Reader, further reading & resources
Art + Critique: Critical & Contextual Studies in Art Practice
The reader texts are organised chronologically for each lecture/seminar or workshop, and are available for download via the links below. Further reading and resources are not required reading/viewing; they are intended as a supplement to the reader and to support further research.
- Allow 1-2 hours to familiarise yourself with the set reading in preparation for each seminar
- Make notes of questions and comments that you want to address
- Please make sure you have access to the set texts in print or on screen during sessions
- In some cases you are requested to read an excerpt (note the page numbers)
- Page numbers are the ones printed on the pages, not those displayed in your PDF reader
22 Oct 2. CREATIVE PRACTICE: PRACTICE & THEORY WORKSHOP
- Duchamp, Marcel (1975/1957). The Creative Act. In The Essential Writings of Marcel Duchamp. London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 138-140. AUDIO
Further reading & resources
- Barthes, Roland (1977/1969). The Death of the Author. In Image Music Text, Trans. Stephen Heath. London: Fontana, pp. 142-148.
- Foucault, Michel (1977). What is an Author? In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Trans. Sherry Simon and Donald F. Bouchard ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 113-138.
- Duve, Thierry de (1990). Authorship Stripped Bare, Even. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics No. 19/20 (1990/1991), pp. 234-241. VIDEO
- Eliot, T.S. (1921). Tradition and the Individual Talent. In The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Haladyn, Julian Jason (2015). On ‘The Creative Act’. Toutfait, 1 (Apr 2015).
- Wilde, Oscar (1891). The Critic as Artist. In Intentions. London: Methuen.
- Baldwin, James (1962). The Creative Process. In Creative America. New York: Ridge Press.
- Hertz, Garnet (2012). Critical Making. conceptlab.com.
- Roberts, John (2007). Preface. The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art after the Readymade. Variant 41 (Spring 2011), pp. 43-47.
- Raunig, Gerald, Gene Ray and Ulf Wuggenig eds. (2011). Critique of Creativity: Precarity, Subjectivity and Resistance in the ‘Creative Industries’. London: Mayfly Books.
- O’Doherty, Brian (2008). Studio and the Cube: On the Relationship Between Where Art is Made and Where Art is Displayed. New York: Columbia University.
- Koestler, Arthur (1975). The Act of Creation. London: Picador, pp. 27-38.
- Bergson, Henri (1911). Creative Evolution, trans Arthur Mitchell. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
- Deleuze, Gilles (2006/1987). What is the Creative Act? In Two Regimes of Madness, David Lapoujade ed. Trans Ames Hodges and Mike Taormina. Cambridge, MA: MIT/Semiotext(e).
- Deleuze, Gilles (1994). Difference and Repetition. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Blanchot, Maurice (1982/1955). The Gaze of Orpheus. In The Space of Literature. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press.
- Foster, Sesshu (2015). How is the artist or writer to function (survive and produce) in the community, outside of institutions? East Los Angeles Dirigible Transport Lines (Jul 2015).
- Weintraub, Linda (2003). In the Making: Creative Options in Contemporary Art. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, D.A.P.
29 Oct 3. LECTURE 1. THE CRITICAL FUNCTION OF ART
- Mouffe, Chantal (2008). Art and Democracy: Art as an Agonistic Intervention in Public Space. Open 14: Art as a Public Issue: How Art and Its Institutions Reinvent the Public Dimension, Liesbeth Melis and Jorinde Seijdel eds. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, Amsterdam: SKOR, pp. 6-15.
- Latour, Bruno and Mikhaïl Xifaras (2016). The Future of Critique, a Philosophical Encounter between Bruno Latour and Mikhail Xifaras. l’Emile, No. 6 (2016), pp. 62-63.
Further reading & resources
- Ray, Gene (2014/2009). Towards a Critical Art Theory. In The Idea of the Avant Garde – And What It Means Today, Marc James Leger ed. Manchester University Press, pp. 131-137.
- Prolapsarian (2013). A Letter to Goldsmiths art students on capitalism, art and pseudo-critique. Prolapsarian (Jul 2013).
- Ranciere, Jacques (2009). The Misadventures of Critical Thought. In The Emancipated Spectator. Trans. Gregory Elliott. London: Verso.
