Art of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis Collection (1981)

“Documenting the first exhibition of Russian collector George Costakis’s holdings of early 20th-century Russian artists in the United States, the catalogue Art of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis Collection is an invaluable resource for scholars of art of the avant-garde in Russia. Art historian Angelica Zander Rudenstine’s introduction describes the Costakis Collection’s formation and details from George Costakis’s biography. Margit Rowell reexamines certain premises about Russian and Soviet avant-garde art in the essay, ‘New Insights into Soviet Constructivism: Painting, Constructivists, Production Art.’ The publication also includes color and black-and-white reproductions of selected works with entries and biographies of the 39 artists in the exhibition.”

Edited by Margit Rowell and Angelica Zander Rudenstine
Publisher The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1981
ISBN 089207293
320 pages

Publisher

PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-7-18)
Internet Archive (multiple formats)
Guggenheim flipping book (Flash)

Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979 (1998)

“The rise of performance art, and its merging with more traditional forms like painting and sculpture, is the great revolution of post-war art. Its links to theater, photography, music, dance, politics, and popular culture have made it especially appealing to contemporary artists in remote areas; more than any other movement in recent art, performance has found a place throughout the world.

Covering three decades of significant and original art, this book features work by more than one hundred artists from the United States, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Japan who have had a profound impact on the relationship between visual and performance art in the postwar era. Among the artists included are Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, John Cage, Lygia Clark, Yves Klein, Marta Minujin, Bruce Nauman, Helio Oiticica, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint Phalle, Atsuko Tanaka, and Jean Tinguely. Their work encompasses performative objects such as sculpture, artists’ publications, drawings, photographs, and ephemera that come from performances, as well as documentary film and video stills.

Published in conjunction with a major exhibition, organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, curated by Paul Schimmel (08.02.1998–10.05.1998), Out of Actions illuminates the unique relationship between action, destruction, performance, and the creative process. Covering an unprecedented range of material, both nationally and temporally, the book offers the first critical comparisons.”

Edited by Paul Schimmel, Russel Ferguson, Kristine Stiles
Publisher Thames and Hudson, 1998
ISBN 9780500280508
407 pages

Review: Beáta Hock (Artpool, n.d.).

PDF (104 MB, no OCR; updated on 2017-7-10)

William C. Seitz: The Responsive Eye (1965)

“In 1965, an exhibition called The Responsive Eye, created by William C. Seitz was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The works shown were wide ranging, encompassing the minimalism of Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, the smooth plasticity of Alexander Liberman, the collaborative efforts of the Anonima group, alongside the well-known Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Bridget Riley. The exhibition focused on the perceptual aspects of art, which result both from the illusion of movement and the interaction of color relationships. The exhibition was enormously popular with the general public, though less so with the critics. Critics dismissed op art as portraying nothing more than trompe l’oeil, or tricks that fool the eye. Regardless, op art’s popularity with the public increased, and op art images were used in a number of commercial contexts. Bridget Riley tried to sue an American company, without success, for using one of her paintings as the basis of a fabric design.” (Wikipedia)

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York; in collaboration with The City Art Museum of St. Louis, The Contemporary Art Council of the Seattle Art Museum, The Pasadena Art Museum, and The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1965
58 pages

Exh. review: Thomas B. Hess (ARTnews, 1965).

Brian de Palma’s “The Responsive Eye” (film, on UbuWeb)

Publisher (incl. press releases and installation views)

PDF (12 MB, no OCR)
PDF (scan from UbuWeb, contributed by Marcelo Gutman, 80 MB)
PDF (scan from MoMA, 12 MB, added on 2016-9-18)