George Brecht | V TRE

George Brecht

V TRE

Metuchen, USA: Self-published, 1963

2 pp., 32.2 x 24.8 cm., single sheet

Edition size unknown

The origin of the Fluxus newspapers (see previous post) can be traced back to publications that George Brecht produced to accompany his infamous Yam Festival. 

Brecht and Robert Watts met weekly for lunch at the Howard Johnson's in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where they conceived of the year-long performance art festival. It was intended to take place in Princeton, but ended up happening at George Segal's farm, on the campus of Rutgers, in New York City, and through the postal service - an early example of mail art. 

The project began in May of 1962 (Yam being May spelled backwards) and included events, Happenings and performances by Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, La Monte Young, Wolf Vostell, Watts and Brecht. These included "Yam Lecture", "Yam Hat Sale", "Water Day", "Clock Day", "Box Day" and "Yam Day". Examples of some of the printed materials that accompanied the festival are below. 

V TRE is the best known of the ephemera surrounding the event, as it became a proto-Fluxus publication, similar to Young and MacLow’s An Anthology. When Maciunas decided to produce a Fluxus newspaper, he appropriated the name, which Brecht had taken from a faulty neon sign in New Jersey. 

The two page broadsheet features announcements and works, interspersed with appropriated newspaper headlines and ad parodies. It features contributions by Ruth Kraus, Claes Oldenburg, Bob Morris, Dieter Roth, Angus Maclise, Jackson MacLow, Robert Morris, and Hans Gappmayr.