The Self Portrait with Two Heads that I have seen at the Paint Made Flesh exhibition looks undoubtedly provocative (and ambiguous, playing on a subtle confusion sexual identity), but it is good to compare it with another self portrait that I have found on a web site of Gagosian (Self Portrait with and without the Mask): we'll have a better understanding of Francesco Clemente's art. He takes the whole, decomposes it in parts and rearranges them to propose us some kind of unexpected statements. In this sense we could think at him as a Conceptualist. But it is more here.
Francesco Clemente - Self Portrait with and without the Mask, 2005 oil on linen
Says Rainer Crone, Clemente exploits figurative images for non-narrative purposes... (He) has something original to contribute: figure-words, as Novalis would call it, pictorial discoveries from a pre-conscious, pre-linguistic world, releasing associations in the observer through the power of their expressiveness. This pictorial means is one we are most familiar with through fairy tales, myths and dreams - meanings of possible, conceivable worlds. His pictures question a reality that only exists by approximation, and whose existence we intimate through the power of our own desires.
Beijing-based artist Song Dong (b. 1966) explores notions of transience and impermanence with installations that combine aspects of performance, video, photography, and sculpture. Projects 90, his first solo U.S. museum show, presents his recent work Waste Not. A collaboration first conceived of with the artist's mother, the installation consists of the complete contents of her home, amassed over fifty years during which the Chinese concept of wu jin qi yong, or waste not, was a prerequisite for survival. The assembled materials, ranging from pots and basins to blankets, oil flasks, and legless dolls, form a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through (MoMA Catalog).
It follows all that applies to a triptych: the central panel carries the subject, the two lateral panels add to the meaning. The subject is 1965, the year when US started bombing Vietnam, 20 years after 1945, the year of Hiroshima: one thing.
It is of course a political manifesto here, and different viewers will have different views. One thing is beyond doubt: it is a superb example of Conceptual Art.
It was very useful for me, in order to understand better the concepts defining the Conceptual so to speak, to visit the On Kawara Room at the show organized at Hirshhorn. It was looking rather weird for a profane like me, while it was very illustrative for one of the ways followed by the Conceptualists: the art work as a statement about the accomplishment of a project. On Kawara named it date painting:he was developing one artistic project (white lettering on a solid background) during a single day; if finished, the accomplishment was marked putting the finished work in a cardboard box with the date indication; a newspaper excerpt from that day was attached; if not finished the work was destroyed.
And here in the room at Hitshhorn there were three such works on view: Oct 24, 1971, Oct 26, 1971, Oct 29, 1971. Each one consisting of a cardboard box, newspaper, acrylic paint on canvas (the lettering).
A fourth artwork of On Kawara, let me much more puzzled: One Million Years - For the Last One - For All Those Who Have Lived and Died 42/60, 1999, printed multiple; two signed volumes, 2001 pages each. It was a statement about the accomplishment of a work? Well, yes and no. Because only two of the volumes were actually finished: all the others were empty, as waiting to be filled with data, up to one million years. It was communicating, in a subtle way, that the work was in progress; and I started to think at the connections between Conceptual and Performance Art.
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 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.
Hamish Fulton - Iceland, 1975 gelatin silver prints and ink on paperboard
Minimalists and Conceptualists: Richard Long, Jan Dibbets
Richard Long - Carrara Line, 1985, marble Jan Dibbets - The Shortest Day of 1970 Photographed in His House Every Six Minutes from Sunrise to Sunset, gelatin silver prints on paper on aluminum; Flood Tide, 1969
Richard Long's horizontal sculpture seemed to me a perfect example of Minimalism: a long line of marble rocks. Actually it was also a piece of Land Art, you should have imagined this row of rocks somewhere on a spacious natural area, and it was for me a proof of the birth of Land Art from Minimalism.
It was good that the two works of Jan Dibbets were together with Carrara Line: putting together Minimalism and Conceptualism was very helpful to understand the latter.
There was a clear ressemblance: the two works of Jan Dibbets were also related to Land Art (let's say, indirectly, through photo), but they were carrying also one of the dimensions of Conceptual Art (and I realized here at Hirshhorn, at the exhibition of Panza Collection, the fact that Conceptualism is expressed in various ways).
For Jan Dibbets, it seemes to me, a Conceptual artwork is the accomplishment of a project. The Shortest Day of 1970 Photographed in His House Every Six Minutes from Sunrise to Sunset is gorgeous: the main point is that it is the voutcome of a project in which the artist stayed all day long with a camera, clicking on the button every six minutes.
Jan Dibbets - Flood Tide, 1969 gelatin silver prints
This Minimalist ensemble by Dan Graham is right in the middle of the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. Two way mirror, steel, wood: perhaps the term of Installation would fit better than sculpture.
I said Minimalist: actually it is a bit more, and Graham made the journey from Minimalism to Conceptualism. Trying to understand what Conceptual Art means is challenging (not that Minimalism would be much easier). If we stick to Sol LeWitt's definition (in Conceptual Art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art) we will not advance too far.
Looking at the artwork of Dan Graham will give us at least some insights:
Conceptualism evolved from Minimalism
Conceptualism takes more interest in the relationship between artwork and ambient
Using the term Installation instead of any traditional term (like sculpture) makes sense: a Conceptual artwork is installed in an ambient and the dialog with the ambient is crucial
Anyway, all traditional categories of art are no more applicable and any ready-made object can become an artwork in its own right
The definition given by Tony Godfrey (Conceptual Art is an Art which questions the very nature of what is understood as Art) makes sense: we know at least what Conceptual Art is not
Francesco Clemente - Self Portrait with and without the Mask, 2005
