Exhibition at the Stendhal Gallery

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Dadaland, Fluxus, Mail-Art and Rubber Stamps. Video of the exhibition at the Stendhal Gallery, New York. Curator: John Held Jr. April 15th till May 29th 2010. Video by Ruud Janssen

New books

On the Webshop from TAM-Publications (see besides this text) you will notice that two new books bave been published this month:

1. The lecture I gave at the Stendhal Gallery in New York was based on two sources: The essay I wrote for the Gallery and a slideshow I used at the Willem de Kooning Art Academy. I combined these two sources. The lecture was recorded on video by 3 sources (Mark Bloch, USA - Larry Miller - USA, Cecil Touchon - Canada). To make the sources available I made a 110 pages book out of these. Download of the files is currently for free.



2. The IUOMA was 20 years old. The period 1988-2008 is documented with a book containing texts by Ruud Janssen, Vittore Baroni, Wilma Duguay, Tulio Restrepo, Geert de Decker and John held Jr. Lots of illustration from the rich history of the IUOMA. Also for this book the material the download will be free for the first time.

see: http://stores.lulu.com/iuoma

Fluxus Holland Stamp

Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps

Greetings from Daddaland: Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps
Stendhal Gallery
New York, New York

April 15- May 29, 2010

Stendhal Gallery will present the exhibition, “Greetings from Daddaland: Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps,” opening April 15 – May 29. The exhibition is drawn from the collections of John Held, Jr. of San Francisco and Picasso (Daddaland) Gaglione of Chicago, collectively known as The Fake Picabia Brothers.

Gaglione and Held presented a showcase for Fluxus, Mail Art and rubber stamp art at The Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco during the mid-nineties. The current exhibition documents the gallery’s activities through posters, exhibition catalogs, performance documentation, mail art, artist postage stamps and rubber stamp box sets made to commemorate the various exhibitions.

Coupling his passion for collecting sets of antique rubber stamps (dating from the 1920s), and his penchant for Fluxus inspired works, Gaglione began creating rubber stamp box sets to accompany exhibitions by contemporary artists and to honor historic figures of the 20th Century avant-garde, who had influenced his artistic practice.

In putting together the rubber stamp box sets, Gaglione and Held followed the example of Fluxus impresario George Maciunas in his production of Flux-Kits. These inexpensive yet elegent multiple editions set the tone for the production of these post-Fluxus editions.

In the production of the rubber stamp boxed sets, Gaglione and Held, worked closely with noted art historians. Their exploration of Yves Klein’s “Blue Stamp,” created and mailed for a 1957 gallery exhibition, brought them into contact with the late Pierre Restany, the French critic who formulated Nouveau Realism. Their work on the history of French/American artist Arman, lead Held to the artist’s studio in New York City, where he not only was interviewed, but created original drawings to be made into rubber stamps.

By the time the Stamp Art Gallery closed in late 1997, Fluxus related rubber stamp box sets produced included “George Macunias: Passport Photographs by Peter Moore” (1996), “Belgium Fluxus by Luce Fierens” (1996), “Jeff Berner: Self Portrait Stamps” (1997), “Fluxus Commemorative” (1995), “Ken Friedman: Faux Fluxus West Edition” (1995), “Geoffrey Hendricks: Cloudsmith” (1997), “Geoffrey Hendricks: Identification Kit” (1997), “Alison Knowles: St(r)ing Piece” (1996), “Takako Saito: Enjoy Your Life” (1997), “Mieko Shiomi: Endless Music” (1997). Ruud Janssen: TAM Rubberstamp Archive (1996).

In addition to Gaglione and Held’s interest in Fluxus, other box sets mark their interest in Dada (Bay Area Dadaists, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann), Russian Futurism and Constructivism (Zaum poets, Tatlin), Kurt Schwitters, Nouveau Realism (Klein, Arman, Tinguely), Conceptual Art (Dieter Roth, Tom Marioni) and Mail Art (Ray Johnson, buZ blurr, Richard Craven, Ulises Carrion, Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Robin Crozier, Ed Plunkett, Endre Tot and May Wilson).

