This volume provides a comprehensive account of Dennis Oppenheim’s radical art practices of this explosive five-year period. Providing a principal means of spilling his Conceptual Art beyond the object or the gallery to investigate real world and real time embedded processes and places, Oppenheim s steps into performance from 1969 enacted the artist s body as the agent, material, and place of art, and extended his work toward multiple spaces and times, including cross-generational exchange. Directing the viewer toward his body as the source and material of his works, Oppenheim s procedures continue to critique the conventional material and conceptual limits of both sculpture and performance. This monograph follows Oppenheim s conceptual performance works in slide, film, video, installation and photographic form from 1969-1973, including a substantial framing essay, a newly edited interview with Willoughby Sharp, and extensive extracts from the artist s contemporaneous notes and statements.D

This volume provides a comprehensive account of Dennis Oppenheim’s radical art practices of this explosive five-year period. Providing a principal means of spilling his Conceptual Art beyond the object or the gallery to investigate real world and real time embedded processes and places, Oppenheim s steps into performance from 1969 enacted the artist s body as the agent, material, and place of art, and extended his work toward multiple spaces and times, including cross-generational exchange. Directing the viewer toward his body as the source and material of his works, Oppenheim s procedures continue to critique the conventional material and conceptual limits of both sculpture and performance. This monograph follows Oppenheim s conceptual performance works in slide, film, video, installation and photographic form from 1969-1973, including a substantial framing essay, a newly edited interview with Willoughby Sharp, and extensive extracts from the artist s contemporaneous notes and statements.

This reprint of Avalanche by Primary Information makes the magazine available worldwide as a complete set for the first time in three decades. Originally published in magazine format for the first eight issues, Avalanche switched to newspaper format for the final five issues. This facsimile edition is a boxed set that houses the individual magazine issues and the newspapers bound in a single book form. Avalanche magazine was founded by Willoughby Sharp and Liza Béar shortly after they met in 1968. At the time, Sharp was a New York-based art historian and independent curator and Béar an underground magazine editor who had recently moved to New York from London. They published the first issue in 1970 and collaborated on 13 issues from 1970 to 1976. Avalanche focused on art from the perspective of artists rather than critics, and investigated new forms of art that were developing in the U.S. and Europe with a radical new media format—probing interviews and a visionary design that made extensive use of photography and dynamic layouts. For many artists, publication in Avalanche preceded a one-person gallery or museum show. Aside from an eight to twelve-page news section, the editorial content included only* interviews by Sharp and/or Béar, artists’ texts and documents of art and art making, also functioning as an exhibition space in print. Fresh, incisive and unpretentious, the Avalanche interviews—now landmarks—illuminate the creative process and give clear voice to the specific issues that permeated the era Among the featured artists were Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Bill Beckley, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Daniel Buren, Hanne Darboven, Walter De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Barbara Dilley, Simone Forti, Gilbert & George, the Philip Glass Ensemble, Grand Union, Hans Haacke, Jannis Kounellis, Meredith Monk, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Gordon Matta-Clark, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Klaus Rinke, Joel Shapiro, Jack Smith, Keith Sonnier, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, George Trakas, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, the Western Front and Jackie Winsor. This boxed facsimile edition of Avalanche’s complete run reproduces the first eight issues individually, and the final five in a single bound paperback. The publication, 1,016 pages and illustrated throughout, is housed in a heavy duty, laminated, archival box measuring 10.5 x 19.5 x 2.5 inches. The first eight issues measure 9.25 x 9.25 inches and are exact facsimiles of the originals; the subsequent five tabloid-sized issues, now bound as a single volume measuring 9.25 x 13.5 inches, have been reduced slightly in scale from the original format. INDEX: The Early History of Avalanche by Liza Béar and Willoughby Sharp. Square Magazine Format: Avalanche 1, Fall, 100 pages, b&w, Earth Art, 1970 Avalanche 2, Spring, 140 pages, b&w, Body Works, 1971 Avalanche 3, Fall, 100 pages, b&w, Post-Studio Sculpture, 1971 Avalanche 4, Spring, 100 pages, b&w, Conceptual Art, 1972 Avalanche 5, Summer, 84 pages, b&w, Performance, 1972 Avalanche 6, Fall, 100 pages, b&w, Vito Acconci, 1972 Avalanche 7, Winter/Spring, 84 pages, color, Humor, 1973 Avalanche 8, Summer/Fall, 84 pages, b&w, 1973 Tabloid Newspaper Format: Avalanche 9, May/June, 36 pages, b&w, Video Performance, 1974 Avalanche 10, December, 52 pages, b&w, 1974 Avalanche 11, Summer, 40 pages, b&w, 1975 Avalanche 12, Winter, 40 pages, b&w, 1975 Avalanche 13, Summer, 48 pages, two-color, 1976 Introductory quote was taken from The Early History of Avalanche, Chelsea Space, London, by Liza Béar and Willoughby Sharp, 2005.

Issue dedicated to video and performance art. Essays by Robin Winters: Joseph Beuys: “Public Dialogue,” A transcript of the first hour of Beuys’ first U.S. performance at the New School; William Wegman: “Pathetic Readings,” A complete transcript of Wegman’s first audiotape with video installation; Ulrike Rosenbach: “Isolation is Transparent,” Statements on her first live video performance in New York written by the artist; Chris Burden: “Back to You,” An interview on Burden’s first New York performance by Liza Bear; Dennis Oppenheim: “Recall,” An interview on Oppenheim’s video installation; Willoughby Sharp: “Help,” the Mighty Mogul interviews Sharp; “Moments at 112 Greene,” Photographs of audience and artists taken by Cosmos during the Videoperformance exhibition; Vito Acconci: “Command Performance,” An interview concerning this and other recent work by Bear; Keith Sonnier: “New York – L.A. Hook-up,” An interview about his video work by Bear and Richard Serra & Robert Bell; “Prisoner Dilemma,” Separate interviews with Serra and Bell by Bear on a two part video production (pre-recorded live) based on game theory.

