Lecture by Isabelle Graw (introduction and chair: Heike-Karin Föll and Barbara Wittmann)

Isabell Graw
Some Work Went into This. On the Specific Value Form of the Art Object, in View of Piero Manzoni’s “Merda d’artista” and Robert Morris’s “Box with the Sound of Its Own Making” (both 1961)

This lecture examines the art historical moment in the early 1960’s when sculptures turned into objects. By looking more closely at two works from 1961 Isabelle Graw will show how they remain „specific objects“ (Donald Judd) if only due to their animated inner space which results from their three-dimensionality. With this in mind Isabelle Graw argues that the specific value-form of the art objects results from its capacity to suggest that its absent labour traces are present within it. Manzoni’s and Morris’ works are thus shown to both enact and undermine a value-theoretical demonstration. As much as they evoke „presence“ they also confront us with an absence that is responsible for their endless fascination.

Hosted by Heike-Karin Föll and Barbara Wittmann