Morea Ben Editor (1 results)

Four issues of the far-out, confrontational '60s publication of the anarchist Black Mask Group. Issues #3, 4, 7, & 10. 4 pp. each. Very Good condition overall with horizontal crease to each issue, additional creases and light wear to #3. Rare. From a recent reprinting of Black Mask and Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker by Half Letter Press: Founded in New York City in the mid-1960s by self-educated ghetto kid and painter Ben Morea, the Black Mask group melded the ideas and inspiration of Dada and the Surrealists, with the anarchism of the Durruti Column from the Spanish Revolution. With a theory and practice that had much in common with their contemporaries the San Francisco Diggers, Dutch Provos, and the French Situationists who famously excommunicated 3 of the 4 members of the British section of the Situationist International for associating too closely with Black Mask. The group intervened spectacularly in the art, politics and culture of their times. From shutting down the Museum of Modern Art to protesting Wall Street's bankrolling of war, from battling with Maoists at SDS conferences to defending the Valerie Solanas shooting of Andy Warhol, Black Mask successfully straddled the counterculture and politics of the 60s, and remained the Joker in the pack of both sides of "The Movement." .