Sculpture in So Many Words Opens in New York

A wonderful exhibition of experimental text-based work from the ’60s and ’70s called Sculpture in So Many Words, is open now at ZieherSmith Gallery in New York. One notable piece is an invitation to a show by the fictional artist Allan Fish, as in fact prepared by conceptual artist Tom Marioni for his first “cafe society” event, in Oakland in 1970—in which he and his friends drank beer and called that action art. Beer-drinking as an art form—we’d now call that “relational aesthetics,” and imagine it was something new. Whereas this show proves that even our most radical practices have deep roots in the recent past. Another example of art imagined, rather than made, by Richard Serra, from the same ZieherSmith show can be viewed here.