Seis años: La desmaterialización del objeto artístico de 1966 a 1972 (R)

by Lucy R. Lippard, Lippard

In Six Years Lucy R. Lippard documents the chaotic network of ideas that has been labeled conceptual art. The book is arranged as an annotated chronology into which is woven a rich collection of original documents—including texts by and taped discussions among and with the artists involved and by Lippard, who has also provided a new preface for this edition. The result is a book with the character of a lively contemporary forum that offers an invaluable record of the thinking of the artists—a historical survey and essential reference book for the period.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Theory, History, Philosophy, Essays

Paperback

First published November 1, 1972

About the author

Since 1966, Lippard has published 20 books on feminism, art, politics and place and has received numerous awards and accolades from literary critics and art associations. A 2012 exhibition on her seminal book, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object at the Brooklyn Museum, titled "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art", cites Lippard's scholarship as its point of entry into a discussion about conceptual art during its era of emergence, demonstrating her crucial role in the contemporary understanding of this period of art production and criticism. Her research on the move toward dematerialization in art making has formed a cornerstone of contemporary art scholarship and discourse.

Co-founder of Printed matter (an art bookstore in New York City centered around artist's books), the Heresies Collective, Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D), Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, and other artists' organizations, she has also curated over 50 exhibitions, done performances, comics, guerrilla theater, and edited several independent publications the latest of which is the decidedly local La Puente de Galisteo in her home community in Galisteo, New Mexico. She has infused aesthetics with politics, and disdained disinterestedness for ethical activism.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucy R. Lippard explores a number of modern art movements flowering in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including minimal art, earth art and conceptual art. It is this last form of art I find most fascinating, especially as put forth by artist Sol LeWitt in his classic piece “Sentences on Conceptual Art” – 35 brief statements outlining the philosophy behind what it means to create as a conceptual artist. As a way of sharing a portion of LeWitt’s work, below are 10 of his 35 sentences along with my brief comments:

“The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His willfulness may only be ego.” --------- One key area of Sol LeWittt’s artistic vision highlights the interplay between ideas, geometry and perception, the way the mind, the eye and physical space interact. In LeWitt’s own words: “When you draw various parts of a cube on paper there is order but when the drawing is converted into three dimensions those partial cubes become chaos. However, when you walk around the completed work and look at it from different lines of sight, those cubes becomes orderly again as you begin to untangle the puzzle and engage your intellectual processes of problem solving.” LeWitt’s art originates from very simple ideas wherein he develops those ideas into complex and playful forms. He then welcomes the viewer to partake in a visual dialogue with his creations.



“The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.” --------- So, ideas are the pieces or building blocks of an overarching concept. Take for example the construction below - the multi-cube would be the concept and the many various pieces would correspond to separate, individual ideas.



“For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.” ---------- For each created art work there would be all those modifications and possibilities that were in the mind of the artist at some point during the creation, some considered seriously, others not so seriously, then put aside. Theoretically, all those potential modifications could have taken on physical form but they did not, in fact, receive form.



“The conventions of art are altered by works of art.” ---------- Turns out, Sol LeWitt has had much influence in the art world. He has transformed the idea and practice of drawing as well as redefining the connection between an idea and the art that idea produces. With LeWitt there is a shift in focus from the presence of the artist physically and directly creating the work to the artist’s ideas behind the work and how the ideas surpass each work itself. In this sense, LeWitt is very much like an architect designing and setting out plans for a structure without participating in the actual material, physical side of setting the foundation or erecting that structure.



“Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.” ---------- I myself designed what I judge to be a cross between Piet Mondrian and a Zen garden. First, I took a sheet of 6’ x 4’ white Formica and placed this Formica sheet within a white frame and then placed it on a table. Next, I painted wooden half-circle nobs, each nob 2’' in diameter, in bold colors – black, white, yellow, blue, red. Rather than rocks set out on the sand of a Zen gardens, the viewer/participant takes the colored nobs and sets each one, as few as 2 or 3 or as many as 20 or 30, out on the white Formica. Applying LeWitt’s statement here that ideas can be works of art that need not be made physical, outlining my concept of this work of art is enough – you can see in your mind’s eye what I have created and you can, in turn, orchestrate the combinations of colored pieces on white Formica. Actually, you could take the next step - with my simple specifications, you could construct a Mondrian-Zen Garden of your own.

“Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.” ---------- If my concept of a Mondrian - Zen Garden strikes you as flat or banal or superficial, please feel free to apply this Sol LeWitt sentence to my conceptual art!

“The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.” --------- South African author J. M. Coetzee was once asked to answer the philosophical questions undergirding one of his novels. Coetzee replied that he is only the author; he doesn’t pretend to have answers to the philosophical challenges he poses; rather, as an author of fiction, his job is simply to present those challenges vividly to the reader.

“It is difficult to bungle a good idea.” ----------- LeWitt must be thinking specifically of Conceptual Art with its emphasis on the concept as opposed to the various stages of execution since, when it comes to other forms of art, it is not only not difficult to bungle a good idea, it is as easy as pie. Such bungling is done all the time by artists.

