Must the visual arts be visual? According to Ian Wilson, the answer is no. What seems perhaps an absurd question stems from the modernist impulse to isolate those characteristics unique to the visual arts experience. With the advent of conceptualism, artists began questioning what form, if any, ideas should assume; for the most orthodox members of the movement, nothing was off limits.
Wilson takes this repudiation of the physical and the aesthetic to the furthest extreme. For him, it is not enough to say that the visual arts do not have to be visual. Nor is it enough to say that they could assume the form of language. Following a self-reflexive logic, Wilson asserts that questions about art can themselves be art. In 1968, the artist held his first Discussion in Lawrence Weiner’s studio, and since then the unrecorded conversation has been his only medium.
Over more than 45 years, Wilson has conducted Discussions in galleries, museums, and homes internationally. Neither recorded nor transcribed, their only physical manifestation is a signed certificate attesting to their existence. In a 2002 interview, he explained, “I am interested in the shape of ideas as they are expressed, spontaneously, at the moment itself. By concentrating on spoken language as an art form I have become more distinctly aware that I as an artist am a part of the world.
Ian Wilson was born in South Africa 1940, moved to the United States in 1960, and lived in New York City from 1966 to 1986. He has exhibited internationally since the mid-1960s, and has engaged in Discussions at venues including John Weber Gallery, New York (1972–76); Konrad Fischer Galerie, Dusseldorf (1970, 1972); the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles (1971); New York University, New York (1971, 1977); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1970, 1975); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1976–83, 1985, 1986, 2005, 2009); Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany (1982); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1981, 2005); Galerie Jan Mot, Brussels (2004, 2006, 2008, 2011); Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf (2005); Peter Blum Gallery, New York (2007); Swiss Institute, New York (2007); Yvon Lambert Galery, New York (2007); Museion Bolzano (2008); Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia (2009); Galerie Jan Mot and Galleria Massimo Minini at Art Basel 41 (2010); Dia:Chelsea, New York (2013); and Dia:Beacon (2011-15), Beacon, NY. Wilson lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.
