DIETER ROTH, Zeitschrift für Alles, n.d., signed [1985]

DIETER ROTH, Zeitschrift für Alles, n.d. [1985]
29,7 x 21 cm
photo copy, folded as posted
signed
edition unknown
inv.DRot 000-pr

This letter was sent to me with a request to contribute to a next issue of “Zeitschrift für Alles” published by Dieter Roth:

‘Die Zeitschrift für Alles soll (nach einer Schwächepause) wieder erscheinen, und wir möchten mit diesem Brief um Beiträge bitten. Wie gesagt: Alles*.
– Die Beiträge können bis zu 5 Seiten haben,
– Format A4, reproduziert in einer Farbe (Schwarz),
– Die Autoren können, je auf Wunsch, ihre 5 Seiten zum Abdruck ihrer Briefe an die Redaktion – oder andere – nehmen. Gerne druckten wir wenigstens die Begleitschreiben der Beiträge ab.
– Redaktionsschluss der kommenden Nummer (Nr. 8) ist Ende Juli 1985.
– Honorar: 5 Exx. der Nummer.
Erwartungsvoller Gruss vom Herausgeber
Dieter Roth

* ob Texte oder Bilder
KvG

Lesbian Dream Press, 1971

LesbianDreamPress1971-cover650

Lesbian Dream Press, 1971
ca 24,5 x 17 cm
12 pp.,
paper collage, typed written texts on cover; recto and verso, book block of empty pages
edition unknown.
Published by Jón Gunnar Árnason, Reykjavik, Iceland
inv.SG 000-pr

 

This issue number 6 was handed out to Sigurdur Gudmundsson with machine types instructions on the back of the cover on how to participate with a contribution to the magazine. A handwritten text reads: Þessi bók er fyrir Sig Gu∂mundson (trans. ‘This book is for Sig Gudmundsson’).

LesbianDreamPress1971-backcover650

BEN VAUTIER, Fourre-Tout No. 3, 1968 [magazine]

BVautier1968fourre-toutno3A600

BEN VAUTIER, Fourre-Tout No. 3, 1968
CONTENU DE L’ENVELOPPE
18,9 x 17,4 cm
includes all objects, as issued
printed matter and objects in plastic envelope with hand numbered sticker
stamp numbered, here number 00016
6 parts and 1 printed list of contents with felt pen hand drawing of a bocal
edition 100
not available anymore

In an accompanying text of this issue it is announced by Ben and Annie (Noël) that “Fourre-tout” number 3 will be the last one. It is explained that ‘The content of this jar is learning us to admit everything. It reads the idea through the object.’
Issues number 1 and 2 were published in 1967 in an edition 250 each. A copy of issue number 3 is in the collection of the MoMA in New York, USA. The museum has one of the 100 glass jars in its collection that accompanies this periodical with an edition of 100 (+ 1 larger ‘jar’ with original manuscripts), although archived separately from its publication.

BVautier1968fourre-toutno3B600

BVautier1968fourre-toutno3C600

BVautier1968fourre-toutno3E500

Complete content of original plastic envelope “Contenu de l’enveloppe”:
KEN FRIEDMAN – print with ink stamped text: Friedman’zart
HENRY FLYNT – print: Overthrow the Human Race!!
BEN VAUTIER – cut page with pencil drawn circles (recto verso) from paperback book
BEN VAUTIER – punched postcard called There might be an aeroplane in the sky of this tiny postcard
ERIC ANDERSSON [sic]Tape piece, 3 tiny cards with texts/instruction + loose piece of tape
BEN VAUTIER/GEORGE MACIUNAS ? – small Fluxus bag with paste called A medicine for the asthma of Maciunas

Nota bene: This issue No. 3 is complete, although a glass jar the index is referring to as CONTENU DU BOCAL is lacking.

BVautier1968fourre-toutno3D600

 

Extra information
Copy edition number 40/100 in the collection of the MoMa, New York. The glass jar with cork that is part of the publication has been archived by the museum separately.

BEN VAUTIER, Fourre-Tout, No. 3, 1968
glass jar, label, felt-tip pen ink, cork, various objects
10,2 x 5,1 cm
being part of periodical
published by Ben and Anne Vautier
Collection MoMA, New York, USA

ROY LICHTENSTEIN, Folded Hat, 1968

ROY LICHTENSTEIN, Folded Hat, 1968
7.25 x 14 inches
offset on plastic foil
published by The Letter Edged in Black Press Inc. / William Copley, New York 1968
not available separately

 

This SMS edition is part of issue #4 and an offset print on plastic, sandwiched in plastic and hand-folded to form a tri-cornered hat.

