Art Strike 1990-1993
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Campaign launched in 1986 by Stewart Home which called upon all artists to cease their artistic work between January 1, 1990 and January 1, 1993. Unlike the art strikes proposed by Gustav Metzger and the Art Worker Coalition in the 1960s, it was not merely a boycott of art institutions through artists, but a provocation of artists addressing their understanding of art and their identity as artists.
The Art Strike 1990-1993 campaign received next to no attention in contemporary gallery and museum art, but resonated chiefly in artistic subcultures, above all Neoism and Mail Art. "Art Strike Action Committees", often run by single activists, existed in London, Ireland, Baltimore and Albany/NY. An Art Strike newsletter "YAWN" was anonymously published by Lloyd Dunn in Iowa City and appeared in forty five issues during the strike period.
[edit] External links
- YAWN archive with all issues of the Art Strike newsletter as freely downloadable PDF files
- The Art Strike Papers, 1991 sourcebook with essays and news coverage on the Art Strike 1990-1993, edited by Stewart Home and with a preface of James Mannox
- Archive of Art Strike materials from an early Neoist website
- Essay by Shawn P. Wilbur, What Means this "Art Strike"? (Social Movement and/or "Bad Idea"?)