Artfrom: Researching the Canon Through Publications of Art and Design

Abstract

Contributors Inc. is a collaborative archive-based artistic research project with a very specific focus: what can working only with the information from the contents pages of magazines of art and culture reveal about art’s critical history and canon? Cabell and Stubbs initially established the project because this information so obviously highlighted the gender imbalance in the contributors of art magazines. After the publication of their project in Cabinet, however, Contributors Inc. broadened their remit as they realised the potential of this information to communicate the shifting commercial and political concerns in art over time in relation to its limited constitution and obvious bias. While the text on these pages is freely available, their aim is to move beyond surface explorations and use this information to make visible the hidden structures of the canon. This project asks: whose concerns and editorial decisions are reflected? How often does a single reviewer write? How often does a single artist get reviewed? What shape does this give to the magazine’s references? How does this affect art’s critical archive? This chapter outlines the research undertaken for, and process of creating, the companion works Arton and Artfrom. Both use the specific case study of Artforum magazine’s contents pages to visualise its critics, the frequency of their voices appearing in the magazine over time, and the breadth of artists they review. Exemplified with reference to both of these works, the chapter discusses which voices and themes have dominated the magazine and how this constitutes its authority in the Western art canon. In conclusion, Contributors Inc. discuss what actions artists and researchers may undertake to acknowledge these structures as they work. As Andrea Fraser notes in a recent interview, ‘You can only change what is present in the here and now of your engagement with it.’