Reading Room catalogue

From 1967 to 1969, Vito Acconci & Bernadette Mayer collected the works of the some of the most exciting artists and writers for their mimeographed magazine, 0 TO 9. Robert Barry, Ted Berrigan, Clark Coolidge, John Giorno, Dan Graham, Michael Heizer, Kenneth Koch, Sol LeWitt, Jackson Mac Low, Harry Mathews, Adrian Piper, Bern Porter, Yvonne Rainer, Jerome Rothenberg, Aram Saroyan, Robert Smithson, Alan Sondheim, Hannah Weiner, and Emmett Williams, among others, were contributors.

Documents 1 is a collection of correspondence, press, and ephemera surrounding the foundation and rise of the Art Worker’s Coalition (AWC), first published at the height of the group’s activity in mid-1969. Beginning with a rallying statement from Greek sculptor Takis—whose withdrawal from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that January directly precipitated the formation of the AWC—the publication is a whirlwind tour of the flourishing group’s rapid development and expanding concerns.

Alongside official statements, fliers, and lists of demands from the AWC, its offshoots, affiliates, and enemies-of-enemies—from Marcel Broodthaers to the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition—Documents 1 includes an extended correspondence with MoMA, and analysis of the historical development and practices of that museum in particular; letters to Richard Nixon and the National Council on the Arts; extensive press coverage (in publications from The East Village Other to The New York Times); photographs of AWC protests and events; and writings by Gregory Battcock, Alex Gross, Len Lye, and others.

Founded in January 1969, the Art Workers’ Coalition was a loose association of artists, writers, and cultural workers organized around shared commitments to social action and the reform and revaluation of art institutions. The immediate catalyst for the group’s formation was the artist Takis’ withdrawal of his work from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in protest of the lack of control afforded artists in the exhibition of their artworks which had been purchased by the museum. The group’s efforts to establish an open dialogue with MoMA were rebuffed, and the museum refused their request to host a public discussion on its responsibilities to artists and the public. In response, the AWC hosted an “open hearing” at the School of Visual Arts on April, 10, 1969, in which “[e]very art worker” was invited “to make a statement of his attitudes and complaints about all art institutions and conditions.”

The widely attended open hearing was a watershed event for the burgeoning group, facilitating the expansion of its aims and premises to be more broadly inclusive. Throughout the early part of 1969, the AWC snowballed into an umbrella organization, its polemical thrust reinforced and widened through the incorporation of diverse sympathetic causes. The group was bent on serving “the best interest of all art workers,” and through their protests and publications—Open Hearing, which both documents and effectively extends the titular event of April, 10, 1969; and Documents 1, an account of the group’s history and its aims through correspondence, press, and ephemera— aired a wide-ranging critique of the art world and Vietnam-era society at large. Reluctant from the start to adopt any kind of centralized, hierarchical organization, the AWC splintered in 1971, giving way to such groups as Art Strike, Guerilla Art Action Group, and Women Artists in Revolution.

Open Hearing is a monumental collection of statements originally published in the wake of the first public meeting of the Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC), at the School of Visual Arts in New York on April 10, 1969. The meeting was billed as “an open public hearing […] regarding museum reform” and the establishment of a program for the AWC, in which any and all art workers were invited to “testify.” It was a consummation of the group’s inception that January, in which the urgency of its foundational concerns and its potency as a rallying point for diverse critical voices were made manifest.

Open Hearing is both a document and an extension of that watershed event, consisting of texts collected from a number of the participants as well as transcriptions of the proceedings. The publication was to “be freely circulated and is intended to form a solid basis for a permanent organization designed to represent the best interests of all art workers.” Its topics, as broadly outlined in the publication itself, range from black and Puerto Rican artists’ rights, to the reform and renunciation of “museums and art institutions,” to the structure of the AWC itself. Open Hearing preserves a sweeping, manifold collective declamation, whose tangible resonance is a testament to its own continuing importance.

