{"title":"Art \u0026 Language","description":"\u003cp\u003eArt \u0026amp; Language is a British Conceptual art collective founded in Coventry in 1968 by Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin and Harold Hurrell. The group took language, theory and institutional critique as its primary materials, producing works through conversation, indexing, publication and collaborative writing rather than through a single recognisable visual style.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe collective’s journal, \u003cem\u003eArt-Language\u003c\/em\u003e, first published in 1969, became a central vehicle for the group’s theoretical output and established Art \u0026amp; Language as one of the most rigorous and self-critical practices within international Conceptual art. By the mid-1970s, following internal disputes and the departure of most founding members, the practice consolidated around Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, with critic and art historian Charles Harrison as a central collaborator.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the late 1970s onwards, Baldwin and Ramsden developed a body of painting, installation and text work that turned the collective’s earlier theoretical positions back upon the conventions of painting itself. Works such as the \u003cem\u003eHostage\u003c\/em\u003e series, the \u003cem\u003eIncidents in a Museum\u003c\/em\u003e paintings and the \u003cem\u003eIndex\u003c\/em\u003e works engaged directly with the history of modernism, the conditions of display and the politics of artistic authorship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMajor retrospectives at the Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole (2002) and other European institutions have consolidated Art \u0026amp; Language’s position as one of the defining practices of post-war Conceptual art. Printed matter, exhibition guides and ephemera produced in connection with their exhibitions offer a compressed record of a practice built on the proposition that art could be made from ideas alone.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"art-language-too-dark-to-read-musee-art-moderne-lille-metropole-2002","title":"ART \u0026 LANGUAGE — Too Dark to Read: motifs rétrospectifs 2002–1965. Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole, 2002","description":"\u003cp\u003eMusée d’art moderne Lille Métropole, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, 26 January–20 May 2002. Original folded exhibition guide and invitation. Colour and monochrome offset printing on coated stock, 10 × 15 cm folded, 30 × 15 cm unfolded. Six-panel concertina fold with reproductions, institutional text in French, English and Dutch, and visitor map to reverse. Accompanied by a separate loose square notice, 12 × 12 cm, relating to the exhibition publication and its forthcoming CD-ROM.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: Very good. Light handling and minor edge wear. The loose insert has slight creasing and surface marking consistent with its placement inside the folded guide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFounded in Coventry in 1968, Art \u0026amp; Language developed through conversation, theoretical writing, indexing and publication rather than a single recognisable visual style. By the late 1970s the practice had consolidated around Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, working closely with critic and art historian Charles Harrison.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe retrospective did not arrange that history as a settled sequence. Earlier works appeared beside later revisions, partial repetitions and deliberately altered versions, turning the survey back upon the collective’s own systems of classification and remembrance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe loose notice extends that structure beyond the exhibition. It announces that the catalogue’s Mac\/PC CD-ROM — containing hundreds of reproductions and theoretical texts — was not yet ready and would be posted later to purchasers. The retrospective was therefore distributed in stages: museum, folded guide, printed book, promised digital archive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShips flat, securely backed and tracked from the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54010247840082,"sku":"ARTLANGUAGE-LILLEMAM-INV-2002","price":75.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Art_Language._Show_invite_too_dark_to_read_._2002.jpg?v=1784178641"},{"product_id":"art-language-galerie-nationale-jeu-de-paume-paris-1993","title":"ART \u0026 LANGUAGE — Art \u0026 Language. Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1993","description":"\u003cp\u003eGalerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Place de la Concorde, Paris, 9 November 1993–2 January 1994. Original opening invitation. Offset printing in black, grey and muted violet on card stock, 13 × 21 cm. Repeated photographic image to recto; formal invitation text, institutional credits and sponsor marks to verso. Photograph by Charles Harrison.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: Very good. Light age toning, minor handling marks and faint edge wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe exhibition gathered nearly three decades of Art \u0026amp; Language’s work within the formal structure of a national museum retrospective. The invitation places the collective behind the glass frontage of the institution: repeated figures, reflections and architectural divisions partially obscure the image while the museum’s name passes vertically across it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reverse returns the exhibition to its administrative form — ministerial invitation, opening hours, admission instructions, institutional support and photographic credit. Image on one side; conditions of entry on the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty years later, the Jeu de Paume revisited the 1993 exhibition without reinstalling its artworks. Instead, the original catalogue was read aloud and used as a score, allowing the earlier exhibition to reappear through the documents it had produced.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShips flat, securely backed and tracked from the UK.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54010277364050,"sku":"ARTLANGUAGE-JEUDEPAUME-INV-1993","price":95.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Art_Language._Show_invite._1993.jpg?v=1784180663"}],"url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/collections\/art-and-language.oembed","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}