MARCEL DUCHAMP, Contrepetrie, 1968 [vinyl record on empty portfolio]

MARCEL DUCHAMP, Contrepetrie, 1968 [vinyl record on empty portfolio]
ca 28 x 18 x 2 cm / ca 11 x 7 x 0.8 inches
relief letters Esquivons les ecchymoses des esquimaux aux mots exquis
vinyl record 7’0”, glued on relief print, stiff paper portfolio
edition ca 2000
published by The Letter Edged in Black Press Inc. / S.M.S. – William Copley, New York 1968
condition: pristine, although with a very light brownish horizontal line on cover
rare in this condition
€ 1.450,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.MDuc 000-pr

Sound record:
7′ recording of contrepetrie
This is one of the very last works that French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) created during his lifetime. It is a recording of his voice reciting French word games, known as contrepètries, which play with the sounds of words. The phonograph record presents an absurd alliterative sentence written in a spiral, that could translate to “We dodge the bruises of the Eskimos in exquisite words.”

S.M.S., short for “Shit Must Stop,” endeavoured to do just that. Founded in New York City by artist, collector and dealer William Copley. S.M.S. was an art collection in a folio, filled with contributions of the artists invited by Copley. Regardless of stature, each was paid US$ 100,- for their contribution.

‘In 1967, in response to William Copley’s request to contribute to S.M.S., Duchamp gave him a sound recording (present location, unknown) he had made at an amusement booth around 1950. For the label of the record, they conceived of using a facsimile of one of the Disks Inscribed With Puns, 1926 (cat. no. 415-23), that Duchamp used in his film Anemic Cinema, 1926-26 (cat. no. 424).’ Arturo Schwarz

The SMS portfolios were a collaboration between William Copley & Dmitri Petrov which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press Inc., working with some of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Exemplifying the community ethos of the ’60s, Copley sought to produce a new form of art journal that would bypass traditional institutions to distribute the artist’s work directly to its audience instead. Copley accepted contributions in almost any medium, carefully reproducing each artwork in his Upper West Side studio. All contributors, from the world-renowned to the obscure, received the same sum of $100 for their work. Presented without comment, each portfolio was mailed directly to subscribers every two months. Only six portfolios were produced, in an edition of 2000. Each portfolio contained from eleven to thirteen artist objects.

This SMS #2 edition is a seven-minute recording by Duchamp of “contrepetrie,” a word play involving transposing words, letters, and syllables and their sounds to make puns and effect new meanings. Record is part of S.M.S. magazine No.2 – April 1968.

History of prices:
1stDibs, New York, USA € 5.346,- September 2023 (make offer)
eBay-feltown2015, Madrid, Spain € 1.400,- September 2023
Akim Monet Fine Arts, Dallas/Los Angeles, USA US$ 1,000.- September 2022
Gerrish Fine Art, England GBP 1,250.- March 2020
Akim Monet Fine Arts, Los Angeles, USA, April 2020, US$ 2,000.-
Stubbs Fine Art, UK, March 2020, GBP 950.-
Wright Auction, Chicago, USA, 18 January 2018, US$ 500.- incl. premium

 

  _________________________________________________

Extra information:
Original content of the empty portfolio S.M.S. issue # 2 as shown above:

The magazine came in the shape of a white folder which contained art multiples – here not for sale – by the following artists:
1. Nicolas Calas 2. Bruce Connor 3. Marcia Herscovitz 4. Alain Jacquet 5. Ray Johnson 6. Lee Lozano 7. Meret Oppenheim 8. Bernard Pfreim 9. George Reavey 10. Clovis Trouille 11. Marcel Duchamp (the record).
Magazine cover reads “A guest + a host = a ghost, Marcel Duchamp 1953”.
Record is fixed with nut and bolt to the magazine.

Part of a folio of artist multiples, Marcel Duchamp’s piece works on at least two levels. One side of this disc features a short word game printed on black paper which covers the area of any grooves. The text “esquivons les ecchymoses esquimeaux aux mots exquis” (trans. ‘Let us dodge the bruises of the Eskimoes in exquisite words’). It is based on an element in Duchamp’s anagrammatically named filmplays on the similarity of the sound of words with quite different meaning and is one of the many circular texts seen rotating on similar discs in Duchamp’s film “Anemic Cinema”. The whole series of text is read by Duchamp on the opposite side of the disc in a 7 minute recording. While almost all are in French, Duchamp does include a single example in English: “my niece is cold because my knees are cold” which helps convey the sense of word play inherent in these pieces, and in fact in much of Duchamp’s work. The reading and circular representation of one of the texts display the circular aspects of these pieces which draw their sly humor from internal references within each stanza. While published in 1968, the recording sounds much older due to its thin quality, and may in fact have necessarily drawn from an archival source as Duchamp passed away that year. Adding to this, the record is haunted by a large amount of surface noise as the playing side was mounted directly to the folder cover enclosing SMS No. 2 leaving the surface exposed to more abuse. The combination of the fidelity and surface noise leaves the record sounding like an older 78 shellac disc even after extensively cleaning. Nonetheless, it is still an important document given the scant number of recordings of Duchamp’s calm speaking voice.

The work ‘Contrepetrie’ is mounted on a portfolio in which SMS # 2 was issued, being a part of the contribution to the magazine. Signed and dated in print verso on portfolio.

