Fluxus Forms: Scores, Multiples, and the Eternal Network

Harren, Natilee

ISBN 10: 022635492X / ISBN 13: 9780226354927

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2020

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 022635492X-2-36640130

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fluxus Forms: Scores, Multiples, and the Eternal Network
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022635492X
• ISBN 13: 9780226354927
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 32 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

“PURGE the world of dead art, imitation, artificial art. . . . Promote living art, anti-art, promote NON ART REALITY to be grasped by all peoples,” writes artist George Maciunas in his Fluxus manifesto of 1963. Reacting against an elitist art world enthralled by modernist aesthetics, Fluxus encouraged playfulness, chance, irreverence, and viewer participation. The diverse collective—including George Brecht, Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, and Robert Watts—embraced humble objects and everyday gestures as critical means of finding freedom and excitement beyond traditional forms of art-making.

While today the Fluxus collective is recognized for its radical neo-avant-garde works of performance, publishing, and relational art and its experimental, interdisciplinary approach, it was not taken seriously in its own time. With Fluxus Forms, Natilee Harren captures the magnetic energy of Fluxus activities and collaborations that emerged at the intersections of art, music, performance, and literature. The book offers insight into the nature of art in the 1960s as it traces the international development of the collective’s unique intermedia works—including event scores and Fluxbox multiples—that irreversibly expanded the boundaries of contemporary art.
 

About the Author

Natilee Harren is assistant professor of modern and contemporary art history at the University of Houston and author of Karl Haendel: Knight’s Heritage.