Art language journal mel ramsden 1982 conceptual art

Mel Ramsden (born 1944) is a British conceptual artist and member of the Art & Language artist group.

Life and work

Ramsden was born in

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, Great Britain. He studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1961 to 1963, went to Australia in 1963 and studied at the National Gallery School of Victoria from 1963 to 1964. In 1967 Ramsden moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and began the series of the '' Secret Painting''s and the ''Two Black Squares''. Ramsden, along with

Ian Burn Ian Burn (29 December 1939 – 29 September 1993) was an Australian conceptual artist. He was a member of the Art and Language group that flourished in the 1970s. Ian Burn was also an art writer, curator, and scholar. Biography Ian Burn was ...

, co-founded the ''Art Press'' and ''The Society for Theoretical Art and Analysis'' in

in 1969. Ramsden became a member of Art & Language in 1971. As a member of Art & Language in 1972, Ramsden participated in

Documenta 5 documenta 5 was the fifth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 30 June and 8 October 1972 in Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hes ...

in Kassel with the project "Index 0001" in the department Idea + Idea/Light, together with the Art & Language artists

Terry Atkinson Terry Atkinson (born 1939) is an English artist. Atkinson was born in Thurnscoe, near Barnsley, Yorkshire. He lives in Leamington Spa, England with his wife, artist Sue Atkinson, with whom he has frequently collaborated. In 1967, he began to ...

, David Bainbridge,

Charles Harrison Charles Harrison may refer to: * Charles Harrison (artist) (1942-2009), British Conceptual artist & member of the artist group Art & Language * Charles Harrison (Australian politician) (1915–1986), member of the South Australian House of Assembly ...

, Harold Hurrell,

Michael Baldwin Michael Baldwin is a fictional character from the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless''. The role is portrayed by Christian LeBlanc, originally from November 26, 1991 to July 7, 1993, and again since April 25, 1997. Michael has had relat ...

and

Joseph Kosuth Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945), an American conceptual artist, lives in New York and London,

. With Art & Language he was also represented at

Documenta 6 documenta 6 was the sixth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 24 June and 2 October 1977 in Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hess ...

(1977),

Documenta 7 ''documenta 7'' was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 19 June and 28 October 1982 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born ...

in 1982 and

Documenta X documenta X was the tenth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 21 June and 28 September 1997 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was Catherine David. This was the first time a woman was ap ...

in 1997. Since 1977, Baldwin and Ramsden have continued Art & Language as a project. In the meantime, an extensive body of work of objects and images has been created. Many texts were written with Charles Harrison and Michael Baldwin, who has been publishing " Art-Language" since 1971. Ramsden currently lives in

Middleton Cheney Middleton Cheney is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The village is about east of Banbury in Oxfordshire and about west-northwest of Brackley. The A422 road between Banbury and Brackley used to pass through Middle ...

near Banbury, England.

References

* Exhibition catalogue: ''documenta 5: Questioning reality - visual worlds today''; catalogue (as file) Volume 1: (material); Volume 2: (list of exhibitions); Kassel 1972 * Documenta Archiv (ed.); ''Wiedervorlage d5 - Eine Befragung des Archivs zum documenta 1972''; Kassel/Ostfildern 2001, * Catalogue for documenta 6: Volume 1: Painting, Sculpture/Environment, Performance; Volume 2: Photography, Film, Video; Volume 3: Hand Drawings, Utopian Design, Books; Kassel 1977 * Catalogue: ''documenta 7 Kassel''; Vol. 1: (Visual biographies of the artists); Vol. 2: (Current works of the artists); Kassel 1982 * (documenta 10 catalogue): Politics - Poetics - the book for documenta X; Kassel/Ostfildern 1997, (German) / (English) * Marzona, Daniel: Konzeptkunst; Cologne, 2005, * Kosuth, Joseph: "The Artist as Anthropologist", Art After Philosophy and After, MIT Press, 1991, p. 117

External links

Examples of his works

Art & Language at the Lisson Gallery

Art & Language: Blurting in A & L online
* Materials by and about Mel Ramsden in th
documenta archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsden, Mel 1944 births Living people Art & Language British conceptual artists English contemporary artists People from Ilkeston English expatriates in Australia English expatriates in the United States Alumni of Nottingham Trent University National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni