Working Conditions: The Writings of Hans Haacke

by Hans Haacke, Alexander Alberro (Editor)

Overview

Texts by Hans Haacke that range from straightforward descriptions of his artworks to wide-ranging reflections on the relationship between art and politics.

Hans Haacke's art articulates the interdependence of multiple elements. An artwork is not merely an object but is also its context—the economic, social, and political conditions of the art world and the world at large. Among his best-known works are MoMA-Poll (1970), which polled museumgoers on their opinions about Nelson Rockefeller and the Nixon administration's Indochina policy; Gallery-Goers' Birthplace and Residence Profile (1969), which canvassed visitors to the Howard Wise Gallery in Manhattan; and the famously canceled 1971 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, which was meant to display, among other things, works on two New York real estate empires.

This volume collects writings by Haacke that explain and document his practice. The texts, some of which have never before been published, run from straightforward descriptions to wide-ranging reflections and full-throated polemics. They include correspondence with MoMA and the Guggenheim and a letter refusing to represent the United States at the 1969 São Paulo Biennial; the title piece, “Working Conditions,” which discusses corporate influence on the art world; Haacke's thinking about “real-time social systems”; and texts written for museum catalogs on various artworks, including GERMANIA, in the German Pavilion of the 1993 Venice Biennial; DER BEVÖLKERUNG (To the Population) of 2000 at the Berlin Reichstag; Mixed Messages, an exhibition of objects from the Victoria and Albert Museum (2001); and Gift Horse, unveiled on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2015.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262034838
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/21/2016
Series:	Writing Art
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hans Haacke is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York. From 1967 to 2002, he taught at The Cooper Union.

Alexander Alberro is Virginia Bloedel Wright Professor of Art History at Barnard College. He is the author of Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity and the coeditor of Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology, both published by The MIT Press.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction: Hans Haacke and the Rules of the Game Alexander Alberro ix

Writings

1 Untitled Statement, "We angrily resented …," 1960s 1

2 "Observing My Mirror Objects," 1962 2

3 Untitled Statement, "There is only a small difference …," 1963 4

4 Untitled Statement, "…make something which experiences…," 1965 5

5 Untitled Statement, "I have partially filled …," 1965 6

6 Blue Sail, 1965 7

7 Untitled Statement, "The label 'Kinetic Art'…," 1967 9

8 Untitled Statement, "For some years …," 1967 10

9 Untitled Statement, "In the mind of the public …," 1967 12

10 Untitled Talk at Annual Meeting of Intersocietal Color Council, New York, April 1968 14

11 Nachrichten, 1969-1970 26

12 Environment Transplant, 1969 27

13 Statement on refusing to participate in São Paulo Biennial, 1969 29

14 MOMA-Poll, 1970 31

15 Jeanne Siegel, "An Interview with Hans Haacke," 1971 33

16 "Correspondence: Guggenheim," 1971 41

17 Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, 1971 45

18 "Provisional Remarks," 1971 48

19 Rheinwasseraufbereititngsanlage (Rhine Water Purification Plant), 1972 62

20 "Polls 1969-1973" 1973 63

21 No-Man's Land, 1973-1974 66

22 "All the 'Art' That's Fit to Show," 1974 67

23 Manet-PROJEKT '74, 1974 70

24 "The Constituency," 1976 75

25 "The Agent," 1977 81

26 "Working Conditions," 1979-1980 83

27 Untitled Statement, 1980 101

28 Oelgemaelde: Hommage à Marcel Broodthaers, 1982 102

29 "On Yves Klein. 20 years later," 1982 104

30 Taking Stock (unfinished), 1983-1984 109

31 "Museums, Managers of Consciousness," 1983 111

32 U.S. Isolation Box, Granada, 1983, 1984 125

33 MetroMobiltan, 1985 127

34 Les must de Rembrandt, 1986 130

35 "And You Were Victorious After All: History of Project," 1988 132

36 '"La trahison des images': Answers to Two Questions from Jean Papineau," 1989 139

37 Calligraphic, 1989/2011 148

38 "German-German," 1990 150

39 "Caught between Revolver and Checkbook," 1993 152

40 "Gondola! Gondola!" 1993 159

41 "The Eagle from 1972 to the Present," 1994 172

42 "Free Exchange," 1994, with Pierre Bourdieu (excerpts) 176

43 Unpublished letter to Richard Koshalek, 1995 188

44 ViewingMatters, 1996 190

45 Der Bevölkerung (To the Population), 1999 192

46 Der Bevölkerung, 2001 195

47 Mixed Messages, 2001 205

48 "Public Sights," 2001 209

49 Life Goes On, 2005 214

50 Unpublished, "Celebration of the Peace Tower," 2006 215

51 West Bank, 1994-27th Year of Occupation, 2007-2009 218

52 "Lessons Learned," 2009 221

53 The Invisible Hand of the Market, 2009 236

54 "Interview with Cecilia Alemani," 2010 237

55 Once Upon a Time, 2010 243

56 "Hans Haacke Responds to Questions from Texte zur Kunst" 2010 245

57 "Arrested Development," 2012 250

58 Gift Horse (Proposal), 2012 254

59 "Re: The Nod," 2014 256

Notes 257

Index 269

What People are Saying About This

Andrea Fraser

I have often asked myself, What would Hans Haacke do? For over half a century, Haacke has served as the artistic, ethical, and political compass of the art field. This long-overdue collection of his writings will serve as an indispensible guide for artists, curators, critics and historians for generations to come.