- Davis, Ben (2016). Connoisseurship and Critique. e-flux Journal, Issue #72 (Apr 2016). Republished in Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy (2022). Haymarket Books.
- Fontaine, Claire (2016). Our Common Critical Condition. e-flux Journal #73 (May 2016).
- Butler, Judith (2002). What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault’s Virtue. In The Political, David Ingram ed. Boston: Blackwell, pp. 212-228.
- Foucault, Michel (2007/1979). What is Critique? In The Politics of Truth, intro John Rajchman, Sylvere Lotringer ed. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), pp. 41-81.
- Lyotard, Jean-Francois (1984/1979). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Jameson, Fredric (1984). Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. New Left Review no. 146 (Jul-Aug), pp. 59-92.
- Latour, Bruno (2004). Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 30/2 (Winter 2004), pp. 225–247.
- Foster, Hal (2012). Post-Critical. October 139 (Jan 2012), pp. 3-8. VIDEO
- Roberts, John (2000). After Adorno: Art, Autonomy, and Critique. Historical Materialism Vol. 7/1, pp. 221-239.
- Roberts, John (2000). On autonomy and the avant-garde. Radical Philosophy 103 (Sep/Oct 2000), pp. 25-28.
- Harrison, Charles, Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger ed. (1992). Art in Theory 1900-2000: An anthology of changing ideas. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin Books.
- Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing, Episode 1: Photography. BBC TV Series.
- Harvey, David (2007). Reading Marx’s Capital Vol. I. davidharvey.org.
- Buchanan, Ian (2010). A Dictionary of Critical Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Jeffries, Stuart (2017). Frankfurt School: A Timeline. (Sep 29, 2017).
5 Nov 4. LECTURE 2.1 THE POLITICS OF ART
- Piper, Adrian (2014). Political Art and the Paradigm of Innovation. In The Idea of the Avant Garde – And What It Means Today, Marc James Leger ed. Manchester University Press, pp. 4-11.
- Manifesto Club (2006). Championing Artistic Autonomy. In Artquest 5 Years, Paul Glinkowski ed. London: Artquest, p. 3.
Further reading & resources
- Adorno, Theodor and Brian O’Connor ed. (2000).The Autonomy of Art. In The Adorno Reader. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell, pp. 239-243.
- Adorno, Theodor (2002/1970). Aesthetic Theory. Trans. Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum.
- Ranciere, Jacques (2009). Problems and Transformations of Critical Art. In Aesthetics and Its Discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 45-60.
- Benjamin, Walter (1998/1934). The Author as Producer. In Understanding Brecht. Trans Anna Bostock, intro. Stanley Mitchell. London: Verso, pp. 85-103.
- Mouffe, Chantal (2001). Every Form of Art Has a Political Dimension. Chantal Mouffe interviewed by Rosalyn Deutsche, Branden W. Joseph and Thomas Keenan. Grey Room 02, Winter 2001, pp. 98-125.
- Kenning, Dean and Margareta Kern (2013). Art & Politics: Which side is art on. Art Monthly, Issue 369 (Sep 2013), pp. 1-4.
- Beuys, Joseph (1973). I Am Searching for Field Character. In Art into Society, Society into Art, Christos Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal ed. London: Institute of Contemporary Art, p. 48.
- Olufemi, Lola (2020). Art for Art’s Sake? In Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. Pluto Press, pp. 82-94.
- Kester, Grant H. (2023). Introduction. In The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 1-16.
- Rafie, Kaveh (2023). The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde – An interview with Grant H. Kester. New Books Network (Oct 2023).
- Burgin, Victor and Hilde Van Gelder (2010). Art and politics: A reappraisal. A Prior Magazine No. 20 (2010), pp. 92-121.
- Steyerl, Hito (2010). The Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy. New York: e-flux.
- Berry, Josephine (2019). Between Kitchen Semiotics and the Privatised Public: How is the Personal Political in Art Today? Private Life Symposium. Edinburgh University (Jun 2019).
- Beveridge, Karl and Ian Burn (1975). Don Judd. The Fox 2 (1975), pp. 128-142.
- Charlesworth, J.J. (2019). Keep politics out of art. The Spectator (Mar 9, 2019).
12 Nov 5. LECTURE 2.2 POLITICS & THE INSTITUTION OF ART
- Fraser, Andrea (2005). From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique. Artforum 44/1, Sep 2005, pp. 278–283.
