In the late 1970's the Arts Council of Great Britain (as it then was) employed the artist Malcolm Hughes as a consultant to advise whether photography had matured significantly and could be considered a 'collectable' art form (ie. worthy of investment).
In the early 1990's the magazine "Modern Painters" ran an editorial asking whether photography had matured enough to be acceptable as an art form (ie. worthy of the endowment of aesthetic attributes).
The exceptionally long time it takes for a new technologically-based art form to be accepted by the ultra-conservative art establishment has been discussed by many authors including Peter Weibel (photography and video) and myself (computer-based).
Best
Paul
On 03/09/2012, at 10:41 AM, isabel brison wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Just wanted to add a comment about the following passage in Bishop's
> article:
>
> "After all, photography and film were embraced rapidly and wholeheartedly
> in the 1920s, as was video in the late 1960s and ’70s."
>
> As far as I know, photography appeared within the first half of the
> nineteenth century; I'm puzzled as to why Bishop refers to the 1920s as an
> important date in this context.
> Also, photography was far from well accepted by the artworld of the time
> when it appeared. Funnily, there seems to be quite a parallel with the
> digital context she describes: mainstream art ostensibly ignoring the new
> medium while being subtly changed by it reminds me a lot of what happened
> to painting as soon as photography appeared, though maybe not for quite the
> same reasons (as in those times the main problem was that photography made
> away with a large part of the market for painting).
> And (correct me if I'm wrong on this) photography was only "embraced" as
> mainstream art (meaning major museum and art gallery space dedicated to it)
> much later, around the 1960's. I'm sure Bishop knows about all this, so why
> is she ignoring it in her article? I suspect it is for much the same
> reasons that she decides to ignore the "specialized" domain of new media
> art; it would bring up too many disturbing questions about gatekeeping
> strategies and the importance of the market in contemporary visual art.
>
> Best,
>
> Isabel
>
>
>
> --
> http://isabelbrison.blogspot.com/
====
Paul Brown - based in the UK May to November 2012
http://www.paul-brown.com == http://www.brown-and-son.com
UK Mobile +44 (0)794 104 8228 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
Skype paul-g-brown
====
Synapse Artist-in-Residence - Deakin University
http://www.deakin.edu.au/itri/cisr/projects/hear.php
Honorary Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
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