{"id":798,"date":"2009-07-13T17:30:12","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T00:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/07\/in_the_beginning_was_the_word\/"},"modified":"2009-07-13T17:30:12","modified_gmt":"2009-07-14T00:30:12","slug":"in_the_beginning_was_the_word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/07\/in_the_beginning_was_the_word.html","title":{"rendered":"Text stands alone: its ubiquitous presence in contemporary art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What a dead fish or a bowl of flowers was in 17th-century Holland, text is to us. Art with writing in it is ages old: God&#8217;s word written in the air or the king&#8217;s codes on banners unfurled over a battle scene. Becoming a dominant thread in the late 1960s, however, is the idea that text stands alone. <\/p>\n<p>Lawrence Weiner and Joseph Kosuth, key figures in the text take-over, are in <i>Target Practice: Painting Under Attack, 1949-78<\/i> at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattleartmuseum.org\/exhibit\/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=13787\">Seattle Art Museum<\/a>. (Review <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/mt4\/mt.cgi?__mode=view&amp;_type=entry&amp;id=21098&amp;blog_id=48\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence Weiner, <i>An Amount of Paint Poured Directly Upon the Floor and Allowed to Dry<\/i>, 1968<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"tplawrenceweineramount.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/tplawrenceweineramount.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"450\" height=\"283\" \/><\/span>Joseph Kosuth <i>Title (Art As Idea As Idea)<\/i> 1968<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"tplawrenceweinerpaintless.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/tplawrenceweinerpaintless.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"450\" height=\"328\" \/><\/span>In Seattle, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alexschweder.com\/index.html\">Alex Schweder<\/a>&#8216;s tribute to Lawrence Weiner is titled <i>Painting Instructions<\/i> from 2007.<br \/><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"tpalexschweder.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/tpalexschweder.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"400\" height=\"430\" \/><\/span>Speaking of tributes, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shopstandingup.us\/indexhibit\/index.php\">Stand Up Comedy<\/a> from Portland has a wall of epigrams from Ed Ruscha,<i>169 Bits<\/i> (installation), all printed in a lovely wave of mechanical calligraphy, $20 a pop at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardhouse.net\/current\/index.html\">Howard House<\/a>, as befits the current economy.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"standupcomedybits.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/standupcomedybits.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"400\" height=\"271\" \/><\/span>The text piece I admire most in Seattle is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamesharrisgallery.com\/Artists\/Mark%20Mumford\/mumford.htm\">Mark Mumford<\/a>&#8216;s <i>Hold Still<\/i> from 2003, ink on paper.<em><font size=\"1\"><font face=\"Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/font><\/em><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"markmumfordstill.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/markmumfordstill.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"450\" height=\"308\" \/><\/span>Believe me, I&#8217;m trying.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a dead fish or a bowl of flowers was in 17th-century Holland, text is to us. Art with writing in it is ages old: God&#8217;s word written in the air or the king&#8217;s codes on banners unfurled over a battle scene. Becoming a dominant thread in the late 1960s, however, is the idea that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}