- Andrea Fraser [2001] Little Frank and His Carp. Single-channel video, colour, sound, 6 min.
- Davis, Ben (2014). Art World Medium. Bulletins of The Serving Library (BoTSL) #8: Medium (Winter 2014).
Further reading & resources
- Andrea Fraser [1989] Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk (excerpt). Single-channel digital video, transferred from U-Matic tape, colour, sound, 29min.
- Davis, Ben (2010). Beyond the Art World. Artnet Magazine (Nov 2010).
- Steyerl, Hito (2009). The Institution of Critique. In Art and Contemporary Critical Practice: Reinventing Institutional Critique. London: MayFlyBooks, pp. 13-19.
- Haacke, Hans (2009). Lessons Learned. Tate Papers, Landmark Exhibitions Issue 12 (Autumn 2009).
- Muhammad, Zarina (2020). Ideas for a new art world. The White Pube (Apr 3, 2020).
- Quaintance, Morgan (2017). The New Conservatism: Complicity and the UK Art World’s Performance of Progression. e-flux Conversations.
- Athanasiou, Athena (2021/2016). Performing the Institution, ‘as if it were Possible’. In Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989, Maria Hlavajova and Simon Sheikh eds. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Republished in Instituting, New Alphabet School. Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Jun 2021).
- Haiven, Max (2018). Art after money. Open Democracy (Oct 10, 2018).
- Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing, Episode 3: Oil Paint. BBC TV Series.
- Searle, John (2006/2005). What is an Institution? In Institutional Critique and After. Zurich: JRP/Ringier, pp. 21-51.
- O’Doherty, Brian (1999/1976). Context as Content. In Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. California: University of California Press, pp. 65-86.
- Bourdieu, Pierre and Hans Haacke (2005). Free Exchange. Cambridge Polity Press.
- Bourdieu, Pierre (1996). The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Trans. Susan Emanuel. Cambridge: Polity Press, extract pp. 227-231.
- Duncan, Carol (1995). Civilizing Rituals: Inside public art museums. London and New York: Routledge.
16 Nov 6. OFF-SITE VISITS & EXHIBITION REVIEWS
- Beech, Dave (2016). On Critique: Looking and Writing. Art Monthly, Issue 393 (Feb 2016), pp. 5-8.
- Kahneman, Daniel (2011). The Associative Machine. In Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, excerpt pp. 50-52.
Further reading & resources
- Kahneman, Daniel (2011). The Characters of the Story. In Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, pp. 19-26.
- Beech, Dave (2016). On Critique: Looking and Writing. Art Monthly 393 (Feb 2016), pp. 5-8.
- Puente, Gabrielle de la (2019). Keith Haring @ Tate Liverpool. The White Pube, 16/06/19.
- Groys, Boris and Brian Dillon (2009). Who Do You Think You’re Talking To? Boris Groys in Conversation with Brian Dillon Frieze no. 121 (Mar 2009), pp. 126-131.
- Fusco, Maria (2010). Say Who I Am / Or a Broad Private Wink. In Judgment and contemporary art criticism. Vancouver: Artspeak and Fillip, pp. 45-55.
- Lutticken, Sven (2010). A Tale of Two Criticisms. In Judgment and contemporary art criticism. Vancouver: Artspeak and Fillip, pp. 45-55.
- Barrett, Terry (1994). Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary. Mountain View: Mayfield.
19 Nov 7. GROUP TUTORIALS & STUDIO BRIEF
- Lerman, Liz (2003). Toward a Process for Critical Response. communityarts.net.
Further reading & resources
- Goldstein, Mitch (2018). How to crit. howtocrit.com.
- Leemann, Judith (2017). Pragmatics of Studio Critique. In Beyond Critique: Contemporary Art in Theory, Practice, and Instruction, Pamela Fraser and Roger Rothman ed. New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 181-194.
- Leemann, Judith (2004). Observations on forms and patterns of critique. Time, Material, and the Everyday, SAIC.
- Lerman, Liz and John Borstel (2003). Liz Lerman’s critical response process: a method for getting useful feedback on anything you make, from dance to dessert. Takoma Park: Dance Exchange.
- Callahan, Mark (2012). Feedback: Liz Lerman and John Borstel. Ideas for Creative Exploration Conversation, Episode 6. University of Georgia.
