Joseph Beuys | Evervess II 1

Joseph Beuys

Evervess II 1

Berlin, Germany: Galerie René Block,1968

27 x 16.5 x 9.5 cm.

Edition of 40

Evervess II 1 consists of two carbonated water bottles, housed in an unsigned, unnumbered wooden box. The labels of one of the bottles has been obscured by Beuy’s trademark grey felt. The text on the cover instructs: 

The sender starts giving information when ‘II’ has been drunk completely and the bottle cap has been thrown away as far as possible.’1 The work thus requires the collaboration of its user in order for it to take full effect as the ‘sender.’

"I search for a suitable quality in an object, which permits multiplication of that object, for instance the quality implying a series, found in this bottle of tonic-water.  Just by being an article of commerce, this bottle can communicate much through repetition.

But actually, it's more important to speak of distribution, of reaching a larger number of people... You can look at it from a number of different aspects. Why is anyone interested in distributing a thing as widely as possible? 

The whole thing is a game, one which, with the help of this kind of information, counts on anchoring a vehicle somewhere close by, so that people can later think back on it. It's a sort of prop for the memory, yes, a sort of prop in case something different happens in the future.

For me, each edition has the character of a kernel of condensation upon which many things may accumulate.

You see, all those people who have such an object will continue to be interested in how the point of departure from which the vehicles started is developing. They'll be watching to see what the person who produced these things is doing now. That way I stay in touch with people; just as you have come to me because of what I've made and we can talk about it, I can talk to just about anybody who owns such an object. There's a real affinity to people who own such things, such vehicles. It's like an antenna which is standing somewhere and with which one stays in touch. There are also cross­connections between people, or ricochets. One person says: Yes, I've got such a bottle. Another one has such a wooden box and a third one says: I've heard something about political activities, and so all sorts of different concepts converge, and that's what I'm interested in, that a whole lot of concepts come together.

I'm interested in the distribution of physical vehicles in the form of editions because I'm interested in spreading ideas.

The objects are only understandable in relations to my ideas. The work I do politically has a different effect on people because such a product exists than it would have if the means of expression were only the written word.

Although these products may not seem suitable for bringing about political change, I think more emanates from them than if the ideas behind them were revealed directly.

To me the vehicle quality of the editions is important...”

- Joseph Beuys

Wolf Vostell | 2 de-coll/age-happenings

Wolf Vostell

2 de-coll/age-happenings

Berlin, Germany: Edition René Block, 1965

22 × 10.7 × 17 cm.

Edition of 150

An out-sized influence, given it's low edition number and age (almost sixty), this bookwork is one of the most celebrated example of alternate bindings in the field of artists' books. 

2 de-coll/age-happenings is the first edition published René Block, who had opened his gallery only a year prior, presenting unknown at the time artists such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik and Vostell. 

The laminated pages recount two performances that took place that year, with texts in German. 

The work is valued at between $1500 and $2000 US, depending on condition. 

Joe Jones

Joe Jones died on this day at his home in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim, Germany, in 1993. He was 58.

Sigmar Polke | Higher Beings Command

Sigmar Polke
Higher Beings Command
Berlin, Germany: Edition Rene Block, 1968
[14] pp., 35 x 24 cm., loose leaves
Edition of 80 [+ 10 AP] signed and numbered copies

René Block opened a gallery in Berlin in 1964 at the age of 22 , exhibiting works by Gerhard Richter, Wolf Vostell, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik and Sigmar Polke, who was still a student at the time. Polke was recommended to the gallery by Richter, who described him as “a Pop Artist like [Konrad] Lueg and me.” His first solo exhibition was held at the gallery in 1966.

This edition, from two years later, is a collaboration with Christof Kohlhöfer. The work consists of a suite of fourteen offset lithographs in black ink on beige paper, with the original title of Hoehere Wesen befehlen. They are accompanied by a text sheet and housed in a cloth-covered cardboard portfolio, with a pastedown title label on the front board and colophon label on the verso.

The images feature the artist in staged comedic settings, accompanied by mock-serious captions. Polke als Palme (Polke as Palm Tree) features the artist in his underwear in a crudely made costume. In Peitsche (Whip) a cat-o'-nine tails is altered to include portraits of Polke at the end of each 'claw'. The caption explains that the artist's grimacing face can be used to whip whatever one choses.

The work sells for upwards of thirty thousand dollars now. A special edition of 50 also included four drawings.

Marcel Broodthaers | The Manuscript Found in a Bottle

Marcel Broodthaers
The Manuscript Found in a Bottle
Berlin, Germany: Edition René Block, 1974
30.5 x 8 x 7.5 cm.
Edition of 120 signed and numbered copies

Broodthaers had made several works both involving wine bottles and referencing Edgar Allan Poe long before he made this edition for René Block less than two years before his death at the age of 52.

The text on the bottle refers to "MS. Found in a Bottle", a short story by Poe about an unnamed narrator on a capsized cargo ship who pens a manuscript and casts it out to sea. The author's first published fiction, the story won first prize - and fifty dollars for the struggling writer - from a newspaper prose contest. It was published in the October 19, 1833, issue of the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. The story can be read here, in it's entirety.

Broodthaers tautological work consists of an empty wine bottle (empty of both wine and manuscript), boxed with an accompanying crumbled page. Originally priced at $200 (see advertisement, above), a copy sold at Christies auction house two years ago for 10,625 Euros.

Broodthaers was born on this day in 1924, and died on this day in 1976.

Ben Vautier | Am I or is Australia far away?

Ben Vautier
Am I or is Australia far away? 
Berlin, Germany: Edition Rene Block, 1990
70 x 100 cm.
Edition of 105 signed and numbered copies

This screen print was originally published as part of  the portfolio "The Readymade Boomerang", produced in conjunction with the 8th Sydney biennial "The Readymade Boomerang - Certain Relations in 20th Century Art" which took place in 1990. It included works by Barbara Bloom, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Lawrence Weiner and others.

Edition A consisted of 60 copies numbered 1/60 - 60/60. Edition B was a further 45 copies numbered I/XLV - XLV/XLV.

The Complete Works of Barbara Bloom

Barbara Bloom
The Complete Works of Barbara Bloom
Berlin, Germany: Edition Block, 1990
30 x 131.5 x 21 cm.
Edition of 12 signed and numbered copies

For The Reign of Narcissism, Barbara Bloom created a museum devoted to herself, which included Greek-style sculptures, vitrines containing tea sets and chocolates emblazoned with her likeness, a tombstone, and this shelf of 38 gold-embossed books which purport to be her complete works. Bloom described the work as being "less related to Freudian narcissism than it is to the narcissistic aspects of artmaking and collecting.”

Roman Opalka | 1965 / 1-∞

Roman Opalka
1965 / 1-∞
Berlin, Germany: Edition René Block, 1977

12" vinyl LP

Edition of 400

Opalka contributes the cover artwork, liner notes, and the sole voice heard on the recording. Parallel to his panted canvases, which count from one to infinity, the artist speaks the number out loud for a pair of microphones. The disk - hard to come by in good condition - features a gatefold sleeve and one track per side: the twenty-two minute "Detail 1987108-2010495" and the twenty minute "Detail 2136352-2154452."

"It sounded very meditative, but always remained visual art"

- René Block, publisher

Arthur Köpcke | Continue

Arthur Köpcke
Continue
Berlin, Germany: René Block, 1972.
26 x 36 x 2 cm., loose leaves in cloth box
Edition of 150 signed and numbered copies

The 33rd edition published by René Block, this small box contains Köpcke's "creative ideas" as  collages on black cardboard. Signed in green crayon by the artist.