Have there been any art shows where the art didn't exist?

March 20, 2022 9:53 AM

Are there any examples of art shows in which the art itself doesn't exist, and the gallery just has written descriptions imagining the different pieces of art? Basically empty picture frames, projectors that aren't running, stands for sculptures, and a detailed description of each piece of "art".
posted by andoatnp to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

museum of nonvisible art
posted by noloveforned at 10:05 AM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Historically there's been a lot of work like this within the nebulous umbrella of Conceptual Art; if not literally a gallery show of empty frames on walls, work (that was at times shown) that consists entirely of written descriptions or manifests or indexes of absent objects or situations, or work (like Sol Lewitt's wall drawings) where the work itself is the description of the method for creating or imagining a thing rather than primarily the execution of that thing, though the execution is what usually ends up being presented for consumption.

I remember broadly (but can't pull up specifics off the top of my head unfortunately) a number of examples of things resonant to that when reading through "Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology" by Alberro and Stimson a few years ago; that or another retrospective on the 60s/70s history of that period of art history will turn up concrete details you might find interesting.
posted by cortex at 10:22 AM on March 20, 2022

I'm not sure if this quite qualifies for what you're looking for, but the Jewish Museum in Berlin was built with a series of "voids" that represent the annihilation of Jewish life.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:23 AM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

You also might on a related note be interested in the "do it" exhibition series; while the shows have actual physical pieces or movements or so on, those are executed differently each time from scratch based on an in-the-moment interpretation of written instructions that the exhibiting artists have provided ahead of time.
posted by cortex at 10:35 AM on March 20, 2022

Yves Klein did something like this in 1958 but there wasn't anything at all, ergo no written descriptions.
posted by Rash at 10:43 AM on March 20, 2022

Not quite the same thing but since the theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the frames where the stolen artwork existed have remained empty, still hung exactly where they were. I believe this is more because her will specified that the contents of the museum were to remain unchanged rather than for some conceptual reason, though the page I linked to says they remain as symbols of hope awaiting the return of the paintings.
posted by bondcliff at 11:08 AM on March 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Museum of Jurassic Technology tends to have multiple works that are "being repaired" or otherwise not on display, with just a placard describing them. Due to the nature of the museum, it's hard to say if that's true, or if the missingness is intentional, but I've always assumed the latter.
posted by unknowncommand at 11:15 AM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also Yoko Ono's 1964 book of art "scores" (instructions) to replace performance pieces and physical artworks: Grapefruit
posted by doornoise at 12:25 PM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: museum of nonvisible art


Does anyone happen to know if this project ever opened in a physical space?
posted by andoatnp at 12:46 PM on March 20, 2022

You may not find an exhibition that matches your description 100%, but you might consider browsing through Craig Dworkin's No Medium, which is a wonderful (though academic) overview of artists and movements that have concerned themselves with work that is absent or empty.
posted by aparrish at 1:18 PM on March 20, 2022

‘Invisible: Art About the Unseen, 1957-2012’, Hayward Gallery, London [12 June – 5 August 2012]

"London's Hayward Gallery will gather together 50 "invisible" works by famous artists including Andy Warhol, Yves Klein and Yoko Ono for an upcoming exhibition, thought to be the first of its kind in Britain. Curators argue the collection of pieces will demonstrate that art is about "firing the imagination" rather than simply viewing objects. Invisible: Art about the Unseen 1957-2012 opens on 12 June and includes an empty plinth, a canvas of invisible ink and an invisible labyrinth." (ArtListings.com, May 2012)

"A stark installation transforms the Hayward’s brutalist interior into a parody of the ubiquitous white cube selling machines: swathes of blank white walls, bare spaces, captions so pallid you can’t see them, art so conceptual you can’t find it or pin it down." (FT.com, June 2012)

"The Hayward Gallery hosts an imaginarium of art this summer, with a survey of works that explore ideas related to the invisible, the hidden and the unknown." (ArtFund.org, June 2012)

Editing to add a missed link: Labelling invisible art works – a unique exhibition graphic design brief from Inventory Studio
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:36 PM on March 20, 2022 [4 favorites]

For April Fools' Day 2015, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum exhibited Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet.
posted by Daily Alice at 3:41 PM on March 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Centre Pompidou exhibited nine empty rooms in 2009 in an exhibition called Voids, A Retrospective. Each empty room was labeled with the title and description of a historic artwork consisting of an empty room, e.g., Yves Klein's "The Void", Art & Language's "The Air Conditioning Show," and so on.
posted by ectabo at 6:49 PM on March 20, 2022

Kienholz's Concept Tableaux were works in potentia - basically, you bought the idea of an installation, and could exercise the option to actually have the work constructed.
posted by zamboni at 6:54 PM on March 20, 2022

Peter Greenaway's movie 'Prospero's Books' has a companion book that catalogues books that don't exist.
posted by rjs at 2:54 AM on March 21, 2022

I can't recall the artist's name, but one of the artists in the Panza collection moved to having pieces that were just words describing a concept that would be mounted on the wall. If that's what you're looking for, I can see if I can find my book from the exhibit which will have his name.
posted by Candleman at 9:30 AM on March 21, 2022

What do you mean 'it doesn't exist?'

Tino Sehgal's work is beautiful, and involves crafting situations (kind of a mix between a play and a scene), and is often not documented/photographed. In the gallery spaces that the work is shown, there's often nothing but just people... the art is present, but there is no physical artifact.
posted by many more sunsets at 4:49 PM on March 21, 2022

===Endnote 145 · Found Drama===

An invented, non-existent faux-academic style of film on which James O. Incandenza lectured and received artistic grants, created to lampoon the academic film theory community. Found Drama was not captured on film; rather , Incandenza and close friends "got out a Boston metro phone book and tore a White Pages page out at random and thumbtacked it to the wall and then [Incandenza] would throw a dart at it from across the room. ... And the name it hit becomes the subject of the Found Drama. And whatever happens to the protagonist with the name you hit with the dart for ... the next hour and a half is the Drama."
posted by little onion at 11:45 AM on April 15, 2022