• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 
ART PERIODICALS 1945-75
JOHN A. WALKER 
(Copyright 2009)Writing history is an extremely problematical enterprise - even writing thehistory of such a restricted subject as the development of art periodicalsduring the past thirty years - because historians choose certain events fromthe infinity of events, according to their ideologies, and promote those selectedto the rank of historical events. (1)Each historian writes at a particular moment in time from· a vantage pointwithin a culture; therefore, it is inevitable that my singling out of certainperiodicals as worthy of mention and the varying amounts of space allocatedto each one reflects the ethos of the Western society to which I belong.·Consequently. American and European journals are stressed rather thanthose published elsewhere. Furthermore, since my personal commitment is tocontemporary art, periodicals dealing with new developments are givenprecedence over those devoted to past art.Out-of-date issues of magazines are treasured for a variety of reasons: theirperiod flavour, their illustrations, their graphic design or their literaryquality, but the primary value of old art magazines is their art-informationcontent. Thus
Tiger's Eye, It Is, Possibilities
and
 Art News,
dating from the1940s
 
and 1950s are valued as sources of information about AbstractExpressionism;
 Neon, Bief, Medium
and
 Le Surréalisme Même
for Surrealism;
 
 
 Structure
and
The Structurist 
for recent trends in Constructivist art; the Swissreview
 Spirale Medium
(new series) no 4, 1955.Six issues of 
 Art News
from the period 1952-54---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------for Konkrete Kunst;
 Die Schastrommel 
for Wiener Aktionismus; thebulletin
 Page
for its news concerning Computer art, etc.Estimations of the historical significance of such magazines are dependent
 
 
upon judgements concerning the historical significance of the artists,movements, groups, styles and art centres with which they were associated.However, the history of art periodicals is not merely a footnote to the historyof art since they also help to determine that history - for example, bypublicising some artists and not others and so furthering the careers of theformer at the expense of the latter. They also act as a feedback mechanism:the kind of art they feature, and thereby lend authority to, influences thework of young artists and hence the evolution of art. Also, at a primaryrather than a secondary level, there are reviews such as
 Dau Al Set, Zero, V-Tre, Syn, Nul-O, Spur, Cobra, Anonima, De-Coll/age,
produced in the period1945-75 by groups of artists, containing articles and statements which arevirtually manifestoes. In these instances the history of art and the history of art periodicals coincide.Because of their periodicity, single issues of magazines devoted tocontemporary art provide 'snapshots' of art at particular moments. The back runs of such magazines themselves constitute a history of art, albeit anunrefined one. This fact becomes more significant as time elapses: future arthistorians attempting to rewrite the story of art from 1945 to 1975 willdepend heavily on the texts relating to this period; consequently the contentsof art periodicals will be a major factor in determining what that revisedhistory is to be.Evidently the relationship between art and its documentation is areciprocal one. Furthermore, if Walter Benjamin's suggestion that the whole
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...