Hi guys! Glad to be back again.
I’ve recently been trying to sharpen my Conceptual art history chops (discovering Lucy Lippard’s writings, diving into the practices of artists like N.E. Thing Company, Mel Bochner, and Seth Siegelaub). Through Lippard’s essay “The Artist’s Book Goes Public” I found Evidence of the Avant Garde Since 1957 from Art Metropole. I was happy to find out we had the publication in our collection. Here it is as this week’s featured book.
Founded in 1974, Art Metropole was one of the first artist-run centers in Canada. The center was initiated by the artists of General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal) to be a “collection agency devoted to the documentation, archiving and distribution of all the images.”
Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, and AA Bronson of General Idea, 1984 (photo by Rodney Werden)
Their collection consisted of materials collected by Art Official Inc. and included thousands of posters and prints, artists’ publications in a variety of forms, correspondence art, and artists’ correspondence. Art Metropole collected, catalogued, preserved, and exhibited these works, also loaning the materials to other organizations and researchers. Art Metropole’s publication program began in 1970 and focused on the production of works related to their collected and exhibited materials. Their distribution program sells artists’ publications and ephemera. In 1996, the center stopped collecting, allowing the exhibition, publication, and distribution programs to take the forefront. Their collections (13,000 items) were donated to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives in 1999.
Click here to visit Art Metropole’s website.
Evidence of the Avant Garde Since 1957 consists of “selected works from the collection of Art Metropole including audio tapes, records, videotapes, film, multiples, kitsch, manuscripts, stamps, buttons, flyers, posters, correspondence, catalogues, porn, t-shirts, postcards, drawings, poems, mailers, books, photographs and ephemera”. The book was published for AM’s 10th Anniversary event in 1984. Their publication includes images of a selection of works in their collection, along with lists of the rest, and writings from Christina Ritchie, Peggy Gale, and AA Bronson. The collection consists mainly of works associated with the Conceptual art movement, from artists such as Lawrence Weiner, Dan Graham, Joseph Kosuth (among many others).
Left: Phantomas 62, Marcel Broodthaers (1966) Right: 100 this-way-brouwn-problems for computer I.B.M 360 Model 95, Stanley Brouwn (1975)
In her introduction to the book, Ritchie discusses the archive of Art Metropole and takes a brief look into the art history that inspired it’s material. In the piece “I Wasn’t There for the Early Days”, Gale (who joined Art Metropole in 1975) reflects on her personal experience of the beginning of the Conceptual art movement and looks back at Art Metropole’s 10 years as a center . The book concludes with a poetic postscript from AA Bronson. He writes,
“Art Metropole is a museum of cultural flotsam, housed in a home-made ark and cast on a sea of the very material it collects. A history of seaweeds and minor organisms surrounds us, a continuous chaos of colliding flora and fauna and their cast-off skins, shells and skeletons. Like Jacques Cousteau we dive into these primordial depths, collecting fragments, retrieving relics, and. . . looking. For it is this very hunger to see which animates our voyage…”.
Evidence of the Avant Garde Since 1957 definitely deserves a read or at the very least a flip-through. There are lots of really captivating images. It’s for sure going on my list of publications I wish I owned.
Left: La Strada, Giuseppe Chiari (1964) Right: Vetta, Francesco Clemente (1979)
Happy weekend!
-Hannah Dempsey
604-844-3840
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