John Latham Powerpoint

1. ‘ Sum Of All Human Knowledge’: The Pursuit of Truth in The Work of John Latham (1921-2006) By Kimberley Campisano

3. Man Caught Up with Yellow Object, 1954 His theories, often developed in collaboration with his wife, Barbara Stevani and others, were generally concerned with the structure of events in time: ‘flat-time’ (time experienced as a linear fabric in a roller that accumulates events), and ‘Event Structure’. ‘Event Structure’ suggests that the most basic component of reality is not the particle, as understood through physics, but a ‘least event’ or the shortest departure from a state of nothing. (P.S.1) A concern with time and the search for the ‘le ast event ’ led him to the use of explosive du st-cloud spray gun instant paintings. He was, in 1954, the first ‘ fi ne artist ’ to use spray paint.

5. This was a simple recognition that printed language could not adequately describe an event-based reality. Also in 1966, Latham initiated a participatory event that helped to shape his reputation further, as well as to get him fired from his teaching position at St. Martin’s School of Art: And I was trying to say look, the dimensional framework is simply misunderstood. Three dimensions of space is inert and it is purely for the business of measuring up. Otherwise it doesn’t show us what is going on. But I invited a number of these members ( students) of the College to my place to party, and the party was called ‘Still and Chew’. I knew what was going to happen. And they were presented with a book out of the library by Clement Greenberg and it was called ‘Art and Culture’, and I had picked it as one of the relevant titles to have them chew up. And they were asked to tear a page off, and chew it and put the residue in a little flask. I had signed for this book in the library’s register, and it took them six months to tell me that they wanted it back. And it was only then that I was able to get the distillation going, and took it back and presented it in a little phial - I had to even squirt the liquid in there. Anyway I said ‘this is the book’. (Latham in Jakobsen)

6. Toward a Phd for Dogs, 1977 It is not difficult to see the connection between the material embodiment of intellectual pulp produced by Latham and his St. Martin’s students in Still and Chew and the growing debate between the primacy of process over object. The vial and correspondence are now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

9. God Is Great #4 Latham’s work seems to have finally found a home in the 21 st Century that may not have been fully afforded him in the 20 th through two recent retrospectives (one posthumous). In 2005, the Tate Britain installed a multi-decade retrospective, John Latham in Focus, that featured a new body of work, God is Great and Belief Systems as Such . This series involves the holy texts of the three Abrahamic faiths (the Talmud, the New Testament, and the Qu’ran) along with various configurations of glass, some shattered. The shattering of glass and its symbolic role in the dissecting of knowledge that occurs in his God Is Great series derives from his belief that violence and conflict between the people of the world is the result of ideological differences.

11. God Is Great #1, 1989 All books figure, to some extent as symbolic repositories of knowledge, many of which are helpful guides, others didactic treatises. But all contain only partial truths and are, therefore, like humans, the more flawed the more they claim or imply the ‘tr uth ’ . In 2006, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, New York presented Time Base and the Universe , an exhibition of 30 works spanning 50 years. Organized in collaboration with the artist and John Hansard Gallery at Southampton University, it opened mere months after his passing. Latham was finally recognized by the curator, David Thorp as " an artist's artist. His significance places him between Joseph Beuys and Robert Rauschenberg as someone whose ideas and influence have helped to shape late twentieth century art." (P.S.1)

12. Belief System #1, 1959 On a personal note, when I came upon an artist whose concern (obsession?) with time led him into a long life that veered ever further from normal discourse, and whose career has either directly or indirectly been part of most late 20 th century art movements, I was most touched by never having known about him before “ in part because (he) fell through the cracks of the stylistic categories in which postwar art was commonly divided. ” (Schimmel, 53) That irony seems all the more poignant, as his life pursuit was the search for a unified theory that transcended false divisions of human knowledge and disciplinary practices.

13. Film Star, 1960

14. Philosophy and the Practice of, 1960 I too have questioned the comprehensibility of discursive language without denying its ability to make meaning widely available. Isn’t that a good thing? And yet, what have we accomplished if it is not recorded for posterity? The implications are vast and personal – political in scope. For if faulty impressions become truths, and theories become unalterable, how do we determine which ‘fa cts on the ground ’ to devote our attention to?

15. Painting is an Open Book, 1961 Often curious and difficult to decipher, Latham’s’ criticism of the art market, integration of the multiple domains and art media, science and philosophy remains challenging and rewarding. I am fortunate to have discovered some one who was there all along and one who, the more he attempted to identify and articulate a unifying ‘tr uth ’ , the more he became illegible.