Secret Painting

Secret Painting, is a series of contemporary art works by Mel Ramsden (member of the british conceptual artists' collective Art & Language) created between 1967 and 1968. These contemporary art works all consist of a monochrome painting associated with a text panel.[1]

Secret Painting
Art & Language (Mel Ramsden), Secret Painting, 1967.
ArtistArt & Language
Mel Ramsden
Year1967
TypePainting
MovementConceptual Art
LocationTate Modern
National Gallery of Victoria
Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art

The Secret Painting Series

This series of monochrome paintings is distinguished from the monochrome paintings usually produced in the field of visual arts by the accompanying block of text. This text mentions:

The content of this painting is invisible: the character and dimension of the content are to be kept permanently secret, known only to the artist.

— [2]

.

It is at the same time, a reference to the history of monochrome painting and Malevich's Black Square (1915), and an answer given by Mel Ramsden to the paintings of Ad Reinhardt[3] (1913-1967), an American painter and theoretician, a precursor of conceptual and minimal art.

Critical Analyses

These paintings raise the question of the status of the art object and the play that is established between the artist and the visitor in the possible revelation of a content.[4] To his great amusement, during the exhibition 1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art Ann Stephen (PhD and Chief Curator of the University of Sydney Art Museum) said:

I've known Secret Paintings for a long time, but looking at the back, I suddenly realized that there was indeed a secret painting; there is a panel underneath with a secret painting

— [5]

.

Exhibitions

References
  1. "Secret painting | Mel RAMSDEN | NGV | View Work". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  2. Deutsch; Français. "Secret painting, (1967-1968) by Art & Language :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  3. Hopkins, David (2006). Neo-avant-garde. Rodopi. ISBN 9789042021259. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  4. "Conceptual art in Britain 1964-1979". Tate. April 2016. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  5. Galvin, Nick (2013-08-14). "Revisiting what shocked the art world in 1969". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
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