Participating artists are Carl Andre, Architects’ Resistance, Robert Barry, Gregory Battcock, Jon Bauch, Ernst Benkert, Don Bernshouse, Gloria Greenberg Bressler, Selma Brody, Bruce Brown, Bob Carter, Frederick Castle, Rosemarie Castoro, Michael Chapman, Iris Crump, John Denmark, Joseph Di Donato, Mark Di Suvero, George Dworzan, Farman, Hollis Frampton, Dan Graham, Chuck Ginnever, Bill Gordy, Alex Gross, Hans Haacke, Clarence Hagin, Harvey, Gerry Herman, Frank Hewitt, D. Holmes, Robert Huot, Ken Jacobs, Joseph Kosuth, David Lee, Naomi Levine, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Tom Lloyd, Lee Lozano, Len Lye, James McDonald, Edwin Mieczkowski, Minority A, Vernita Nemec, Barnett Newman, John Perreault, Stephen Phillips, Lil Picard, Peter Pinchbeck, Joanna Pousette-Dart, Barbara Reise, Faith Ringgold, Steve Rosenthal, Theresa Schwarz, Seth Siegelaub, Gary Smith, Michael Snow, Anita Steckel, Carl Strueckland, Gene Swenson, Julius Tobias, Jean Toche, Ruth Vollmer, Iain Whitecross, Jay Wholly, Ann Wilson, and Wilbur Woods.

Founded in January 1969, the Art Workers’ Coalition was a loose association of artists, writers, and cultural workers organized around shared commitments to social action and the reform and revaluation of art institutions. The immediate catalyst for the group’s formation was the artist Takis’ withdrawal of his work from an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in protest of the lack of control afforded artists in the exhibition of their artworks which had been purchased by the museum. The group’s efforts to establish an open dialogue with MoMA were rebuffed, and the museum refused their request to host a public discussion on its responsibilities to artists and the public. In response, the AWC hosted an “open hearing” at the School of Visual Arts on April, 10, 1969, in which “[e]very art worker” was invited “to make a statement of his attitudes and complaints about all art institutions and conditions.”

The widely attended open hearing was a watershed event for the burgeoning group, facilitating the expansion of its aims and premises to be more broadly inclusive. Throughout the early part of 1969, the AWC snowballed into an umbrella organization, its polemical thrust reinforced and widened through the incorporation of diverse sympathetic causes. The group was bent on serving “the best interest of all art workers,” and through their protests and publications—Open Hearing, which both documents and effectively extends the titular event of April, 10, 1969; and Documents 1, an account of the group’s history and its aims through correspondence, press, and ephemera— aired a wide-ranging critique of the art world and Vietnam-era society at large. Reluctant from the start to adopt any kind of centralized, hierarchical organization, the AWC splintered in 1971, giving way to such groups as Art Strike, Guerilla Art Action Group, and Women Artists in Revolution.

Over a two-week period between December ‘06 to January ‘07, Amy Sillman and Gregg Bordowitz recorded approximately ten hours of conversation covering topics such as art, philosophy, their practices, their personal histories and their friendship. This edited transcript roughly follows the chronology of their discussions from beginning to end. The transcript starts where they consider the beliefs underlying their respective endeavors, what art can and cannot accomplish.

Over the course of several recorded conversations, Andrea Bowers and Catherine Opie reveal the many similarities in their backgrounds and discuss ideas concerning documentary methodologies and community based work. The conversation spans many of the topics they regard central to their practices and responsibilities as artists, from memories and community, to activism, documentary, feminism, war, and environmentalism.

Harrell Fletcher and Michael Rakowitz share a lively conversation largely composed of anecdotes and first person narratives that addresses central and shared concerns in both artists’ practice. Discussions about the pedagogy of art, social practice, story-telling, sincerity, community-oriented projects, and documentary strategies are interwoven with analysis of some of the artists’ key works.

In this conversation Maria Eichhorn and John Miller set out to closely read some of their own recent production. Reviewing several bodies of work the two artists expose their working strategies, interests and inspirations. The conversation ranges from, among other topics, climate changes to personal ads, from Seth Siegelaub’s “Artist’s Contract” to Duchamp’s “Monte Carlo Bond,” and from the machinations of capital to American game shows

Inadvertently situated during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 2006, this epistolary dialogue between the two artists traces one artist’s evacuation from Lebanon, and one artist’s experience of the war through texts and images. Interwoven are discussions about aesthetic methodology, representations of war and its aftermath, and the psychical stakes of the politics of war and art.

