Annotated text No.2 R.Watkiss

The Dematerialization of Art Lucy r. Lippard and John Chandler. This essay was written in late 1967 and first published in Art International, 12:2 (February  1968), pp. 31-36.

The focus of this essay ponders the philosophical movements from the late 60's and how the nature of

art, its process, presentation and authority was altering in the face of a change in direction.

During the 1960s the anti-intellectual, emotional/intuitive processes of the art-making characteristic of the last two decades have begun to give way to an ultra-conceptual art that emphasizes the thinking process almost exclusively. As more and more work is designed in the studio but executed elsewhere by professional craftsmen, as the object becomes merely the end product.

The rise of the conceptual theorists often characterised by demanding more participation by the

viewer. Lippard discusses this emergence of minimum action or ‘empty work’. The role of the object

she records is becoming less relevant in the formal sense (painting, sculpture). The authors allow us to

visualise the change in process, enabling us to appreciate how a dramatic change in art theory this is

becoming and how the viewer's interpretation of such objects or in some cases the void of anything

traditional/formal. Similar to the Bauhaus philosophy of less is more.

An interesting perspective raised by the authors and one which I have explored within my thing/non-

thing art is the work of the cubist Joseph Schillinger who wrote the book ‘The Mathematical Basis of

the Arts' a subdivided historical investigation into notions of aesthetic value and aesthetic longevity.

He recorded five stages in which he perceived the evolution of art to take place.

1. Pre-anaesthetic, a biological stage of mimicry
2. Traditional-aesthetic, magic, ritual-religious art
3. Emotional-aesthetic, artistic expression of emotion, self-expression, art for art's sake
4. Rational-aesthetic, characterised by empiricism, experimental art, novel art
5. Scientific,post-aesthetic, which will make possible the manufacture, distribution and consumption of a perfect art product and will be characterised by a fusion of the art forms and materials. And finally the disintegration of art
6. Lippard conjunctures the issues for art if we adhere to these philosophies and if we seem to be

between the last two phases what is the future for art practice. Is there anything else have we in the

contemporary really finished and that there is nothing new beyond this. Again Lippard considers the

thoughts around it this be a premise we adhere to that the medium may no longer be the message and

for some ultra-conceptual work art media is no longer adequate. Art has been seen as art criticism

rather than art-as-art. Is the dematerialization of the object may according to Lippard lead to the

disintegration of criticism.

This essay compiled in the late 1960s was witness to the changes in the notions of art, as a historical

document outlining the philosophical changes to the perception of the thing and how conceptual

practices altered the way of the subject v object relationship. Which the contemporary analogies, but

again are we seeing a rise in formalism or have the creation of new realism become the normality we

expect from art.