"THE ART WORLD IS A POISON in the community of artists and must be removed by obliteration," asserted Carl Andre at a late-1960s meeting of the Art Workers' Coalition, calling for the demolition of a system that he deemed a source of "infinite corruption." His demands were sweeping: "No more 'shows'"; "No more 'scene'"; "No more big-money artists." An audio recording reveals that Andre's invective elicited loud applause, and indeed, amid the current orgy of commercialism, his anger retains its relevance, although his idealism seems outmoded. But as it turns out, the speech was not his own: It was penned by Artforum's editor at the time, Philip Leider, as a parody of radical rhetoric; the artist appropriated the text, reading it word for word with full conviction. From satire to sincerity--it is hard to untangle Leider's ironic exaggeration or hyperbole from Andre's actual political passion, to get a handle on the exact pitch of this polemic.
This speech and the others presented that day form the basis of Canadian artist Kirsten Forkert's project Art Workers' Coalition (Revisited), 2006-. To better grasp this work, one first needs to look back on some history. Founded in New York in 1969, the AWC brought artists and critics together to protest for artists' rights and forge alternatives to the individualistic nature of the rapidly exploding art industry; it was also involved in wider political issues such as demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Andre's presentation was given at one of the largest events in the AWC's brief life, an hours-long public "open hearing" held on April 10, 1969, at the School of Visual Arts in New York, attended by hundreds of artists, critics, and curators. …
No comments:
Post a Comment