Jannis Kounellis | Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis

Kounellis

Monchengladbach, Germany: Städtisches Museum, 1978.

[5] pp., 19.5 x 15 cm., loose leaves, boxed

Edition of 440 numbered copies

Accompanying his exhibition, which ran from May 11th to June 11th in 1978, this boxed catalogue consists of a printed cardboard box containing four cards and a multiple by Kounellis. Three of the cards feature a continuous text of the poem Die Skythen, a poem written in 1918 by Russian lyrical poet Aleksandr Blok. The fourth is the title or colophon page. The multiple is made of compressed board, and features a metal rod embedded in white tissue. The rod is laminated in explosive powder the the work is intended to be ignited. 

When lit, the fuse produces a “bright hissing glow that leaves a black smoke trail on the grey-white plate”. 

This was the final boxed work in the Städtisches Museum series that began with Joseph Beuys in 1967 and also included editions by Carl Andre, Hanne Darboven, George Brecht & Robert Filliou, Piero Manzoni, Stanley Brown, Daniel Buren, Jasper Johns, Marcel Broodthaers, Lawrence Weiner, Gerhard Richter, and James Lee Byars, amongst others. 

The price during the run of the exhibition was DM 6. The work can now be purchased from Printed Matter, here, for $1800.00 US. 

Piero Manzoni | UOVO

Piero Manzoni

UOVO

Self-published, 1960

6.7 x 8.2 x 5.70 cm.

Edition of 54 signed, dated and numbered copies

Uova sculptura (Egg Sculpture) are works consisting of hard-boiled eggs on which Manzoni left his fingerprint as a signature. The addition of the fingerprint ‘consecrates’ them, he wrote. 

They were first presented at Galerie Arthur Køpcke in Copenhagen, in June of 1960 (see below). Køpcke - an interesting artist in his own right - was born in Hamburg but had settled in Copenhagen at the end of 1957 with his Danish wife, Aase. Their gallery became a contact point for the international avant-garde movements in Denmark, particularly Nouveau Realisme and Fluxus. 

The exhibition featured a basket of hard boiled eggs with Manzoni’s fingerprint that could be eaten, and the boxed version above, for purchase. 

The works were exhibited again a month later at Azimut gallery, which Manzoni had founded with Enrico Castellani in 1957.  The July 1960 exhibition, Consumption of Art by the Art-Devouring Public, 

was the final show by Manzoni at Azimuth, after which the gallery was forced to close when the lease expired. 

While numbered, the works did not state an edition size. To date, 54 examples have been catalogued.

Piero Manzoni | Life and Works

Piero Manzoni

Life and Works

Berlin, Germany: Verlag Petersen Press, 1963

[60] pp., 18 x 15 cm., plastic clip binding

Edition of 100, signed and numbered (by Jes Petersen)

Other than the title page, Life and Works is an all-blank book. Conceived by Manzoni just before his death in February 1963, the book was published posthumously later that year. A second edition followed six years later. The work is often attributed to Petersen, as his name appears at the top (making the title appear as Piero Manzoni: Life and Works, which would suggest a work of criticism of biography), and his signature adorns the back, along the plastic clip. The Manzoni Archives list him as co-editor, which is pretty funny, given the lack of content.

Some suggest that the layout was a joke by Manzoni, though Petersen did suggest the use of translucent paper. 

AA Bronson borrowed the format for a 2009 work of the same name. See earlier post, here. 

Manzoni's title is exceedingly rare and is valued at around three thousand dollars, depending on condition. 

This Week on Tumblr: Covers, Citations, Tributes and Parodies

http://artistsbooksandmultiples.tumblr.com

Piero Manzoni Städtisches Museum box

[Piero Manzoni]
Manonzi
Monchengladbach, Germany: Städtisches Museum, 1970
8.25 x 6"
Edition of 440 numbered copies

An exhibition catalogue to accompany the posthumous solo exhibition that ran from November 26, 1969 to January 4, 1970. The work consists of a nolded plastic box containing a booklet with texts (in German) by Udo Kultermann and Johannes Cladders.

