The Studio

With the emergence of conceptual art in the mid-1960s, the traditional notion of the studio became at least partly obsolete. Other sites emerged for the generation of art, leading to the idea of "post-studio practice." But the studio never went away; it was continually reinvented in response to new realities. This collection, expanding on current critical interest in issues of production and situation, looks at the evolution of studio--and "post-studio"--practice over the last half century. In recent decades many artists have turned their studios into offices from which they organize a multiplicity of operations and interactions. Others use the studio as a quasi-exhibition space, or work on a laptop computer--mobile, flexible, and ready to follow the next commission. Among the topics surveyed here are the changing portrayal and experience of the artist´s role since 1960; the diversity of current studio and post-studio practice; the critical strategies of artists who have used the studio situation as the subject or point of origin for their work; the insights to be gained from archival studio projects; and the expanded field of production that arises from responding to new conditions in the world outside the studio. The essays and artists´ statements in this volume explore these questions with a focus on examining the studio´s transition from a workshop for physical production to a space with potential for multiple forms of creation and participation.