“Art for the most part, is about concentration, solitude and determination. It’s really not about other people’s needs and assumptions. I’m not interested in the notion that art serves something. Art is useless, not useful.”
Richard Serra (b. 1938, San Francisco) Strike: To Roberta and Rudy 1969–71 Hot-rolled steel 8 ft 1 in x 24 ft x 1 ½ in Guggenheim Museum, New York
“The job of the artist is to make the world visible.”
David Park (1911-1960) Boy in Striped Shirt signed and dated ‘Park 59’ (upper left); titled ‘BOY IN STRIPED SHIRT’ (on the overlap) oil on canvas 50 x 36 in. (127 x 91.4 cm.) Painted in 1959. Price realised USD 1,323,750
“What I never wanted in art – and why I probably didn’t belong in art – was that I never wanted viewers. I think the basic condition of art is the viewer: The viewer is here, the art is there. So the viewer is in a position of desire and frustration. There were those Do Not Touch signs in a museum that are saying that the art is more expensive than the people. But I wanted users and a habitat. I don’t know if I would have used those words then, but I wanted inhabitants, participants. I wanted an interaction.” — Vito Acconci
In January 1972, Acconci staged one of the decade’s most notorious performance art pieces at the Sonnabend Gallery in SoHo. Gallery visitors entered to find the space empty except for a low wood ramp. Hidden below the ramp, out of sight, Acconci masturbated, basing his fantasies on the movements of the visitors above him. He narrated these fantasies aloud, his voice projected through speakers into the gallery: “you’re on my left … you’re moving away but I’m pushing my body against you, into the corner … you’re bending your head down, over me … I’m pressing my eyes into your hair.” Seedbed was a seminal work that transformed the physical space of the gallery through minimal intervention to create an intimate connection between artist and audience, even as they remained invisible to one another.
Vito Acconci Seedbed 1972 Gelatin silver print 7 7/8 x 11 11/16 in.
“Christie’s is closing its digital art department and has parted ways with Nicole Sales Giles, the auction house’s vice president of digital, Now Media reported Monday.”