Signals, 1964 -1966 [journal issues 2 – 11]

Signals, 1964 – 1966
tabloid size, 8 issues
offset, newspapers
1st print, vintage, extremely rare
issues 2, 3-4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 (issues number 1 and 5 are lacking)
splendid condition
€ 3.200,- plus € 32,- Track & Trace registered mail

A near complete run of 9 magazines of the legendary 60’s publication Signals.

Published under the direction of Paul Keeler and artist David Medalla to promote international art, i.e. European, Latin, Central and South American artists represented by the Signals Gallery in London, but which also dealt with a wide array of artistic and aesthetic issues of the avant- garde of the 1960’s, with excerpts from writings and texts by numerous noted artists and critics, profusely illustrated throughout showing artworks, cultural figures.

Initiator David Medalla next to one of his bubbling machines, London, 1964

This cutting-edge journal documented exhibitions at the Signals showroom in London, and includes images, poems, critical essays, scientific digests, photographs and experimental art news. Basically documenting exhibitions and events in Britain and abroad, Signals brought together leading innovative artists, writers and poets of the time and, in addition, established a context for kinetic, time-based, performance and environmental art. Artists featured in these original magazines include Jesús Rafael Soto, Takis, Lygia Clark with screen print couver, Sergio de Camargo, Carlos Cruz-Díaz, Eduardo Chillida and Marcela Salvadori and many others. There are 10 issues and 9 magazines in total, as numbers 3 and 4 are combined into a twin issue. Here lacking original magazines numbers 1 and 5.
Ref. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/medalla-david/
Ref. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?an=medalla%20david&bsi=30&sortby=20&prevpage=1

History of prices:
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 650.- January 2021 Nr 7 (Lygia Clark) (sold)
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   € 7.200,- July 2019 (complete set)
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 300.- July 2019 Nr 2
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 165.- July 2019 Nr 3-4
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 275.- July 2019 Nr 5
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 325.- July 2019 Nr 6
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 525.- July 2019 Nr 7 (Lygia Clark)
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 350.- July 2019 Nr 8
William Allen Word & Image, London, UK   GBP 600.- July 2019 Nr 9
Largine, Madrid, Spain   GBP 288.- August 2019 Nr 2

 

Related extra information
Reprint available.
A reprint of the complete run is available at Iniva, 164 pp., unbound in slipcase, 35cm (height), approx 300 illustrations. This facsimile edition reprinted and published by Iniva, 1995. The cutting edge journal brought together leading innovative artists, writers and poets of the time and established a context for kinetic, time-based, performance and environmental art.
Artists featured in the original and reproduced in the facsimile edition include Jesús Rafael Soto, Takis, Lygia Clark, Sergio de Camargo, Carlos Cruz-Díaz, Eduardo Chillida and Marcela Salvadori, and many others. The facsimile edition comprises volumes one and two of 11 issues and comes with a comprehensive index.

Reflex nr 2, 1948 [Cobra magazine]

Reflex nr 2, 1948
including 4 lithographs by Corneille, Karel Appel, Constant and Jan Nieuwenhuys
signed, dated in plate
€ 620,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered EU mail

On 16 July 1948 the Experimentele Groep was founded by Karel Appel, Corneille, Theo Wolvecamp, Constant, Jan Nieuwehuys, Anton Rooskens and Eugene Brands. Later on this group became known as the Dutch hard core of the international CoBrA movement; COpenhagenBRusselsAmsterdam. The artists closely co-operated with experimental groups a.o. from Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels.

They published a magazine called Reflex, a name that referred to the fact that they looked at their works as an immediate reaction to reality, not steered by the ratio; an expression of reality equal to how they experienced the years after the Second World War.


 

History of prices of Reflex nrs 1 and 2 as one lot:
UnOriginal Sins, Midlothian, UK November 2023 GBP 1,450.-
Modern Dutch Art-online, Netherlands 15 June 2022 € 699,-
Catawiki-user4cbe1b2, Netherlands 23 September 2019 € 342,- hammer price

Reflex, nr 1, 1948 [Cobra magazine]

Reflex nr 1, 1948
including 4 lithographs by Corneille, Karel Appel, Constant and Jan Nieuwenhuys
signed and dated in print
condition: very fine, although aged
€ 420,- plus € 15,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.Refl 000-pr

On 16 July 1948 the Experimentele Groep was founded by Karel Appel, Corneille, Theo Wolvecamp, Constant, Jan Nieuwehuys, Anton Rooskens and Eugene Brands. Later on this group became known as the Dutch hard core of the international CoBrA movement; COpenhagenBRusselsAmsterdam. The artists closely co-operated with experimental groups a.o. from Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels.

They published a magazine called Reflex, a name that referred to the fact that they looked at their works as an immediate reaction to reality, not steered by the ratio; an expression of reality equal to how they experienced the years after the Second World War.


In Reflex nr 1 Constant wrote a manifest explaining the goals of the Experimentele Groep in Holland.

 

History of prices of Reflex nrs 1 and 2 as one lot:
UnOriginal Sins, Midlothian, UK November 2023 GBP 1,450.-
Modern Dutch Art-online, Netherlands 15 June 2022 € 699,-
Catawiki-user4cbe1b2, Netherlands 23 September 2019 € 342,- hammer price