Keith Arnatt

Keith Arnatt (1930-2008) was one of the most influential British artists in the Conceptual Art scene in the 70s. His first works are installations where he questions the legitimacy of the artistic phenomenon, performances such as Self-Burial (1968) where the artist shows a sequence in which he progressively disappears by burying himself, questioning himself about the artist’s ritual and selfish behavior in artistic production, where, paradoxically, the existence of art would still be possible after the artist’s total disappearance.

Like many other conceptual artists linked to the Happening movement, Arnatt used photography to document his own performances, and although he only ironically referred to himself as a photographer, he has left an interesting work that includes, in addition to his performances, landscape photography series (” AONB -Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty “), documentary (” Miss Grace’s Lane “), typologies (” Walking the Dog “or” Gardeners “), portrait or abstractions (” Pictures from a Rubbish Tip “).

A.O.N.B corresponds to the official nomenclature for designating in the United Kingdom certain rural areas of landscape interest and of recognized national importance. The Arnatt series “A.O.N.B. -Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” (1982-4), although it retains a certain picturesque air that seems to connect with the British landscape tradition, includes dissonancies in the composition -evidences of human presence and use of the enviroment-, which vanish any idyllic or pastoral feeling that the scene could convey.

It also impacts the use of color and composition in his two series: “Miss Grace’s Lane” (1986-7) and “Pictures from a Rubbish Tip” (1988-9); In the first one, the author joins the photographic genre that explores the areas of conflict between man and nature -the liminal spaces of a previous article-, and in the second one he proposes an exploration of the visual possibilities of a pile of waste by means of the use of the camera as a recording device.