Title: Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object
Author: Lucy R. Lippard
Publishers: Praeger, New York, 1973
Format: 280 pages, 17.8 x 2.3 x 21.6 cm, English
Accompanying essay: Anna-Sophie Springer, Volumes: The Book as Exhibition, in: C Magazine, Issue 116, 2012, 36-44.
ISBN: 978-0-5202-1013-4 (actual version)
In Six Years Lucy R. Lippard documents the chaotic network of ideas that has been labeled conceptual art. The book is arranged as an annotated chronology into which is woven a rich collection of original documents—including texts by and taped discussions among and with the artists involved and by Lippard, who has also provided a new preface for this edition. The result is a book with the character of a lively contemporary forum that offers an invaluable record of the thinking of the artists—a historical survey and essential reference book for the period.
Full title of the book:
Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972: a cross-reference book of information on some esthetic boundaries: consisting of a bibliography into which are inserted a fragmented text, art works, documents, interviews, and symposia, arranged chronologically and focused on so-called conceptual or information or idea art with mentions of such vaguely designated areas as minimal, anti-form, systems, earth, or process art, occurring now in the Americas, Europe, England, Australia, and Asia (with occasional political overtones) edited and annotated by Lucy R. Lippard.
From the accompanying essay (see above):
“An even more radical gesture by Lippard, however, is the retroactive anthology Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972 (1973)—a book that in hindsight Lippard herself states ‘is probably the best show I’ve ever curated—a show that includes other shows…. works of art and projects and panels and publications and whatever came along that I liked.’ While simultaneously defining an epoch of art, Lippard creates a new form of the art history book: a catalogue for an exhibition that never happened but which stands in for the exhibition itself.”