From the category archives:

History

Thanks, Art: Relive the Glory Days of Windows 93

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on October 29, 2014
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The only thing missing? Nethack.

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The “Painting Is Dead” Versus “Painting Is Back” List

by Corinna Kirsch on February 4, 2014
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Can we stop beating this dead horse already?

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OWS and The Art Workers Coalition: An Ongoing History

by Will Brand and Paddy Johnson on April 6, 2012
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A little extracurricular reading has introduced us to Lucy Lippard’s essay “The Art Workers Coalition: Not a History.” First published in 1970 by Studio International, the piece feels strangely familiar in light of Occupy’s work. As it happens, their Arts and Labor group uploaded the full PDF to their site, so the essay can be read in its entirety.

We’ve excerpted a quote after the jump we felt was particularly relevant. History repeats itself.

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People Had Problems With the Art Market Eighty Years Ago

by Whitney Kimball on March 1, 2012
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Still think the Art Workers Coalition were the first to object publicly to the art market? Nay. Way back in the 1920s, the New Yorker’s first art critic, Murdock Pemberton, was a vocal opponent of the starving artist ideal. Many of his writings echo those of contemporary critics and, more recently, Occupy Wall Street groups. His granddaughter, Sally Pemberton, has spent the past two years mining his archives and recently published a scrapbook portrait of Pemberton and his peers. The following are pieces from the New Yorker and lecture notes which Ms. Pemberton found in her grandfather’s suitcase in 2009.

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AFC Looks Back: Highlights From The Archives

by Paddy Johnson on November 27, 2011
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AFC’s nomination for Best Art Blog at the Art & Reality Conference in St. Petersburg has inspired me to take a look at our archives. The blog’s content stretches over six years — a lifetime on the Internet — the body of which is now recognized as pioneering work in the field. Newer blogs like Hyperallergic, GalleristNY, and In The Air have greatly benefited from this early work.

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Revived: Pierre Restany’s 1966 MAT Manifesto

by Will Brand on August 25, 2011
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Edition MAT, formed in 1959, was the first publishing house to sell truly mass-produced multiple-original art objects, priced for the general public. It featured some of the best-known European artists of the time. And there’s almost no information about it online. Let’s fix that.

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