greg.org: the making of

Richard Hamilton invitation with 1951 Technique et Architecture illustration used for Five Tyres - abandoned (1964) and Five Tyres remoulded (1972)

Sometimes I hit a wall while writing, and retyping someone else's text helps get me going again.

So here is another installment of Better Read, a series of mp3 files from greg.org in which an interesting, under-known, or hard-to-find art-related text is read by a computer.

This text by Richard Hamilton accompanies Five Tyres remoulded, 1972 relief and print edition created with Carl Solway and EYE Editions. Hamilton describes his attempt to replicate by hand a complicated photo illustration he'd clipped from a trade magazine. The image was from the 50s, the project began and was abandoned in 1963, then reinitiated in 1970 with the help of a computer. Besides the obviously interesting insights onto his own process, Hamilton's text resonates with the history of early Pop, conceptual art, and even appropriation, as well as the inter-relation of art and technology.

Besides the portfolio itself, the text was only available in print in Studio International (1972, vol. 183, p. 276). Images of a first draft of the text were also included in a 2014 blog post by Carl Solway about his correspondence with Hamilton. So I'm sure having a computer-generated voice recording of it expands its availability tremendously.

Richard Hamilton, Dimensional Data, screen print on mylar, 60x85cm, from Five Tyres remoulded (1972), via swann

play or dl Better_Read_014_Richard_Hamilton_Five_Tyres_Remoulded_20170624.mp3 [dropbox, mp3 9:55, 14.3mb]
Related: Digging in the Archives: Richard Hamilton [solwaygallery.com]
Five Tyres remoulded (1972) [tate.org.uk]

Just when you thought The Grand Tour couldn't get any grander.

I am psyched, though no longer quite as surprised as you might be right now, to announce that Our Guernica Cycle - Ivanka / Merkel 2017.03.17 will be included in an exhibition at Musée des beaux-arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Titled "Répliques : l'original à l'épreuve de l'art", the show explores the history, distribution, and appreciation of art through replicas, duplication, and appropriation. It includes post-war works from the collection of Olivier Mosset, which the artist donated to the Musée in 2007, as well as other historical and contemporary works from the permanent collection. The show is organized by Gabriel Umstätter.

When the Musée folks emerged to identify themselves from the Kickstarter campaign, there were a few harried weeks to get the concept, the image, the object, and the logistics all pinned down in time for the opening. I must say I'm impressed by the cool confidence, precision and thoughtfulness, and I'm relieved that what was essentially a wild test of a print turned out great. [Did I bury the lede here? Has a museum ever acquired a work straight out of a Kickstarter campaign before?]

The Musée will feature a full-scale, Renaissance Edition print of the Ivanka/Merkel painting. I imagine the conceptual disaster-in-the-making of an outsourced painting of a crucial historical instant made in the style of a disgraced, redemption-seeking politician and reproduced following the modified pyramid schema of America's most mindlessly popular painter offers many, many entry points for a discourse on the moment. But then again, from this artist list, I'm sure there's no shortage of eye-popping insights:

Greg Allen, Carl Andre [! -ed.], Ian Anüll, John Armleder, Olivier Babin, Robert Ballagh, Aimé Barraud, Francis Baudevin, René Bauermeister, Ben, Mike Bidlo, Julius von Bismarck, Nicolas Boissonnas, Bryan Cera, Jerome Cavaliere, César, John Dogg (Colin de Land & Richard Prince), Gérard Collin-Thiébaut, le Dessinateur (automate Jaquet-Droz), Marcel Duchamp, Gretchen Faust, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Sylvie Fleury, Christian Floquet, Camille Graeser, Peter Halley, Charles Humbert, Donald Judd, Jean-Blaise Junod, Edouard Kaiser, Scott Kildall, Frank Kozik, Joseph Kosuth, L/B (Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann), Alix Lambert, Bertrand Lavier, Louise Lawler, Jørgen Leth, Sherrie Levine, Claude Loewer, Michael Mandiberg, Jean-Luc Manz, Allan Mc Collum, Claude Mellan, Ana Mendieta [No? I guess I added that one. -ed.]Mathieu Mercier, Olivier Mosset, John Nixon, Richard Pettibone, Raoul Pictor (Hervé Graumann & Mathieu Cherubini), Bernard Piffaretti, André Ramseyer, Martial Raysse, Léopold Robert, Walter Robinson, Norman Rockwell, Bob Ross, Claude Rutault, Yara Said, le Tampographe Sardon, Lily van der Stokker, Elaine Sturtevant, Peter Tillessen, Corinne Vionnet, Wallace & Donohue, Joan Waltemath, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Dick Whyte, Ian Wilson, Madeleine Woog.

