© Art & Language
- Artist/s
- Art & Language
- Title
- Painting and Sculpture
- Year
- 1966
- Category
- Painting
- Format
- Acrylic painting
- Material / Technique
- plywood, wood, acrylic, 2-part
- Dimensions / Duration
- 73,2 x 37,6 x 3,7 cm each
- Collection
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- Description
- Painting vs. sculpture - What already provided material for discussion in the 15th century as the 'paragone', the 'weather dispute of the arts', between painting and sculpture, finds its elaborate update in »Painting-Sculpture«. For if you look at the work of the artist group Art & Language, you find yourself in a dilemma: two identical grey wooden panels (signed by Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin) hang next to each other, one bearing the inscription 'Painting', the other 'Sculpture'. So is the artwork a painting or a sculpture? Each of the two sides claims the truth for itself and asks the visitors to make a judgement. However, this seems impossible, as the traditional boundaries of genre become visibly blurred during the viewing process.
"Playing with language in relation to the painting tradition also means adopting a legacy of meaningful descriptions." (M. Ramsden, Art & Language, 2003). With precisely this irritating interplay of inscription and description in "Painting-Sculpture", Art & Language deconstructs the classical art genres and thus joins the self-reflexive conceptual art of the 1960s.
Author
Julia
Images
Art & Language, »Painting and Sculpture«, 1966 - 1967 / 2005, plywood, wood, acrylic, 2-part, 73,2 x 37,6 x 3,7 cm each, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.© Art & Language