Fluxus : selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection Clive Phillpot and Jon Hendricks. --
Author Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Date 1988
Publisher The Museum of Modern Art
ISBN 0870703110
Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2141
The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists.
MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art SELECTIONSFROM THE GILBERT AND LILA SILVERMAN COLLECTION I Museum Of Modern art
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK
Fluxus Mani f esfo
J „ Med To cause a (i.scjHtrgeiron^gs in purging. ' frku'slf,UJM?ofrc^r"sryiUT\fed flow! See ?LUENT^cV fiU a A flowing or fluid discharge from the bowels or oiht aenbC,^V^ > &S: as. th CX dysentery, b Thejnattpr thus discharged. f Purge -fire a/or Id 0 bourgeois si excess intellectual " profes siona/ A com merc/'cr //z e
f~ $ Eb the cadres of c u /tun a I Social & pot ifca! revolutionaries in to (in i fed fn ° n t FA exc tio Fluxus Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection
Clive Phillpot and Jon Hendricks
The Museum of Modern Art New York
1988 Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection" at The Museum of Modern Art Library, November 17, 1988- March 10, 1989, organized by Clive Phillpot, Director of the Library, in collaboration with Jon Hendricks, Curator of the Silverman Fluxus Collection
Copyright © 1988 by The Museum of Modern Art, New York All rights reserved Certain photographs are covered by claims to copyright noted in the captions. Cover montage copyright © 1988 by Yoko Ono Back cover copyright © 1988 by Milan Knizak Illustrations and checklist copyright © 1988 by The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Ben Vautier's Propositions for a Page reproduced by permission of the artist ISBN 0-87070-311-0 Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 88-63506
Checklist prepared by Fatima Bercht and Jon Hendricks
Designed by Gregory Gillbergh
The Museum of Modern Art 11West 53 Street New York, New York 10019
Printed in the United States of America
Front cover: Yoko Ono. Montage incorporating photographic images by Rolf Jahrling, lain Macmillan, Nancy Mee, and Nori Sato. 1988
Back cover: Milan Knizak. Drawing for catalogue cover. 1988
Endpapers: Ben Vautier. Assholes Wallpaper, ca.1974 (cat. 151)
Frontispiece: George Maciunas. Manifesto. 1963
Printed throughout: Ben Vautier. Propositions for a Page. 1965-66; this version, 1988
The Museum of Modern Art Library Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Fluxus: Magazines, Manifestos, Multum in Parvo Clive Phillpot
Introduction to the Exhibition 17 Jon Hendricks
Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, Poetry, Art 25 George Maciunas
Fluxus Documents 33
Checklist of the Exhibition 45
Film Programs 61 pXuAf Oaj^ cm.<)W K Benjamin Patterson performing "Solo for Double Bass," Wup- pertal, West Ger many, 1962 (cat. 129a). Photograph by Rolf Jahrling 6 Preface and Acknowledgments Fluxus has been described as "the most radi (1975-77). All the works in the exhibition cal and experimental art movement of the have been lent from the The Gilbert and Lila sixties" (Harry Ruhe), and at the same time as Silverman Fluxus Collection Foundation (De "a wildgoose chase into the zone of every troit), which seeks to encourage research thing ephemeral" (Henry Martin). Such and publication through the use of its wildly different assessments testify to material. Fluxus's resistance to pigeonholing and to I am very grateful to Gilbert and Lila Sil its multifariousness. Similarly George Ma- verman not only for making available crucial ciunas, who named Fluxus, has been called items from their collection, but also for gen both "a careful office type who neither erously supporting this publication and the drank, smoked nor whored, nor wanted to work of assembling the exhibition. In addi be famous" (Per Kirkeby), and "a tyrant, in tion, the curator of the Silverman Fluxus the style of Tzara or Breton" (Emmett Collection, Jon Hendricks, has been the in Williams). dispensable co-organizer of this enterprise This exhibition focuses principally on the over many months, and a mentor regarding collective works of the group, and docu Fluxus, and much else, over many years. ments George Maciunas's slow-motion ex I would also like to acknowledge the help plosion of the concept of the magazine, of the following people in realizing this pub from Fluxus 1 (1964) to the Flux Cabinet lication and the exhibition which it accom- panies: Milan Knizak, Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Bee, Aileen Chuk, Edna Goldstaub, Michael Lennon, and Ben Vautier; Fatima Bercht, Pe Hentges, Christopher Lyon, Jerome Neuner, ter Downsbrough, Joanne Hendricks, Lori Eloise Ricciardelli, Gilbert Robinson, Jessica Tucci, and Alice Weiner; Dick Higgins, Rolf Schwartz, Sarah Stephenson, and Philip Jahrling, Margaret Kaplan, Manfred Leve, Yenawine. And I wish to compliment the lain Macmillan, Nancy Mee, Michel Oren, staff of the Museum Library for the team Harry Ruhe, Norie Sato, Tomas Schmit, the work that ultimately makes an exhibition Archiv Sohm at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, such as this possible. La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela. A last note. One of the earliest mentions At the Museum, I would especially like to of Fluxus magazine occurred at The Museum thank the Deputy Director for Curatorial Af of Modern Art on October 19, 1961, when a fairs, Riva Castleman, for her advice, encour member of the audience at a symposium on agement, and enthusiasm, and Laurence the exhibition "The Art of Assemblage" rose Kardish, Curator, Department of Film, for his to ask a question about neo-Dada. The tran sympathetic, and crucial, assistance in pre scriber of the taped session recorded him as senting the four-dimensional aspects of "George McQuiness, editor of Flexus Fluxus. I would also like to salute the profes Magazine." sionalism and creativity of Gregory Gillbergh and James Leggio, designer and editor, re spectively, of this publication; also Harriet C.P. ?"V^P 8 W->tq^y ^ C yOZFWjvyyvp Fluxus: