Keith Arnatt’s Conceptualist Critique of Conceptual Art

This talk addresses the artist Keith Arnatt (1930–2008), one of the key figures of Conceptual art in Britain, and his work from around 1970, the peak period of that movement.

While choosing formal characteristics and theoretical references that were similar to those of some of his contemporaries, Arnatt constantly sought to explore the boundaries of these practices and to draw their fundamental assumptions into question. Arnatt’s text- and photo-based works often address the fundamental conditions of art and its presentation. In many of them, he called his own position and the necessity to make art into question; in some, he introduced subversive elements, such as morbid humour and scatological jokes. Further, at key occasions, such as his first solo exhibition at art & project in Amsterdam, he expanded this critical framework towards institutional critique. Drawing on close analyses of selected works as well as on unpublished archival materials, this talk highlights the scope of Arnatt’s critical ambition as well as the playful and subversive nature of his (self-)critique of Conceptual art.