Répliques : l'original à l'épreuve de l'art, Musée des beaux-arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 30 June - 29 Oct 2017 [chaux-de-fonds.ch]
Related: Our Guernica, After Our PIcasso Kickstarter campaign page [kickstarter]

Installation view: Proposte monocrome, gris, 2017, dimensions variable, paint on plaster, as installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2017. photo: @bshaykin

If you're hustling to the Metropolitan Museum to see my work, Untitled (Andiron Attributed To Paul Revere, Jr.), in the American Wing, you might be in for a treat.

Benjamin Shaykin has Instagrammed a beautiful photo of another piece, Proposte monocrome, gris, which is installed, at least for the moment, in the French Impressionists gallery. If you see it, take a pic!

You'll probably have to hurry, though. And if you don't make it in time, there's always the Kawakubo show. And a rare pair of Caravaggios.

@bshaykin [instagram]

Previously: Untitled (Andiron attributed to Paul Revere, Jr.), 2014
Proposte monocrome, eBay, rose

We haven't had a good, old-fashioned photomural post on here for a while, and I'm kind of crazy with work and stuck with writing, so I won't get into it now. But Galerie 1900-2000's booth at Art Basel this year features a sweet photomural blowup of Andre Breton's living room as a backdrop for a Dora Maar portrait Picasso gave him. Very nice. [image via Benjamin Westoby for Artsy]

Previously, related architectural photomurals: Barcelona Pavilion photomural for Craig Ellwood's 1966 Mies van der Rohe show at LACMA
Stephen Shore photomurals or 'architectural paintings'

Study for Untitled (Adidas Art Basel), 2017, nylon and ink on Adidas EQT shoe, image: ebay seller miadrian10

Art Basel is suing Adidas for trademark infringement over these kicks. A thousand pairs were given away at a string of branded flashmobs in Miami on November 30th, two days before the opening of the art fair they had no official marketing agreement with. Is there a term for astroturfed flashmobs? Is there any other kind these days? Did you know Adidas been hypin' kicks at #ABMB since at least 2010? Does a viral flash mob still count if you have to Google it?

image: taetalentagency

Anyway, 2016. According to hype groupies like high snobiety and World Red Eye, a mirror-wrapped school bus drove 48 performance artist/brand ambassador/whatevers around town. Stops included a high school in the Design District, HdM's parking garage, and some millennial-branded Hilton in South Beach.

screencap from @britneyc0807

They were decked out in #monochromatic reflective gear. They stood in formation, Vanessa Beecroft-style. They did some dance moves. Ideally, their gear did its retroreflective blast out thing when it was photographed.

image: worldredeye

Then they unloaded their loot, lined it up like a freakin' Eleanor Antin street team, and, I guess, handed it out to the 'gramming masses like rations off the back of a UN truck. Then everyone started flipping their swag on eBay. It's hard to say where the stunt's brand impact actually landed the hardest: on the 1st-to-know sneaker chasers, the day-of hashtaggers, the eBay resale remoras, or now, on the so-DGAF lawsuit bad bois.

images: ebayseller sorry, lost it

Art Basel is suing over the tongue tags on these free sneakers, and in addition to brand damages, is demanding Adidas destroy all the infringey sneakers it still has. If you budget for ex-post trademark settlements, is it actually a bootleg?