Magazines, Manifestos, Multum in Parvo Clive Phillpot George Maciunas's choice of the word ern Europe, and Japan. Although its pro Fluxus, in October 1960, as the title of a posed contents reflected a contemporary magazine for a projected Lithuanian Cul sensibility, its emphasis on the publication of 1 1 tural Club in New York, was too good to let essayson those topics suggests that the mag go when that circumstance evaporated. In azine would have been relatively conven little more than a year, by the end of 1961, he tional in presentation. But the seeds of the had mapped out the first six issuesof a mag actual Fluxus magazine that was eventually azine, with himself as publisher and editor- published were nonetheless present, even in in-chief, that was scheduled to appear in the first issue of the projected magazine, February 1962 and thereafter on a quarterly since it was also intended to include a brief 2 basis, to be titled Fluxus. "anthology" after the essays. The projected magazine might well have This proposed anthology would have provided a very interesting overview of a drawn on the contributors to La Monte culture in flux. Maciunas planned to include Young's publication An Anthology, the ma articles on electronic music, anarchism, ex terial for which had been amassed in late perimental cinema, nihilism, happenings, 1960 and early 1961, and which George Ma lettrism, sound poetry, and even painting, ciunas had been designing since the middle with specific issuesof the magazine focusing of 1961.3 In fact Fluxus was "supposed to 4 4 on the United States, Western Europe, East have been the second Anthology. " But the George Maciunas tened together with three large metal bolts. performing "In Memoriam to In addition, the magazine was mailed in a Adriano Olivetti." wooden box branded or stenciled with its Wuppertal, West title. The quarterly magazine had also been Germany. June 9, 1962. Photograph by superseded by the concept of Fluxus year- Rolf Jahrling boxes. Whether or not Fluxus 1 lived up to George Maciunas's intention that it "should be more of an encyclopedia than ... a re 7 7 view, bulletin or even a periodical," it cer tainly met the original definition of the word "magazine": a storehouse for trea sures—or explosives. This format was also very influential, affecting the presentation of several "magazine" ventures later in the decade. (The original meaning of "maga zine" was exemplified even more em phatically by the truly three-dimensional successors of Fluxus 1, such as the Fluxkit anthologized works projected for the first suitcases and the Flux Year Box 2, containing Fluxus were radically different from the arti innumerable plastic boxes, film loops, ob cles, since they were printed artworks and jects, and printed items.) scores—as were most of the pieces in An Anthology, which was finally published by When George Maciunas consulted his dic La Monte Young and Jackson Mac Low in tionary he found that the word "flux" not 1963. only existed as a noun, a verb, and an adjec After interminable delays, Fluxus 1 finally tive, but also had a total of seventeen dif 5 58 appeared late in 1964. But during this ferent meanings. At the head of his Fluxus three-year gestation period it had evolved . . . Tentative Plan for Contents of the First 6 dramatically and become virtually an an Issues,issued late in 1961, he rearranged five thology of printed art pieces and flat, or of these definitions to explain the use of the flattened, objects; the essayshad practically term Fluxus, bringing to the fore the idea of vanished. At the same time, the appearance purging (and its association with the bow 9 9 of the idiosyncratic graphic design that Ma els). By 1963, these selected dictionary defi ciunas was to impose on Fluxus gave the nitions of "flux" could no longer encompass 6 6 magazine a distinctive look. The presenta the developing intentions of Fluxus, and tion of Fluxus 1 had also become more radi Maciunas began to promote three particular cal, for not only did it consist of diverse sensesof the word: purge, tide, and fuse- 10 formats and small objects, often in envel each now amplified by his own comments. opes, but these components were also fas- These amounted to new working definitions 10 ^2 mJLtA 1^x3^2. of the three senses, and were refined to the made objects of Marcel Duchamp, the point where they could finally be incorpo ready-made sounds of John Cage, and the rated into a collaged, three-part Manifesto , ready-made actions of George Brecht and 14 together with photostats of eight of the dic Ben Vautier. tionary definitions. The first section of the Manifesto also The aims of Fluxus, as set out in the Man states that Fluxus intends to purge the world 11 ifesto of 1963, are extraordinary, but con of such other symptoms of "bourgeois sick nect with the radical ideas fermenting at the ness" as intellectual, professional, and com time. The text suggests affinities with the mercialized culture. In one of a series of ideas of Henry Flynt, as well as links with informative letters to Tomas Schmit, mostly the aims of radical groups earlier in the cen from 1963 and 1964, Maciunas declares that 12 tury. The first of the three sections of Ma- "Fluxus is anti-professional"; "Fluxus should ciunas's Manifesto reveals that the intent of become a way of life not a profession" ; Fluxus is to "purge the world of dead art, . . . "Fluxus people must obtain their 'art' expe abstract art, [and] illusionistic art. . . ."What rience from everyday experiences, eating, 15 would be left after this purging would pre working, etc." Maciunas is for diverting sumably be "concrete art," which Maciunas human resources to "socially constructive 13 equated with the real, or the ready-made. ends," such as the applied arts most closely He explained the origins of concrete art, as related to the fine arts, including "industrial he defined it, with reference to the ready- design, journalism, architecture, engineer- Fluxus 1. 