Terry Smith is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh and Professor in the Division of Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought at the European Graduate School. He is the author of several books, including
Robert Bailey is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma and the author of
Terry Smith is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh and Professor in the Division of Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought at the European Graduate School. He is the author of several books, including
Robert Bailey is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma and the author of
A Conversation about Conceptual Art, Subjectivity, and the Post-Partum Document
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Published:January 2017
Chapter 3 is a conversation between Terry Smith and Mary Kelly from 1995 concerning the context in which the latter conceived, displayed, and presented her pathbreaking work, the Post-Partum Document (1973–79), which tracked and analyzed mother-son relationships to thought, language, and speech during the years after the birth of her son. The nature of Conceptual Art in the early 1970s is explored in detail. Smith distinguishes various phases of development within language-based conceptualism. Kelly explains how her work responded to key elements of these phases and to specific works made by other artists at the time. She also demonstrates how it was shaped by feminist imperatives and the theorizations of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, influences scarcely present in the work of Art & Language, for example. In its forensic focus on subjectivity and intersubjectivity, the Post-Partum Document signaled a break with early conceptualist art and announced a more open project.
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