Micah Lexier | Several Found Things (Numbers, Letters, Shapes)

Micah Lexier

Several Found Things (Numbers, Letters, Shapes)

Hamilton, Canada: Four Point Puzzles, 2020

67cm. diameter

Edition size unknown

A thousand-piece puzzle with a difficulty level of 2.5 out of 5, this new work by Micah Lexier was launched this week and is available at The National Gallery of Canada, SFMOMA, MoMA Design Store, TYPE Books or at the Four Point Puzzles website, here. It retails for $25.00 US. 

"Micah Lexier is a Toronto based artist who collects things - and many of the things that he collects make their way into his art. He has a deep interest in measurement, increment, found imagery and display structures. His artwork takes many forms, from illuminated lightboxes to vitrine installations to this puzzle.

This 1000 piece, 25" (63.5 cm) square puzzle created by Micah, consists entirely of found objects culled from his archive of teaching tools, games, puzzles, tests, building blocks, stationery, stencils, magic tricks and any number of utilitarian objects.

The large variety of colours, patterns and text within this puzzle give it a medium level of difficulty. Solving smaller patterns within the puzzle adds a uniquely challenging aspect to Several Found Things."

- Publisher's Blurb

Lexier celebrates his 60th birthday today. 

N.E. Thing Consults With 1% Of You

N.E. Thing Co. Ltd

N.E. Thing Consults With 1% Of You

Vancouver, Canada: Self-published, 1970

24 x 30 cm.

Edition of 500

A double-side offset printed file folder with a pink sticker given away by the N.E. Thing Co. (Iain and Ingrid Baxter, with Paul Woodrow as Director of Special Projects) during the D.P.M.A. conference in Seattle, Washington from June 23rd to 26th, 1970.

24 x 30cm, file folder printed on both sides (same text) and a pink printed sticker on the index tag. Designed to “carry your thoughts and anything” this was handed out by the conceptual art group (Ian and Ingrid Baxter) to participants at a conference. 

Available here, for $750 US. 

Robert Breer and William Wegman | Blue Monday flipbook

 

Robert Breer and William Wegman

Blue Monday flipbook

Manchester, UK: Factory Records, 1988

[30 pp], 12.7 x 18.2 cm., softcover

Edition of 350

Factory Records catalogue number FAC235 was a flip-book signed by staff members and sent to friends as a promotional gift for Christmas 1988. It features design by Peter Saville and illustrations by Robert Breer. The sketches are from the music video for Blue Monday 88, which also featured William Wegman's Weimaraner Fay. 

There were reportedly 350 manufactured and 250 distributed. The copies above were signed Factory Records founders Alan Erasmus and Tony Wilson and by artist Robert Breer. 

Copies offered typically range from one to two thousand dollars. Breer's other flip books are in this price range, also. 

John Baldessari | New Order September 12-13

John Baldessari

New Order September 12-13

Los Angeles, USA: , 1987

34 ¼ x 23"

Edition size unknown

Offset lithograph with images by John Baldessari and typography by Laura Stein. Produced for New Order's 1987 performances in California at Irvine Meadows on September 12 and The Forum on September 13.

Lee Lozano | Private Book 3

Lee Lozano

Private Book 3

New York City, USA: Karma Books, 2018

200 pp., 3 x 5", spiral-bound

Edition size unknown

Private Book 3 is the third in a series of 11 pocket-sized books, reproducing the notes the artist took 

between 1968 and 1972, while living in New York City. 

Lozano was highly regarded painter before she abandoned the medium to concentrate on conceptual works, and then abandoned the art world completely (and refusing to speak to another women for thirty years, as an artwork).

For more information, visit this post:

https://artistsbooksandmultiples.blogspot.com/2018/07/lee-lozano-notebooks-1967-70.html

Lozano died at the age of 68, in 1999. Today would have been her 90th birthday. 

OUTTHERE (For Lee Lozanao) by Annie Macdonell premieres tonight at 7pm on the Art Museum for the University of Toronto Instagram page, here: 

https://www.instagram.com/artmuseumuoft/

Lawrence Weiner | New Order, Certain General + Karen Finley poster

Lawrence Weiner 

New Order, Certain General + Karen Finley poster

New York City, USA: Club "1018", 1986

14.9 x 10.8 cm.

Edition size unknown

Barbara Kruger | The Perfect Kiss

Barbara Kruger

The Perfect Kiss video promotional poster

New York City, USA: Factory Records US, 1985

24.5"x24.5"

Edition size unknown

Jonathan Demme directed the video for New Order's song "The Perfect Kiss", a year after directing the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (which is still generally considered to be one of the greatest concert films ever) and a few years prior to his Oscar winning films Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. 

The video is a straight ahead live performance, set in the band's rehearsal space. According to Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, Demme was looking forward to filming Stephen Morris behind the drums, and was dismayed to find that the drums in the song were all programmed.

Michael Shamberg, head of Factory US, commissioned Barbara Kruger (then still new to her signature collage style, with  Futura Bold Oblique text) to create a poster advertising the music video. 

Now scarce, the poster sells for between two and three thousand dollars.