1964 (cat. 13). Photograph by Brad Iverson 11 ing, graphic-typographic arts, printing, really the obverse of the first: "promote a 16 etc." As for commercialism, "Fluxus is defi REVOLUTIONARY FLOOD AND TIDE IN ART. Pro nitely against [the] art-object as [a] non mote living art, anti-art, promote non art functional commodity —to be sold and to reality to be grasped by all peoples, not only make [a] livelihood for an artist." But Ma- critics, dilettantes and professionals." ciunas concedes that the art-object "could Maciunas's third section was "fuse," and temporarily have the pedagogical function read: "fuse the cadres of cultural, social & of teaching people the needlessness of political revolutionaries into [a] united front 17 art." & action." Inevitably most of Maciunas's The last sentence of this section of the time was spent trying to fuse cadres of cul Manifesto reads: "purge the world of 'eu- tural revolutionaries, though not all the 18 ropanism'!" By this Maciunas meant on the Fluxus people saw themselves in this way. one hand the purging of pervasive ideas em One of his tactics was the employment of the anating from Europe, such as "the idea of term Fluxus beyond the title of the magazine professional artist, art-for-art ideology, ex as a form of verbal packaging, whereby 19 pression of artists' ego through art, etc.," Fluxus people would benefit from collective and on the other, openness to other cultures. promotion. The composition of the group of Fluxus peo Toward this end, Maciunas established ple was exceptional in that it included sev Conditions for Performing Fluxus Published 2'1 eral Asians, such as Ay-O, Mieko Shiomi, Compositions, Films & Tapes, which ruled Nam June Paik, and Yoko Ono-as well as that a concert in which more than half of the the black American Ben Patterson and a sig works were by Fluxus people should be des nificant number of women -and in that it ignated a Fluxconcert, whereas in a concert reached from Denmarkto Italy, from Czecho where fewer than half of the works were by slovakia through the United States to Ja Fluxus people, each Fluxus composition pan. Interest in and knowledge of Asian should be labeled "By Permission of Fluxus" cultures were generally increasing in the or "Flux-Piece" in the program. In this way, West at the time, and, in this context, are "even when a single piece is performed all evidenced by Maciunas's tentative plans in other members of the group will be pub 1961 for a Japanese issue of Fluxus, which licized collectively and will benefit from it," would have included articles relating to Zen, for Fluxus "is a collective never promoting to Hakuin, to haiku, and to the Gutai Group, prima donnas at the expense of other mem 22 as well as surveys of contemporary experi bers." Maciunas, therefore, was for the mental Japanese art. (Joseph Beuys rather "collective spirit, anonymity and Anti- missed the point when he altered the 1963 individualism," so that "eventually we Manifesto in 1970 to read: "Purge the World would destroy the authorship of pieces and 20) of Americanism." make them totally anonymous —thus elim The second section of the Manifesto, inating artists' 'ego' -[the] author would be 23 which initially related to flux as "tide," is 'Fluxus.'" (jo\jZrJL°\A ^2UX04- dlvzo ? Two years after the 1963 Manifesto, beginnings. Talking to Larry Miller in 1978, George Maciunas produced another man George Maciunas observed: "I would say I 24 24 ifesto, significantly different in tone. But was mostly concerned with humor, I mean in this new statement Henry Flynt's ideas like that's my main interest, is humor . . . once again seem evident. Maciunas intro generally most Fluxus people tended to have 2 9 29 duces the topic of "Fluxamusement," which a concern with humor." (Ay-0 summed up appears to be an adaptation of Flynt's the matter concisely when he said: "Funniest 30) 25 "Veramusement," one of the "successive is best that is Fluxus." formulations of [Flynt's] art-liquidating po In this same interview Maciunas made 26 26 sition." While Maciunas still aspires "to another intriguing remark, explaining that establish artists nonprofessional, nonparasi Fluxus performances —or concerts or festi tic, nonelite status in society" and requires vals—came about first because they were the dispensability of the artist, the self- "easier than publishing," and second "as a sufficiency of the audience, and the demon promotional trick for selling whatever we 3 1 31 stration "that anything can substitute [for] were going to publish or produce." Even art and anyone can do it," he also suggests as early as the fall of 1963 he was able to say that "this substitute art-amusement must be that festivals "offer [the] best opportunity 32 simple, amusing, concerned with insignifi to sell books —much better than by mail." cances, [and] have no commodity or institu However, in spite of these beginnings, one tional value." might say that ultimately the purest form of Later in the year, in a reformulation of this Fluxus, and the most perfect realization of 1965 Fluxmanifesto on Fluxamusement, its goals, lies in performance or, rather, in Maciunas added that "the value of art- events, gestures, and actions, especially amusement must be lowered by making it since such Fluxus works are potentially the unlimited, massproduced, obtainable by all most integrated into life, the most social — 27 27 and eventually produced by all." He fur or sometimes, anti-social, the obverse of the ther states that "Fluxus art-amusement is same coin —and the most ephemeral. And the rear-guard without any pretension or they are not commodities, even though they urge to participate in the competition of may exist as printed prescriptions or 'one-upmanship' with the avant-garde. It "scores." But when such scores and other strives for the monostructural and non- paraphernalia are encountered in an exhibi theatrical qualities of [a] simple natural tion, rather than activated and experienced 28 event, a game or a gag." through events, a vital dimension of Fluxus is The 1963 Manifesto, with its talk of purg missing. There are some Fluxus works that ing and revolution, did not include any men can be experienced simply by looking, be tion of amusement or gags, and yet the cause they work visually, and there are oth element of humor was not something intro ers that can be performed