when a box is full of inspiration...

two voices from the art of assemblage...

"it now seems to me that even striving for expression in a work of art is harmful to art. art is an archprinciple, as sublime as the godhead, as inexplicable as life, undefinable and without purpose. the work of art is created by an artistic evaluation of its elements. i know only how i do it; i know only my material, from which i derive, to what end i know not."
kurt schwitters, 1921

"painting relates to both art and life. neither can be made.(i try and act in that gap between the two.) i am trying to check my habits of seeing, to counter them for the sake of greater freshness. i am trying to be unfamiliar with what i'm doing. if you do not change your mind about something when you confront a picture you have not seen before, you are either a stubborn fool or the painting is not very good."
robert rauchenberg, 1961

two quotes from the 1961 MOMA catalog the art of assemblage.

1 plastic dome, and 1 totem pole...

in 1940, the american abstract artists staged a demonstration at a ny museum, protesting the lack of abstraction in their exhibition program. 20 years later, a group of realist painters staged a protest at moma to complain about a policy of not showing realistic works, and for "encouraging artists to execute absurdities for the entertainment of its elite public."

the above photos of the 1960 demonstration are from the 1961 book 'the artist's world' by fred w. mcdarrah, which chronicles the new york art scene in the late 1950's with a ton of photos. the pictures above struck me as being interesting in that artists were actually so pissed off about being excluded from an exhibition program that they got together and staged a real protest. of course, folks like the guerrilla girls still take action against exhibition policies related to gender and race; but when's the last time you saw artists protesting a museum simply because they weren't supporting a genre.

built in usa...

moma's built in usa exhibition covered the years 1933 (the year of moma's first architectural exhibtion) to 1944. it was curated by alfred h. barr, elizabeth mock, and philip l. goodwin; and included 47 buildings. the show's vision was fairly east coast-centric; with one of the major architect invisibles being rm schindler.

the moma catalog shown above is not super rare (although this dust jacketed version is tougher to find), but it is much less common than the "every used book store has one for sale" post-war version from 1952 (designed by alvin lustig!).

i never knew the exhibition was also shown in europe until i stumbled on a swiss version of the catalog in basel a few years ago. this 1946 catalog contains only a sampling of the numerous photos in the moma publication and includes most of the text in swiss; but the thing that really makes it wonderful is the bauhaus inspired cover design is by numa rick.