A complete collection of Stamp Art Gallery catalogs have been previously acquired by the Museum of Modern Art Library, New York. Held has also compiled collections for the Getty Museum and the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The works on display are drawn from his personal collection with new rubber stamp works produced by Gaglione, now living and working in Chicago under the rubric of Stampland.

source: http://stendhalgallery.com/?p=3395

D.I.Y - Stendhal Gallery

D.I.Y. at Stendhal Gallery

Stendhal Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition D.I.Y., which will be on view from May 7 through July 25, 2009. Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6 – 8 pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 06, 2009 – D.I.Y.
Stendhal Gallery
May 7 – July 25, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6 – 8 pm

Stendhal Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition D.I.Y., which will be on view from May 7 through July 25, 2009.

The concept of Do It Yourself began as a philosophy related to the American Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th century in which a search for an authentic, meaningful style was carried out as a reaction to the “soulless” aesthetic that developed out of the Industrial Revolution. A DIY subculture soon followed, explicitly critiquing modern consumer culture while encouraging people to take technologies and civic responsibilities into their own hands to solve needs. The exhibition examines how the Fluxus movement of the 1960s applied the DIY philosophy to practice, establishing an interdisciplinary, anti-art approach directed towards bridging the gap between artist community and society. First coined by its charismatic “Chairman” George Maciunas in 1961, Fluxus described a movement with origins in Futurist Theater, silent film, Zen, comedy, Vaudeville, and Dada. The movement aimed to interrupt the rigidly hierarchal, formalist conventions of postwar art and the burgeoning commodity culture of the 1960s. Critical to Fluxus’ DIY objective was a reconstruction of the arts from a context of consumer culture and passive reception to an active culture of engagement. Artists collectively viewed themselves as social catalysts carrying out communal projects that pioneered the exploration of artistic collaboration, ‘intermedia,’ sexual politics, and racial diversity. Fluxus influenced conceptual art, performance art, political art, mail art, minimalism, artists’ books, new music, and mass-produced art. Often viewed as humorous, thrifty, ephemeral, and spontaneous, the featured works reveal a deeper set of utopian ideals in which attributes of Efficiency, Economy, Form and Function could stimulate social change. On view will be works on paper, film, posters, diagrams, maps, charts, and documents by artists George Maciunas, Jonas Mekas, George Brecht, Ben Vautier, Yoko Ono, Paul Sharits, Henry Flynt, Shigeko Kubota, Ken Friedman, Chieko Shiomi, La Monte Young, and Paula Scher.

George Maciunas’ anarchic flair attracted like minds who infused Fluxus with intelligence and wit. Influenced by the ready-made sounds of avant-garde composer John Cage, ready-made objects of Marcel Duchamp, and ready-made actions and gestures of Ben Vautier and George Brecht, Fluxus advocated a ‘concrete art’ derived from daily life. Emphasis shifted from what an artist makes to the artist’s personality, actions, opinions, and theories. A progressive artist/theorist, inventor, and cultural entrepreneur, Maciunas rigorously instilled these views in his graphic work for Fluxus, and visionary architectural projects Prefabricated Building System and Fluxhouse Cooperatives in downtown SoHo, New York. Trained in graphic design and architecture at Cooper Union School of Art, he contributed to the work of many artists in the exhibition with his text and image based designs. He developed a branded identity for Fluxus, defining its copyright, trademark, logos, letterheads, name cards, envelopes, posters, and three-dimensional announcements and displays. Unveiled for the first time will be a never fully realized graphic project by Maciunas. The works are based on medieval illustrations and etchings of cruelty and torture, also on view, revealing his conceptual process. Also presented will be a rare group of works and documents that Maciunas used in Fluxus graphic projects.