- Buster, Kendall and Paula Crawford (2007). Critique Handbook: A Sourcebook and Survival Guide. New Jersey: Pearson.
- Pourzal, Kristopher et al (2018). Studies Project: An ethics of (talking about) watching. New York: Movement Research (May 2018). ADDITIONAL AUDIO LINKS
3 Dec 9. WRITING WORKSHOP: EXHIBITION REVIEWS
- Williams, Gilda (2015). Write On: On Today’s Art Writing Explosion, and the Tyranny of the Artist’s Statement. Art Monthly 348, pp. 11-14.
- Charlotte Young [2011] Art Bollocks (or Stupid Kunst). Ignite London 4 (Feb 2011). 93 Feet East, London.
Further reading & resources
- Edmondson, Emma (2019). Practice Mountain. emmaedmondson.com.
- Nengudi, Senga (2023). Senga Nengudi’s Lesser-known Writing Practice. Frieze Issue 236 (Jun-Aug 2023).
- Vierkant, Artie (2010). The Image Object Post-Internet. artievierkant.com.
- Buren, Daniel (1982). Why Write. Art Journal (Summer 1982).
- John Russell [2015] SQRRL. Dynamic hypertext fiction.
- Russell, John (2014). Bruce Willis, Irigaray, and the Aesthetics of Space Travel. Metamute (Dec 2014).
- Palmer, Katrina (2010). The Dark Object. London: Book Works.
- Ashbee, Brian (1999). A Beginner’s Guide to Art Bollocks and How to Be a Critic. Art Review (Apr 1999), pp. 14-15.
- 500 Letters (2012). Generate your artist biography. 500Letters.org.
- 10 Gallon (2000). Patented Artist Statement Generator. 10gallon.com.
- Kyle Clements (2011). Artist Statement Generator. kyleclements.com.
- Ross, David James and Joke De Winter (2011). Instant artist statement: Arty Bollocks Generator. artybollocks.com.
14 Jan 10. LECTURE 3. SPECTACLE & THE EVERYDAY
- Kaprow, Allan (1983). Real Experiment. Artforum Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec 1983).
- Debord, Guy (2014/1967). Separation Perfected (Chapter 1). In The Society of the Spectacle. Berkley: Bureau of Public Secrets, pp. 1-11. PDF
- Branka Bogdanov [1989] On the Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972. United States: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Colour, black and white, sound, 22min.
Further reading & resources
- Kaprow, Allan (1996/1986). Art which can’t be art. In Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 219-222.
- Kaprow, Allan (1993/1971). Education of the Un-Artist Part 1. In Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life, Jeff Kelley ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 97-109.
- Lefebvre, Henri (1987). The Everyday and Everydayness. Yale French Studies No. 73, pp. 7-11.
- Lefebvre, Henri (1991). The Critique of Everyday Life. New York: Verso.
- Lefebvre, Henri (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Certeau, Michel de (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Debord, Guy (2014/1967). The Society of the Spectacle.
- Berkley: Bureau of Public Secrets.
- Wark, McKenzie (2011). The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International. London and New York: Verso Books.
- Arendt, Hannah (1998/1958). The Human Condition: Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Debord, Guy (1956). Theory of the Dérive. Translated by Ken Knabb. Situationist International Online.
- Groys, Boris (2009). Comrades of Time. e-flux journal #11 (Dec 2009).
- Papastergiadis, Nikos (2010). Spatial Aesthetics: Art, Place and the Everyday. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
- Plant, Sadie (1992). The most radical gesture: the Situationist International in a postmodern age. London: Routledge.
- Benjamin, Walter (1999/1939). Paris, Capital of the 19th Century. In The Arcades Project, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Rolf Tiedemann ed. Cambridge MA: Belknap, Harvard University Press, pp. 15-26.
- Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing, Episode 4: Advertising. BBC TV.
21 Jan 11. RESEARCH: PRACTICE & THEORY WORKSHOP
- Groys, Boris (2012). Under the Gaze of Theory. E-flux Journal #35, May 2012.
Further reading & resources
- Feyerabend, Paul (1993/1975). Against Method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge. London: Verso.
- Kosuth, Joseph (1991). Artist as Anthropologist. In Art After Philosophy and After: Selected Wrtings 1966-1990. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
- Birrell, Ross (2008). Jacques Ranciere and The (Re)Distribution of the Sensible: Five Lessons in Artistic Research. Art & Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts and Methods. Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer 2008).
