Conceptual art and other essays by Art & Language, 1965-2023

Art & Language is an artist collective founded in 1965 by a group of primarily British and American artists. The name Art & Language derives from the journal Art-Language (first published in Coventry in May 1965), which emerged from the work of Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin (from 1965) in association with Harold Hurrell and David Bainbridge. They were the original editors of the journal. Art & Language subsequently became the name for the collective artistic activity of these four, reflecting its conversational nature—an activity that, by the end of 1969, already included contributions from New York by Joseph Kosuth, Ian Burn, and Mel Ramsden. Art & Language focused not only on creating art but also on developing its own theory of art. The collective was crucial for understanding and theoretically grounding conceptual art in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1976 the work was continued by Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, and since Mel Ramsden’s death in July 2024, by Michael Baldwin alone. (bron: website copyrightbookshop)