Art & Language

Art & Language is a pioneering English conceptual art group founded in 1968, that questions the critical assumptions of mainstream modern art practice and criticism. The group was founded in Coventry, England by Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge, Terry Atkinson and Harold Hurrell. The critic and art historian Charles Harrison and the artist Mel Ramsden both became associated with the group, in 1970. Originally, Art & Language was committed to the view that visual art is conceptually dependent on language. Much of their early work consisted of detailed discussions presented in their journal, The Fox (discontinued in 1976), or in an art gallery context. However they also made works of conceptual art such as Map Not to Indicate (1967), prints which play with the conventions of marking the world’s geographical boundaries. The extensive title lists all the geographic areas that the artists have removed from the map. Only Iowa and Kentucky are outlined and labelled but, floating like islands, they lose geographical relevance, metaphorically cast adrift from their cartographic moorings. Since 1977, the group has focused on producing paintings which examine the critical issues that concern them, such as reproductions of famous paintings by Picasso and Courbet in the style of Pollock.

Experimental and sceptical, perhaps their most famous work is Index 01 (1972), exhibited at documenta 5, a catalogue of their writings in eight filing cabinets presented on four plinths at eye level. Art & Language participated in documenta 7 and 10, and they were nominated for the Turner Prize in 1986. Solo exhibitions of their work have been presented at institutions such as Migrosmuseum fur Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, Centro De Arte Contemporáneo in Málaga, MoMA PS1, London’s ICA, Tate Gallery, Musée d’Art Moderne in Toulon, Oxford’s Museum of Modern Art, and Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona.

Courtesy of Tate