Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> In view of the remarkable weight which conversational practice carried at the heart of Art & Language using the categories of ‘work’ and ‘document’ is to say the least debatable. This publication reflects this as much as possible showing the persistence of a number of considerations which defy chronological restriction and artistic genre. The heterogeneity of materials included in The Philippe M?aille Collection of Art & Language Works among which are the paintings produced in the early eighties and other typologies of artistic practice avoids any notion of turning these artists into caricatures of Conceptual Art. In this collection the product of close collaboration between the artists Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden and the collector – Art & Language emerge with a contingent and incomplete profile. As has been said many times their character is ‘radically inconclusive’. This is why the presentation of these materials foregoes any archaeological view and instead offers relationships which encompass the most diverse of moments across an uninterrupted career of almost fifty years. The exhibition traces the drifting path of essayistic practice without falling into temptation to fabricate a synthesis of too complex an identity. The dedicated involvement of Philippe M?aille makes the Collection an ideal place to ensure the preservation of a heterodox constellation of artistic practices which are often segregated by institutional technologies. The totality of these works in the context of MACBA where Art & Language round out the representation of sixties and seventies art invokes the critical paradigm which defines this museum’s collection. The generous disposition of the artists Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden as well as Philippe M?aille’s understanding collaboration with the MACBA and MAM (Mus?e d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris) have enabled this exhibition and publication project one which will make us reconsider the overworked clich?s around Conceptual Art and contemporary art in general. (MP)