Art as document: on conceptual art and documentation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2018-0010 |
| Date | 08 October 2018 |
| Pages | 1149-1161 |
| Published date | 08 October 2018 |
| Author | Jim Berryman |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Art as document: on conceptual
art and documentation
Jim Berryman
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to bring the work of Seth Siegelaub (1941–2013) to the attention of
document studies. Siegelaub was a pioneer of the conceptual art movement in New York in the 1960s, active
as an Art Dealer, Curator and Publisher. He is remembered by art history for his exhibition catalogues, which
provided a material base for intangible works of art.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper uses a comparative approach to examine the documents of
conceptual art, especially the exhibition catalogues produced by Siegelaub between 1968 and 1972. Drawing
on literature from document theory and art history and criticism, it examines several of Siegelaub’s key
exhibition catalogues and books.
Findings –Siegelaub’s theories of information have much in common with the documentalist tradition.
Siegelaub’s work is important, not just for its potential to contribute to the literature of document theory.
It also provides a point of dialogue between art history and information studies.
Originality/value –To date, the common ground between art and documentation has been explored almost
exclusively from the perspective of art history. This paper is among the first to examine conceptual art from
the perspective of document theory. It demonstrates potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Keywords Documentation, Document analysis, Art theory, Conceptual art, Exhibition catalogues,
Primary information, Seth Siegelaub
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Since Michael Buckland (1997) published his landmark article “What is a ‘Document’?”,
there has been a regular growth in conceptual literature exploring the theoretical and
historical aspects of documentation. This body of work has tended to focus on questions of
definition and problems arising from the material and signifying properties of documents
(Lund, 2009). More recently, this literature has grown to accommodate alternative
philosophical perspectives, with phenomenology providing a useful conceptual framework
(Latham, 2014; Gorichanaz and Latham, 2016). However, to date, insights from art history
and aesthetics have been noticeably absent from the documentation literature. This
omission is surprising, given the close historical and intellectual kinship that evidently
exists between art history and information science. Thus far, the common ground between
art and documentation has been explored almost exclusively from the perspective of art
history (Spieker, 2008; Berrebi, 2014; Santone, 2016; Berger and Santone, 2016).
Art history, and its cognate profession art curatorship, underwent a process of
professionalisation and institutionalisation at approximately the same time as information
science, commencing in the late nineteenth century (Mansfield, 2002; Rubin, 2010). As a
modern discipline, art history deployed scientific methods as a means of establishing its
credentials among the traditional humanities and the so-called human sciences (Preziosi,
1989). Documents and systems of documentation were integral to the establishment of a
robust and disciplined study of artworks and artefacts. Comparable to bibliography and
systematic cataloguing in librarianship, catalogues played a crucial role in art history’s
professionalisation in academic and museological settings.
However, in the late 1960s, art catalogues were liberated from their scholarly domain.
No longer confined to the realms of the art museum and the academy, the exhibition
catalogue was transformed by conceptual artists to serve a radical new agenda. Two related
trends converged to challenge the supremacy of the physical and original work of art,
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 74 No. 6, 2018
pp. 1149-1161
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-01-2018-0010
Received 22 January 2018
Revised 20 May 2018
Accepted 2 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
1149
Art as
document
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