Curatorship of conceptual art through the work of Seth Siegelaub (1964-1972)

Abstract

Conceptual art comes in multitude of forms and uses various non-traditional artistic media for the execution of the artworks. As a result, curatorship and exhibition of such artworks present many challenges. To face these challenges curators in collaboration with conceptual artists starting from 1960s have been coming up with innovative solutions and ways of executing, presenting and distributing works of conceptual art. Perhaps the most notorious of these curators was Seth Siegelaub. This research work aims to bring to light innovative curatorial practices that Siegelaub has worked on, specifically in collaboration with artists Lawrence Weiner, Douglas Huebler and Robert Barry, in order to analyze various tendencies in curatorship of conceptual art in the United States of America in 1960s-70s in both commercial and non-commercial context and to indicate and promote the most effective ways of collaboration between curator and conceptual artist. The data for this thesis was collected through literature review of a vast bibliography and analyses of primary and secondary documents. Main innovative curatorial practices described in this work include documentation, dematerialization of art, separation of primary and secondary sources of the artworks, as well as creating new formats of exhibiting conceptual artworks, such as catalogue exhibitions. These findings create a well-rounded picture of conceptual curatorial practices during and 1960s-70s and indicates effective ways of managing and distribution of conceptual art exhibitions and singular artworks.