Laurence Corbel Examines Artists' Writings as Legitimate Discourse

In her essay "Le Discours de l'art," published by Presses universitaires de Rennes, Laurence Corbel argues that artists' writings on their own work constitute a legitimate discourse that rivals that of critics and historians. Corbel expands beyond words in paintings, as explored by Michel Butor, to include the past fifty years of artists' texts, often dismissed as annexes or appendices. She invokes Jacques Rancière's "partage du sensible" to describe how technique is reserved for artists and eloquence for critics. Corbel cites Sol LeWitt's assertion that such phrases "are not art" yet occupy a field of real or virtual mediations. She references Lawrence Weiner's descriptive propositions that can be realized or remain linguistic, Mel Bochner's self-reflection on writing to understand his own work, and Robert Smithson's concept of a "museum of language in the vicinity of art." Corbel posits that artists' language, far from confining art to an elite, opens access to the public like ancient peristyles, allowing artists to speak to everyone without compromising art. The review is by Michel Vignard.