A Manton Centre book launch for Victoria Horne, editor of Counter Print: The Alternative Art Press in Britain after 1970.
The history of contemporary art is also a history of its newsletters, manifestos, magazines, pamphlets, and journals. Those periodical publications have not simply communicated or recorded ideas but have worked in exciting ways to shape art’s practices, histories and communities. Presenting a cracked mirror or counter-print to codified accounts, the alternative press emerged as a site for critical assessment, scrutiny and inspection, while forming a vibrant record of contemporary art in the making. Contributions to this book launch event will share new research about Black Phoenix, Spare Rib, Feminist Arts News, Artscribe, Bazaar, Mukti, Format Photography Agency, Urban Fox Press, Inventory, e-flux,and The White Pube. A roundtable discussion will reflect on the history of the periodical art press and the ways we study those artefacts today.
Organised by Professor Steve Edwards, Manton Professor of British Art and Director of the Manton Centre for British Art, The Courtauld.
With contributions from:
Victoria Horne is Assistant Professor of Arts at Northumbria University in Newcastle. In addition to editing Counter Print, her first monograph, Writing Our Own Art History: Feminist Arts News, 1989-1993, is forthcoming with Manchester University Press.