ART & LANGUAGE
Fondation CAB presents an exhibition dedicated to the Art & Language movement, in collaboration with Mulier Mulier Gallery and with the presence of Michael Baldwin, founding member and key figure of the collective. This exhibition pays tribute to sixty years of experimentation, debate, and intellectual provocation that have shaped the history of conceptual art.
Created in 1968 in Coventry, Great Britain, Art & Language is a collective of British and American artists whose founding members are Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin, and Harold Hurrell. Joined as early as 1969 by artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Mel Ramsden, and Charles Harrison, the group played a decisive role in the development of conceptual art. Formed in reaction to abstract expressionism, centered on gesture and emotion, Art & Language placed language and concept at the heart of the artwork. Rather than the object, it is the idea, the text, and critical reflection that become the work itself.
The exhibition brings together works, texts, scores, paintings, and objects covering the period 1965–2025, retracing the major stages of a collective adventure made up of experimentation, debate, and intellectual provocation. Each piece testifies to the way in which Art & Language transformed critique into artistic material and redefined the very notions of the artwork and the artist.
This exhibition is accompanied by the publication of the Art & Language Monograph, published by Mercatorfonds, a critical and visual volume bringing together essays, archives, and works. On the occasion of the opening, Michael Baldwin will give a speech reflecting on the history of the collective.
