Walter Robinson, RIP

Painter Walter Robinson has died, at the age of 74. In addition to his own art practice, Robinson cofounded Printed Matter (with Sol LeWitt and Lucy Lippard) in 1976, was part of the Collaborative Projects collective (with Kiki Smith, Jenny Holzer and others) and edited Art-Rite Magazine (with Edit DeAk, and Joshua Cohn). He also coined the term Zombie Formalism. 

"The wonderful and wry Walter Robinson, painter, writer, and editor, was one of Printed Matter’s founding members. In the decades since he has shared a long history with us as a friend, collaborator and frequent supporter, and many of his projects have remained hugely important to Printed Matter’s own storyline. We are deeply sad to learn of his recent passing.

Walter was one of the founding editors of Art-Rite, an underground arts magazine that served a new generation of arts writing, presenting a platform for lively criticism and off-beat artists’ projects from a community of downtown artists — an incredible publication and archive that was the focus of our 2023 exhibition From the Margins: The Making of Art-Rite. Through that process Walter brought a wealth of knowledge and insight, and helped to paint a richly rendered history of his experience co-editing the publication, sharing anecdotes and remembrances from the time. He was also an active member of Collaborative Projects Inc (Colab), the dynamic gathering of young artists who organized a series of now legendary shows and other art initiatives in the late 1970s – mid 1980s. In 2016 we had the pleasure of publishing a book that collected the varied work of the group, bookended by two pieces of writing by Walter.

Across his many projects in the arts, Walter brought an insuppressible energy to his work and collaborations that was inventive, generous, and often delivered with incisive humor. His lasting impact has been felt profoundly across New York’s arts culture and beyond. We’ll miss him dearly.”

- Printed Matter press release

Art-Rite

[Walter Robinson, Edit DeAk, and Joshua Cohn, eds]

Art-Rite

New York City, USA: Primary Information/Printed Matter, 2019

678 pp., 8.5 x 10.75", softcover

Edition of 2000

Edit DeAk, Walter Robinson, and Joshua Cohn  met while in their early twenties, in an art criticism class taught by Brian O'Doherty at Barnard College in New York, in 1972. O'Doherty - the influential critic, artist and academic who died last November - had been hired the year prior to edit Art in America magazine. He was suitably impressed by DeAk, Robinson, and Cohn, and approached them about contributing to the publication. 

"I thought, aestheticism must be in trouble if they want baby blood," Edit told Artforum in 2003. "What’s wrong with the system that they want us?"

The trio offered a counter-proposal: a newsprint insert to accompany Art in America, which would "piggyback on the establishment, having the establishment distribute the enemy, our voice. This was the period when people talked about things like that.” 

When it was turned down, the trio began their own publishing venture, called Art-Rite, a forerunner to the punk/art ‘zine of the latter half of that decade. The publication was printed on newsprint and espoused a decidedly insider (though often anonymous) point of view. Each issue was given over entirely to an artist, a collective or a theme. The themes included video, painting, performance, and artists' books.

The latter, issue #14, included unedited statements on artists' publications from fifty artists and art professionals, including Kathy Acker, Lucy Lippard, Ulises Carrión, Adrian Piper, Sol LeWitt, and others. Lewitt's text ("They are works themselves, not reproductions of works", etc. - see below) became an influential statement on the subject, and was reproduced many years later on the verso of his catalogue raisonne of bookworks. 

"The artists’ book issue [came out because] - if you can believe it, in the 70s it felt like all of a sudden everybody was making artists’ books because they wanted to make something that was democratic, because the political impulses of the 60s had been anti-commodity," said Robinson, in 1979. 

What made Art-Rite so unique, deAk noted, was its “whole new tone and attitude. It was unheard of to have a sense of humor at the time, or not to be talking about ‘the problem’ of art—the problem of this, the problem of that.” It's perhaps reassuring to know that these things are cyclical, and the art world's current inability to move forward for fear of being on the wrong side of something politically, will give way to something perhaps less earnest. 

Most issues of Art-Rite had covers designed by artists, including William Wegman, Richard Tuttle, Yuri, Christo, Dorothea Rockburne, Vito Acconci, Pat Steir, Robert Ryman, Joseph Beuys, Edward Ruscha, Alan Vega (Suicide), Carl Andre, Rosemary Mayer, Kim MacConnel, Image Bank, Chris Burden, Demi, and Judy Rifka.

The incredible list of contributors includes Chris Burden, Allen Ruppersberg, Kathy Acker, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Judith Hoffberg, Allan Kaprow, Richard Kostalanetz, Sol Le Witt, Lucy Lippard, Maurizio Nannucci, Richard Nonas, Adrian Piper, Lucio Pozzi, Marcia Resnick, Carolee Schneeman, Pat Steir, Lawrence Weiner, Robin Winters, Douglas Huebler, David Salle, Rosalee Goldberg, A.A. Bronson, Naomi Spector, Eve Sonneman, Peter Frank, Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Eleanor Antin, David Antin, Diego Cortez, Joan La Barbara, Joan Jonas, Philip Glass, Hannah Wilke, Rebecca Horn, Nancy Holt, Lucio Pozzi, Trisha Brown, Michael Kirby, Scott Burton, Robert Wilson, Yvonne Rainer, Christopher Knowles, Lucinda Childs, Lil Picard, Linda Benglis, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Morris, Hans Haacke, Julian Schnabel, Nancy Spero, Judy Chicago, Nancy Graves, Joan Jonas, Lee Krasner, Agnes Martin, Les Levine, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Shigeko Kubota, Richard Landry, Nam June Paik, Ulrike Rosenbach, Willoughby Sharp and numerous others.

