Secret Painting

Secret Painting is a series of artworks created by British conceptual artist Mel Ramsden for the collective Art & Language between 1967 and 1968. The series consists of monochrome paintings juxtaposed with text panels explaining the absence of a conventional subject; for example, one states that the painting in question is invisible.[1][2]

Secret Painting
Secret Painting, 1967
ArtistArt & Language
Mel Ramsden
Year1967-1968
TypePainting
MovementConceptual art
LocationTate Modern
National Gallery of Victoria
Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art

Background and analysis

The series is distinguished from the monochrome paintings usually produced in the field of visual arts by their accompanying block of texts. It references both the history of monochrome painting and Kazimir Malevich's Black Square (1915), as well as functioning as an answer given by Ramsden to the paintings of Ad Reinhardt[3] (1913-1967), an American painter and theoretician, a precursor of conceptual and minimal art.

The series has raised questions of the status of the art object and the play that is established between the artist and the visitor in the possible revelation of content.[4] To his amusement, during the exhibition 1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art, Ann Stephen (PhD and Chief Curator of the University of Sydney Art Museum) said:

I've known Secret Paintings for a long time, but looking at the back, I suddenly realized that there was indeed a secret painting; there is a panel underneath with a secret painting.[5]

Exhibitions

References
  1. "Secret painting | Mel RAMSDEN | NGV | View Work". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  2. Deutsch; Français. "Secret painting, (1967-1968) by Art & Language :: The Collection :: Art Gallery NSW". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  3. Hopkins, David (2006). Neo-avant-garde. Rodopi. ISBN 9789042021259. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  4. "Conceptual art in Britain 1964-1979". Tate. April 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  5. Galvin, Nick (14 August 2013). "Revisiting what shocked the art world in 1969". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
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