Avec les livres d’artistes de /
Vito ACCONCI, John BALDESSARI, Christian BOLTANSKI, Barbara BLOOM, Marcel BROODTHAERS, Sophie CALLE, Jan DIBBETS, Jochen GERZ, Richard HAMILTON, Nancy HOLT, Douglas HUEBLER, Peter HUTCHINSON, Les LEVINE, Jean LE GAC, Sol LEWITT, Richard LONG, Gordon MATTA-CLARK, Annette MESSAGER, Dennis OPPENHEIM, Richard PRINCE, Allen RUPPERSBERG, Edward RUSCHA, Gerry SCHUM, Andy WARHOL, William WEGMAN.
« Looks Matter » est une exposition construite à partir d’un point de vue personnel, localisé et daté. Tim Maul est un artiste photographe et un critique d’art qui vit et travaille à New York. Dans un texte, qui constitue le point de départ de cette exposition, il nous livre son appréciation personnelle du livre d’artiste dans l’atmosphère New Yorkaise des années 70, au fil des rues, des galeries, des librairies et des expositions. S’y côtoient les ouvrages théoriques (Six Years : The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972 de Lucy Lippard), les magazines (Avalanche, Aspen…), les publications collectives (Art & Language) et les livres d’artistes du moment : John Baldessari, Richard Hamilton, Les Levine, Ed Ruscha, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, entre autres. L’exposition propose une dilatation du focus et étend sa portée tant géographiquement, en présentant les expériences simultanées d’artistes outre – atlantique, que chronologiquement, en développant les continuités du propos liminaire : de Richard Long à Sophie Calle en passant par Jean Le Gac, Annette Messager, Christian Boltanski ou Richard Prince. En parallèle de ce corpus, est présenté le travail de Tim Maul en tant qu’artiste, utilisant la photographie comme medium privilégié pour mettre en scène un récit. Gus V.S./Kodak Paper/81′ donne à voir une narration vaguement romantique, questionnant la production d’images, à travers la déambulation d’un individu, « joué » par son ami Gus Van Sant, portant une boîte de papier Kodak. « Rétrospectivement, je vois ces images comme un « au revoir » à la jeunesse, à la banlieue et à l’art des années 70. J’y vois aussi l’influence des Brueghel, jeune et vieux, dont les peintures m’ont toujours intrigué ». Tim Maul est également l’auteur d’un portfolio The cultured tourist. (Curtains) (1996) et d’un livre Traces & Presence (1999), publiés aux éditions Florence Loewy.
The following is a personal appreciation and should not be regarded as scholarship. Upon leaving the School of Visual Arts in New York in spring ’73 I wanted to assert myself in the local art world not as a painter or sculptor but as an artist that worked in the nascent category of media. As pop LP’s once had functioned for me, I regarded independent artist publications as viable hand held art experiences communicating significant ‘ideas’. I do not remember where I first encountered Ed Ruscha’s books but their intentions were equal to anything I had experienced hung on a wall or occupying an area of floor. In them I believed that the space of the page and the gallery could change places. I value my own small collection of artist books and ephemera from that socially accessible but highly competitive era. With few exceptions all of my books were purchased below 14th St. in Manhattan at Jaap Rietman’s bookstore on the corner of Spring St. and West Broadway in Soho, or at MOMA’s small bookstore off its 53rd St. lobby entrance. The stack of ‘white cube’ galleries that had opened at 420 West Broadway (Castelli, John Weber, and Sonnabend) made gallery publications and posters available near the front desks, but I would have been too intimidated to make any enquiry toward the purchase of anything at these mysterious gateways to culture. Rietman offered literature, catalogues, magazines and ‘artist books’ which were segregated from the shelved main stock on separate tables. These stacks of slim tomes were not novelty ‘impulse’ purchases positioned by the cash register or promotional giveaways like Warhol’s charming hand colored ‘books’ of the 50’s. Multi-leveled and neatly arranged on a table they recalled the towers in a Lewitt open cube sculpture. Consistent among them was their simplicity and clean production. Here was someone telling you what and what not to do through a set of actual rules. As a publication ‘Art & Language’ looked threatening, simultaneously suggesting the ecclesiastic, political, and the un-illustrated textbook. What other factors informed this style ‘drained of entertainment’? Art & Project bulletins occupied a messy corner on Jaap Rietman’s table and I regret not buying every single one of them. ‘Narrative’ or ‘Story’ art would emerge from conceptual tendencies dispensing with the photograph as truthful illustration. The work of Beckley, Mac Adams, Laurie Anderson, John Baldesarri, Alexis Smith, Jean Le Gac, Peter Hutchinson, Al Ruppersberg and William Wegman would appear in small catalogues but few books (in the next decade Wegman would create a publishing empire upon his beloved dogs). Their text was meant for the wall. The much revered ‘Pictures’ generation which emerged out of academic pockets of conceptual art and film theory sought the scale, perceived budgetary freedom and audience of cinema. In the early 80’s I conveyed my enthusiasm for print media with a member of this group only to be cautioned that books ‘were 70’s art’. Barbara Bloom is my favored exception with a body of work including films and publication that reflected her exposure to art living in 70’s Amsterdam and as one of the ambitious artists who studied under Baldesarri at Cal Arts in the earlier part of that decade. In the 80’s boom market hefty catalogues became standard freebies handed out to collectors and curators. The laborious ‘handmade’ made a return in Anselm Kiefer’s gargantuan book/objects that weighed as much as an early Richard Serra. ‘Narrative’ art , scorned in the 80’s would re-emerge profitably in the 90’s through the work of Sophie Calle, Lorna Simpson, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and others not unfamiliar with the text and image presentations of a Beckley or Victor Burgin. NY, 2/12 |