ABSTRACT
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the seizures that affected political actions and philosophical positions also changed the production and perception of art. There was an advancing restlessness with the structures, constrictions, and hypocrisy of the commodity-based conventions of art-making and acquisition. An altered and expanded way of thinking about art emerged, one that extended beyond the characteristics of the object to the situations and environments in which art was developed. This climate of agitation generated a context for art outside the regulated contours and operations of galleries and museums-that of unmanaged and unpredictable outdoor spaces. For some artists this new frontier was a way to engage the complexities and ambiguities of public life in a private age; for others it offered a means to reintegrate art and architecture, and art and life.
