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--Kate Linker ARTFORUM December, 1984 return to "Other Texts. . At the back of the gallery, Allan McCollum and Louise Lawler composed a critical installation, a reflection on the limits imposed on art by the gallery under capitalism. Lawler and McCollum are friends, and, as artists, share certain concerns. Their decision to work together can thus be seen as exemplary for collaboration, describing an area of intellectual coincidence rather than the kind of market combination that characterizes most recent endeavors. |
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Two works in particular set the general tone, both because of their material cleverness and facile irony. Guggenheim (Spectrum), 1965-66, turns the facade of that museum into a Pop logo -- instantly recognizable, all the more so because it has been brightly colored. Louise Lawler's glass paperweights, each containing an installation view of some aspect of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, also cut the museum down to everyday size, reducing it to absurdity. Like so many artists, Hamilton and Lawler bite the institutional hand that graciously feeds them. Struth's images raise the all-important question of what people want and expect from the works of art they see in the museums. |
