Everything seemed possible. Art in the 1970s

Nothing seemed off-limits in the radical new art of the 1970s. Far from remaining satisfied with the old hierarchy of media, young artists emerged with a host of heretical alternatives in mind, including film, video, performance, raw documentation, photography and texts. Suddenly, everything seemed possible. Art became anything that the artist wanted it to be. Some, like Richard Long and Dennis Oppenheim, decided that the entire natural world could now be regarded as their working territory. Others, including Gilbert & George and Klaus Rinke, treated themselves as embodiments of living sculpture. Daniel Buren displayed his uncompromising work on a billboard in the street, while Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed the ‘anonymous sculpture’ of industrial structures. Dan Graham’s interest ranged from architecture to social interaction on video, and Hans Haacke investigated the relationship between art and politics. Women artists like Susan Hiller and the intensely controversial Mary Kelly explored territory hitherto uncharted by their male counterparts, while the possibilities of performance art were tested by Stuart Brisley and groups as exuberant as Coum and Nice Style.

Text: Cork Richard. cm 5 x 7 3/4; pp. 496; COL and BW; paperback. Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven, 2003.

ISBN: 9780300095081| 0300095082

ID: AM-9391

Product Description

Nothing seemed off-limits in the radical new art of the 1970s. Far from remaining satisfied with the old hierarchy of media, young artists emerged with a host of heretical alternatives in mind, including film, video, performance, raw documentation, photography and texts. Suddenly, everything seemed possible. Art became anything that the artist wanted it to be. Some, like Richard Long and Dennis Oppenheim, decided that the entire natural world could now be regarded as their working territory. Others, including Gilbert & George and Klaus Rinke, treated themselves as embodiments of living sculpture. Daniel Buren displayed his uncompromising work on a billboard in the street, while Bernd and Hilla Becher photographed the ‘anonymous sculpture’ of industrial structures. Dan Graham’s interest ranged from architecture to social interaction on video, and Hans Haacke investigated the relationship between art and politics. Women artists like Susan Hiller and the intensely controversial Mary Kelly explored territory hitherto uncharted by their male counterparts, while the possibilities of performance art were tested by Stuart Brisley and groups as exuberant as Coum and Nice Style.

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