Straight Turkey, 1 (1974)

“Straight Turkey published interviews with and writings by Los Angeles–based artists and critics, including John Baldessari, Peter Plagens, Claire Copley, Barbara Munger, Walter Gabrielson, and Theron Kelley. The magazine’s title (which evolved from issue to issue and was sometimes left off entirely) was meant with a wink, referring to an expression at the time loosely meaning “genuine article” or “straight talk.” To preserve the integrity and authenticity of the artist’s voice, editor Timothy Silverlake insisted that all material be printed in as unfiltered a manner as possible, unedited except for typos, and that interviews be conducted spontaneously and transcribed verbatim—a policy he explained as “a reaction against the politics of validating art, a system that has gotten us to the point of intellectual elitism and far away from the reality of the artistic process, a process that I would think is worth maintaining.” Three issues were published.” (Source)

Edited by Timothy Silverlake
Publisher Robert Yamada, Los Angeles, March-April 1974
51 pages

Experiments in Print: A Survey of Los Angeles Artists’ Magazines from 1955 to 1986 (article by Gwen L. Allen, 2012)

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