Updates, Live: Conceptual Art: Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry, Hamish Fulton

Lawrence Weiner - Reduced, 1970
paint on wall

It starts with this impressive REDUCED, that calls in mind the Constructivists of the Twenties. Fifty years separates them, the Constructivists and the Conceptualists. There are striking resemblances, but actually each one is quite a different animal. Constructivism and Conceptualism, each with its own history, motivations, aims, interests.

Hirshhorn is hosting these days an exhibition mainly devoted to the Conceptual Art (not only; there are also some Minimalism, some Installation Art). The works are from the Panza Collection.

The first exhibit is REDUCED: it's the first time for me to see so much Conceptual Art, and now everything begins to make sense.

Conceptualism: a form of art where the project (the idea, the concept) is emphasized, rather than the aesthetic aspects; a formula that is cryptic enough, isn't it?

What is on view at Hirshhorn reflect mainly two ways to emphasize the project.

One way: the art work is a statement about the project (the idea, the concept) that the artist wants to accomplish (to convey). The second way: the art work makes a statement about the accomplishment of a project.

Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry belong, I think, to the first category, while Hamish Fulton belongs rather to the second.

Lawrence Weiner paints huge red letters on the wall: you should say Minimalism, only the words Weiner paints constitute his message, his obsession, his ego. This originated from Minimalism, but it's no more there. Once you say a statement that expresses your ideas, your ego, you are no more a Minimalist: it's no more a line (expressing just itself, the line), it's a manifesto (expressing yourself, the artist). Conceptualism is Post-Minimalism. Lawrence Weiner had learned the Minimalist lesson and went further.

And here comes another strinking resemblance: Minimalism shifting to Conceptualism repeats somehow the history of Suprematism shifting to Constructivism - Minimalists, like Suprematists, were aiming to arrive at the basics, to discover the beyond - Conceptualists, like Constructivists, start from the basics to build upon the new project.

Works by Robert Barry, Lawrence Weiner, Hamish Fulton

Robert Barry goes the same way as Lawrence Weiner. He, too, paints statements on the wall (IT CAN ONLY BE KNOWN AS SOMETHING ELSE); in It... he uses slides and a projector to communicate the thing.

Robert Barry - It..., 1969-1971
35 mm slides (59 text, 1 blank) and projector

But I think Barry goes a bit further beyond the Conceptual border in this vinyl lettering: the statements are here arranged in an elegant way, suggesting a huge wall clock.

Robert Barry - Untitled, 1983
paint, oil stick, and vinyl lettering on wall

Hamish Fulton is a Conceptualist who goes the second way. His statements are about accomplishments; they are expressed through photographs. Look at this Iceland: it's beautiful, however it conveys primarily a statement: here is the project that I accomplished - I walked through Iceland from coast to coast.