by an individual as duced suddenly with the 1965 manifestos; it mind games. But many more works require had been an integral part of Fluxus from its that they be performed through physical ac- I ty&UA &OA OA <^VuOI O^k UyvXdl 4?wjz AtSLU^A. Crcxu-cn4i FLUXMANIFESTOON FLUXAMUSEMENT-VAUDEVILLE-ART? TO ESTABLISH ARTIST S NONPROFESSIONAL,NONPARASITIC,NONELITE STATUS IN SOCIETY, HE MUST DEMONSTRATEOWN DISPENSABILITY, HE MUST DEMONSTRATE SELFSUFFICIENCYOF THE AUDIENCE, HE MUST DEMONSTRATETHAT ANY THINGCAN SUBSTITUTEART AND ANYONECAN DO IT. THEREFORETHIS SUB STITUTE ART-AMUSEMENTMUST BE SIMPLE, AMUSING, CONCERNEDWITH INSIGNIFICANCES,HAVE NOCOMMODITY OR INSTITUTIONALVALUE. IT MUST BE UNLIMITED, OBTAINABLE BY ALL AND EVENTUALLY PRODUCEDBY ALL THE ARTIST DOINGART MEANWHILE,TO JUSTIFY HIS INCOME, MUSTDEMON STRATE THAT ONLY HE CAN DOART. ART THEREFOREMUST APPEAR TO BE COMPLEX,INTELLECTUAL,EXCLUSIVE,INDISPENSABLE,INSPIRED. TO RAISE ITS COMMODITYVALUE IT IS MADE TO BE RARE, LIMITED IN QUANTITYAND THEREFOREACCESSIBLE NOT TO THE MASSES BUT TO THE SOCIAL ELITE I George Maciunas. Fluxmanifesto on Fluxamusement. 1965. Detail 14 tivity by one or more persons, with or with actually lasted more than "a few years," for out onlookers. When works or scoressuch as Fluxus did not come to an end until the these are seen or read in an exhibition, expe death of George Maciunas in 1978. By that rience of them can only be vicarious. time the exact composition of the Fluxus But Maciunas also said, in 1964, that group had changed many times: some had "Fluxus concerts, publications, etc. -are at left early; some had returned; others had best transitional (a few years) and tempo arrived late. rary until such time when fine art can be A few Fluxus people and neo-Fluxus peo totally eliminated (or at least its institutional ple believe Fluxus is still a flag to follow, forms) and artists find other employ while others believe that "Fluxus hasn't ever 3 6 3633 ment." He also affirmed that Fluxus peo taken place yet!" George Brecht may have ple should experience their everyday put the matter to rest recently, when he de 37 37 activities as "art" rather than such phe clared that "Fluxus has Fluxed." But the nomena as Fluxus concerts, for "concerts elusive sensibility that emerged from a serve only as educational means to convert world in flux in the late fifties and early the audiences to such non-art experiences in sixties, and which George Maciunas labeled 34 their daily lives." Fluxus, has weathered the seventies and eighties and is fortunately still with us. To Although Maciunas himself, even by 1973, day it goes by many names and no name, re was referring to the years 1963-68 as the sisting institutionalization under the name 3 5 35 "Flux Golden Age," Fluxus concerts, pub Fluxus even as it did while Fluxus packaged lications, and so on, however "transitional," pieces of it decades ago. Notes The following works, edited by Jon Hendricks, are cited 1. Mats B., "Birth of Fluxus: The Ultimate Version," in abbreviated form. Kalejdoskop (Ahus), no. 3 (1979). Fluxus etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection 2. Fluxus . . . Tentative Plan for Contents of the First 6 (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.: Cranbrook Academy of Art Issues, included with: George Maciunas correspon Museum, 1981); cited as Fluxus etc. dence, to La Monte Young, December 1961; Silver Fluxus etc. /Addenda I: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman man Collection. Reprinted in this publication. Collection (New York: Ink &, 1983); cited as Adden 3. Jackson Mac Low, "How George Maciunas Met the da I. New York Avant-Garde," 1962 Wiesbaden FLUXUS Fluxus etc. /Addenda II: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman 1982 (Wiesbaden and Berlin, 1983), pp. 113-15. Collection (Pasadena, Calif.: Baxter Art Gallery, Cali 4. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, June fornia Institute of Technology, 1983); cited as Ad 21, 1969; Silverman Collection. denda II. 5. It must have been completed late in 1964, because 15 Maciunas told Ben Vautier in a letter dated January 5, 17. Ibid. 1965, that he was mailing two copies of Fluxus 1 to 18. "Europanism" may be a neologism, rather than a him. There is no reason to think Vautier was the first repeated spelling error, implying pan-Europeanism. recipient. See Maciunas correspondence, to Ben 19. Addenda II, p. 165. Vautier, January 5, 1965; Silverman Collection. 20. See Fluxus etc., p. 69; see also Happening & 6. See Barbara Moore, "George Maciunas: A Finger Fluxus: Materialen, Beuys section. in Fluxus," Artforum (New York), October 1982, pp. 21. Addenda I, p. 158. 38-45. 22. Ibid., p. 159. 7. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, De 23. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, Janu cember 1962 or January 1963, marginal note; Ad ary 1964; Addenda II, pp. 166 and 167. For more on denda II, p. 157. collectivism, see Jon Hendricks, "Aspects of Fluxus 8. Fluxus etc., p. 6. from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection," Art 9. Maciunas correspondence, to La Monte Young, Libraries Journal (London), Autumn 1983, pp. 6-25. December 1961 (this was also on the tentative plan 24. Fluxus etc., pp. 8 and 259. for contents of the first seven issues, January 25. Flynt's press release titled From "Culture" to Ve- 1962[?]); Silverman Collection. ramusementwas republished in Fluxus ccVTRE(Ne w 10. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, June York), no. 3 (March 1964), and reprinted in Fluxus or July 1963; Addenda II, p. 161. See also George etc., p. 245. Maciunas, correspondence, to Willem de Ridder, Au 26. Henry Flynt: Fragments and Reconstructions from gust^) 1963; Silverman Collection. a Destroyed Oeuvre, 1959-1963 (New York: Back- 11. Fluxus etc., p. 7; also printed in Jurgen Becker and works, 1982), p. 11. Wolf Vostell, Flappenings, Fluxus, Pop Art, Nouveau 27. Fluxus etc., pp. 9 and 260. Realisme (Hamburg, 1965), p. 203; Harry Ruhe, 28. Ibid. Fluxus, the Most Radical and Experimental Art Move 29. "Transcript of the Videotaped Interview," Ad ment of the Sixties (Amsterdam, 1979), title page; denda I, p. 22. and Happening & Fluxus: Materialen (Cologne: Koel- 30. Fluxus etc., p. 15. nischer Kunstverein, 1970), Maciunas section. 