social Art and Other Perplexities-, Artscibe, No. 13, August 1978, p62. LAWRENCE, EILEEN. "Greenberg's Scotland", Art Monthly, Number 15,1978, p30. MILES, MALCOLM. "Community Murals in Britain", Art for Public Places, Winchester School of Art Press, Winchester, 1989, p72. IýADFORD, R. Art for a Purpose: The Artists International Association, 193.3-1953,

MORRIS, INNIM. 'Ibe Story and -------------Association, of tbe Arists Internatimial Muscuill of Modern Art, Oxford, 1983.

ROCI IFORT, DI: SMOND. Mexican Muralists: , Orozco, Rivera, S1171teiros, Lolldmi, 1993. RODWAY, DAVID. Alontbly, Numbcr 16,1978, p2l-2.1. -------------- --Social Art? ", Art Montblv, NLIIIIbCI1978, p3l. RUININFlY, RALF. "I'lic End of Art is Not thc End", Arl Alopitbll,, Number 17,1978, p.33-4.

CUltural Rcvolution Art For -or --------------

Social Dcniocracy? ", Art Almablv, NUIIII)CT I 'S, julý/August 1978, p20-22. SAWTElA.,. jF,FF. "The Royal Oak IMurals, Harrow Road", Artscibe, No. 11, April 1978, p6l-62. SEARLE, ADRIAN. "Statc of the Art Dubate at , thC ICA", Artscibc, No. 1 1, April 1978, p.3942. SEQUEIROS, DIEGO. Art and Revolution, Lawrencc and Wishart, London. SWEET, DAVID. "Artists v The Rcst: I'lic Ncw Philistincs", Artscribe No. 11, April 1978, p3738. STFFLE,. jEFFREY. "Notes Towards Some Theses Against the New Kitsch", Art Mo?ztbll,, Number 18, july/August 1978, p 19-20. TATE GALLERY Mural Painting in Great Britain 1919-1939: An Fxbibition of PbOtOKrapbs, London, 1939. TOWNSFIND, PF.TER. "Half IMarx is Worse than None", Art Alontbly, Number 17,, junc 1978, pl. Editor's Flogatcd Note lon -Cork's -------------Art For Wbom? j, Art Montbly, Number 18, july/August 1978, p22-23. OVERY, PAUL "The 'Speciahicss' of Art and Artists", Art Montbly, No. 23,1979, p,3)1-32.

CHAPTER 5 I'liotocoticcptualisni BARTHES, ROLAND. Alytbologies, translation LAVERS, ANNETTE. Paladin, London, 1973. SIZ, MILLER, RICHARD. translation -----------johnathan Cape, London, 1975. Text, Image MusiL translation -----------HEATH, STEPHEN. Fontana, London, 1977. BURGIN, VICTOR. "Art Socicty Systcnis" Control, No. 4,1968. Aesthetics", Situational Studio -------------

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