Institutional Critique
Encyclopedia
Institutional Critique is an art term that describes the systematic inquiry into the workings of art institutions, for instance galleries and museums, and is most associated with the work of artists such as Michael Asher, Marcel Broodthaers
, Daniel Buren
, Andrea Fraser
, Fred Wilson
and Hans Haacke
.
In more technical terms, Institutional Critique is an artistic term meant as a commentary on the various institutions and assumed normalities of art and/or a radical disarticulation of the institution of art (radical is linguistically understood in its relation to radix which means to get to the root of something). For instance, assumptions about the supposed aesthetic autonomy or neutrality of painting and sculpture are often explored as a subject in the field of art, and are then historically and socially mapped out (i.e., ethnographically and or archaeologically) as discursive formations, then (re)framed within the context of the museum itself. As such, Institutional Critique seeks to make visible the historically and socially constructed boundaries between inside and outside, public and private. Institutional Critique is often critical of the false separations often made between distinctions of taste and supposedly disinterested aesthetic judgement, and affirms that taste is an institutionally cultivated sensibility that may tend to differ according to the class, ethnic, sexual and gender backgrounds of art's audiences.
and its concerns with the phenomenology of the viewer, as well as formalist art criticism and art history (e.g. Clement Greenberg
and Michael Fried
), conceptual art
and its concerns with language, processes, and administrative society, and appropriation art and its concerns with consumption and identity. Institutional critique is often site-specific, and perhaps could be linked to the advent of the "earthwork" by minimalist artists such as Robert Smithson
and Walter De Maria
. Institutional critique is also often associated with the developments of structuralist and post-structuralist philosophy, critical theory
and literary theory
.
, Daniel Buren
, Hans Haacke
, Michael Asher, Robert Smithson
, Dan Graham
, Mierle Laderman Ukeles
and Martha Rosler
. Artists active since the 1980s include Louise Lawler
, Antoni Muntadas
, Fred Wilson
, Renée Green
, Andrea Fraser
, Christian Philipp Müller and Mark Dion
. More recently, Matthieu Laurette
, Graham Harwood, Carey Young
and others have all taken a critical eye to the modern art museum and its role as a public and private institution. The Artout project
, started in 2006 by Anton Koslov Mayr
, critically investigates the relationship between artists and collectors.
Haacke's exhibition at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum
in Cologne
was cancelled due to the inclusion by Haacke of the work "Manet '74" that connected the funding of the museum to the cultural politics of the Cold War. In 1993 Haacke shared, with Nam June Paik
, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
. Haacke's installation "Germania" made explicit reference to the Biennale's roots in the politics of Fascist Italy.
viewers alienated and/or marginalized.
Another criticism is that it can be a misnomer, since it could be argued that institutional critique artists often work within the context of the very same institutions. Most institutional critique art, for instance, is displayed in museums and galleries, despite its critical stance towards them.
Marcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works....
, Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren is a French conceptual artist.- Work :Sometimes classified as an abstract minimalist Buren is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.Among his chief concerns is the...
, Andrea Fraser
Andrea Fraser
Andrea Fraser is a New York-based performance artist, mainly known for her work in the area of institutional critique. She is currently a member of the Art Department faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Position:...
, Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae....
and Hans Haacke
Hans Haacke
Hans Haacke is a German-American artist who lives and works in New York.- Early life :Haacke was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied at the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel, Germany, from 1956 to 1960. He was a student of Stanley William Hayter, a well-known and influential English printmaker,...
.
In more technical terms, Institutional Critique is an artistic term meant as a commentary on the various institutions and assumed normalities of art and/or a radical disarticulation of the institution of art (radical is linguistically understood in its relation to radix which means to get to the root of something). For instance, assumptions about the supposed aesthetic autonomy or neutrality of painting and sculpture are often explored as a subject in the field of art, and are then historically and socially mapped out (i.e., ethnographically and or archaeologically) as discursive formations, then (re)framed within the context of the museum itself. As such, Institutional Critique seeks to make visible the historically and socially constructed boundaries between inside and outside, public and private. Institutional Critique is often critical of the false separations often made between distinctions of taste and supposedly disinterested aesthetic judgement, and affirms that taste is an institutionally cultivated sensibility that may tend to differ according to the class, ethnic, sexual and gender backgrounds of art's audiences.
Origin
Institutional critique is a practice that emerged out of the developments of MinimalismMinimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
and its concerns with the phenomenology of the viewer, as well as formalist art criticism and art history (e.g. Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
and Michael Fried
Michael Fried (art critic)
Michael Fried is a Modernist art critic and art historian. He studied at Princeton University and Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford University. He is currently the J.R...
), conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and its concerns with language, processes, and administrative society, and appropriation art and its concerns with consumption and identity. Institutional critique is often site-specific, and perhaps could be linked to the advent of the "earthwork" by minimalist artists such as Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
and Walter De Maria
Walter De Maria
-Early life and career:De Maria was born in Albany, California on October 1, 1935. He studied history and art at the University of California, Berkeley from 1953 to 1959. Although trained as a painter, De Maria soon turned to sculpture and began using other media...
. Institutional critique is also often associated with the developments of structuralist and post-structuralist philosophy, critical theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
and literary theory
Literary theory
Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...
.
Artists
Artists associated with Institutional Critique and active since the 1960s include Marcel BroodthaersMarcel Broodthaers
Marcel Broodthaers was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works....
, Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren
Daniel Buren is a French conceptual artist.- Work :Sometimes classified as an abstract minimalist Buren is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.Among his chief concerns is the...