The book contains introduction by Jim Sponto plus stories and texts by:
Vito Acconci, Amy Adler, Michel Auder, Anita Augustin, Dave Bailey, Maura Biava, Jeremy Blake, Brett Bloom, Jakob S. Boeskov, Kaspar Bonnén, Yvette Brackman, Matthew Buckingham/Joachim Koester, Diego Castro, Miles Coolidge, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Mari Eastman, Mary Beth Edelson, Michelle Eistrup, Peter Fend, Nicolas Floc’h, Douglas Gordon, Matthew Greene, Joseph Grigely, Kristinn G. Hardarson, Isabell Heimerdinger, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Karl Holmqvist, Christian Jankowski, Casey Kaplan, Maria Karlson, Elke Krystufek, Peter Land, Les Levine, Helen Mirra, Jonathan Monk, Karina Mosegård, Yoshitomo Nara, Laurie Palmer, Mary Patten, rasmus knud, David Robbins, Gary Rough, Julia Scher, Andreas Schlaegel, Andrea Clavadetscher & Eric Schumacher, Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen, Tilo Schulz, Marika Seidler, David Shrigley, Michael Smith, Sean Snyder, Chris Hanson & Hendrika Sonnenberg, Glenn Sorensen, Simon Starling, Lisa Strömbeck, Vibeke Tandberg, Kathy Temin, Gitte Villesen, Kara Walker, Magnus Wallin, Nicolai Wallner, Lawrence Weiner and Cecilia Wendt

This inaugural issue of COMMERCE, a scholarly journal devoted to economically motivated works of art, is devoted to the Nesting Bookcase, an artwork designed and sold by Joe Scanlan since 1989.

REALLIFE Magazine: Selected Writings and Projects 1979-1994 highlights a selection of writings and artists’ projects from REALLIFE magazine, which was originally edited by artist, writer, and curator, Thomas Lawson and writer, Susan Morgan. Published in twenty-three issues from 1979-1994 as an intermittent black and white magazine, REALLIFE featured artists and art historians writing on art, media and popular culture interspersed with pictorial contributions. The development of the magazine through its 15 year history, traces the influences, development and transitions of artists through the 80s.

The anthology features writings by and about Dara Birnbaum, Eric Bogosian, Rhys Chatham, Mark Dion, Jack Goldstein, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Kim Gordon, Dan Graham, Thomas Lawson, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Allan McCollum, John Miller, Dave Muller, Matt Mullican, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, David Robbins, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Michael Smith, John Stezaker, Bernard Tschumi, Jeff Wall, Lawrence Weiner, and James Welling among others.

“Sometimes a nicer sculpture is to be able to provide a living for your family”: a short publication about the reasoning behind Ben Kinmont’s antiquarian bookselling business, started in 1998.

After the preface by Ben Kinmont, Joseph Grigley contributes an essay on “information economy”, Paula Hayes writes about “collaborative economy”, Gordon Matta-Clark addreses “business economy”, On Kawara treats “gift economy” and Mierle Laderman Ukeles wraps up with “maintenance economy”. An exhibition checklist from the show held at Printed Matter, Inc. in April and May of 1996 follows.

“Tickled pink. Scarlet with embarrassment. Purple with anger. Blue. Green with envy. Jaundiced yellow. White with fear. Black depression.” Adrian Piper’s book is a collaboration with sixteen people who were asked to cut out these ‘metaphorical moods’ and record them as photographs which Piper then took responsibility for sorting, depending on her response to the expressions. According to Piper, the book “was intended as a light-hearted conceptual gesture with serious implications”.

Colored People is a project that attempts to deal with two aspects of prejudgement; those made about others and those made about art that is delimited as political as a method of containment of what else it may be about, how richly politics may be defined.

Cultural Writing. Poetry. Essays. THE BACK ROOM is an occasional series of presentations/symposia/bacchanals in Portland, Oregon, replete with food, drink, music, and general boisterousness garlanding the central pleasure of bright intellects voicing their excellent texts, winging it in conversation, and screening or presenting various textual and visual delights. Including work by Dodie Bellamy, Kevin Killian, Moira Roth, Lisa Robertson, and many more. This collection is meant to inspire and inform copycat efforts in other cities.