A % ART THE IN * EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH » CU>t tUz xPwenSki* **+ » *.„*«•'.• Iff) VMM " Frontispiece:TomPhillips: TheDarkWood(UnaSelvaOscura). 1978.Oil oncanvas, 152.4 x 121.9 cm(60 x48 in) Marlborough FineArt Ltd., London ART THE IN ijevt*vfoe4 EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH A Phaidon Book CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA. NEW YORK lt> SAU3ALITO PUBLIC LIBRARY H fak*vow{i<&CCpf*i**&*% I owemanypeoplethanksforhelpandadviceinconnectionwiththis book. In particular I should like to thank Celestine Dars, who once again helpedwiththepictureresearch, andwhodrewmyattentionto artists whom I might otherwise have missed. I should also like to acknowledge the help ofJohn George ofArt & Artists; ofCaroline Krzesinska of Cartwright Hall. Bradford: of Nicholas and Fiona Logsdaile of the Lisson Gallery; of Patricia Warner, with whom I stayed in New York when researchingthe book; ofIvan Karp ofthe O.K. Harris Gallery, who provided stimulating ideas as well as pictures: ofHollySolomon;ofCharlesE. Licka,whogavemeleadsI might otherwise have missed: of Ana Mendieta: and of Charles Leslie ofthe Leslie-Lohman Gallery. Finally thanks to everyone at Phaidon, and especially to Bernard Dod. Roger Sears and Crispin Fisher. E.L-S. © 1980 by Phaidon Press Limited All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address Cornell UniversityPress, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca,NewYork 14850. First published 1980 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1980 International Standard Book Number (cloth) 0-8014-1328-1 International Standard Book Number (paper) 0-8014-9194-0 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-7463 Printed in Great Britain by Morrison & Gibb Ltd, Edinburgh Ovyrt&yrfs 1 Introduction: The PopularArts 2 Post Pop and Mandarin Taste Public sculpture 12 Post Pop 16 Minimal painting 18 i Minimal painting ii 22 Minimal sculpture 23 Letters and figures 26 Conceptual art 28 Photography 32 3 Abstract Painting Introduction 36 Systematic abstraction 37 Off-stretcher 40 Weaving 42 Pattern painting 44 Abstract illusionism 48 4 lllusionaryArt Abstract sculpture 51 Two-dimensional illusion 54 Three-dimensional illusion 56 Figures 61 Abstract illusion in sculpture 64 5 Figurative Painting Realist painting 65 Figurative expressionism 72 Narrative figuration 73 6 Fetish Artand Happenings Erotic heterosexual 76 Erotic feminist 78 Kinky 80 Homo-Erotic 84 Happenings 88 7 Political Art Feminist 92 Anti-Vietnam 95 Other political art 96 Ecological and social 99 8 Art as Environment, Environmental 100 and Architecture Earth art and monumental art 104 Mock archaeology and ethnography 106 Absurd architecture 110 9 High-Tech and theThird World Absurd machines 112 Newtechnology 114 Cultural colonialism 118 Biographical List of Artists 122 Further Reading 127 Index 128 Above: KenWhite:TheGolden Lion Bridgemural, FlemingWay, Swindon. 1976. Commemoratesthecentenaryofthe local poetAlfredWilliams; italsofeatures Isambard Brunei and the now demolished canal bridge. (Photo: G. Cooper and D. Sargent) Right: Poster for Benson and Hedges cigarettes. 1979. Courtesy Collett, Dickinson, Pierce and Partners. (Every package carries a government health warning.) 0C\4,bf*\' 1 - THrtrvdUtttifc : ftie PoUdaA A*t$ The art of the 1960s attracted a multitude of deliberately omitted many artists who are still in mid- commentators. Thesame hasnot been true oftheart of career, simplybecauseitseemedtomethattheessential the 1970s. Infact, sofarasI amawareatthemomentof nature of their artistic contribution had been estab- writing, this is the first attempt to give a coherent lished long before the decade began. David Hockney account ofwhat has been happening in the visual arts and Frank Stella, both mentioned only in passing, are from 1970 onwards. examples of this. There are many others who are not Byitsverynaturethisaccount isselective. Notall the mentioned at all, including majorcelebritiesofmodern artists mentioned or illustrated are young. Some, such art, such as Picasso (still alive when the decade started) as Alice Neel and Philip Guston, are by any standards and Salvador Dali. seniorfigures. But all ofthem seeminsomespecial way The art ofthe 70s has been difficult for the public to to reflect the sensibility ofthe decade. They have been absorb, because it often seemed that one must hold the included for this reason. On the other hand, I have whole history of modern art in one's head in order to tsa Introduction: ThePopularArts comprehendit. This, atleast, wastheimpressionleftby particularartist fromthecontent ofhiswork. Even'art the critics. In fact, there has been a paradox at work. about art', prevalentat thebeginning ofthedecadeand The critics in particular are those whose ideas and still surviving at its end, arrives, by its very avoidance standards have been formed during the period ofthe moral or the sociological, at a distinctive moral 1945-70. It is they who have been brought up on the tone. idea of a dialogue of styles - first Abstract The abolition of the dialogue of styles, and its Expressionism and Art Autre; then Pop, Op and replacement by something infinitely morecomplex, yet Kinetic: finally Minimal, Conceptual, Earth Art and in many ways much closer to the concerns ofordinary Body Art. Yet much ofthemost interestingwork done life, has been recognized by at least a handful of during the 70s does not fit into this pattern. It must be commentators. What has been recognized by almost interpreted anew, casting all the old formulations nobody is the blurring ofthe distinction between 'high aside. In particular, it calls into question long- art', the art ofthe museum, and other forms ofactivity established assumptions about the whole of the towhichtheword artmaybeapplied. Theartcriticand Modern Movement and its development, so much so art commentators of the 60s could conveniently that it is now possible to speak of 'the end of operatewithin avery simplesystem. Thingswereeither Modernism1 'art', 'anti-art' or 'non-art'. Thecategorytowhich they . One can go further still, and say that artists of the belonged was defined, not by examining what they 70s, sometimes without fully meaning to do so, have looked like or were made of, but by interrogating the overturned a wholesystem ofcategories. It isnolonger artist about his intentions. The declared intention of possible, for instance, to divorce the style adopted by a making art wasenough to validate any work as such.