Conceptual Art

Outside the Museum MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

What are the unexpected places where you have seen art? What are some of the locations where you typically encounter works of art? What are the unexpected places where you have seen art? How do your reactions to works of art differ in relation to where you encounter them? Do you agree or disagree with Buren’s belief that context or location affects the interpretation of a work of art. Why or why not? Share this information with your students: The painting in this photograph was one of two hundred Buren pasted in the middle of the night in public spaces around Paris, without authorization. Buren’s work is partially covering an announcement about a leftist student protest soon to take place. Like other conceptual artists concerned that museums and galleries were assuming the authority to define art, Buren intended his white paper printed with green stripes to free painting from the confines of the museum by pasting them in very busy and highly visible public spaces. What are some of the locations where you typically encounter works of art? What do these locations have in common? What are the unexpected places where you have seen art? How do your reactions to works of art differ in relation to where you encounter them? Do you agree or disagree with Buren’s belief that context or location affects the interpretation of a work of art. Why or why not? Daniel Buren. D’une impression l’autre. 1983 Daniel Buren. D’une impression l’autre. 1983 MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

Share this information with your students: These five “Untitled (Wide White Space Gallery Announcements” (1969-74) are one in a series of striped materials—including posters, billboards, fabric, and clothing—that Buren began producing in 1966. Buren considered this motif of alternating colored and white vertical stripes (each precisely 3.4 inches [8.7 centimeters] in width) to be a stand-in for painting, and hoped it would free painting from its traditional burden of having to tell a story, represent something or someone, or express emotion. Daniel Buren, Untitled (Wide White Space Gallery Announcements), 1969-1974. Five folded double-sided lithographs, sheet (each): various dimensions. Publisher: Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp. Printer: Altypo, Antwerp. Edition: 500-800. The Associates Fund. © 2012 Daniel Buren / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris 247.2006.1-6 Daniel Buren, Untitled (Wide White Space Gallery Announcements), 1969-1974. MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

“Why hang things on the wall when the wall itself is so much more a challenging medium? A simple cut or series of cuts acts as a powerful drawing device able to redefine spatial situations and structural components.” – Gordon Matta-Clark Share this information with your students: Sawing huge pieces out of buildings might sound destructive, but Matta-Clark believed it ultimately created visual order. Giving new life to buildings with demolition in their future—a process Matta-Clark called “anarchitecture”—opened up a view into the invisible—the normally hidden interior walls and floors. Of his choice of medium, Matta-Clark said, “Why hang things on the wall when the wall itself is so much more a challenging medium? A simple cut or series of cuts acts as a powerful drawing device able to redefine spatial situations and structural components.” The artist called this work Bingo because the facade, when cut into nine pieces, resembled the grid of a Bingo game card. Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974. Building fragments, three sections, overall 69" x 25' 7" x 10" (175.3 x 779.8 x 25.4 cm). Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest Fund, Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest Fund, and the Enid A. Haupt Fund. © 2012 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974 MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme

Let’s compare each artist’s approach to making art. Share this information with your students: To create Bingo, Gordon Matta-Clark cut pieces from the façade of a house in Niagara Falls, New York slated for demolition. Matta-Clark kept the three sections of the building you see here, and deposited the remaining five in a nearby sculpture park, where he hoped they would be "gradually reclaimed by the Niagara River Gorge." Giving new life to buildings with demolition in their future a process, Matta-Clark called “anarchitecture,” opened up the view to the invisible – the normally hidden interior walls and floors. In One and Three Chairs, Kosuth combined three different objects that represent the idea of a chair: a manufactured chair, a photograph of a chair, and a copy of a dictionary entry for the word “chair.” Do Matta-Clark’s building fragments offer criticisms of art and the museum similar to those in the work of Joseph Kosuth? Does the meaning of these works change when they are displayed in an art museum? Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974. Building fragments, three sections, overall 69" x 25' 7" x 10" (175.3 x 779.8 x 25.4 cm). Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest Fund, Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest Fund, and the Enid A. Haupt Fund. © 2012 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs. 1965. Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of "chair," chair 32 3/8 x 14 7/8 x 20 7/8" (82 x 37.8 x 53 cm), photographic panel 36 x 24 1/8" (91.5 x 61.1 cm), text panel 24 x 24 1/8" (61 x 61.3 cm). Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund Joseph Kosuth. One and Three Chairs. 1965. Gordon Matta-Clark. Bingo. 1974 MoMA What is Modern Art?