Masterpieces: Out of the Seventies

About the exhibition
Curated by participating artist Peter Cripps, this tightly focused exhibition presented five artists for whom a single object or image was no longer an adequate vehicle for ideas. Their experimental approaches emerged in the 1970s, and, according to Cripps, the conceptual rather than formal basis for their works made it necessary to use several objects to convey different aspects of an idea or theory. This resulted in serial, cumulative, durational or repetitious art forms—as seen in works such as Sam Schoenbaum’s One Year’s Work,1973, a literal presentation of one year in the artist’s life in journal form, written from factual, objective and subjective viewpoints. Given this curatorial interest in works made up of component parts, the exhibition itself unfolded in parts, first opening with a group of contemporary works, followed by one historical work by each artist being introduced to the exhibition each week for the remaining five-week exhibition period.

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
MUMA’s online archive is expanding. We welcome your feedback and input. Please contact muma.communications@monash.edu with any information that could help enrich the archive for future audiences.

^{Image: Photograph of Peter Tyndall with detail of his work, A Person Looks at a Work of Art / Someone Looks at Something… 1975. Image sourced from exhibition catalogue}