The whole artist: Dan Graham and Robert Smithson, works and writings, 1965--1969.
Item
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Title
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The whole artist: Dan Graham and Robert Smithson, works and writings, 1965--1969.
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Identifier
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AAI3239307
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identifier
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3239307
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Creator
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Anastas, Rhea.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Anna C. Chave
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Literature, American
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Abstract
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Borrowing a phrase from Robert Smithson's perspicacious essay "Donald Judd" (1965) for a title, "The Whole Artist" examines the re-siting of the work and identity of the visual artist after Minimalism in the practices of Dan Graham (b. 1942) and Robert Smithson (b. 1938 and d. 1973). During the years 1965-69, the artists' work shared historical horizons, minimalist practice and discourse, and a material and structural quality: the dislocation of aesthetic experience and value onto the sites of exhibition (the art gallery) and reception (the art magazine).;For Smithson, the presentation of his writing in art magazines was a regular aspect of his visual practice by 1966. Until his death in 1973, he would continue to publish as frequently as he presented his visual work in exhibitions. Such a parallelism was especially significant between the series of shows he mounted at the Dwan Gallery in New York and his publications in Artforum magazine. Whether in the context of the art gallery or magazine, Smithson would consistently locate a share of the aesthetic experience of his work outside or beyond the perceptual object.;During the period 1964-65, Graham directed a short-lived contemporary art gallery in New York, the John Daniels Gallery, where he mounted the debut exhibition of minimalist Sol LeWitt. His criticism as an advocate for gallery artists coincided with his earliest experiments in art: "Homes for America" (1966-67), a work with multiple iterations as a slide projection, an article for Arts Magazine, and a series of photographs for reproduction; and Schema (March 1966-67), among the works Graham designed for primary perception in magazines and catalogues.;"The Whole Artist" recounts selected instances of the coincidence of practice and criticism in the work of Graham and Smithson. Minimalism, I argue, enabled the two artists to position themselves in relation to the field of power of the dominant discourses and institutions. Yet the two artists' practices ultimately presented an artistic challenge to the conventional distinctions Minimalism upheld between the perceptual object and its secondhand reproduction, and between criticism and the products of a sculptural practice.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.