Heiko wrote:
>>From this Al Hanson catalogue, I got the impression that the most
important time of "fluxus" was the time before the coining of the label,
immediately after the Cage class. So who was a "fluxus" member then ? And
how important is this label etc.. ? <
Before Maciunas coined the term Fluxus the label describing the kind of work
that came to be associated with Fluxus was Neo-Dada. I don't know if the
idea of "fluxus" members is relevant this early on. Perhaps one can identify
artists working in a certain tradition who were later to be Fluxus members
such as Hansen, Higgins, Brecht, Kaprow etc. but that doesn't account for
the wider range of artistic practice that Maciunas was eager to include
under the umbrella of Fluxus.
Heiko also wrote:
>IMHO, might be wrong, "fluxus" members werent the only "fluxish" people.
"fluxus" was just a part of pop. "fluxus" philosophy was just a part of
pop philosophy. See the artists in "pop architecture", I know that Higgins
was VERY proud, that he had made this book, it wasnt "fluxus
architecture"...With Richard Hamilton on the cover....who wasnt less
"fluxish" than Beuys, who...but this is another story.<
I'm not sure that Fluxus is really a part of pop. Pop is very superficial,
it only deals with things at surface level. Fluxus is much deeper than that.
However many Fluxus artists are probably considered to be pop artists by
certain people. I think this is because of the range of work Fluxus people
produced. For example, if you look at Al Hansen's Hershey bar wrapper
collages you would think of him as a pop artist whereas if you look at his
sculptures made from cigarette butts you would see him more in a Fluxus vein
even though the subjects depicted (the venus image etc.) are often the same.
I'd imagine that some people see "Fluxus" as a part of pop because there is
far more literature available on Pop art than Fluxus and many members of
Fluxus appear in the Pop art books. I don't know if any members of Fluxus
considered themselves pop artists or not......maybe someone knows more about
this. Someone like Ben Vautier is perhaps close to pop art but this is
probably just an association in my head stemming from the fact that I always
seem to see mass-produced Keith Haring multiples next to those by Ben
Vautier in the shops.
Heiko, I would agree that the Cage class at the New School for Social
Research would be the logical starting point for a Fluxus history list. I
think at this point Higgins and others were unaware of similar art attitudes
in Europe and Japan although these are relevant later I think.
BTW - Heiko have you read the "Playing with Matches" book by Beck and Al
Hansen...I know you're an Al Hansen fan and I think you'd really enjoy it if
you haven't read it already....it's still in print and easily available
cheers,
Sol.