Study for Untitled (Adidas Art Basel), 2017, retroreflective paint and ink on panel, 50x50cm

Untitled (Adidas Art Basel) is a series of 1,000 numbered paintings based on this tongue tag composition, made in various sizes. Or should I say they will be made. Might be. Conceived to be.

Study for Untitled (Adidas Art Basel) photographed, 2017, retroreflective paint and ink on panel, 50x50cm

I know what I've written about artists having a successful system, but honestly, it's debatable whether the world needs 10 more paintings at all right now, much less 1,000. Of these. Can you even imagine having a thousand of these paintings lying around? You literally could not give them away, lawyers or no. Or maybe you can? Just put a few hundred super-shiny posters in a stack and BAM, you're in Venice.

Ima get to work on one, see if it delivers that retroflective kick the study's promising. Then I'll let my estate sort out the rest.

Art Basel is Suing adidas Over its Limited Edition 'Art Basel' Shoes [thefashionlaw via artforum, thanks @kyle_petreycik]
Here's How You Can Get 1 of Only 1,000 Pairs of adidas's "Art Basel" Limited Edition EQT ADV [highsnobiety]
Adidas Flash Mob in the Miami Design District [worldredeye]

Previously, related: Webdriver Torso as Found Painting System
When Form Becomes Content, or Luanda, Encyclopedic City

Untitled (Repressed Memory X Raf FW2013-14), 2017, mylar satelloons, Magritte-ian floor, unidentified trauma, installation shot from Dior F/W2013-4, image: thesartorialist

Oh hi! What do you remember from 2013? More than me, I bet! Take Feb/March 2013, for example. I'm only now realizing I was so busy putting the finishing touches on "Exhibition Space," the satelloon show I was opening the next week at apexart, that I completely forgot-and obviously forgot to hype-my colabo with Raf Simons. The one where I stuffed a bunch of satelloons onto the runway of the Dior Fall/Winter show.

Dior F/W2013-4, image: not thesartorialist

Fortunately The Sartorialist was there to document it, or I might never have remembered. To be honest, it's still all quite hazy. Was I even involved? Why would I have scooped my own show?

"Warhol also echoed in the silvered spheres suspended in the room (like the artist's iconic 'clouds')", said Vogue, shadily.

Does this mean Raf read my blog? Or that I'm friends with Sterling Ruby? Holy crap, Peter Marino soundbite? It's all a work now, but if this really happened to me, I can see why I've repressed the memory. (thanks, random Russian LJ)

When you go to the Rauschenberg show at MoMA, take your opera glasses.

A question I was never able to figure out was when, exactly, Sturtevant's Johns Flag took the place of Johns' Johns Flag after it was stolen in 1965.

When they split, Johns & Rauschenberg made an agreement that Short Circuit, or perhaps Construction with J.J. Flag, as it had also been known, would not be exhibited. Presumably, with Johns' Flag gone, Rauschenberg felt free to include the work in a collage-themed group show at Finch College in 1967.

He posed with the work [above], holding the cabinet door ajar to obscure the space where Johns' Flag had been, and in his artist statement, he said, " Elaine Sturtevant is painting an original flag in the manner of Jasper Johns' to replace it." Is painting, present tense.

Did she finish in time? It's not clear. All published accounts of the exhibition mention the openable doors with paintings behind them-but also that they were nailed shut. So who knows? Sturtevant's Johns Flag is like Schrodinger's Cat, both alive and dead, both in there, and not.

detail of Elaine Sturtevant's Johns Flag in Rauschenberg's Short Circuit

But. If you take a close look at Short Circuit's Sturtevant Johns Flag at MoMA, you might be able to see a legible scrap of newspaper on its surface. Actually, you can see many, but one has a date: Sunday, January 15, 1967. And a typeface that looks like the Times.

image: nytimesmachine

And sure enough, it is. Page 69. The headline: "Powell Case, in 6 Years, Has Involved 80 Judges 10 Courts, 4 Juries, 15 Lawyers and congress." The story: a full-page recap of a convoluted lawsuit brought against Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., involving defamation and allegations of police corruption.

