This fall I spoke about Fluxus with Sean Clute at The Current, Brownell Library, Champlain College, and EEE VT. Here are some of my notes and links from our conversations.
I have long been enamored with the radical Fluxus art movement of the 1960’s. This group of artists, inspired by Dada, Marcel Duchamp, and John Cage, created playful intermedia performative events pushing against prevailing norms in painting, sculpture, poetry, music, architecture, film, and theater — blurring distinctions between art and life by celebrating common daily activities.
Their focus was on the process of creation itself, rather than the production of objects; the idea was as important as the artwork. Fluxus was an intentional praxis of intention. Their radical aesthetic notions influenced subsequent conceptual art as well as postmodern performance, media, and visual art.
In 1958 Cage gave a series of lectures “Composition as Process” at New York’s New School for Social Research. Informed by his admiration of Marcel Duchamp, study of the I Ching and Zen Buddhism, he aspired to have “all distinctions between art and life removed” as he embraced randomness, chance operations, and early adoption of technology in his artistic practice. This proved very potent for attendees that included George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, Jackson MacLow, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and others.
One of the class attendees, Allan Kaprow introduced 18 Happenings in 6 Parts which took place on six days, 4–10 October 1959 at the Reuben Gallery, New York. Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Red Grooms, Al Hansen, George Segal, and others followed suit with maximalist immersive environments.
At the same time, Yoko Ono and LaMonte Young were presenting conceptual musical, theater, and film concerts in Ono’s Chamber Street loft in 1960-61. George Maciunas also started presenting what he called Neo-Dada events in music, theater, poetry, and art in a short-lived AG Gallery in 1960. Many of the participants had taken Cage’s New School classes.
Maciunas was an interesting character: a graphic designer as well as an artist, he was an early proponent of artist live/work spaces in Soho and organized 15 co-ops between 1966 and 1975. However, he was terrible with money and most of his initiatives were short-lived, often fleeing from creditors.
One thing he wanted to do was create a magazine entitled FLUXUS, to capture the zeitgeist of this time. He was living in Germany in 1962 and organized a series of concerts as fundraisers for the new magazine.
· Fluxus Festival l (Wiesbaden 1962)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YibFHWZ66GQ
Well after a few festivals in European lectures and concerts halls, suddenly there seemed to be a Fluxus art movement with George Maciunas, its self-appointed impresario.
Some of its distinguishing features:
Performance scores, propositions, and provocations of everyday actions
Non ego approach to artmaking, collaborative authorship, anyone could realize
Task oriented, improvisatory performance
Ephemeral, fluid, chance
Challenges what is considered art and its value
Hybrid (Inter)media
Playful
International – Korea, Japan, Denmark, France, West Germany, U.S.
Event Scores represent an idea or thought experiment and were used as working sheets for Fluxconcerts.
George Brecht
Drip Music (Drip Event)
For a single or multiple performance
A source of dripping water and an empty vessel are arranged so that the water falls into the vessel. (59) (evolved into dripping music into French Horn and Tuba)
LaMonte Young: Draw a Straight Line and Follow It (59) - Nam June Paik
Yoko Ono: Light a match and watch till it goes out (64)
Alison Knowles: Identical lunch, Nivea Cream, Make a Salad (62) Disney Hall (2019) “A tuna fish sandwich on wheat toast with lettuce and butter, no mayo…”
From the beginning Fluxus was very porous:
· György Ligeti - Poème Symphonique 100 metronomes (WP/ Holland 1963)
· Joseph Beuys sat at a desk and wound up musical toy (63), 9 hours wrapped in felt dead hares (64)
· Yoko Ono, London and Carnegie Hall concerts – cut piece (64), Grapefruit (64) A book of instructions and drawings
· Nam June Paik, pours water over head, lifts violin and smashes it, TV Cello (71)
· Ben Vautier certificates authenticates mundane objects as art, living in a gallery storefront window for one week (62)
· Shigeko Kubota Vagina Painting (65)
Dick Higgins one of original members from Cage’s class and Germany concerts says:
· Fluxus in not a moment in history of an art movement.
· Fluxus is a way of doing things, a tradition, and a way of life and death.
· It mattered little which of us had done which piece, the spirit was: you’ve seen it, now – well it’s yours.
Mieko Shiomi describes Fluxus as a “pragmatic consciousness” that makes us “see things differently in everyday life after performing or seeing Fluxus works.”
George Maciunas with his graphic design skills tried to brand Fluxus with:
· iconographic logos,
· unnumbered, unlimited editions
· game-like kits, chess sets
· box sets of various performance scores for other artists,
· occasional magazines, newspapers, pamphlets
· stamp dispensers, table clothes, clothing, aprons
· even tried opening a Fluxus store (64)
40+ Fluxus Films challenged the standard practice and appropriate content for cinema:
· Yoko Ono’s slow-motion frames of mundane action – blink, match & #4
· Dick Higgins Invocation - chewing
· Nam June Paik’s Zen for film – roll of clear leader, silent 8 minutes
https://ubu.com/film/fluxfilm.html
The aesthetics of Fluxus encouraged others:
· Mail art – Ray Johnson
· Small presses – Dick Higgins and Bici Hendricks
· Watched the sky and imagined peace – Yoko Ono & John Lennon
· FluxDivorce - Geoff and Bici Hendricks
· FluxWedding – Billie and George Maciunas
· Fluxmeals - Collaborative color-coded dinners
· Cellist Charlotte Moorman’s Avant Garde Festivals
Vermont has a long history with Fluxus artists:
· Geoff and Jon Hendricks grew up in Putney (Their father founded Marlboro College)
· Dick Higgins had a studio in West Glover
· Alison Knowles went to Middlebury College
· Nye Ffarrabas lives in Brattleboro
Fluxus had an enormous influence:
Warhol’s early films were derivative of Fluxus films, particularly Ono’s
Fluxus Shop in 64 was a precursor to Keith Haring’s Pop Shop in 1986
Marina Abramovic reminiscent of Ben Vautier
Japan Society: Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus (Oct 13)