31. "Transcript of the Videotaped Interview," Ad 12. For example, Maciunas mentions the "lef group of denda I, p. 15. 1929 [sic] in Soviet Union (ideologically)." Maciunas 32. Maciunascorrespondence, to Tomas Schmit, Octo correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, January 1964; Ad ber or November(?) 1963; Silverman Collection. denda II, p. 166. 33. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, Janu 13. "Transcript of the Videotaped Interview with ary 1964; Addenda II, p. 166. George Maciunas by Larry Miller, March 24, 1978"; 34. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, No Addenda I, pp. 20-22. vember 8, 1963; Addenda II, p. 165. 14. Ibid., p. 21. 35. Addenda II, p. 217. 15. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, No 36. Fluxus etc., p. 49. vember 8, 1963; Addenda II, p. 165. 37. George Brecht, "Fluxus Has Fluxed," Whitewalls 16. Maciunas correspondence, to Tomas Schmit, Janu (Chicago), no. 16 (spring 1987), p. 50. ary 1964; Addenda II, p. 166. Introduction to the Exhibition Jon Hendricks Fluxus had its antecedents in those en Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, lightened, earlier twentieth-century artists M.C. Richards, and others; Georges Ma- who wanted to release art from the mori thieu's proto-happening Battle of Bouvines bund constraints of formalism. What Dada, and his influence on the Japanese Gutai Marcel Duchamp, and some aspects of Fu Group; Yves Klein; Joseph Cornell; Ann Hal- turism and RussianConstructivism had initi prin's "natural activities and tasks"; the ated in diverse ways between 1909 and 1929 French Nouveaux Realistes; Ben Vautier's was, by the mid-1950s, reigniting a continu gestures and concepts; and La Monte Young, ing revolution. George Brecht, Yoko Ono, Henry Flynt, and One can point to many sparks and flare- the advent of "concept art." ups in the immediate process leading up to Initially, George Maciunas laid plans for a the beginning of Fluxus in 1961-62. George movement that would encompass all aspects Maciunas, who shaped and fired Fluxus, of the new wave washing against the foun credited John Cage's invention of concrete dation of formalist aesthetics. He developed music, starting in 1939, which in turn in a program that included concerts of new fluenced the European musique concrete music and plans for a series of what he called movement. Maciunas further acknowledged Fluxus "yearboxes" (anthologies of very new Cage's 1952 intermedia event at Black art from many parts of the world) with con Mountain College, North Carolina, with tributors ranging from Karlheinz Stock- Ol AcruxXcM O-oA lua Willem de Ridder. European Mail-Order Warehouse/Fluxshop. 1965; reconstructed 1984. Photograph by Rick Gardner 18 hausen and Allan Kaprow to Pierre Restany ship with them, feeling free to alter and and Franz Mon, as well as many who later interpret their works-designing the labels became synonymous with the Fluxus move and packaging, even varying the contents ment, notably George Brecht, Robert Filliou, from copy to copy. As an alternative to the Henry Flynt, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, mainstream, which Fluxus was against and Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patter which wouldn't handle these works any son, Daniel Spoerri, Ben Vautier, Wolf way, Maciunas also devised a distribution Vostell, and La Monte Young. As the year system—through artist-run Flux shops and 1962 progressed, with the first series of per mail-order houses in several countries, formances (in Wuppertal, Dusseldorf, Paris, through the Fluxus newspapers and hand Wiesbaden, Amsterdam, London, Copen bills, and through impromptu exhibitions hagen, and then Paris again), Fluxus became during concerts and Fluxfests. His produc much more defined. It came to be character tion and distribution activities established a ized by direct, short, concrete pieces, mini practical outlet for Fluxus ideas that could mal music and actions, conceptual scoresand reach beyond the restrictive structure of the works, and action music. Many of the action formal concert hall, making the artists' work pieces had a double-edged humor; everyday available for independent performance. occurrences became art. The planned con ("You can do it in the privacy of your own tents of the Fluxus yearboxes began reflect home"), thereby reaching a potentially ing this emerging character also. much wider and more diverse audience. And During 1962, Maciunas conceived the idea by being cheap, the works made art afford of publishing some of the scores used for able to almost anyone. these concerts as individual Fluxus publica In a way, George Maciunas was the Mari- tions, apart from the Fluxus yearboxes. He netti or the Andre Breton of the Fluxus had accessto a blueprint machine at his job, movement. He knitted it together, shaped in Wiesbaden, and proceeded to draw and the earliest concerts, wrote the manifestos, type the scores on translucent masters (usu and oversaw the publications and editions, ally rubber-stamping a Fluxus copyright), through his editing, design, production, and which were then printed as needed either as advertising. But it would be a mistake to translucent blueprint negatives or as posi think of Fluxus as a one-man show. Fluxus tives. The method was basically the same as artists recognized Maciunas's role but re that used by John Cage's publishers, Peters mained fiercely independent, at times em Editions. It was only a short step from pub bracing the ideals of the movement and at lishing the separate scores to producing a othertimes going their own way. Ultimately, collection of an individual's work, at that Maciunas's vision of a collective "united point called Fluxus editions. front" proved impossible to realize except To a large extent, Maciunas retained cre within his production of Fluxus anthologies, ative control of Fluxus production, receiving editions, and occasionally in Fluxfests and ideas from artists and, in a unique relation environments. His frustration at