“When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.” ---------- For LeWitt, the artist is really a thinker. LeWitt’s Conceptual Art is radical not because of the materials it uses but the ideas behind those materials. The idea is the machine that makes the work of art; execution is a perfunctory affair. Again, as noted above, the artist’s hand need not be present. LeWitt’s wall drawings act like a musical score where the artist is the composer - similar to a musical composition that can be played simultaneously by any number of musicians all over the globe, LeWitt’s wall art may be painted simultaneously by many artists in multiple spaces.

“These sentences comment on art, but are not art.” ---------- Ha! What is the sound of one conceptual artist writing?

[Reinout · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very important book for the documentation of conceptual and performance art in the 60's and early 70's. From a contemporary perspective i found it a bit difficult to use. The approach of simply presenting the artworks and the interviews works great for providing a historical overview but gives little sense of direction. Some chapters of reflection or summary would now be useful, but to be fair, this is not the purpose of this book.

[Anaclara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik heb echt super veel gehad aan dit boek!! Een mooie handleiding als je je wilt verdiepen in de conceptuele kunst en de onderwerpen die er in aan de orde zijn! Met echt fijne kunstwerken!! DANKJEWEL LUCY R LIPPARD

[Tyler Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

It feels like this book changed my life. Fingers crossed that’s true.

[Muhan]

Not rating this because this is a reference book. I enjoyed the essay. The catalogue of books/works/exhibits was mindnumbing to scroll through (I have a scanned pdf copy of the whole book lol) but combing through I found some cool things I had never heard of before, like a guy whose "sculpture" was made by slowly changing the territory of a bird. I'm predisposed to be annoyed at anything art and white that came before me. I don't care how subversive it was at the time, Lucy and all her white friends (and Adrian Piper) talking about art at each other is really fucking boring. I know I should know this just to know it or whats'd've-ever but it all still feels really fucking pointless to me (except for Adrian Piper who was actually coherent and allowed to stay).

[Jes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating historical document of conceptual art in the titular years. It's extremely dense, took me six months to read. Lots of it is just notes on shows and projects, but there are many interviews and texts and black and white photographs to ponder and digest. Really cool book, wish it was in color.

[Alicia]

since this is essentially an annotated bibliography, it will probably be more useful as something to refer to in research rather than read in long sittings like i did. i appreciate it as a relic of its time, and did add a lot of articles/books/catalogues to my TBR list. reinforced my love of hans haacke and i’ve learned that daniel buren has radical politics!

[PeibloPls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory for studying conceptual art.

[Chase Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

delight after delight for a reference head

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Ursula Meyers' bk "Conceptual Art" in 1976 & this one not until over 22 yrs later. By then, of course, I'd changed alot. Even though there's an overlap between the 2 bks (after all, both writers are mostly art world figures aware of NYC artists 1st & foremost), their mode of presentation is different. Meyers' bk has short statements & pictures. Lippard's is much more of a cut & paste reference. I recommend them both. However, the difference in when I read them makes me favor the Meyers bk more. At the same time that Conceptual Art will always be very important to me, some of these particular manifestations of it have lost their charm for me. I've seen Sol LeWitt, eg, turn into a museum superstar &, even though he's credited w/ coining the term "Conceptual Art" (as opposed to "Concept Art" coined by Henry Flynt), I find his work to be highly over-rated geometricism (amongst other things) & not really very 'conceptual' at all.

[Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly wide-ranging and accessible. This is one of the most unconventional and satisfying books about post-WW2 art I've read. The structure of the book is more like an annotated bibliography that covers the author's art viewing over a 6 year period. Not a collection of reviews so much as a collection of impressions and experiences that slowly build a definition of art-objects and aesthetics. A sort of cut-and-paste argument for moving past 'modernism'. Blow up the picture of the cover for a look at the full title.
This book is ideally suited for those who love visiting museums and galleries but haven't yet found a way to enjoy or at least contextualize art practices such as 'minimalism', 'conceptual art', 'performance art' and other commonly-mocked/misunderstood bodies of work.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating source book of reviews, documents, statements connected to the Conceptual Art movement of the late Sixties and early Seventies. The key word is "dematerialization." In their attempt to resist/break from the art business--celebrity culture, galleries, formal exhibitions--the Conceptual artists emphasized process and idea rather than object. Lippard was in the middle of the New York scene; her work frequently blurred the line between the role of the critic and that of the artist. As she acknowledges, the line between what the Conceptual artists were doing and the explorations of Fluxus and the Minimalists is blurry. But that wasn't, and isn't, the point. Part of the story of what freedom meant at a time when people were taking it seriously.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

i laughed for a good chunk of this book.

but how can you write a retrospective contemporary "history" of art from the late 60s without dictating a canon? (i remember my surrogate mother's friends laughing when i told them i was studying contemporary art history. i remember shivering when i found out marina abramovic was performing historic performance pieces at the gugenheim.) lucy lippard does it. lippard, like rosalind kraus, is a master of present observation, here using critique to investigate and document. although, as much as i hate to admit it, this whole claim of dematerialization isn't entirely convincing. damn.

[Meaghen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Lucy Lippard's introduction/summary to the book. I admit to not reading the details in full, but rather skimming them and finding highlights here and there. Fascinating to have this collection from a very interesting time.

[Terence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this approach to an important timeline of conceptual, minimal, earth, anti-form, etc. art. The snippets and interviews, stark images really contextualize the time.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Xmas Wish List, too!