Part I. Fluxus and the graphic design of George Maciunas. Constructing a visual identity -- Ideological, technological, and (ty)poetic context -- Maciunas's pharmacy -- Part II. Ed Ruscha, figure of avoidance. Young graphic designer versus young artist -- Ruscha's books: Fragile Semiophors -- Liquid words, snatched figures, stained supports -- Part III. Art, graphic design, and feminism in the orbit of Sheila Levrant de Brettsville. A zone of contestation and experimentation -- The woman's building -- Editing, typesetting, printing, distributing.
Summary:
This fascinating study of the role that graphic design played in American art of the 1960s and 1970s focuses on the work of George Maciunas, Ed Ruscha, and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. Examining how each of these artists utilized typography, materiality, and other graphic design aesthetics, Benoit Buquet reveals the importance of graphic design in creating a sense of coherence within the disparate international group of Fluxus artists, an elusiveness and resistance to categorization that defined much of Ruscha's brand of Pop Art, and an open and participatory visual identity for a range of feminist art practices. Rigorous and compelling scholarship and a copious illustration program that presents insightful juxtapositions of objects-some of which have never been discussed before-combine to shed new light on a period of abundant creativity and cultural transition in American art and the intimate, though often overlooked, entwinement between art and graphic design.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.