From Conceptualism to Feminism: Lucy Lippard’s Numbers Shows 1969–74

Introduction: From Conceptualism to Feminism

It is fair to say that Lucy R. Lippard’s exhibitions as a curator during the 1960s and 70s have contributed significantly to subsequent interdisciplinary, site-specific, participatory, interventional, performance and community- based art practised by artists and curators. The same applies to her role in bringing political and artistic agendas together.

Women – Concept – Art: Lucy R. Lippard’s Numbers Shows

The story of Lippard’s finding a voice through feminism is emblematic of a cultural moment of rupture that took place around 1968, and it signals fissures deep within institutionalised curatorial practice at this time

Locating ‘2,972,453’: Lucy R. Lippard in Argentina

Several obstacles arose in attempting to provide a historical account of Lucy R. Lippard’s exhibition ‘2,972,453’ at the Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAYC) in Buenos Aires in 1970. The scarcity of primary material on the exhibition was the first impediment – a common hurdle in research on historical exhibitions.

557,087: Seattle

‘557,087’, the show which Lucy Lippard has organised for the Seattle Art Museum, will be recalled generically as the first sizable (i.e. public institution) exhibition of ‘concept art’, but it is in fact an amalgam of non-chromatic work running a gamut from late, funky Minimal to a point at which art is replaced, literally, by literature.

26 Conceptual Artists in London

An exhibition of conceptual art by women artists organised by the American critic Lucy Lippard is a distressing disappointment.

A Response to ‘26 Conceptual Artists in London’ 

Caroline Tisdall dismissed the exhibition ‘c.7,500’ as a distressing disappointment of secondraters. She felt it would not convince people that women suffer injustice in the art world. She failed to mention the difficulties this show had in finding anyone to put it on or to finance it.

Seth Siegelaub in conversation with Jo Melvin

Curator, dealer and publisher Seth Siegelaub worked closely with Lippard on the preparation for ‘557,087’ in Seattle in 1969. Siegelaub pioneered new strategies for the presentation and distribution of contemporary art in the 1960s under the trade name International General. His most radical policy shifted emphasis to the catalogue as an exhibition space, where the page showed the work itself, absent of commentaries.

Excerpt of email from Eleanor Antin to Alexandra Schwartz

North American artist and author Eleanor Antin works in performance, video, film, drawing and writing. In 1965, she began her first Conceptual artwork, titled Blood of a Poet Box (1965–1968) and comprising one hundred glass slides containing blood specimens collected from one hundred poets, in homage to Jean Cocteau’s 1930s film Blood of a Poet.

Agnes Denes in conversation with Alexandra Schwartz

Born in Budapest and raised in Stockholm and New York, Agnes Denes is associated with a number of art movements, including Conceptual art, Environmental and Land art. Emerging in the late 1960s, she became known for her large-scale site-specific works and Earthworks.

Alice Aycock in conversation with Alexandra Schwartz

In 1968, North American artist Alice Aycock moved to New York to study a Masters in Studio Art at Hunter College under Robert Morris. In the late 1960s she developed site-related works primarily made from wood and stone, referring to machinery and construction sites, architectural models, archaeological sites and public or social settings.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles in conversation with Alexandra Schwartz

Based in New York City, Mierle Laderman Ukeles is known for her feminist, service-oriented artwork and performances. In 1969, she wrote a manifesto titled ‘Maintenance Art – Proposal for an Exhibition’, challenging the domestic role of women and proclaiming herself a ‘maintenance artist’. Lippard first met Ukeles in 1971 as a result of her interest in this project, and Ukeles’s Maintenance Art Tasks (1973) were then developed as part of ‘c.7,500’.

Exhibition Histories Talks: Lucy Lippard – video online

Watch video footage of Lucy Lippard in conversation with Lucy Steeds, the second in our series of talks analysing exhibitions through the personal accounts of the curators responsible for them.