This exciting guide applies some of the ideas of artists and writers like Ant Farm, Otto Piene and Willoughby Sharp to large scale art projects that can be executed with children. A pull quote from the back cover…”Children who have the opportunity to work together with large-scale materials are more likely to have meaningful, in-depth experiences than those whose background has been restricted to participation in small-scale classroom activities….A school should recognize that (such projects are) not only a logical extension of the classroom curriculum but also a way that students can become involved with art forms that are relevant to the world they live in.”

When recession-plagued New York City abandoned its industrial base in the 1970s, performance artists, photographers, and filmmakers found their own mixed uses for the city’s run-down lofts, abandoned piers, vacant lots, and deserted streets. Gordon Matta-Clark turned a sanitation pier into the celebrated work Day’s End and Betsy Sussler filmed its making; the photographic team Shunk-Kender shot a vast series of images of Willoughby Sharp’s Projects: Pier 18 (which included work by Vito Acconci, Mel Bochner, Dan Graham, Matta-Clark, and William Wegman, among others); and Cindy Sherman staged some of her Untitled Film Stills on the streets of Lower Manhattan. Mixed Use, Manhattan documents and illustrates these projects as well as more recent work by artists who continue to engage with the city’s public, underground, and improvised spaces. The book (which accompanies a major exhibition) focuses on several important photographic series: Peter Hujar’s 1976 nighttime photographs of Manhattan’s West Side; Alvin Baltrop’s Hudson River pier photographs from 1975-1985, most of which have never before been shown or published; David Wojnarowicz’s Rimbaud in New York (1978-1979), the first of Wojnarowicz’s works to be published; and several of Zoe Leonard’s photographic projects from the late 1990s on. The book includes 70 color and 130 black-and-white images, a chronology of the policy decisions and developments that altered the face of New York City from 1950 to the present; an autobiographical story by David Wojnarowicz; and essays by Johanna Burton, Lytle Shaw, Juan Suarez, and the exhibition’s curators, Lynne Cooke and Douglas Crimp. Artist included: Alvin Baltrop, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Dara Birnbaum, Jennifer Bolande, Stefan Brecht, Matthew Buckingham, Tom Burr, Roy Colmer, Moyra Davey, Terry Fox, William Gedney, Bernard Guillot, David Hammons, Sharon Hayes, Peter Hujar, Joan Jonas, Louise Lawler, Zoe Leonard, Sol LeWitt, Glenn Ligon, Robert Longo, Vera Lutter, Danny Lyon, Babette Mangolte, Gordon Matta-Clark, Steve McQueen, John Miller, Donald Moffett, James Nares, Max Neuhaus, Catherine Opie, Gabriel Orozco, Barbara Probst, Emily Roysdon, Cindy Sherman, Harry Shunk & Janos Kender, Charles Simonds, Thomas Struth, James Welling, David Wojnarowicz, and Christopher Wool

Discussions with Liza Béar and Willoughby Sharp June-August, 1971 at 74 Grand Street. Edited by Béar and Le Va. Brief bio. Exhibitions mentioned: Solo show Ohio State University, 1969 ; “Anti-Illusion: Procedures and Materials” Whitney Museum ; Solo Show Stoudt State University, Menomenie, Wisconsin, fall 1969 ; Walker Art Center, Feb. 1969 ; “9 Artists 9 Spaces.” Pieces mentioned: Velocity Piece #1 (Impact Run, Energy Drain) ;Velocity Piece #2 (illustrated), La Jolla Museum of Art, CA, 1970 ; Untitled (Strips and Particles) (illustrated), 1968 ; Untitled (Studio Piece), (illustrated), 1968 ; Untitled (Space 2), (illustrated), 1969 ; 6 Blown Lines (Accumulation Drift),(illustrated), Stoudt State University, 1969 ; mineral oil, plate glass, red iron oxide pieces, Walker Art Center ; Cleavers, Whitney Museum ; Landscape View, “9 Artists 9 Spaces” ; outdoor piece, Wisconsin State University at River Falls, Feb. 1969 ; Forest Run (Scale Change) (Study), (illustrated), Maiden Lake, WI, July 1971; Surface Crawl ; Hand-Feet Extensions, Maiden Lake, WI, July 1971 ; throwing 26 stones outdoors ; Slow Death Zones ; Circle pieces ; Drawing for Centerpoints (Internal Tangent Series), (illustrated), 1979 ; Stone Placement (Energy Removal),(illustrated), Maiden Lake, WI, July 1971.

Essays include “Robert Smithson’s Amarillo Ramp”; “Exchange ’73: From a Videotape” by Robert Morris; “A Drinking Sculpture” by Gilbert & George; “Business as Usual On the Western Front: An interview by Willoughby Sharp”; “The Grand Union: ‘There Were Some Good Moments'” and “If I’m Lyin’, I’m Dyin’: On The Road to Catahoula, An Interview with Tina Girouard by Liza Bear” and “The Church of Human Energy: Chris Burden, An Interview by Sharp and Bear.