Mel Ramsden, Conceptual Art Pioneer and Art & Language Co-Founder, Dies at 79
Mel Ramsden, a key figure in conceptual art and a member of the Art & Language group, passed away on July 23, 2024, at the age of 79 in Middleton Cheney, England. He was born in 1944 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and moved to Australia after World War II, returning to England following his father's death. Ramsden studied at both Nottingham School of Art and Crafts and Melbourne's National Gallery School, where he met Ian Burn. In 1965, he relocated to London and then to New York in 1967, co-founding the Society for Theoretical Art and Analyses in 1969. Collaborating with Baldwin and Harrison, he exhibited widely. Art & Language received a Turner Prize nomination in 1986, and a study of the collective is set to be released in early 2025.
Key facts
- Mel Ramsden died on July 23, 2024, at age 79 in Middleton Cheney, England
- He was born in 1944 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire
- He co-founded the Society for Theoretical Art and Analyses in New York in 1969 with Ian Burn
- Art & Language was founded by Michael Baldwin, Terry Atkinson, Harold Hurrell, and David Bainbridge
- Ramsden returned to England in 1977 and collaborated with Michael Baldwin and Charles Harrison for nearly five decades
- Art & Language was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1986
- A major study of Art & Language by Paul Wood and Michael Baldwin will be published in early 2025
- The largest collection of Art & Language's work is at the Château – musée d’art contemporain de Montsoreau in France
Entities
Artists
- Mel Ramsden
- Ian Burn
- Michael Baldwin
- Terry Atkinson
- Harold Hurrell
- David Bainbridge
- Joseph Kosuth
- Charles Harrison
- Paul Wood
- Jackson Pollock
- V.I. Lenin
Institutions
- Art & Language
- Society for Theoretical Art and Analyses
- Artpress
- School of Art and Crafts Nottingham
- National Gallery School Melbourne
- Centre Pompidou
- Tate Gallery
- MACBA
- Stedelijk Museum
- Museum of Modern Art
- Château – musée d’art contemporain de Montsoreau
- The Fox
- Art-Language
Locations
- Middleton Cheney
- England
- Ilkeston
- Derbyshire
- Australia
- Nottingham
- Melbourne
- London
- New York
- Paris
- France
- Barcelona
- Amsterdam
- Montsoreau
Sources
- artpress —