seeing Fluxus artists maintaining independence strong emphasis on the collective an from Fluxus was reflected in his 1975 event thologies, including yearboxes, periodicals, in New York entitled Fluxfest Presents: 12! films, and kits, we have included a small Big Names! Posters were put around town sampling of Fluxus editions by many of the announcing the event and listing twelve fa artists involved in the movement, to demon mous artists' names. When the scheduled strate the range and diversity of the works. date arrived, the hall was crowded with peo Fluxus performance activities are represent ple eager to be in the presence of those ed by posters and photographs. Other as famous artists. Then Maciunas simply pro pects-political, social, anti-art, and func jected the names, one at a time, very big, on tional-are included through single works the screen. or as elements of other pieces. With the death of George Maciunas in 1978, Fluxus ceased-or didn't stop, or stopped sometime before, depending on Collective Anthologies one's attitude or perception of the move ment. (Personally, I think of art movements The Fluxus anthologies, which grew directly as having something like a nuclear half-life out of La Monte Young's seminal An Anthol of residual essentialness.) In the case of ogy (cat. 12), are at the heart of the move Fluxus there is no disputing the continuous, ment. Most of them are in the exhibition: central role of one man. And even though in Fluxus Preview Review (cat. 11), Summer the end Fluxus failed in its objective of re 1963. A hastily produced, first sampling of placing art with "functionalism" and only Fluxus scores,photos of performance, adver partially succeeded in engaging artists in a tisements for Fluxus products, the dictionary collective struggle against bourgeois aes definition of Fluxus—a ready-made mani thetics, nonetheless, its contributions are festo —and a list of the editorial committee. enormous. Conceptual art, performance art, It was printed on 3 long, narrow sheets glued political art, mail art, minimalism, artists' and rolled as a scroll. books, new music, mass-produced art, and Fluxus 1 (cat. 13), 1963-64 until 1977. Of even cooperative artists' housing were af the nine (or so) Fluxus yearboxes initially fected by or developed directly from Fluxus. planned, the only one to be produced in this And, at least in Europe, Fluxus had a major form. It contains scores, events, conceptual influence on Neo-Expressionism and Arte pieces, objects, photographs, and essays Povera. We are all richer for it; and perhaps squeezed into envelopes or printed on un someday Fluxus will yet lead the way to its usual paper and bolted together. The whole elusive goals. was packaged in a wood box which served as both a mailing carton and additional protec The following commentaries are intended to tive binding. It is an unnumbered edition, serve as a guide to the individual works in variously described by Maciunas as limited this exhibition. Although we have placed to 250 and then 100. He probably assembled dzlvJU ^ru£ more than 100 and Willem de Ridder, in Am Limited to an edition of 100 unnumbered sterdam, probably assembled more than 100 copies; only about 50 were assembled. of his version, using parts provided by Planned as a film-related yearbox, the com- Maciunas. partmented work contains numerous 8mm Fluxus newspapers (cats. 14-16, 19, 21, film loops and a hand-held viewer, plus, usu 22, 26, 28, 44, 60, 61), 1964-79. These tem ally, a flipbook of film stills, several objects, porarily replaced the yearboxes as a faster scores, and printed works. means of propagandizing the movement Flux Post Kit 7 (cat. 35), 1967. Contains and distributing new works; resulted in 9 artist-made stamps, postcards, and rubber- issues, plus 2 after Maciunas's death. Each stamp cancellations. Unlimited edition; only issue is different in content and intent, vari 10 to 20 were assembled. ously including scores, pieces, and ads for Flux Paper Games: Rolls and Folds (cat. Fluxus works, posters for Fluxus concerts, 42), 1969 to 1976. Paper events, produced by and photo-reportage of past performances. four artists and packaged by Maciunas for Flux YearBox 2. r a 3 ... 1966-77 (cat. 30). hot0graph Fluxkit (cats. 25 and 31), 1964-65 to late Fluxus. Paper events were a continuing in- p by Brad 1960s. Maciunas characterized this work, terest of Fluxus artists starting with Terry iverson packaged in an attache case, as a "miniature Fluxus Museum." The contents of Fluxkit varied as copies were assembled. Its interior was designed to hold both built-in works and removable Fluxus editions as well as Fluxus newspapers and other printed Fluxus works. Unlimited edition; fewer than 30 were assembled by Maciunas and 10 of the de Ridder version for the European Mail-Order Warehouse & Fluxshop, in Amsterdam. Fluxfilms (cat. 32), 1966 to 1970. Fluxus works using the medium of film. Unlimited edition; fewer than 5 prints of the long ver sion, and fewer than 10 short versions are known to exist. We are exhibiting a 1966 long version. Although offered for sale, Flux- films were more frequently offered as rentals and were lent for screenings. Ma ciunas mailed prints to Fluxus artists in vari ous parts of the world for distribution in those areas. Flux Year Box 2 (cat. 30), 1966-68 to 1976. 21 FlalWOIsDIFTellE lunettes Noises algultle* pllartes permettent de tver les yeux). ,r 11! M fall "0 mr est aveu^i*. Daniel Spoerri and Francois Dufrene. L'Optique Moderne: Collection de lu nettes presente par Daniel Spoerri avec, en regard, d'inutiles notules par Francois Dufrene. 