The Finch show opened on March 9th, so it is at least possible that Sturtevant finished her painting in time to put it in. I mean, it can't be ruled out [the way a scrap of newspaper visible in Johns' own MoMA Flag dating from after the 1955 exhibition of Short Circuit almost certainly means that the Short Circuit flag was the "first" flag.]

What's more interesting, though, is to the right. Doesn't that look like Johns? In a tuxedo? Perhaps attending an opening? I've only done the most cursory search so far, and I can't find a source for that image from 1965-67. Would Sturtevant have kept a party shot clipping from Johns' Jewish Museum show in 1964? Would Rauschenberg?

Previously, related: Art in Process: Reading Finch College Museum
Jasper Johns' first Flag

Untitled (Unpainted Wall), 2017, brick, concrete, 18 lag shields, exterior latex paint. Installation view, Chevy Chase, Maryland

In his 1977 Whitney catalogue, Michael Crichton wrote about the origin of Jasper Johns' 1967 painting Harlem Light:

It has a peculiar background. Johns was taking a taxi to the airport, traveling through Harlem, when he passed a small store which had a wall painted to resemble flagstones. He decided it would appear in his next painting. Some weeks later when he began the painting, he asked David Whitney to find the flagstone wall, and photograph it. Whitney returned to say he could not find the wall anywhere. Johns himself then looked for the wall, driving back and forth across Harlem, searching for what he had briefly seen. He never found it, and finally had to conclude that it had been painted over or demolished. Thus he was obliged to re-create the flagstone wall from emory. This distressed him, "What I had hoped to do was an exact copy of the wall. It was red, black, and gray, but I'm sure that it didn't look like what I did. But I did my best."

Explaining further, he said: "Whatever I do seems artificial and false, to me. They-whoever painted the wall-had an idea; I doubt that whatever they did had to conform to anything except their own pleasure. I wanted to use that design. The trouble is that when you start to work, you can't eliminate your own sophistication. If I could have traced it I would have felt secure that I had it right. Because what's interesting to me is the fact that it isn't designed, but taken. It's not mine." [p. 54-55]

Untitled (Delian Ode), 1960/61, pencil, ballpoint pen, and grease crayon on paper, image: peter freeman

I mean, can you even imagine doing it? I admit it, I can, and I just cannot. De Kooning said he wanted to give away one he'd miss. And one that'd be hard for Rauschenberg to erase. If there's any other kind of Twombly drawing, I haven't seen it.

We'll put this one in the "Think about it"/"Unrealized" category.

Previously, related, badly titled: Ghetto Erased de Kooning Drawing

After he was booted from his white-on-white-on-white loft when the Bozza Mansion was torn down, John Cage kind of drifted for a while. Apparently it was hard to find a good deal on a great space in Manhattan in 1954 [when you had no money.]

So for a while, Cage moved to The Land, one of the names for the pseudo-commune/art colony started by Paul & Vera Williams on 116 acres in Stony Point, Rockland County, NY. Paul was an architect friend of Cage's from Black Mountain College, and he'd purchased the property after inheriting some money.

I don't know why, but I'd always assumed Cage and the other The Land folks lived in little cottages. Not quite. It turns out Williams, a student of Breuer, created some classically modernist boxes.

The first pictures I've ever seen are in Brendan W. Joseph's 2016 book, Experimentations: John Cage in Music, Art, and Architecture, which goes into some detail on the development of The Land and its surprising impact on Cage and his work.

Cage shared a building, a duplex, with the Williamses. He lived in 1 or 2 rooms on the left in the image above, separated by a stone wall he and Vera built. It looks quite nice, if simple, a bit like the Black Mountain College buildings everyone built together. Indeed, from Joseph's account, it sounds like Williams was hoping to recapture some of that BMC mojo with his co-op experiment.