This magazine-sized volume on the nature of the group Fluxus, termed a “catalog,” contains two essays by recognized experts and 189 selected works illustrating 145 international neo-Dada intermedia objects, boxes, editions, artistic happenings, and musical performances orchestrated by Fluxus’s founding father, George Maciunas. From his 1961 founding of the group until his death in 1978, Maciunas conceived of this variable international association as a drastic alternative to crass, materialistic “high art” and the fame afforded egocentric artists. Everybody was declared his or her own artist, and works were developed and disseminated through exhibitions, publications, mass-produced objects, “products,” paper or boxed editions of cheap Fluxus items, photos, and films. Ironically, perhaps, many widely recognized artists did emerge from Fluxus (e.g., Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Nam June Paik), but none could match the “complex genius” of organizer Maciunas, who was “driven by a utopian vision of a new art and a new society.” Recommended for larger contemporary art collections, especially for the bibliography.?Mary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson State Univ., Md.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with Art Metropole’s 10th Anniversary exhibition held November 17 – December 8, 1984. Designed by AA Bronson. Text by AA Bronson, John Goodwin, Christina Ritchie, and Peggy Gale. Includes an exhibition checklist and an Art Metropole chronology from 1974 – 1984. Indexes works by: Vito Acconci, Vincenzo Agnetti, Shelagh Alexander, Laurie Anderson, Carl Andre, Ant Farm, Eleanor Antin, Ida Applebroog, Shusaka Arakawa, Ryan Arnott, Robert Ashley, David Askevold, Alice Aycock, John Baldessari, Robert Barry, Carole Gallagher, Luciano Bartolini, Lothar Baumgarten, Joseph Beuys, Caroline Tisdall, Dara Birnbaum, Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, Christian Boltanski, Pierre Boogaerts, Jonathan Borofsky, Brad Brace, George Brecht, Hans Breder, Marcel Broodthaers, Stanley Brouwn, David Buchan, Hank Bull, Daniel Buren, Victor Burgin, Michael Buthe, James Lee Byars, Richard C., Miriam Cahn, John Cage, Ulises Carrion, James Casebere, Sarah Charlesworth, Sandro Chia, Giuseppe Chiari, Robert Christo, Collective Chromazone, Heinz Cibulka, Francesco Clemente, James Collins, Claudio Costa, Robert Cumming, Greg Curnoe, Hanne Darboven, Lowel D. Darling, Juan Da Villa, Constance De Jong, Tom Dean, Mario Diacono, Antonio Dias, Jan Dibbets, Martin Disler, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Mary Beth Edelson, Kit Edwards, Felipe Ehrenberg, Valie Export, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Robert Filliou, A.M. Fine, Hervé Fischer, Joel Fisher, Copp Fletcher, Robert Fones, Ken Friedman, Hamish Fulton, Phillip Galgiani, Eldon Garnet, Gilbert and George, Jochen Gerz, Michael Gibbs, Jon Gibson, Oliver Girling, Randy Gledhill, Tom Graff, Dan Graham, John Greer, Walther Gutman, Hans Haacke, Dieter Hacker, Noel Harding, Keith Haring, Stephen Harris, Matt Harley, Michael Heizer, Gerard Hemsworth, Jan Herman, Geoff Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Susan Hiller, Hans Hollein, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Douglas Huebler, Sonja Ivekovic, Jasper Johns, Ray Johnson, Joe Jones, On Kawara, Anselm Kiefer, Kijkhuis, Yves Klein, John Knight, Richard Kostelanetz, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Les Krims, David Lamelas, Bernard Lassus, Vera Lemecha, Les Levine, Sol LeWitt, Tina Lhotsky, Roy Lichtenstein, Colin Lochhead, Richard Long, Robert Longo, Nino Longobardi, Urs Luthi, George Maciunas, Allan Mackay, David MacWilliam, Paul Maenz, Arnaud Maggs, Liz Magor, John Massey, Hansjorg Mayer, Bruce McLean, Sandra Meigs, Mario Merz, Eric Metcalfe, Phillip Monk, Michael Morris, Muntadas, Ian Murray, Norman Ogue Mustill, Maurizio Nannucci, Opal L. Nations, Bruce Nauman, Linda Neaman, Al Neil, Hermann Nitsch, Barbara Noah, Arlene Golant, Claes Oldenburg, Luigi Ontani, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Giulio Paolini, Andy Patton, Steve Paxton, A.R. Penck, Giuseppe Penone, Bern Porter, Royden Rabinowitch, Marcus Rätz, Steve Reich, Lothar Reiners, James Riddle, David Rosenberg, Martha Rosler, Dieter Rot, Ed Ruscha, Lawerence Weiner, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Jim de Sana, Lucas Samaras, Bernd Schmitz, Carolee Schneemann, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Kurt Schwitters, Tom Sherman, Chieko Shiomi, Seth Siegelaub, Jack Wendler, Michael Snow, Valerie Solanas, Daniel Spoerri, Klaus Staeck, Ernesto Tatafiore, Paul Thek, Edwin Klein, Vincent Trasov, John Mitchell, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Ulay, Roland Van Den Berghe, M. Vaughan-James, Ben Vautier, Bernar Venet, Claudio Verna, Wolf Vostell, Martin Walde, Jeff Wall, Duane Lunden, Ian Wallace, Andy Warhol, Robert Watts, George Whiteside, Robert Wiens, Stephan Willats, Emmett Williams, Martha Wilson, Robert Wilson, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Va Wölfl, Peter Wronski, Donna Wyszomierski, Keigo Yammamoto, La Monte Young, and R. Zybert.