1963 (cat. 142). Photograph by Brad Iverson 22 Ijjgui M osaX ujuAc ^Vj2 Riley's "Ear Music," Ben Patterson's "Paper The Spoerri/Dufrene L'Optique Moderne Piece," and Nam June Paik's "Young Penis (cat. 142) book was $4-or a "luxus Fluxus Symphony" from the 1962 Fluxus concerts. edition," with one pair of spectacles from Unlimited edition; fewer than 25 were the collection, $40. Designed by Maciunas, it made. is one of the most beautiful artists' books Fluxpack 3 (cat. 46), 1973-75. Contains ever made. functional works printed on vinyl and paper. La Monte Young's Compositions 1961 (cat. Cost estimates for 1,000 copies of compo 157), an uncompromising conceptual mas nents were solicited; larger numbers of terpiece containing all his 1961 composi some items were probably made and many tions, was $2 bound in linen (later $1 with fewer of other items. The edition seems paper binding, and $3 for the linen-binding never to have been fully assembled and I edition). In addition, Young says, "The com have seen only one completed copy, al positions are unusual in that some were per though a few others were made. formed even before they were composed." Flux Cabinet (cat. 59), 1975-77. The final Robert Watts's Case of Events —Objects— Fluxus anthology, this is like a convenient, Cards was initially priced at $4, after it had parlor sideboard of games. Although two evolved from a $50 gentleman's essential were planned initially, only one was made. "traveler's kit." As finally produced by Maciunas for Fluxus, Watts's Events (cat. 154) is a col Individual Fluxus Editions lection of his scores, etc., printed on cards and sometimes packaged with his Fiospi- In mid-1963 Maciunas began advertising the tal Events, some Playing Cards, perhaps first Fluxus editions; each is a radical depar Yamflug/5 Post 5 stamps and Message Card ture in form and concept from publications Three or a Yam Postcard and later usually and "art multiples" of the time, and each with a fake fruit such as a banana, tomato, was cheap to buy. or cucumber. Nam June Paik's Monthly Review of the With Maciunas's unbounded energy and University of Avant-Garde Flinduism (cats. sense of urgency, the production of Fluxus 126 and 127), an art-assault-of-the-month editions exploded through the remainder of club was $8 for a one-yearsubscription, after the sixties and into the seventies, producing the free, first single-sheet issue. works as diverse as George Brecht's flags George Brecht's Water Yam (cat. 67) was End, Middle, Start (cats. 68, 69, and 70); $4, with supplements "by subscription." The Christo's Package (cat. 72) of wrapped roses; work consists of Brecht's brief scores and Robert Filliou's Fluxdust (cat. 77), packaged pieces printed on small cards and assembled dust or floorsweepings; Joe Jones's Violin in in a slide-out cardboard box with a graphic Bird Cage (cat. 87), a battery-powered auto label. It is neither signed nor numbered and matic music machine; Carla Liss's Sacrament the edition was potentially limitless. Fluxkit (cat. 99), a poetic spoof on our per- 23 {UM ception of religion; and George Maciunas's own Excreta Fluxorum (cat. 110), which chal Fluxus as a Political Movement lenges most people's sensitivities. George Maciunas's goals for Fluxus are best stated in his own words. There was contra Fluxus Performance diction and dissent within the group, but Maciunas's position, stated a number of In 1961 and early 1962, Maciunas simultane times in various manifestos and letters, re ously made plans (cat. 1) not only to edit mained the underlying objectives of the Fluxus yearboxes but to produce a series of movement. In a letter to Tomas Schmit in Fluxus concerts. And indeed Fluxus assaulted 1963 he wrote: "Fluxus objectives are social Europe with more than thirty concerts and (not aesthetic). They are connected to the events in 1962. At first intending to include group of lef . . . of 1929 [sic] in Soviet Union a wide spectrum of avant-garde perfor (ideologically) and concern [themselves] mance — Japanese and American experi with: Gradual elimination of fine arts (mu mental film, multimedia works, musique sic, theatre, poetry, fiction, painting, sculpt, concrete, action music, electronic music, etc. etc.) This is motivated by desire to stop happenings, events, and street actions- the waste of material and human resources Maciunas quickly narrowed the focus of ... and divert it to socially constructive Fluxus, however, and it came to be charac ends. Such as applied arts would be (indus terized by sharply provocative actions and trial design, journalism, architecture, engi by minimal and conceptual pieces reflecting neering, graphic-typographic arts, printing, the artists' concern with destroying formal etc.) . . . Thus Fluxus is definitely against ist culture and the icons of aesthetics. [the] art-object as non-functional commod We have tried to include enough perfor ity—to be sold & to make livelihood for an mance documentation to suggest worldwide artist. It could temporarily have the peda Fluxus activities, along with photographic gogical function of teaching people the glimpses from some of these events. needlessness of art including the eventual needlessness of itself. It should not be there fore permanent." 24 Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, Poetry, Art George Maciunas This is a draft of an essay/manifesto by George Maciunas (1931-1978), read by Arthus C. Caspari, in German, at the Fluxus concert Apres John Cage, Wuppertal, l/l/est Germany, June 9, 1962. A version in German was published in Jurgen Becker and Wolf Vostell, Happenings, Fluxus, Pop Art, Nouveau Realisme (Hamburg, 1965), pp. 192-95. The text first published here is transcribed from microfilm in the Archiv Sohm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. The chart illustrated here accompanied the reading of the essay, and was drafted after the two charts reproduced in the Fluxus Documents section of the present publication. Neo dada, its equivalent, or what appears to be neo dada manifests itself in very wide fields of creativity. It ranges from "time" arts to "space" arts; or more specifically from literary arts (time-art), through graphic-literature (time-space-art) to graphics (space-arts) through graphic-music (space-time-arts) to graphless or scoreless music (time-art), through theatrical music (space-time-art) to environments (space-arts). There exist no borderlines between one and the other extreme. Many works belong to several catego ries and also many artists create separate works in each category. Almost each category and each artist however, is bound with the concept of Concretism ranging in intensity from pseudo concretism, surface concretism, structural