{"product_id":"words-to-be-looked-at-language-in-1960s-art-9780262113083","title":"Words to Be Looked at: Language in 1960s Art","description":"\u003cp\u003eLanguage has been a primary element in visual art since the 1960s -- in the form of printed texts  painted signs  words on the wall  recorded speech  and more. InWords to Be Looked At  Liz Kotz traces this practice to its beginnings  examining works of visual art  poetry  and experimental music created in and around New York City from 1958 to 1968. In many of these works  language has been reduced to an object nearly emptied of meaning. Robert Smithson described a 1967 exhibition at the Dwan Gallery as consisting of \"Language to be Looked at and\/or Things to be Read.\" Kotz considers the paradox of artists living in a time of social upheaval who use words but chose not to make statements with them. Kotz traces the proliferation of text in 1960s art to the use of words in musical notation and short performance scores. She makes two works the \"bookends\" of her study: the \"text score\" for John Cages legendary 1952 work 433\" -- written instructions directing a performer to remain silent during three arbitrarily determined time brackets -- and Andy Warhols notoriousa: a novel -- twenty-four hours of endless talk  taped and transcribed -- published by Grove Press in 1968. Examining works by artists and poets including Vito Acconci  Carl Andre  George Brecht  Douglas Huebler  Joseph Kosuth  Jackson Mac Low  and Lawrence Weiner  Kotz argues that the turn to language in 1960s art was a reaction to the development of new recording and transmission media: words took on a new materiality and urgency in the face of magnetic sound  videotape  and other emerging electronic technologies.Words to Be Looked At is generously illustrated  with images of many important and influential but little-known works.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67614782980149,"sku":"ByrdShop_0262113082","price":806.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780262113083_969ff245-22ff-466a-a825-a3e505562745.jpg?v=1791186335","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/words-to-be-looked-at-language-in-1960s-art-9780262113083","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}