This week, as the winter solstice approached, Paris, LA visited Supple Expansions at Freedman Fitzpatrick Gallery in Los Angeles, celebrated the launch of the Allan Kaprow.Posters book, listened to the captivating sounds of pianist Francesco Tristano, visited Jesse Stecklow‘s solo show at M+B Gallery, and studied new paintings by Sergej Jensen at Regen Projects.
Allan Kaprow (1927–2006) was an American artist who is perhaps best known for his work 18 Happenings in 6 Parts that took place at the Reuben Gallery in New York in 1959. In 1958 he wrote an essay, “The Legacy of Jackson Pollock,” that became an essential text for understanding the development of his work and indeed the entire Sixties performance art scene: “Pollock, as I see him, left us at the point where we must become preoccupied with and even dazzled by the space and objects of our everyday life, either our bodies, clothes, rooms, or, if need be, the vastness of Forty-second Street. Not satisfied with the suggestion through paint of our other senses, we shall utilize the specific substances of sight, sound, movements, people, odors, touch.”
With a wide selection of images, this publication, designed by Coline Sunier and Charles Mazé, documents Kaprow’s posters, a lesser-known side of his work, produced between 1953 for his first show at the Hansa Gallery, New York and 1996 at Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal.
Most of these posters were designed by Allan Kaprow and are characterized by their aesthetic quality, the earliest ones in particular a combination of hand-lettered text and drawings and the later ones of photographs and typographic text in a minimalist style.
More than merely advertising Happenings or Activities, these posters act as scores/tools for the participants to the Happenings and as everyday objects that blur the boundaries between art and life.
This publication is edited by Alice Dusapin and Christophe Daviet-Thery and published by Christophe Daviet-Thery and Walther König. There are two texts written by the artists Oscar Tuazon and Steve Roden. It just came out, you should have a look!
Dries Van Noten final show, 2014
This week on the blog we visited Bex & Arts, a Contemporary Sculpture Triennal in Switzerland; saw Bertrand Bonello at Centre Pompidou; passed by Peter Lindbergh at Gagosian Paris and Yoko Uhoda Gallery in Liège to see a show curated by Christophe Daviet-Thery; and finally ended with Neïl Beloufa at ICA in London.
A proposal by Christophe Daviet-Thery at Yoko Uhoda Gallery, Liège
19 September – 31 October, 2014
This proposal apprehends this aspect of Richard Prince’s work which encompasses books and the question of the collection.
The display of the show is in relation to the way used by Richard Prince to present books in his own publications like American/English or The Good Life in which he photographs covers of books from his collection, reducing the book to an image, a simple surface.
NEW BOOK !
Bibliothèque d’un amateur. Richard Prince’s Publications 1981-2014.
Christophe Daviet-Thery, Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié (Eds.).
&: Christophe Daviet-Thery & VIAINDUSTRIAE publishing.
Catalogue of Richard Prince’s exhibition at Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive, Spoleto, 23 June – 26 August 2012 and at &: Christophe Daviet-Thery, Paris, 26 October – 20 December 2012
Edited by Christophe Daviet-Thery and Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié
Essays: “Do Androids Dream about Kindles” by Vincent Pécoil, “American/English” by Yann Sérandour
Bibliographical notes: Francine Delaigle
Design: Jérôme Saint-Loubert Bié
Distribution: Motto
25 euros
This book is not a catalogue raisonné, instead it takes a look at the library of an amateur. It is an excuse to examine this aspect of Richard Prince’s work, which encompasses books, and the question of the collection and its incompleteness, revealed here by the ‘ghosts’ of the missing books.
Richard Prince is an avid and obsessive collector of books.
This fervor is visible in The Good Life or American/English, where he photographs covers of books from his collection, reducing the book to an image, a simple surface.