concretism, method concretism (indeterminacy systems), to the extreme of concretism which is beyond the limits of art, and therefore sometimes referred to as anti-art, or art-nihilism. The new activities of the artists therefore could be charted by reference to two coordinates: the horizontal coordi nate defining transition from "time" arts to "space" arts and back to "time" and "space" 25 etc., and the vertical coordinate defining transition from extremely artificial art, illu- sionistic art, then abstract art, (not within the subject of this essay), to mild concretism, which becomes more and more concrete, or rather nonartificial till it becomes non-art, anti-art, nature, reality. Concretists in contrast to illusionists prefer unity of form and content, rather than their separation. They prefer the world of concrete reality rather than the artificial abstraction of illusionism. Thus in plastic arts for instance, a concretist perceives and expresses a rot ten tomato without changing its reality or form. In the end, the form and expression remain [the] same as the content and perception -the reality of rotten tomato, rather than an iIlusionistic image or symbol of it. In music a concretist perceives and expresses the material sound with all its inherent polychromy and pitchlessness and "incidental- ness," rather than the immaterial abstracted and artificial sound of pure pitch or rather controlled tones denuded of its pitch obliterating overtones. A material or concrete sound is considered one that has close affinity to the sound producing material -thus a sound whose overtone pattern and the resultant polychromy clearly indicates the nature of material or concrete reality producing it. Thus a note sounded on a piano keyboard or a bel-canto voice is largely immaterial, abstract and artificial since the sound does not clearly indicate its true source or material reality-common action of string, wood, metal, ZtlTkL'Nsi IIILKMl'k 0OiKi Arthus C. Caspari Ajt I-* C11 .REC.Hi.~_. reading Maciunas's mm'- manifesto "Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, m-\ <\ *i Poetry, Art," mL i vkHJ *--w Wuppertai, West Germany, June 9, 1962. Behind Caspari is Maciunas'schart Zeitkunst/Zeit-Raum/ Raum/Raum-Zeit/ . . . /Zeit-Raum Kunst/ Raum/Raum-Zeit. 1962 (cat. 100). Photograph by Rolf Jahrling 26 felt, voice, lips, tongue, mouth etc. A sound, for instance, produced by striking the same piano itself with a hammer or kicking its underside is more material and concrete since it indicates in a much clearer manner the hardness of hammer, hollowness of piano sound box and resonance of string. A human speech or eating sounds are likewise more con crete for the same reason of source recognisability. These concrete sounds are commonly, although inaccurately, referred to as noises. They maybe pitchless to a large extent, but their pitchlessness makes them polychromic, since the intensity of acoustic color depends directly on pitch obliterating inharmonic overtones. Further departure from artificial world of abstraction is affected by the concept of in determinacy and improvisation. Since artificiality implies human pre-determination, contrivance, a truer concretist rejects pre-determination of final form in order to perceive the reality of nature, the course of which, like that of man himself is largely indetermi nate and unpredictable. Thus an indeterminate composition approaches greater concretism by allowing nature [to] complete its form in its own course. This requires the composition to provide a kind of framework, an "automatic machine" within which or by which, nature (either in the form of an independent performer or indeterminate-chance compositional methods) can complete the art-form, effectively and independently of the artist-composer. Thus the primary contribution of a truly concrete artist consists in creat ing a concept or a method by which form can be created independently of him, rather than the form or structure. Like a mathematical solution such a composition contains a beauty in the method alone. The furthest step towards concretism is of course a kind of art-nihilism. This concept opposes and rejects art itself, since the very meaning of it implies artificiality whether in creation of form or method. To approach closer affinity with concrete reality and its closer understanding, the Art-nihilist or anti-artists (they usually deny those definitions) either creates "anti-art" or exercises nothingness. The "anti-art" form are directed pri marily against art as a profession, against the artificial separation of a performer from audience, or creator and spectator, or life and art; it is against the artificial forms or patterns or methods of art itself; it is against the purposefulness, formfulness and mean- ingfulness of art; Anti-art is life, is nature, is true reality —it is one and all. Rainfall is anti-art, a babble of a crowd is anti-art, a sneeze is anti-art, a flight of a butterfly, or movements of microbes are anti-art. They are as beautiful and as worth to be aware of as art itself. If man could experience the world, the concrete world surrounding him, (from mathematical ideas to physical matter) in the same way he experiences art, there would be no need for art, artists and similar "nonproductive" elements. o~pa\ -e^wr^ fJLOctAQ Hi Red Center's "Roof Event," Tokyo, 1964 (cats. 82 a, b, c) 28 'Yvl0U/V^ OA. t£o George Maciunas performing George Brecht's "Drip Music," Diisseldorf, 1963 (cat. 66). Photograph © by Manfred Leve 30 George Brecht. Middle, ca. 1965 (cat. 69) -59£ V- ^ wi W2TQTUT1vrw zW\A <*\^> 31 {\M OkA^ k^u-e. c^M-e % V*JX Fluxfest Presents: 12! Big Names! 1973 (cat. 45) 32 Fluxus Documents vwc. E S 5 J-s J s3= o « > — E1 z og < -5 eL £ cm " h5 llf J n c 2 * » o 5 *.d cn £ £ 8 P! I fcS O C- <5 « cik c9 o . .53 ill «-5-s S o _ «= * Q. 3 £ l/) o r- George Maciunas. Attached is a provisional plan of Fluxus contents and Fluxus festival. . . . and Fluxus .. . Tentative Plan for Contents of the First 6 Issues.... 1961 (cat. 1). Reduced facsimile CJ u I S I 4> -a £ 01 s *8 i C C r "2 c§ S E .5 CM E .2 o — £ ° E £ c m re= £O 2 > 2re o>2 m *» o "j; .£ o 2 -5; 2