Ian Burn, Dialogue: Writings in art history
Dialogue, a compilation of Ian Burn's writings, indicates the extent of his contribution to Australian art history. Burn is not only a writer but an important figure in the minimal and conceptual art movements of the 1960s and '70s . Remarkably, in spite of this, his work has gained little attention in Australia until recently. During 1992-93 a large retrospective exhibition of his works will be exhibited in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Unfortunately this excellent and historically important exhibition will not be coming to Brisbane.
Dialogue shows that not only is Burn one of Australia 's most important contemporary artists, but also a very important art theorist. Both his art practice and his writing exhibit a highly critical stance and in Dialogue it is clear that he understands art first and foremost as a critical discourse which should question its role in society.
There are seventeen essays in the book, written during the 1970s and 1 980s, and through these essays two basic themes recur. The first is the authoritarianism of institutionalised art in the form of art history, the museum, nationalism, corporate capitalism, and the mechanical reproduction of 'international ' styles. Set against this oppressive background of institutional hegemony is Burn's optimistic contention that art still retains within it the capacity for resistance and critique, and the most important contribution of his writings is evident in his descriptions of the ways in which artists can cope with an all-consuming institutionalized context.
His fundamental argument is that art ought to promote difference. According to Burn, the common factor of all the authoritarian systems which make up the world of art is their homogenizing function. For example, in "The Art