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh

Hans Haacke's singular distinction is of the hard won, genuine kind, an eminent isolation shared in the twentieth century perhaps only by John Heartfield and Piero Manzoni (two figures of greatest importance for his own formation). Since the late 1960s, he diagnosed contexts of culture that nobody had seen (e.g., the necessary politics of ecology), and was the single voice in analyzing the economies of corporate culture nobody wanted to see. Equally blocked from American institutional recognition as he was isolated from art historical contexts (neither accepted as Minimalist nor as Conceptual artist), Haacke is now all the more distinguished by the impact his works and his writings have had on two generations of artists who have followed his models of critical analysis and cultural contestation, ranging from Martha Rosler to Allan Sekula, from Louise Lawler to Mark Lombardi, from Walid Raad to Hito Steyerl.

Manuel Borja-Villel

Haacke is undoubtedly an essential figure in the art of the last half century. For him, artistic practice, politics, and the institution are inextricably linked, and cannot be understood in isolation from each other. He has been among the artists who have reflected most penetratingly on the artist's conditions of production. This book, an exhaustive compilation of his writings, provides a unique insight into his work, and so illuminates our era.

Caroline A. Jones

With this book, we now have a full collection of Haacke's crucial statements, allowing the span of his career from systems art to institutional critique to be fully assessed.As pithy as they are indispensable, Haacke's writings capture the fierce ethics that he has always brought to his practice—now summarized in a useful introduction by Alex Alberro.

Endorsement

I have often asked myself,What would Hans Haacke do? For over half a century, Haacke has served as the artistic, ethical, and political compass of the art field. This long-overdue collection of his writings will serve as an indispensible guide for artists, curators, critics and historians for generations to come.

—Andrea Fraser, performance artist; Professor of New Genres in the Department of Art, University of California, Los Angeles; author ofMuseum Highlights

From the Publisher

Hans Haacke's singular distinction is of the hard won, genuine kind, an eminent isolation shared in the twentieth century perhaps only by John Heartfield and Piero Manzoni (two figures of greatest importance for his own formation). Since the late 1960s, he diagnosed contexts of culture that nobody had seen (e.g., the necessary politics of ecology), and was the single voice in analyzing the economies of corporate culture nobody wanted to see. Equally blocked from American institutional recognition as he was isolated from art historical contexts (neither accepted as Minimalist nor as Conceptual artist), Haacke is now all the more distinguished by the impact his works and his writings have had on two generations of artists who have followed his models of critical analysis and cultural contestation, ranging from Martha Rosler to Allan Sekula, from Louise Lawler to Mark Lombardi, from Walid Raad to Hito Steyerl.

—Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University; author of Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry and Formalism and Historicity

Haacke is undoubtedly an essential figure in the art of the last half century. For him, artistic practice, politics, and the institution are inextricably linked, and cannot be understood in isolation from each other. He has been among the artists who have reflected most penetratingly on the artist's conditions of production. This book, an exhaustive compilation of his writings, provides a unique insight into his work, and so illuminates our era.

—Manuel Borja-Villel, Director, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

With this book, we now have a full collection of Haacke's crucial statements, allowing the span of his career from systems art to institutional critique to be fully assessed. As pithy as they are indispensable, Haacke's writings capture the fierce ethics that he has always brought to his practice—now summarized in a useful introduction by Alex Alberro.

—Caroline A. Jones, Professor and Director, History Theory Criticism Section, MIT Architecture Department; curator and author of Hans Haacke 1967

This comprehensive collection of Haacke's trenchant writings demonstrates the full breadth of his concerns–from postformalism to urbanism, ecology to labor relations–as well as the full range of theoretical positions he has drawn on to articulate them, from systems theory to sociology. It also features a number of important, previously unpublished texts, including an early critique of kinetic art and a recent one of speculative property development. An indispensable resource as well as a testament to Haacke's long, politically committed career.

—Luke Skrebowski, Lecturer in Contemporary Art, Department of History of Art, University of Manchester

I have often asked myself, What would Hans Haacke do? For over half a century, Haacke has served as the artistic, ethical, and political compass of the art field. This long-overdue collection of his writings will serve as an indispensible guide for artists, curators, critics and historians for generations to come.

—Andrea Fraser, performance artist; Professor of New Genres in the Department of Art, University of California, Los Angeles; author of Museum Highlights

Luke Skrebowski

This comprehensive collection of Haacke's trenchant writings demonstrates the full breadth of his concerns–from postformalism to urbanism, ecology to labor relations–as well as the full range of theoretical positions he has drawn on to articulate them, from systems theory to sociology. It also features a number of important, previously unpublished texts, including an early critique of kinetic art and a recent one of speculative property development. An indispensable resource as well as a testament to Haacke's long, politically committed career.

Editorial Reviews

Indispensable.—The New York Times—

From the Publisher

Indispensable.

—The New York Times

Reviews

Indispensable.

The New York Times