There are many reasons to collect art ephemera. This selection from the Gallery 98 inventory features prime items from the 1970s and 80s that skirt the lines traditionally separating art, entertainment, politics and everyday life, and offer a wide variety of choices.
Andy Warhol, Happy Birthday Holly, 1986
Palladium, Andy Warhol, Happy Birthday for Holly Woodlawn, folded card with separate insert, 1986.
Folded card size: 3.75 x 9 inches
Insert: 8.5 x 3 inches
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The transgender performer Holly Woodlawn is best known for her roles in Andy Warhol’s films Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1971). In the 1980s she was performing live in musical revues at New York nightclubs. This invitation to her 40th birthday party at The Palladium features a portrait of Woodlawn by an unidentified artist, and a printed insert with a drawing by Warhol.
Guerilla Art Action Group (GAAG), Licenses, 1981
Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG), Jon Hendricks, Jean Toche, 10 business card-sized licenses with rubber stamp in envelope addressed to art critic Edit DeAk, 1981. 6 of the 10 licenses are illustrated above.
License size: 3.5 x 2.5 inches.
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The Guerrilla Art Action Group founded by Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche in 1969 is best known for anti-war performances at art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art. GAAG (pun undoubtedly intended) was part of a movement that fused art with instigating social change. The group can be linked to Joseph Beuys, Art Workers Coalition, and to the much later Guerrilla Girls, all broadly part of the Fluxus art movement. These ten “licenses” to “Kill,” “Burn Books,“ “Pollute,” and more were issued to art critic Edit DeAk. Similar sets were sent to others in the Fluxus orbit.
Colette, Living Space at Cologne Art Fair, 1977
Colette, “Ancorra-tu, Living in a Space for Six Days with All My Personal Belongings,” SIGNED, photo and ink on paper, 1977.
Size: 10 x 7 inches
Photo: 5 x 7 inches
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The pioneering performance and installation artist Colette sees her whole life as a work of art. This signed 1977 photo with text documents one of her most famous works, the six days she lived in a space she created at the Cologne Art Fair. The Cologne installation is similar to the much larger living environment Colette created in her downtown loft from 1972-83. That elaborate installation is currently back in the news as the subject of a Kickstarter Fundraiser running through January 25. When Colette moved from that space, the legendary art dealer Leo Castelli carefully dismantled the environment and re-mounted it on moveable boards in anticipation of a sale to a European museum that never materialized. It has been in storage ever since, but its preservation is now under threat.
112 Greene Street, Anarchitecture, 1974
Gordon Matta-Clark, Laurie Anderson, Richard Nonas
112 Greene Street, Anarchitecture, black and white photo announcement, 1974. Anarchitecture was an artists’ group whose members included Laurie Anderson, Tina Girouard, Carol Goodden, Suzanne Harris, Jene Highstein, Bernard Kirschenbaun, Richard Landry, Richard Nonas, and Gordon Matta-Clark.
Size: 10 x 8 inches.
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112 Greene Street was an artist-run space in Soho where many artists associated with post-minimalism exhibited. The catchy but never clearly defined phrase “Anarchitecture” was not only the name of this exhibition but also of a loosely organized group of artists led by the artist and theorist Gordon Matta-Clark. It is a term that applies especially well to Matta-Clark’s best-known works that involved the slicing and dissection of buildings. Anarchitecture was re-staged at the Tate Modern in London in 2005.
Lady Bunny, Wigstock ’89, Souvenir Catalogue
Lady Bunny, Taboo, RuPaul, catalogue for Wigstock ’89 (37 pages), 1989. Wigstock was an annual drag queen festival held in Tompkin’s Square Park in New York’s East Village.
Size: 7 x 8.5 inches
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Wigstock (named after Woodstock) began spontaneously in 1984 when Lady Bunny and other drag queens decided to put on a show in Tompkins Square Park. It became an annual East Village event that continued uninterrupted until the mid-90s when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani forced it out of the park to an area by the Hudson River. Since then Wigstock has experienced many interruptions, revivals and changes of venue. This catalogue for the ambitious 1989 iteration includes profiles of its drag queen performers (including RuPaul), and advertisements from the clubs and businesses frequented by the group.