, Hans Haacke
Hans Haacke
Hans Haacke is a German-American artist who lives and works in New York.- Early life :Haacke was born in Cologne, Germany. He studied at the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel, Germany, from 1956 to 1960. He was a student of Stanley William Hayter, a well-known and influential English printmaker,...
, Michael Asher, Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson was an American artist famous for his land art.-Background and education:Smithson was born in Passaic, New Jersey and studied painting and drawing in New York City at the Art Students League of New York....
, Dan Graham
Dan Graham
Dan Graham , is a conceptual artist now working out of New York City. He is an influential figure in the field of contemporary art, both a practitioner of conceptual art and an art critic and theorist. His art career began in 1964 when he moved to New York and opened the John Daniels Gallery....
, Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Mierle Laderman Ukeles is a New York City-based artist known for her feminist and service oriented artwork. In 1969 she wrote a manifesto entitled Maintenance Art—Proposal for an Exhibition, challenging the domestic role of women and proclaiming herself a "maintenance artist"...
and Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler is an American artist. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. She graduated from Brooklyn College and the University of California, San Diego . Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture...
. Artists active since the 1980s include Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...
, Antoni Muntadas
Antoni Muntadas
Antoni Muntadas is a multidisciplinary, media artist, sometimes also referred to as Antonio Muntadas or, simply, Muntadas. Since 1971, he lives and works in New York. Muntadas was a Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT,1977–1984, and is currently Visiting Professor with...
, Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson (artist)
Conceptual artist Fred Wilson describes himself as of "African, Native American, European and Amerindian" descent. Wilson received a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 1999 and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2003. Wilson represented the United States at the Biennial Cairo in 1992 and the...
, Renée Green
Renee Green
Renée Green is an artist, writer, and filmmaker. Her pluralistic practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, architecture, photography, prints, video, film, websites, and sound, which normally converge in highly layered and complex installations...
, Andrea Fraser
Andrea Fraser
Andrea Fraser is a New York-based performance artist, mainly known for her work in the area of institutional critique. She is currently a member of the Art Department faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Position:...
, Christian Philipp Müller and Mark Dion
Mark Dion
Mark Dion is an American fine artist best known for his use of scientific presentations in his installations. Dion has exhibited his art works internationally including at the Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, and the PBS series art:21...
. More recently, Matthieu Laurette
Matthieu Laurette
Matthieu Laurette is a media and conceptual contemporary French artist who works in a variety of media, from TV and video to installation and public interventions....
, Graham Harwood, Carey Young
Carey Young
Carey Young is a visual artist who incorporates a variety of media such as video, photography, performative events and installation into her works, which investigate the increasing incorporation of the personal and public domains into the realm of the commercial...
and others have all taken a critical eye to the modern art museum and its role as a public and private institution. The Artout project
Artout project
Artout Project, a.k.a. Artout Escort Agency - an experimental art project created in 2006 by an international group of artists, including the Russian-born artist Anton Koslov Mayr, theater critic and director of Black Box Theater in Oslo Jon Refsdal Moe, artists Per Platou, Kate Pendry, Ira...
, started in 2006 by Anton Koslov Mayr
Anton Koslov Mayr
Anton Koslov - artist/author. Koslov studied film and philosophy at NYU and Harvard. Known for his photo installations, Kolsov Mayr has also collaborated on film projects - with artists Richard Dailey, Hilton McConnico, and independent New York film director Mark Boswell.-Sources:Photographer Agency...
, critically investigates the relationship between artists and collectors.
Haacke's exhibition at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum
Wallraf-Richartz Museum
The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum is one of the three major museums in Cologne, Germany. It houses an art gallery with a collection of fine art from the medieval period to the early twentieth century...
in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
was cancelled due to the inclusion by Haacke of the work "Manet '74" that connected the funding of the museum to the cultural politics of the Cold War. In 1993 Haacke shared, with Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. Haacke's installation "Germania" made explicit reference to the Biennale's roots in the politics of Fascist Italy.
Criticisms
One of the criticisms of Institutional Critique is its complexity. As many have noted, it is a practice that often only advanced artists, theorists, historians, and critics can participate in. Due to its highly sophisticated understanding of modern art and society, as part of a privileged discourse like that of any other specialized form of knowledge, it can often leave laymanLayman
A layperson or layman is a person who is not an expert in a given field of knowledge. The term originally meant a member of the laity, i.e. a non-clergymen, but over the centuries shifted in definition....
viewers alienated and/or marginalized.
Another criticism is that it can be a misnomer, since it could be argued that institutional critique artists often work within the context of the very same institutions. Most institutional critique art, for instance, is displayed in museums and galleries, despite its critical stance towards them.
Further reading
- Meyer, James (1993), What Happened to the Institutional Critique? New York: American Fine Arts, Co. and Paula Cooper Gallery. Reprinted in Peter Weibel, ed., Kontext Kunst (Cologne: Dumont, 1993), 239-256.
- Buchloh, Benjamin (1999), Conceptual Art 1962–1969: From the Aesthetics of Administration to the Critique of Institutions," October 55: 105–143.
- Fraser, Andrea (September 2005), "From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique," Artforum 44, no. 1: 278–283.
- Bryan-Wilson, Julia (2003), A Curriculum of Institutional Critique, in: Jonas Ekeberg, ed., New Institutionalism (Oslo: OCA/verksted), 89–109.
- Welchman, John C. (ed.) (2006), Institutional Critique and After (SoCCAS Symposium Vol. II), JRP|Ringier
- Alberro, Alexander and Stimson, Blake (eds.) (2009), Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists' Writings http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11854&mode=toc (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)