BRUCE NAUMAN, LA AIR, 1970
30,5 x 30,5 cm
stapled book note: signed in print
edition 1200
published by Multiples, Inc., New York, USA
very fine – excellent copy, with only light bump at left top corner, light scuffing on backside couver
€ 600,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
First and only edition of this photographic record of air quality, with ten full-page images in colour depicting Southern California light passing through the smog of Los Angeles. The artist’s signature is printed on the rear.
History of prices:
Studio Bruno Tonini, Lombardia, Italy May 2025 € 700,-
Specific Object, New York, USA July 2023 US$ 800.-
eBay-moplen2003, Sankt Augustin, Germany 1 July 2020 € 550,-
Piasa, Paris, France 2 December 2015 € 877,- (hammer price)
Bauman Rare Books, New York, USA May 2013 US$ 1,500.-
CHARLOTTE MOORMAN, untitled, n.d. [between 1965-1970]
30,8 x 22,5 cm
photostat on heavy brown card board
verso: signed
signature on sticker with red coloured stamp ‘Vertrieb durch Reflection Press / Stuttgart 61, Raichbergstrasse 7’
published by Vertrieb durch Reflection Press, Stuttgart, Germany
splendid condition, extremely well conserved, framed behind anti-UV glass very rare
€ 1.450,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.ChMoor 321-pr
Charlotte Moorman had been found guilty of indecent exposure and given a suspended sentence for performing naked.
This picture was probably taken during the ’24 Stunden happening’ in Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal in June 1965. The camera in the background appears in several other photos taken during this performance.
Added information:
The picture below was taken during the same performance, hence the presence of the same camera on the lid of the piano at the background. It is a documentation by Studio Montespecchio (Montese, Italy) describing a photo copy (by a photostat machine) mounted on thick cardboard as well and has also been published by Vertrieb durch Reflection Press, Stuttgart in Germany.
ERIC ANDERSEN, 10 times of Finish It, 1970
ca 42 x 12,5 x 12,5 cm
spirit duplicator print in purple and black, red biro ink, paper bag
edition unknown
published by the artist
Eric Andersen’s works and performances often invite the public to participate. Also in his installations the public may be prompted to contribute.
JASPER JOHNS, Target, 1970
27 x 22 cm / 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
watercolour pads and brush, plastic clam-shell box containing prints
signature in print
published by Gemini G.E.L., New York City / Museum of Modern Art. 1971
not available
This publication was produced in conjunction with an exhibition at MoMa in New York called “Technics and Creativity: Gemini G.E.L.” The box contains a catalogue with 364 illustrations of which 20 in colour, a catalogue raisonné of Gemini’s production and a multiple ‘Target 1970’ of Jasper Johns.
STANLEY BROUWN, Tatvan / Tatwan, 1970
15,2 x 21,5 cm
stapled artist’s book: offset, screen print on cover, 32 pp.
Tatvan or Tatwan is a place in Turkey with a train track that abruptly comes to an end. Brouwn took pictures of the extension of the line as he imagines it would be. These photos are not shown in the book and instead distances are mentioned: x-Tatwan 1 km; x-Tatwan 1000 km, x-Tatwan 1000 000,etc.
SIGURDUR GUDMUNDSSON, Untitled (Ice Philosophy), 1970
24.5 x 18 inches
black and white print on coloured paper
edition 16, here nr VII/XVI
The edition is partly signed recto at the left corner in edition number, initials and year, partly signed recto at the lower right corner in initials, edition number and year.
FRANZ ERHARD WALTHER, Find a purpose for the pocket, 1969
ca 37 x 13,5 cm
canvas shaped pocket
unlimited edition stamp signed, dated
condition: good, slightly discoloured
published by Vice-Versand, Remscheid, Germany
€ 1.450,- + € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv. FEWal 27
Here the older and smaller version with stamped signature and date is shown. Franz Erhard Walther began making objects (…the work as a tool…) of fabric that invite the viewer to become active. Here a loop sewn onto the verso enables one to wear this triangle shaped pocket on a belt.
There are two versions: one with stamped signature and dated ’69 and one without. Apparently at some point not all editions were stamp signed and dated.
This work may be found with various titles like ‘Find a reason for this pocket’ or ‘Find a purpose for the bag’. In 1969 Wolfgang Feelisch advertised the multiple as “Find a purpose for the pocket”.
‘Multiple: Segeltuch in Dunkelgrün, genäht zu einer trapezförmigen Tasche mit Lasche, unlimitierte Edition; ca. 37 x 14 cm. Edition des Vice-Versandes. Schneider V 43; dort fälschlicherweise als “stempelsigniert” angegeben.’
