ODDS AND ENDS: Art Ephemera From Our Inventory

This week’s newsletter features an eclectic group of items. The artists created in a range of styles — expressionism, pop, no wave, cartoon satire, and photo journalism. There is also a wide range in what we identify as art ephemera, including familiar formats like announcement cards and press releases, as well as artist books, artist-designed advertisements, an audio cassette containing sound art, and a unique portfolio/catalogue reproducing a series of newspaper cartoons.

Ida Applebroog (1929 – October 21, 2023)

These four books are from a series that Applebroog self-published in 1979. Each book was hand dated by Applebroog and then distributed through the mail. 

Size: 6.5 x 8 inches

Available — $100 each

Gallery 98 is sad to report the death last month of artist Ida Applebroog, a one-of-a-kind talent whose work can be broadly described as “expressionist” and “feminist.” She stated herself that her work was about “how power works–male over female, parents over children, governments over people, doctors over patients.”  Starting in 1977 Applebroog began creating a series of self-published books mostly with repeated images contextualized by provocative titles. Our sincere condolences go out to Applebroog’s daughter filmmaker Beth B.

Joseph Nechvatal, TELLUS: The Audio Cassette Magazine

Tellus #13, Power Electronics, edited by Joseph Nechvatal, featuring Rhys Chatham, Coup De Grace, Mitch Corber, and others, cassette tape with cover by Nechvatal; and liner notes SIGNED by Nechvatal, 1986

Size: 3 x 4.5 inches
Available — $150

Over the course of his career Joseph Nechvatal has explored the edges of art through paintings, music and film.  A consistent theme has been the connection between art and technology. In 1983 Nechvatal, along with Claudia Gould and Carol Parkinson, created the audio-cassette magazine TELLUS, as a means to circulate the new forms of music and sound that grew out of Fluxus and No Wave. There  were 27 issues by the time Tellus ceased publication in 1993.

Ed Ruscha, Promoting and Advertising

The prolific Ed Ruscha, best known for his pop paintings featuring words, also worked in a wide variety of formats. He was one of the first artists to use a magazine advertisement as a vehicle for personal expression, and he has also accepted commercial commissions. Absolut Ruscha is perhaps the rarest of the famous series of Absolut Vodka advertisements created by popular artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Ruscha currently has a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that runs through January 13, 2024.

Ad Reinhardt, Art Comics and Satires

The paper portfolio contains 7 individual folded pages. Each double-sided page unfolds to measure 16.5 x 23.

HOW TO LOOK at a mural, one of Reinhardt’s satirical newspaper columns. This is a detail from one of the seven pages contained in the portfolio. This page features four of Ad Reinhardt’s columns. Four additional columns are included on the backside of the page.

Folder Size: 12 x 17 inches

Individual Sheets Unfolded Size: 16.5 x 23 inches

Available — $350

Ad Reinhardt (1913 -1967), the famous Abstract Expressionist painter best known for his austere all-black canvases is less well-known for his work as a cartoonist. Starting in 1942 he was a regular contributor to the leftist newspaper PM and often satirized the art world in his comics. While cartooning was out-of-step with Abstract Expressionism, the rise of Pop Art revived interest in Reinhardt’s comics. The Truman Gallery portfolio can be credited with reintroducing this work within an art world context.

Fred W. McDarrah, The Stonewall Uprising

Fred McDarrah (1926- 2007), a photojournalist, was for decades the sole staff photographer of the Village Voice who covered every aspect of downtown life and culture. His images of Alan Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Abbie Hoffman are now iconic and regularly exhibited in galleries and museums. In June 1969 McDarrah had the distinction of being the only photographer to capture events when the police raided the Stonewall Inn. Sick of being harassed, the crowd fought back. This announcement card and press release were created for an exhibition marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, now considered the beginning of the gay liberation movement.