Art & Language were founded in 1967 by four conceptual artists – Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin and Harold Burrell – when they set up the Art-Language Press and began to publish the highly influential “Art-Language: The Journal of Conceptual Art” in 1969. Previously they had worked separately in a wide range of materials but their co-operative practice emphasised the role of language and philosophy in art.
The group were mostly based around Coventry College of Art as most were lecturers there but they soon merged with Analytic Art – a student group with similar ideas about conceptualism – which was operating autonomously led by David Rushton, Peter Pilkington and Kevin Love. Others artists such as Mel Ramsden and the Australian Ian Burn also became active members. The enlarged group continued to attract others and an unofficial American “wing” was established by Joseph Kosuth and included, temporarily, Sol Lewitt, Lawrence Weiner and Paul Wood amongst others based around the journal “The Fox”. The American grouping soon came to be in dispute with the British contingent and withered away with Kosuth continuing his activities alone.
The ‘British wing’ (with input from Kosuth) quickly became better known because of the release of successful art-philosophy books (under the imprint of Bruno Bischofberger although the books had been unofficially printed and designed at the Coventry College) and A&L’s intervention in the 1972 Documenta 5 with a three dimensional work called ‘Index’ which evolved into a number of different forms and staged in different exhibitions.
The Art-Language Press was mostly overseen by Charles Harrison as editor but after 1975 a number of the original group such as Rushton moved away from the Midlands and the Press essentially was disbanded.
Ramsden and Baldwin kept the name Art & Language but the work moved from predominantly a written dialogue to more traditional mark-marking and painting – it is arguable that the retention of the name did not really reflect a continuation of the original group’s artistic practice.
David Bainbridge died in 2013, Mel Ramsden died in 2023.
Click the ★ on a listing to view in our store.
