From Conceptualism to Feminism

"With a main essay by Cornelia Butler and including 140 black-and-white images. Additional contributions by Pip Day and Sabeth Buchmann, interviews with Lucy Lippard and Seth Siegelaub, archival texts by Peter Plagens, Griselda Pollock and Caroline Tisdall and interviews with artists Eleanor Antin, Agnes Denes, Alice Aycock and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Four exhibitions of contemporary art curated by Lucy Lippard have become known as her 'numbers shows'. Each took the population of the city in which it was shown as its title: '557,087' in Seattle, '955,000' in Vancouver, '2,972,453' in Buenos Aires and 'c.7,500' in Valencia, California, before touring the US and to London. This third title in the Exhibition Histories series examines the numbers shows and follows Lippard's trajectory as critique and curator, tracing her growing political engagement and involvement with feminism. Extensive archival material is complemented by a new essay by Cornelia Butler and interviews with Lippard, Seth Siegelaub and exhibiting artists as well as critical responses written at the time by Peter Plagens and Griselda Pollock. The volume also includes an essay by Pip Day analysing artists' initiatives in Argentina as a context for Lippard's emerging political consciousness. The Exhibition Histories series investigates exhibitions that have shaped the way contemporary art is experienced, made and discussed."--Publisher.