ola/chao
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> From: Mark Stahlman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: "MCLUHAN-L : Marshall McLuhan Discussion List"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:47:15 EDT
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [MCLUHAN-L] Fluxus at Harvard (from NYTimes today)
>
> Fluxus at Harvard
>
> It is rare for a museum to get an acquisition as a partial gift that is not
> from a trustee or longtime benefactor, but rather from collectors who have no
> previous ties to an institution. Such is the case with a group of works that
> have recently been added to the collection of the Harvard University Art
> Museums. Included in the group are examples by Christo, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko
> Ono and George Brecht, who were all part of Fluxus, an international
> collective of young artists, writers and musicians in the early 1960's. The
> works were collected by two New Yorkers: Peter Moore, a photographer who died
> in 1993 and was known for recording Fluxus activities, and his wife, Barbara,
> an art historian, writer and former rare-book dealer.
>
> Part gift, part purchase, the collection includes 121 works, many of them
> editions and multiples dating from the early 60's through the late 70's. While
> nobody at Harvard would say what the collection is worth, experts in the field
> say its value is around $2 million.
>
> "This was engineered by Jerry Cohn, the former head of prints," said Thomas
> Lentz, director of the Harvard Art Museums. "It's part of our initiative for
> Harvard to move more forcefully into the realm of modern and contemporary
> art."
>
> Since much of the Fluxus aesthetic involved the viewer's participation, the
> collection goes right to the heart of the Harvard museums' mission: to provide
> students and scholars close interaction with art.
>
> Besides examples by well-known artists like Mr. Oldenburg and Christo, there
> are also 20 works by George Maciunas, the Lithuanian-born artist who died in
> 1978. He gave the movement its name and organized and promoted many of its
> efforts.
>
> The acquisition complements the Willy and Charlotte Reber Collection of works
> by Joseph Beuys, which is at the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard. The Moore
> Collection will go into another Harvard museum, the Fogg Art Museum.
