[Various Artists]
Art Cash
New York City, USA: Experiments in Art and Technology, Inc., 1971
70 x 56 cm.
Edition of 75 signed and numbered copies
Art Cash is a double-sided offset lithograph collaboration between Andy Warhol, Bob Whitman, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Gormley, Red Grooms and Marisol. Oyvind Fahlstrom's proposal was deemed too controversial and wasn't produced. Two years later Fahlstrom produced a $108 bill, which may have been the rejected design.
The project was created by members of the non-profit Experiments in Art and Technology, Inc., for a Casino style fundraising event called the "Art Cash Benefit for Television Programming fundraising", which was in aid of the Community Television Center and the Artist's Television Project at Automation House, New York City.
EAT - who had a long history of convincing corporations to partner with artists - approached the American Bank Note Company - who provided the paper for the United States Treasury Department - to print the work on the same paper used for US currency.
The bulk of the sheets were cut up to use at the gambling event, with only seventy-five full sheets held back for sale. Attendees at the fundraiser each received an envelope containing one of each of the six bills.
Warhol’s bill conflated copyright and currency. In place of the text "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private” (and all other graphics), he employed his rubber stamp "This photograph May Not be Etc”, which was presumably semi-functional at the Factory. Its most famous appearance may be the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers LP [see below, bottom, ahem].
The print is signed in pencil by all of the artists, except Warhol, whose signature is from the same rubber stamp used to create his currency.
