Stendhal Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition 7 Paintings from 1950’s and Graphic Works from October 31 – December 19, 2009. The focal point of the show will be recently discovered paintings by Fluxus founder George Maciunas. As these canvases have never been exhibited publicly, this is a rare viewing opportunity and a chance to understand more about Maciunas’s personal history as an artist. Dating from the early- to mid-1950s, when Maciunas was just entering his twenties, the canvases reveal an eclectic mix of influences and interests. Maciunas had not yet begun formal post-secondary training in architecture, design and art, but was already an autodidact in art and its history, both western and eastern. Indeed, European and Asian aesthetics are evident in the images, which variously evoke Max Ernst’s surrealist landscapes, Joan Miro’s colorful biomorphic shapes, a broody German Expressionism, Japanese nature scenes and calligraphic brushstrokes.
According to his sister Nijolie, Maciunas only ever titled or gave precise signification to one of his paintings, which she believes is called Mountain of the Witches. The largest of the known canvases, it is an interpretation of Russian Composer Modest Mussorgsky’s piano composition Pictures at an Exhibition, depicting a dark forest scene in black and deep reds in which abstracted figures dance around a bonfire. Maciunas presented all of his paintings as gifts to relatives for birthdays or Christmas. Mountain of the Witches went to his aunt in Woodhaven, Queens.
The 7 paintings represent an important transitional period in Maciunas’s career when, like many artists of his generation, he grappled with abstraction and figuration in painting before abandoning the medium all together. By the turn of the 1960s he was drawn to participate in the new subculture of artists breaking down the boundaries between traditional artistic media. Fluxus performances and objects would become some of the most important manifestations of this critical trend.
An installation-like display of the typographic print No Smoking, devised by Fluxus artist George Brecht and designed by Maciunas will also be on display in the Project Room of the Gallery. This print in particular encapsulates key aspects of Fluxus, including artistic collaboration, economy of idea and form, innovative graphic design, humor, early examples of artistic ‘branding,’ sociopolitical engagement, and even Maciunas’s desire for discipline and commitment to the Fluxus cause. In conjunction with the exhibition the gallery will release a 2-color Hand-pulled screen print of No Smoking in its striking original black-and-white design. All profits from the sale of this print will go to the George Maciunas Foundation Inc. , a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt non-for-profit arts organization.
Stendhal Gallery exhibition will consist of 7 Paintings circa 1950’s and Graphic Works, No Smoking.
The exhibition opens October 31 – December 19, 2009.
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Press Release
Press Release
Stendhal Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition 7 Paintings from 1950’s and Graphic Works from October 31 – December 19, 2009. The focal point of the show will be recently discovered paintings by Fluxus founder George Maciunas. As these canvases have never been exhibited publicly, this is a rare viewing opportunity and a chance to understand more about Maciunas’s personal history as an artist. Dating from the early- to mid-1950s, when Maciunas was just entering his twenties, the canvases reveal an eclectic mix of influences and interests. Maciunas had not yet begun formal post-secondary training in architecture, design and art, but was already an autodidact in art and its history, both western and eastern. Indeed, European and Asian aesthetics are evident in the images, which variously evoke Max Ernst’s surrealist landscapes, Joan Miro’s colorful biomorphic shapes, a broody German Expressionism, Japanese nature scenes and calligraphic brushstrokes.
According to his sister Nijolie, Maciunas only ever titled or gave precise signification to one of his paintings, which she believes is called Mountain of the Witches. The largest of the known canvases, it is an interpretation of Russian Composer Modest Mussorgsky’s piano composition Pictures at an Exhibition, depicting a dark forest scene in black and deep reds in which abstracted figures dance around a bonfire. Maciunas presented all of his paintings as gifts to relatives for birthdays or Christmas. Mountain of the Witches went to his aunt in Woodhaven, Queens.
The 7 paintings represent an important transitional period in Maciunas’s career when, like many artists of his generation, he grappled with abstraction and figuration in painting before abandoning the medium all together. By the turn of the 1960s he was drawn to participate in the new subculture of artists breaking down the boundaries between traditional artistic media. Fluxus performances and objects would become some of the most important manifestations of this critical trend.
An installation-like display of the typographic print No Smoking, devised by Fluxus artist George Brecht and designed by Maciunas will also be on display in the Project Room of the Gallery. This print in particular encapsulates key aspects of Fluxus, including artistic collaboration, economy of idea and form, innovative graphic design, humor, early examples of artistic ‘branding,’ sociopolitical engagement, and even Maciunas’s desire for discipline and commitment to the Fluxus cause. In conjunction with the exhibition the gallery will release a 2-color Hand-pulled screen print of No Smoking in its striking original black-and-white design. All profits from the sale of this print will go to the George Maciunas Foundation Inc. , a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt non-for-profit arts organization.
Stendhal Gallery exhibition will consist of 7 Paintings circa 1950’s and Graphic Works, No Smoking.
The exhibition opens October 31 – December 19, 2009.