- Barrett, Estelle (2007). Introduction: Art as the production of knowledge. In Practice as research: approaches to creative arts enquiry, Estelle Barrett and Barbara Bolt ed. London: I.B Tauris, pp.1-13.
- Hannula, Mika, Juha Suoranta and Tere Vaden (2005). Artistic Research: Theories, Methods and Practices. Helsinki: Academy of Fine Arts.
- Sullivan, Graeme (2005). Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
- Whiteley, Nigel, Rebecca Fortnum, Ian Heywood (2003). Visual Intelligence Research Project. Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University.
- Barrett, Estelle (2006). Foucault’s What is an Author: Towards a critical discourse of practice as research. Working Papers in Art and Design, 4.
28 Jan 12. LECTURE 4. THE ABJECT, IDENTITY & PROCESS
- Douglas, Mary (1966). Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge, excerpts pp. 1-7, 44-50, 149-150.
- Kristeva, Julia (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, excerpt pp. 1-6.
- Sontag, Susan (1982/1961). Against Interpretation. In Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, pp. 3-14.
Further reading & resources
- Morris, Robert (1968). Anti Form. Artforum 6, April 1968, pp. 33-37. Republished in Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris (1995). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
- Sollins, Susan and Catherine Tatge (2013). Richard Serra: Tools & Strategies. Art21, Episode #170 (Jan 2013).
- Bataille, Georges (1993/1934). Abjection and Miserable Forms. In More & Less #2. Cambridge: Semiotext(e), p. 9.
- Bois, Yves-Alain and Rosalind Krauss eds. (1997). Formless: A User’s Guide. New York: Zone Books.
- Barnett, Pennina (1998). Materiality, Subjectivity & Abjection in the Work of Chohreh Feyzdjou, Nina Saunders and Cathy de Monchaux. n.paradoxa no.7 (Jul 1998), pp. 4-11.
- Hennefeld, Maggie and Nicholas Sammond (2020). Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the politics of pleasure and violence. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Foster, Hal (1993). Compulsive Beauty. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
- Butler, Judith (1999). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, pp. 163-190.
- Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge.
- Butler, Judith (1999). Performativity’s Social Magic. In Bourdieu: A critical reader. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 115.
- Sartre, Jean Paul (1958). The Look. In Being and Nothingness. New London: Methuen, pp. 252-302.
- Kelley, Mike (2004). The Uncanny. Cologne: Walther Konig.
18 Feb 15. LECTURE 5. PARTICIPATION, DIALOGUE & THE GIFT ECONOMY
- Bishop, Claire (2011). Participation and Spectacle: Where Are We Now? Lecture for Creative Time’s Living as Form. Cooper Union, New York (May 2011). VIDEO
Further reading & resources
- Bishop, Claire (2006). The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents. Artforum Vol. 44/6 (Feb 2006), pp. 178-183.
- Jackson, Shannon (2011). Quality Time: Social Practice Debates in Contemporary Art. In Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. New York: Routledge, pp. 43-74.
- Ranciere, Jacques (2007). The Emancipated Spectator. Artforum 45/7 (March 2007), pp. 271-280.
- Kester, Grant. (2005). Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art. In Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985, Zoya Kucor and Simon Leung ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 76-88.
- Dunn, Peter and Loraine Leeson (2017). Interview with Peter Dunn and Lorainne Leeson. The Things That Make You Sick: East London Health Campaigning, 1977-1980. Londion: ICA.
- Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002). Introduction, Relational Form. In Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du reel, pp. 7-24.
- Beech, Dave (2008). Include me out! Art Monthly 315 (Apr 2008).
- Nancy, Jean-Luc (1991/1986). The Inoperative Community. Trans Peter Connor, Lisa Garbus, Michael Holland and Simona Sawhney. Foreword Christopher Fynsk; Peter Connor ed. Minneapolis and Oxford: University of Minnesota Press.
- Kenning, Dean (2010). Artist as Artist. Art Monthly 337 (Jun 2010), pp. 7-10.
- Groys, Boris (2009). Comrades of Time. e-flux journal #11 (Dec 2009).
- Serafini, Paula (2018). Performance Action: The Politics of Art Activism. New York: Routledge Studies in Political Sociology.