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Founded in 1967,
Art & Language is a celebrated conceptual art collective based in the United Kingdom.
Art & Language was created by Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin, and Harold Hurrell, four artists and academics who were based in the West Midlands community of Coventry. Embracing a wide variety of media and techniques, the constantly shifting membership of
Art & Language dedicated themselves to confronting and examining the relationship between artists and spectators. In addition to public presentations of their work, the group also published a journal, Art-Language, that presented their writings and opinions on art and culture. In addition to traditional visual art,
Art & Language has often used literature, performance, and appropriated materials as part of its work. One participant in
Art & Language's projects was
Mayo Thompson, a visual artist who was also a musician, best known for his work with the idiosyncratic Texas psychedelic band
the Red Krayola (aka
the Red Crayola).
Thompson immigrated to England in the '70s, and became a participant in
Art & Language. In addition to producing visual art with the group, he worked with them on musical projects, and after assembling a new edition of
the Red Krayola, the band became frequent collaborators with
A&L. Their first album together, Corrected Slogans, was released in 1976, followed in 1983 by Black Snakes, with featured guest performances from members of
Pere Ubu. (
Thompson was playing guitar with
Pere Ubu at the time.)
Sighs Trapped by Liars, a relatively accessible work featuring contributions from
Jim O'Rourke, was released in 2007, while 2010's
Five American Portraits featured
Thompson and his collaborators performing detourned versions of well-known melodies to accompany surreal tales involving famous figures, among them
John Wayne, Jimmy Carter, and Wile E. Coyote. In 2016,
the Red Krayola and
Art & Language released
Baby and Child Care, an unreleased project from 1984 with the collaborators drawing inspiration from Dr. Benjamin Spock's iconic book on child rearing. ~ Mark Deming