Fluxus’ international, interdisciplinary currents reached Japanese born artist Yoko Ono whose conceptual work found inspiration in the teachings of John Cage and Zen. Ono first met Maciunas in 1959 and they formed a creative relationship. They carried out numerous collaborations that continued through her relationship with John Lennon, ending with Maciunas’ untimely passing in 1978. On view for the first time will be Ono’s Grapefruit (1963-64), an ambitious 150-piece collection of instructions composed of type on postcard measuring 7 ¾” x 6 ¼” with handwritten notes. First published as a book in 1964, it is divided into chapters entitled Music, Painting, Event, Object, and Film. Ono’s work posits a major shift from the traditional role of the artist. These Zen-like meditative texts are meant to be performed, and remain incomplete until an outside person (or persons) participates. A milestone in the evolution of conceptual art and performance art, it is the best-known and most widely distributed publication in this genre. Also featured is Do It Yourself Fluxfest (1966), a 20-piece collection conjoining short instructional texts by Ono with Maciunas’ graphic illustrations. First printed in “3 newspaper events for the price of $1,” the No. 7, February 1966 issue of the Fluxus magazine cc V TRE, the compilation underscores the Fluxus idea that anyone can make art. These amusing pieces find meaning in the humorous dialogue that exists between Ono’s instructions and Maciunas’ skillful treatment of text with relation to pictorial motifs.

A 60 piece collection of George Brecht’s groundbreaking “event scores” (c. 1960s) will be on view. Designed by Maciunas, these minimal works consist of words and short instructional phrases printed in black ink type on small white card stock. Influenced by the theories of John Cage, Brecht conceived of his “event scores” as an extension of music culminating in a multi-sensory experience that was open, generative, and undefined, rejecting any possibility of “authorship.” Mediating between language and performance, they are realized in the “readymade” actions of everyday situations, emphasizing the unity of art and life. Maciunas regarded Brecht’s work for its inclusive, antihierarchal, and accessible attributes viewing it as the archetype of Fluxus performance.

The exhibition will also feature Maciunas’ Name Tags (1964-68), playful interpretations of artists’ names including Emmett Williams, Diter Rot, Benjamin Patterson, and Barbara Moore expressed in Fluxus’ signature typography and design. Also on view will be Shigeko Kubota’s Flux Napkins (1965) and Chieko Shiomi’s Spatial Poem no. 2: A Flux Atlas (1968), Fluxus graphic projects produced in collaboration with Maciunas. Screening through out the gallery is a selection of films from Fluxfilm Anthology featuring Paul Sharits’ Word Movie (1966), Sears Catalogue 1-3, Dots 1&3, Wrist Trick, and Unrolling Event and Ben Vautier’s Jen e vois rien Je n’entends rien Jen e dis rien (1966), La traverse du port de Nice á la nage (1963), Fair un effort (1969), Regardez moi cela suffit (1962). Henry Flynt’s pamphlet Communists Must Give Revolutionary Leadership in Culture (1965) makes a systematic evaluation of the political and social implications of contemporary design and its effects on culture spanning areas such as architecture, music, cars, and film. Also featured will be a rarely exhibited selection of works on paper by Paula Scher, an artist who has wholly extended her role to the political and social spheres – she designed the “O” banner in support of the 2008 presidential campaign, and is an active member of the Art Commission of the City of New York. D.I.Y. will be accompanied with an original essay by Fluxus artist and scholar Ken Friedman.

D.I.Y. marks the 31st anniversary of George Maciunas’ passing. The exhibition has been organized and produced by Harry Stendhal.

For further information please contact:

Stendhal Gallery 545 West 20th St. New York, NY 10011
T 212.366.1549 F 347.287.6775 email gallery@mayastendhalgallery.com
http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/ http://www.jonasmekas.com/ http://www.paulascher.com/ http://www.georgemaciunas.com/