untitled
Print
1970 (made)
1970 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Letterpress print on paper. Two sheets mounted on card, the first reading 'THE CONTENT OF THIS WORK IS THE STRATEGY EMPLOYED TO ENSURE THAT THERE IS NO CONTENT OTHER THAN THIS STRATEGY' and the second reads 'THE CONTENT OF THIS WORK IS NOT THE STRATEGY EMPLOYED TO ENSURE THAT THERE IS SOME CONTENT OTHER THAN THIS STRATEGY'.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | untitled (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | printer's ink, paper, letterpress print |
| Brief description | By Keith Arnatt: untitled, letterpress print, 1970 |
| Physical description | Letterpress print on paper. Two sheets mounted on card, the first reading 'THE CONTENT OF THIS WORK IS THE STRATEGY EMPLOYED TO ENSURE THAT THERE IS NO CONTENT OTHER THAN THIS STRATEGY' and the second reads 'THE CONTENT OF THIS WORK IS NOT THE STRATEGY EMPLOYED TO ENSURE THAT THERE IS SOME CONTENT OTHER THAN THIS STRATEGY'. |
| Dimensions | |
| Gallery label | Keith Arnatt
Born in England, 1930. Lives in Tintern, Monmouth
Arnatt's work developed during the mid 60's from a concern with Minimal paintings and sculptures posing gestalt problems, through involvement with elements of behaviour and performance to works often sited out of doors involving suspension or interruption of the spectator's expectations (such as a square hole sunk into the ground in the middle of a field, with a mirror at the bottom to reflect the face of the viewer or the sky). Arnatt's concern for the equivocal relationship between the work and the viewer has led him recently into a conceptual kind of art involving ironies of presentation and exhibition which are used as a means of questioning the attribution of 'art status' or 'art content'.
Arnatt's works continually pose for us the problem of comprehending the nature of the relationship betweengiven elements of any one work, and between ourselves as viewers and the work as an embodiment of some concept of arthood. A devide which Arnatt frequently uses if to build into the 'structure' of the work a short circuit which frustrates our attempts to invest it with some meaning not proper to itself. Like the Art-Language artists Arnatt has increasingly tended to ignore the rigid distinction between art and art theory. His works are often most operative in precisely those areas which were formerly regarded as peripheral- presentation, criticism, description etc- but which cannot now be treated as secondary when there is no specific material thing to act as a primary object of attention.
'It is possible for me to do nothing as my contribution to this exhibition'- 'Ideas Structures' exhibition catalogue, Camden Arts Centre, June 1970(c. 1970) |
| Credit line | Acquired from the Artist in 1970. |
| Bibliographic reference | Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1970 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | CIRC.470-1970 |
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| Record created | July 1, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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