Words to Be Looked at: Language in 1960s Art

by Liz Kotz

Language has been a primary element in visual art since the 1960s -- in the form of printed texts, painted signs, words on the wall, recorded speech, and more. In Words to Be Looked At , Liz Kotz traces this practice to its beginnings, examining works of visual art, poetry, and experimental music created in and around New York City from 1958 to 1968. In many of these works, language has been reduced to an object nearly emptied of meaning. Robert Smithson described a 1967 exhibition at the Dwan Gallery as consisting of "Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be Read." Kotz considers the paradox of artists living in a time of social upheaval who use words but chose not to make statements with them. Kotz traces the proliferation of text in 1960s art to the use of words in musical notation and short performance scores. She makes two works the "bookends" of her the "text score" for John Cage's legendary 1952 work 4'33" -- written instructions directing a performer to remain silent during three arbitrarily determined time brackets -- and Andy Warhol's notorious a novel -- twenty-four hours of endless talk, taped and transcribed -- published by Grove Press in 1968. Examining works by artists and poets including Vito Acconci, Carl Andre, George Brecht, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, Jackson Mac Low, and Lawrence Weiner, Kotz argues that the turn to language in 1960s art was a reaction to the development of new recording and transmission words took on a new materiality and urgency in the face of magnetic sound, videotape, and other emerging electronic technologies. Words to Be Looked At is generously illustrated, with images of many important and influential but little-known works.

Genres: Art, Criticism

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Dont · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me come clean; I'm ambivalent about this book. That may be a very good sign. Or, not. I was thrilled to see that such a book was written and am thankful to Kotz for such a well-written and researched text. One of my long-standing complaints about the narrative of conceptual art is how we have taken at face-value the claims of Kosuth, Lippard, et al. that the post-Cage moment had little impact on Conceptual Art. Rather than ask, what is produced and what is concealed by this claim, art historians generally accept it as gospel. Branden Joseph's book on Tony Conrad goes a long way to provide a counter-narrative for that history. This book, by Kotz, goes much more in detail, anatomizing actual art practices and teasing out the stakes behind shifts art practice in the 1960s. Her comparison of George Brecht and Joseph Kosuth is absolutely wonderful and should be required reading. I also really appreciated her serious engagement with Cage in terms of experimental composition as well as the experimental poetry of the 1960s. She makes a strong case that it is impossible to understand Conceptual Art without fully appreciating the effect of both of these artistic developments. This should be tattooed on the hindlegs of every art historian.

While these discussions are enormously useful, what greatly limits the book and almost dooms it to irrelevance is the uncritical adoption of that other bugaboo of mine; the unmarked centrality of a male-dominated New York avant-garde. Yes, that may have been the perception at the time and, yes, that may be the received framework for all art criticism since. But really. Sure, women artists do pop up everyone once in a while. But none receive the same in depth analysis that Kotz devotes to all the Boys on Cage. Similarly, Kotz traffics in that old chestnut about Conceptual Art and its relationship to New York. In other words, the connection is presumed, like water for the fish. After decades of counter-narratives about Conceptualism in Latin American art (see Luis Camnitzer), Japan, and Eastern Europe, Kotz operates within the presumption that Conceptual Art began in New York. The presumption goes unmarked and, as an unmarked term, conditions both the thesis and the argument.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book but loses a star for lack of female artists. Not even one photo of Yoko’s post-Cagean work.

[Lia Lowenthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is not to be read like a novel. should have known that. however, it provides an interesting analysis about the evolution of language as an artistic rebellion in the early 60s, sprouting from john cage and allan kaprow.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read my review at http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/b....

[david · Rating 3 out of 5]

not what i hoped for but interesting in it's own manner

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

thanks olivian.