Stadtisches Museum in Mönchengladbach boxed works

Posts documenting the boxed catalogues from the Stadtisches Museum in Monchengladbach will continue June 1st, with works by Piero Manzoni, George Brecht & Robert Filliou, Marcel Broodthaers, Richard Long, Hanne Darboven and others. 

Stadtisches Museum in Mönchengladbach boxed works

In 1967, director of the Stadtisches Museum in Mönchengladbach Germany Johannes Cladder curated his first exhibition at the venue. He invited Joseph Beuys to present his first ever museum solo exhibition. There were no funds in the budget for an accompanying catalogue, just a small brochure printed on the cheapest paper stock. Beuys, who had published a boxed work with Edition Rene Block the year prior, suggested a catalogue/multiple hybrid and the influential Stadtisches Museum Mönchengladbach publications were born.

Rather than illustrate the exhibitions, the boxed works were typically an independent artistic project, some without any reference to the accompanying show at all. Most included essays and exhibition check lists, but they might also contain found objects, an artists’ production or other interventions into the format.

Cladder continued at the museum until 1985 and always prioritized solo exhibitions over group shows. He presented work from a variety of then-emerging movements, including Arte Povera, Nouveau Réalisme, Minimalism, Post-minimalism, Pop Art, Zero, Fluxus, and Conceptualism. In addition to Beuys, Carl Andre, Bernd & Hilla Becher, and Hanne Darboven (as well as many others) all had their first museum exhibitions in Mönchengladbach.

Artists included in the boxed catalogue series include Andre, Beuys, George Brecht & Robert Filliou, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Hanne Darboven, Braco Dimitrijevic, Joel Fisher, Jonas Hafner, Jasper Johns, Jannis Kounellis, Richard Long, Piero Manzoni, Panamarenko, Gerhard Richter, Lawrence Weiner and others.

It's hard to overstate the significance of these works. Many of the artists Cladder selected went on to contribute much to the genre of artists' books and/or multiples, but the series itself functioned as a challenge to museum publishing to create primary works alongside their traditional support materials.

For the next week or so, a different boxed edition published by the museum will be posted here daily. If readers have examples in their collections, please forward images to ddyment@rogers.com.

Happy Holidays everyone and all the best in 2014. We got an insane haul of books this Xmas: artists' books, art books, novels, music bios, and a beautiful book of paper samples.

Piero Manzoni | Life and Works

Piero Manzoni
Life and Works
Berlin, Germany: Verlag Petersen Press, 1963
[60] pp., 18 x 15 cm., plastic clip binding
Edition of 100, signed and numbered (by Jes Petersen)

Other than the title page, an all-blank book. Conceived by Manzoni just before his death in February 1963, the book was published posthumously later that year. A second edition followed six years later. The work is often attributed to Petersen, as his name appears at the top (making the title appear as Piero Manzoni: Life and Works, which would suggest a work of criticism of biography), and his signature adorns the back, along the plastic clip. The Manzoni Archives list him as co-editor, which is pretty funny, given the lack of content. Reportedly, the idea to use translucent paper was his.

The book can be viewed electronically, here.

Shit for sale

Piero Manzoni's 1961 Merde d'Artista or Artist's Shit is a 30-gram can of the artist's own excrement produced in an edition of 90. Originally selling for their weight in gold, today's market value for the work is almost a hundred times the current value for gold.

George Maciunas' Excreta Fluxorum from 1973 contains a carefully curated assortment of animal feces, including mouse, cow, and sometimes unicorn shit.

Wim Delvoye's Cloaca machine (which is fed daily and processes the food in a manner similar to the human stomach), and the resultant vacuum sealed shit for sale.

Dieter Roth's Karnickelköttelkarnickel (Rabbit-shit-rabbit) from 1972 is made of rabbit dung and straw, in an edition of 250, published by Eat Art Galerie.