Materializing "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art, the first exhibition to explore the impact of the feminist writer, curator, and activist Lucy R. Lippard on the Conceptual art movement, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum September 14, 2012, through February 3, 2013. Using Lippard's influential 1973 book Six Years, which catalogued and described the emergence of Conceptual art in the late sixties and early seventies, as a critical and chronological framework, the exhibition illustrates the dynamics of Lippard's key role in redefining how exhibitions were created, viewed, and critiqued during that era of transition.
The full title of Lippard's now-classic book, which drew on her personal relationships with artists, is seventy-nine words long: Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972: a cross-reference book of information on some esthetic boundaries; consisting of a bibliography into which are inserted a fragmented text, art works, documents, interviews, and symposia, arranged chronologically and focused on so-called conceptual or information or idea art with mentions of such vaguely designated areas as minimal, anti-form, systems, earth, or process art, occurring now in the Americas, Europe, England, Australia and Asia (with occasional political overtones). Through what appeared to be an objective chronology of events, exhibitions, writings, and ideas, Six Yearspresented a remarkable catalogue of groundbreaking work by young artists challenging the status quo of the art world. The exhibition, which will include some 173 works, will be arranged chronologically, with sections focusing on each of the years covered in Lippard's landmark book, along with a concluding section exploring the relationship between Conceptual and feminist art.Videos