WHAT WAS FLUXUS?

Image: Bandaged Orchestra during the Fluxus Festival arranged by Yoko Ono at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1965. Photograph: Getty Images

Image from: Searle, Adrian. “Guardian.co.uk: Snapshots of a Revolution.” Dec 10, 2008.http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/10/art (accessed Oct 13, 2010).

Event Score

“2 Umbrellas” by George Brecht, June 1963
umbrella
umbrella

Part of FLUXCONCERT Feb. 20-21, 2009

Triskelion Arts, 118 North 11th St., 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY

Two evening performances of event scores written by Fluxus pioneer George Brecht.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfmP1BOhrPc

Video from. Youtub: Fluxconcert 2009, “”2 Umbrellas” by George Brecht, June 1963 .” Feb 27, 2009.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfmP1BOhrPc (accessed Oct 15, 2010). 

Like the Dadaists, Fluxus artists

-rejected the traditions and convention forms and materials of fine art, music, and poetry. 

-socio-political and cultural agenda

-experimented with chance, utilized humor, automatic writing, free word association, absurdist theatre, experimental poetry, assemblage, collage

-experimented with music in a way similar the “Bruitisme” (noise music) of the Futurists.  -rejected the restriction of high art conventions and institutions

-blurred the distinctions between life and art to redirect attention to life.

Maciunas: If man could experience the world, the concrete world surrounding him … in the same way he experiences art, there would be no need for art.

Arnason,H. H. . History of Modern Art. 5th Ed. ed. Peter Kalb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2003. 242

Camper, Fred. “Galleries & Museums - Art Review.” Dec 2, 1993.  http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-fluxus-manifesto/Content?oid=883339 (accessed Oct 9, 2010).

Dick Higgins, Intermedia Chart, 1995.

-Intermedia is a term coined by Dick Higgins.

-Higgins’s intermedia view of Fluxus.

-Fluxus operated in the space between media. 

-Other artists were doing similar if not identical thing but not under the name Fluxus

Copyright © 1995 by Richard C. Higgins. All rights reserved 

Image from: “Fluxlist: Dick Higgins Intermedia Chart.” http://www.fluxus.org/FLUXLIST/intermed.htm (accessed Oct 10, 2010).  

Image: George Brecht, Keyhole Event. 1962.  Handwritten Event card, 4 ¼ x 5 ½”. Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, MoMa, NY

Image from: Higgins,Hannah. Fluxus Experience. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2002. 3.

Marcel Duchamp. Boite-en-valise (de ou par Marcel Duchamp au Rrose Sblavy).   1935 -41. Leather valise containing miniature replicas, photographs, and color reproductions of works by Duchamp, and one “original” (Large Glass, collotype on celluloid), (69 items) overall 16 x 15 x 4” (40.6 x 38.1 x 10.2 cm). IX/XX from Deluxe Edition. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

MoMA, “Museum as Muse.” 1999. http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1999/muse/artist_pages/duchamp_boite.html (accessed Oct 13, 2010).

Image: George Maciunas. Printed Image.

Image from: Campbell, Morgan . “Metropolismag POV: The Granddaddy of Pre-Fab?.” Aug 15, 2008. http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20080815/the-granddady-of-prefab (accessed Oct 13, 2010).

Stendahl Gallery, “George Maciunas’ Charts.” Sept 20, 2006.http://stendhalgallery.com/?p=1426 (accessed Oct 10, 2010).

Kellein, Thomas, Jon Hendricks. Fluxus. Thames and Hudson, London. 1995. 18

1963 FLUXUS MANIFESTO

Purge the world of bourgeois sickness, “intellectual”, professional & commercialized culture, PURGE the world of dead art, imitation, artificial art, abstract art, illusionistic art, mathematical art, —— PURGE THE WORLD OF “EUROPANISM”!

PROMOTE A REVOLUTIONARY FLOOD AND TIDE IN ART.

Promote living art, anti-art, promote NON ART REALITY to be grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.

FUSE the cadres of cultural, social & political revolutionaries into united front & action.

Image: George Maciunas. Fluxus Manifesto. Printed.

Image from: “Flotillas of Hope.” Dec 30, 2008.  http://dodona777.wordpress.com/category/photography/ (accessed Oct. 9, 2010)

Fluxus Chairman and So Much More

-Maciunas shaped, served, and largely financed Fluxus. 

-Fluxhouse Cooperatives

-Dedicated student of art history, history, and culture

Image: Fluxus Poster.

Image from: Abreo, Jennifer, “Design History Mash Up: What is Fluxus? What is Art?” http://designhistorymashup.blogspot.com/2008/11/fluxus-george-maciunas-1931-1978.html  (accessed Oct 10, 2010)

Kellein, Thomas, Jon Hendricks.  Fluxus.  Thames and Hudson, London. 1995.  8-11.

PRINTS

I: Repetition and seriality, subversion of pop media convention and forms.Image: Image: George Maciunas, Fluxpost (Smiles), 1977-79, detail view of perforated postage stamp paper, 10 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.

Image from: Blagojević, B.. “Artcat - FLUXCONCERT 20080305 tonight at 47 Beaver, Brooklyn.” Mar 5, 2008.http://zine.artcat.com/2008/03/fluxconcert-20080305-tonight-a.php (accessed Oct 10, 2010).

II:  Political, “USA surpasses all genocide records…” 

Image: Flag poster designed by George Maciunas. 54.8 x 87.8 cm

Image from: “Fluxus Debris: George Maciunas”. http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-usasurpassesall.html (accessed Oct 10, 2010)

Corris, Michael. “MOMA: Fluxus.” 2009.  http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10457 (accessed Oct 9, 2010). 

Hendricks, John. Fluxus Codex. Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection in assoc. with H.N. Abrams, NY, 1988.

Kellein, Thomas, Jon Hendricks. Fluxus. Thames and Hudson, London. 1995.

III. 

Image: Yoko Ono. George Maciunas. Fluxus Wallpaper. c. 1973. Offset. MoMA

Image from: Wagner, Gretchen. “MoMA Inside Out: Bottom’s Up: Fluxus Wallpaper”.May 30, 2010. http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/05/13/bottoms-up-fluxus-wallpaper/

IV. Image:  Pages of a Fluxus Magazine

Image from: Artmag.org “Fluxus Art at MoMa”. Jan. 2, 2010. http://artmag.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/fluxus-art-at-moma/ (accessed Oct 13, 2010)