Printed paper on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/keith-arnatt-666" aria-label="More by Keith Arnatt" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Keith Arnatt</a>
Art as an Act Omission
Transferred from Tate Archive 2010

abstraction
D’Arcy, Eric, ‘Human Acts - An Essay in their Moral Evaluation’
education, science and learning
high art
inscriptions
lifestyle and culture
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
non-representational
philosophy
printed text
quotation
society
symbols and personifications
text
<p>The work <span>Art as an Act of Omission </span>1971 quotes from the philosopher Eric D’Arcy’s book <span>Human Acts – An Essay in their Moral Evaluation</span> (1963). D’Arcy considers an omission to be the ‘not-doing’ of something that was expected to be done, leading Arnatt to ask the question: ‘If art is what we do and culture is what is done to us – what would culture do to us if art is what we didn’t do?’ In other words, Arnatt asks that if art was an expected action that was not carried out, how would this particular omission affect our lives, if at all? Arnatt’s presentation of this text has taken a number of forms – here it is printed onto a single panel for wall display, but it also exists as a typed or printed card that Arnatt sent to close friends and colleagues, examples of which can be found in Tate Archive (TGA 830.2.1.12 is a typed postcard to the critic Charles Harrison, postmarked March 1971; TGA 786.5.2.6 is a printed postcard sent to the critic Barbara Reise – undated but sent later, most likely in the same year). It was also reproduced on the back cover of the September 1971 issue of the German art magazine <span>Interfunktionen</span>.</p>
paper print printed board
28 April 2012 – 10 March 2013
2013-03-10
28 April 2012 – 10 March 2013
2013-03-10
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
Charles Harrison and Conceptual Art in Britain
Collection based display
8 March 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
8 March 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
2013-03-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-03-08
Keith Arnatt: Sausages and Food
Collection based display
12 April 2016 – 29 August 2016
2016-08-29
12 April 2016 – 29 August 2016
2016-08-29
2016-04-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-04-12
Conceptual Art in Britain: 1964-1979
Exhibition
Art as an Act of Omission
image: 599 × 504 mm
frame: 650 × 570 × 30 mm
Transferred from Tate Archive 2010

<div class="text">
<p>The work <i>Art as an Act of Omission </i>1971 quotes from the philosopher Eric D’Arcy’s book <i>Human Acts – An Essay in their Moral Evaluation</i> (1963). D’Arcy considers an omission to be the ‘not-doing’ of something that was expected to be done, leading Arnatt to ask the question: ‘If art is what we do and culture is what is done to us – what would culture do to us if art is what we didn’t do?’ In other words, Arnatt asks that if art was an expected action that was not carried out, how would this particular omission affect our lives, if at all? Arnatt’s presentation of this text has taken a number of forms – here it is printed onto a single panel for wall display, but it also exists as a typed or printed card that Arnatt sent to close friends and colleagues, examples of which can be found in Tate Archive (TGA 830.2.1.12 is a typed postcard to the critic Charles Harrison, postmarked March 1971; TGA 786.5.2.6 is a printed postcard sent to the critic Barbara Reise – undated but sent later, most likely in the same year). It was also reproduced on the back cover of the September 1971 issue of the German art magazine <i>Interfunktionen</i>.</p>
<p>A significant aspect of Arnatt’s work at this time addressed ‘non-production’ or ‘not-doing’ as a form of artistic practice. For instance, for the exhibition <i>Idea Structures</i> at the Camden Arts Centre in London in 1970, he presented the text work <i>Is It Possible for Me to Do Nothing as My Contribution to This Exhibition?</i>, alongside <i>Self-Burial</i> <i>(Television Interference Project)</i> 1969 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-self-burial-television-interference-project-t01747" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01747</span></a>). In 1972 the latter work was exhibited as part of Arnatt’s participation in <i>Seven Exhibitions</i> at the Tate Gallery with the title <i>The Disappearance of the Artist</i>. Later in 1970 he sent a card to Charles Harrison on which was typed ‘10.9.70.   8.25pm. THE DECISION TO DO NO ART WORK FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD OF TIME IS THE WORK (the work ceases to exist upon production of a subsequent work)’. This card is also in Tate Archive (TGA 839.12.1.11).</p>
<p>
<i>Art as an Act of Omission</i> is one of a group of existing materials that were proposed by Keith Arnatt at the time of his participation in <i>Seven Exhibitions</i> at the Tate Gallery, London in 1972. Other works that were exhibited alongside it included <i>Invisible Hole Revealed by the Shadow of the Artist </i>1968 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-invisible-hole-revealed-by-the-shadow-of-the-artist-p13145" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P13145</span></a>), <i>Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of his Former Self </i>1969–72 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-shadow-of-his-former-self-p13143" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P13143</span></a>), <i>Art as an Act of Retraction </i>1971 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-art-as-an-act-of-retraction-p13140" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P13140</span></a>), <i>I Have Decided to Go to the Tate Gallery next Friday </i>1971 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-i-have-decided-to-go-to-the-tate-gallery-next-friday-p13142" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P13142</span></a>, exhibited with the title <i>Tate Work</i>), <i>Rejected Proposal for the Peter Stuyvesant ‘City Sculpture Project’ (For Cardiff City) </i>1972 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arnatt-rejected-proposal-for-the-peter-stuyvesant-city-sculpture-project-for-cardiff-city-p13141" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P13141</span></a>), <i>Self-Burial (Television Interference Project)</i> 1969 (Tate <span>T01747</span>, exhibited with the title <i>The Disappearance of the Artist</i>), <i>2448000–0000000</i> 1969/1972 (described as ‘an “exhibition” of the duration of the exhibition by the following means: a digital count-down system will count down the duration of the exhibition in seconds’), <i>Type-Token </i>1970, <i>Art and Egocentricity – a perlocutionary act? </i>1971 and <i>Tate Gallery Staff Exhibition</i> 1972. The content of the exhibition changed during its run. Because of widespread power-cuts at the start of the exhibition, <i>2448000–0000000</i> was initially replaced by <i>Tate Gallery Staff Exhibition</i>, though this – a presentation of the staff cards of all employees of the gallery – was removed after three days and it is thought that <i>2448000–0000000</i> was activated on the seventh day of the exhibition. In their range, the works brought together as Arnatt’s presentation for <i>Seven Exhibitions</i>  illustrate the move in his work from the making of situational sculptures to a documentation of actions that question – through a linking of philosophical text with image – the status of art and the role and identity of the artist, whom Arnatt shows to be in different states of disappearance. This work was transferred from the Tate Gallery Archive in 2010.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Seven Exhibitions</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1972.<br/>
<i>The New Art</i>, exhibition catalogue, Hayward Gallery, London 1972.<br/>
<i>I’m a Real Photographer: Keith Arnatt Photographs 1974–2002</i>, exhibition catalogue, Photographer’s Gallery, London 2007.<br/>
<i>Conceptual Art in Britain 1964–1979</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2016, p.48, reproduced p.49.</p>
<p>Andrew Wilson<br/>May 2010<br/>Revised February and July 2019, December 2020</p>
</div>

Summary
2021-06-14T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction D’Arcy, Eric, ‘Human Acts - An Essay in their Moral Evaluation’ education, science and learning high art inscriptions lifestyle and culture literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) non-representational philosophy printed text quotation society symbols and personifications text