Testo introduttivo di Graziella Lonardi. Trascrizioni di alcuni dibattiti con Achille Bonito Oliva, Maurizo Calvesi, Jannis Kounellis, Filiberto Menna, Fabio Sargentini, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Gianni Statera et al. Alcune fotografie in bianco e nero. Dall’indice: “incontro con Bernar Venet”, “Giuseppe Chiari: discussione”, “Ben Vautier”, “Le avanguardie: Europa America”, “Video-arte in Europa”, “Joe Jones: Concert”, “Wolf Vostell”, “Fotografia e immagine di massa”, “Concerto Zaj”, “Saito Takako”, “Geoff Hendricks”, “Arte come informazione? Le riviste d’arte”, etc.

Artists: Eric Andersen Ay-0 Jeff Berner Joseph Beuys George Brecht John Chick Henning Christiansen Robert Filliou Albert M. Fine Henry Flynt Ken Friedman Karl Gerstner AI Hansen Bici Hendricks Geoffrey Hendricks Hi Red Center Dick Higgins Davi Det Hompson Alice Hutchins Jack Coke’s Farmer’s Co-op Joe Jones Per Kirkeby Jane Knizak Milan Knizak Alison Knowles Takehisa Kosugi Shigeko Kubota Carla Liss George Maciunas Larry Miller Olivier Mosset Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Nam June Paik Benjamin Patterson Jock Reynolds Willem de Ridder James Riddle Dieter Roth Takako Saito Tomas Schmit Carolee Schneemann Mieko (Chieko) Shiomi Gianni-Emilio Simonetti Daniel Spoerri André Thomkins Jan van der Marck Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshimasa Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young

Synopsis: This is the reissue of the long out-of-print publication GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection, first published in 1978. The book serves as the primary text to the significant work of the activist artist group GAAG (Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, Virginia Toche and Jean Toche), both as a document of the group’s ideological and logistical concerns, and more broadly as a historical record for 52 of the many political art actions they carried out through the late Sixties and early Seventies. Guided by their belief that art and culture had been corrupted by profit and private interest, GAAG formed in October 1969 as a platform for social struggle. Their work asked how artists could work effectively towards meaningful change, most often through direct provocation and confrontation–symbolic, non-violent actions staged in protest and ridicule of the ethical failures by the art and media establishments, as well as the US government. Their activities defied the brutal, close-minded workings of an artistic/political system that traded in dirty money, served the elite, established a trivial cultural canon, and perpetuated bloody wars abroad. GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection collects the manifestos, letters and press communiqués issued by the group (to Nixon, Hoover, The Secretary of Defense, Museum officials, and others). Their missives are printed as facsimiles, alongside other print material, including handwritten expenses, and related documents, that stand as statements of purpose and protest. Photographers Ka Kwong Hui, Joanne Stamerra, Jan Van Raay and others were often on hand as many of the actions unfolded, offering a remarkable and candid visual history to the group’s activities and confrontations GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection is a tremendous resource on the important work of the group, providing insight into social action and political art activities with lasting implications. The book stands both as a historical documentation as well as a model for contemporary and future critique and practice.