Individual issues are scarce and sell now for upwards of a hundred dollars, making this complete facsimile from Primary Information and Printed Matter essential. Sadly, in less than four years, the publication has sold out, despite two-thousand copies printed. 

To mark the 50th anniversary of the original periodical, co-publisher Printed Matter has mounted an exhibition called From the Margins: The Making of Art-Rite. The show traces the history of the publication through photographs, production paste-ups and a complete set of the periodical (below). The exhibition opened last month and continues until June 23rd, 2023. 

Art-Rite Facsimile Reprint Launch on Tuesday

PRESS RELEASE:

"ART-RITE launch event
A discussion with Walter Robinson, Pat Steir and Robin Winters
December 10, 2019 7PM

Join us for a special event to mark the launch of Art-Rite, a new facsimile reprint collecting the full run of the landmark periodical. Art-Rite editor Walter Robinson will be joined in conversation by artists Pat Steir and Robin Winters for a conversation on artists in Soho between 1973-1978. Moderated by Carlo McCormick, with an introduction by Jeffrey Deitch.
Note that this event takes place at Jeffrey Deitch (18 Wooster Street, between Canal and Grand). Join on Facebook here.

Edited and published by Joshua Cohn, Edit DeAk, and Walter Robinson between 1973 and 1978 (Cohn would leave after issue 7), Art-Rite moved easily through the expansive community of post-conceptual, post-minimalist, performance, and video artists that made up New York’s vibrant downtown arts scene. With a sharp editorial vision, fanzine ethos, and proto-punk aesthetic, the magazine presented up-close coverage of the art world that was at once critical, humorous, and deeply knowledgeable, avoiding the formal tone and self-seriousness that characterized other art publications of the time. Over its five year run, Art-Rite would publish hundreds of interviews, exhibition and performance reviews, statements, and projects “by, with, and about” a generation of artists who felt accessible in these pages, even as many of them were, or would soon become, the defining voices of the era.

Art-Rite (2019) is co-published by Primary Information and Printed Matter, Inc."

Art-Rite magazine and Edit DeAk

Edit DeAk, Walter Robinson, and Joshua Cohn met in an art criticism class taught by Brian O'Doherty at Barnard College in New York, in 1972. The following year they began publishing Art-Rite, a forerunner to the punk/art ‘zine of the latter half of that decade. The publication was printed on newsprint and espoused a decidedly insider (though often anonymous) point of view. Each issue was given over entirely to an artist, a collective or a theme.

What made Art-Rite so unique, deAk told Artforum in 2003, was its “whole new tone and attitude. It was unheard of to have a sense of humor at the time, or not to be talking about ‘the problem’ of art—the problem of this, the problem of that.”

Most issues had covers designed by artists, including William Wegman, Richard Tuttle, Yuri, Christo, Dorothea Rockburne, Vito Acconci, Pat Steir, Robert Ryman, Joseph Beuys, Edward Ruscha, Alan Vega (Suicide), Carl Andre, Rosemary Mayer, Kim MacConnel, Image Bank, Chris Burden, Demi, and Judy Rifka.

The incredible list of contributors includes Chris Burden, Allen Ruppersberg, Kathy Acker, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Judith Hoffberg, Allan Kaprow, Richard Kostalanetz, Sol Le Witt, Lucy Lippard, Maurizio Nannucci, Richard Nonas, Adrian Piper, Lucio Pozzi, Marcia Resnick, Carolee Schneeman, Pat Steir, Lawrence Weiner, Robin Winters, Douglas Huebler, David Salle, Rosalee Goldberg, A.A. Bronson, Naomi Spector, Eve Sonneman, Peter Frank, Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Eleanor Antin, David Antin, Diego Cortez, Joan La Barbara, Joan Jonas, Philip Glass, Hannah Wilke, Rebecca Horn, Nancy Holt, Lucio Pozzi, Trisha Brown, Michael Kirby, Scott Burton, Robert Wilson, Yvonne Rainer, Christopher Knowles, Lucinda Childs, Lil Picard, Linda Benglis, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Morris, Hans Haacke, Julian Schnabel, Nancy Spero, Judy Chicago, Nancy Graves, Joan Jonas, Lee Krasner, Agnes Martin, Les Levine, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Shigeko Kubota, Richard Landry, Nam June Paik, Ulrike Rosenbach, Willoughby Sharp and numerous others.

"We were riding on the absurdity of the situation—that we were three nobodies, had no money, had no fame, and didn’t know anybody in the art world. But it was perfect—we were totally free,” said deAk in 1974.

After the 21st issue (actually nineteenth) in 1978, the periodical folded. "It petered out. We kind of ran out of money," said Robinson. "It's just one of those things. We never really made any money out of it and it had just run it's course."

DeAk adds "We were getting older. We were not making any money, we had to work all the time and I just got tired". She went on to contribute to Artforum, Interview, ZG, Art Random, and many other publications, writing about Dennis Oppenheim, Hanne Darboven, Cookie Mueller, Cindy Sherman and others.

DeAk died last week at the age of 68.


“RIP my brilliant 70s collaborator who emerged from the Hungarian waves (via car trunk at the Yugoslavian border) with her equally brilliant husband Peter Grass, to rehab a 3500 sq ft loft on the top floor of 149 Wooster St into a center of fun and DIY culture, where she presided as guiding spirit over the launch of Art-Rite magazine and so many other endeavors, including curating the first performance art festival at Artists Space, then next door, and overseeing its first graffiti art show (I think) and co-founding Printed Matter.”

- Walter Robinson