Artists' Stamps

Postage stamps by Fernando Aguiar, Joseph Beuys, Fluxus, General Idea, Barbara Kruger, George Maciunas, Endre Tot, Ben Vautier, and Bob Watts. 

Dollar Bills

 

Robert Watts | Fingerprint

Robert Watts

Fingerprint

New York City, USA: Fluxus, 1965

10 x 12 x 2.5 cm.

Edition size unknown

A white plastic box containing solid white plaster of Paris marked with a black ink fingerprint, with a label designed by George Maciunas. 

The back page of the May 1966 Fluxus newspaper (see below, centre left) advertised the work by Watts for $4.00, the same price as Ben Vautier’s holes, Alison Knowles’ Bean Rolls and George Brecht’s Ball Puzzles. 

Previously, “Fingerprints” had been advertised in Flux Shop newsletters for ten cents, not attributed to any particular artist.  

Robert Watts

 

Benjamin Buchloh 

Robert Watts

New York City, USA: Leo Castelli Gallery, 1990

32 pp., 23.5 x 22 x .4 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

Published two years after the artist’s death at the age of 65, this slim volume was produced in conjunction with an exhibition held at Leo Castelli Gallery from November 27th to December 20th, 1990. Designed by Sarah Seagull (who, with her partner Larry Miller, runs the Watts Estate), the book features an introduction by Leo Castelli and an essay by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh.

Bob Watts | Male Underpants

Bob Watts

Male Underpants

New York City, USA: Implosions, Inc., [circa 1966]

33 x 22 cm.

Edition size unknown

The companion to Female Underpants (see previous post) these works are also screenprinted onto fabric. And like the female counterpart, they are also printed onto women’s underpants, presumably as the Y-Front interfered with the image. Unlike Female Underpants, these are not adorned with a flower. 

The penis reportedly belongs to sculptor John Chamberlain.

Bob Watts | Female Underpants

Bob Watts

Female Underpants

New York City, USA: Implosions, Inc., [circa 1966]

33 x 28 cm.

Edition size unknown

Not as popular as the shirt printed with an image of breasts (which had a wide reach, including a Rolling Stones album cover), these Female Underpants consist of a screen-printed image of pubic hair and a flower, on fabric. 

The work was first mentioned in a Fluxus newsletter in 1965 (where they were discussed as potential costumes in a forthcoming Fluxus concert, which doesn't seem to have happened), and were originally offered for $5.00 a pair. 

Implosions Inc. was a company set up by Watts, Herman Fine, and George Maciunas, intended as a more populist novelty operation, to function as a fundraising arm of Fluxus. Watts and Maciunas shared a love of what the latter referred to as ‘functionality'. The example he used to define this term was the Fluxus Apron, which was printed with a medical image of the stomach, over the area where the wearer’s stomach would be. 

For Male Underpants, see next post. 

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.