From website dd 26 march 2024 of Artax Kunsthandel, Düsseldorf, Germany
History of prices:
Alternateprojects.com, US$ 1,800.- 19 August 2021 (stamp signed)
Alternateprojects.com, US$ 1,800.- 16 April 2020 (stamp signed)
Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, Germany € 400,- (hammer price) 24 October 2019 (stamp signed)
Karl & Faber, Munich, Germany € 500,- (excl. VAT) 6 December 2018 (stamp signed)
Grisebach, Berlin, Germany € 400,- (hammer price) 29 November 2014 (stamp signed)
SIGMAR POLKE, Höhere Wesen befahlen: rechte obere Ecke schwarz malen! [1969]
14,8 x 10,5 cm
offset postcard, here signed rare
published by Gebr. König Postkartenverlag, Cologne, Germany
€ 590,- plus € 12,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.SPol 000
This card has been published as part of a set of 10 and was not as such signed. Nevertheless in combination with the René Block poster ‘Höhere Wesen befahlen: rechte obere Ecke schwarz malen!’ this signed postcard may be looked at as an authorization of both this card and the René Block poster.
OLIVIER MOSSET, Flux Dots by Mosset Total Art Nice, n.d. [1969]
10 x 12 x 1,6 cm
confetti – produced by George Maciunas – in red or black plastic box with label
very small edition: estimation ca 13 – 15
published by George Maciunas / Total Art, Nice, France
Private collection, Amsterdam extremely rare
p.o.r.
inv.OM 000-pr
In 1990 Olivier Mosset had his first solo show in Galerie van Gelder. A few days before the opening I presented him a red box ‘Flux Dots by Mosset’. “Well… looks good!” Olivier commented, “I have heard about it, but this is the first time I see this. I remember that Maciunas once phoned me. He asked whether I was the man of the circle paintings and I said yes, why…?” “Listen he said, you are a Fluxus artist, with all these circles on canvases, you really are!” “No, I answered, I don’t consider myself a Fluxus artist.” Maciunas: “Certainly you are and I have an idea. What about making a Fluxus box with punched dots, you know, like confetti?”
Related information
In 2008 Olivier Mosset had another solo exhibition in Galerie van Gelder. He arrived with huge white monochrome paintings of 8 meters long flown in from his studio in Tucson, Arizona. Still having his rain coat on he gave me a small thick envelope. “I got this from the heirs of Maciunas”, he said. “I don’t know what to do with it, so I thought I hand it over to you. You may do with it whatever you like.” I looked into the half opened cream colored envelope and saw a heap of hundreds of red confetti, unmistakably the ones Maciunas punched for his Flux Dots box edition.
Ref. Kees van Gelder talking to Olivier Mosset in Galerie van Gelder on 20 March 2008.
Ben Vautier opened a gallery shop BDDT / Ben Doute de Tout in Nice in 1958, which later became well-known as the Around 1960. He started to know the artists of Nouveau Réalisme: Yves Klein, Daniel Spoerri and others. In the autumn 1962, he travelled to London for visiting the Festival of Misfits, where he encountered many Fluxus artists, with whom he subsequently collaborated in various ways. A year later, Vautier organised the Fluxus Festival of Total Art in Nice.
OLIVIER MOSSET, Flux dots [1969]
10 x 12 x 1,6 cm / 3.5 x 4.75 x 0.75 inches
edition ca 13 – 15, here box 13 (in black)
published by George Maciunas, New York, USA
OLIVIER MOSSET: Flux Dots [1969] – black box version
Collection University of Iowa Special Collections, Iowa City, USA
OLIVIER MOSSET: Flux Dots [1969] – black box version/verso
Ref. the Fluxus Digital Collection of the University of Iowa were donated by artist Ken Friedman.
FRANZ ERHARD WALTHER, ‘Sockel: Hand und Arm unten’, 1969
59,3 x 19 x 2 cm / 23 3/8 x 7 ½ x 0 6/8 inches
hand sewn fabric
edition 20
signed, dated, numbered on technical drawing as work certificate (A4 size)
not available
The pedestal or ‘Sockel’ to be actively used by the viewer is a central concept in Franz Erhard Walther’s work. During the 1960s Franz Erhard Walther produced a series of 58 sculptural objects that were collectively titled ‘1. Werksatz’ (trans. “First Set of Works”). The earliest of these, ‘Stirnstück’ (trans. “Forehead Piece”), 1963, involved using the front of the head to slide a strip of maroon velvet down a wall. The works in the 1. Werksatz series explicitly tackle the relationship body versus sculpture, also dragging in the problem of the pedestal. Here ‘Sockel, Arm und Hand unten’ (1969) is next to being a title basically an instruction for using the piece as a pedestal. Not only meant physically as Piero Manzoni anticipated his ideas with his ‘Magic Bases’ (1962), namely conceived as a means of turning anyone who climbed onto them into a statue, but also as “a condition that produce a mental image”. The pedestal is a metaphor for everything that supports the human individual and upon which our own images come into being.
