FLUXLIST: Why George Maciunas opposed the Avant-Garde Festivals
Reed Altemus writes, "I'm thinking perhaps Maciunas had little reason to see Charlotte's Festivals as competitive with his Fluxus program, in which case I conclude that he was just generally threatened by women who were doing things cf. Carolee Schneeman (later). He certainly seemed to get along fine with Yoko Ono at the time." George's opposition to the festival was not sexist. It was an issue of programmatic positions in his aesthetic-political system. George saw the Avant-Garde Festival as a large, eclectic stew of projects -- in essence, this raised the problem of the "neo-Baroque" position to which he opposed the "neo-haiku" Fluxus position. George's problem with Carolee was based on the same argument. She was doing happenings and messy, sexy, meaty multimedia performance that stood at the other end of a spectrum from George's demand for a clean, clear, simplified art. This, incidentally, was also George's argument against happenings in general, and this is part of the difficulty with Al Hansen's work. George was a purist but never a sexist. At a time when there was little room for women in the art world, George welcomed and worked with Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi, Shigeko Kubota, Yoko Ono, Alice Hutchins, Carla Liss and others. It seemed to many others that there was room for a great deal of overlap, fuzziness and ambiguity in the Fluxus position. The fact that George rejected the Avant Garde festivals did not bother the many Fluxus artists who took part in them. But it should be stated that George was a person who made decisions -- including silly decisions -- on principle, not on the basis of personality, gender, sexual preference, race, religion, etc. To the degree that George was occasionally "cranky," he was an equal-opportunity crank. Ken Friedman --
Re: FLUXLIST: Why George Maciunas opposed the Avant-Garde Festivals
Thanks for clearing this up Ken. RA Ken Friedman wrote: Reed Altemus writes, "I'm thinking perhaps Maciunas had little reason to see Charlotte's Festivals as competitive with his Fluxus program, in which case I conclude that he was just generally threatened by women who were doing things cf. Carolee Schneeman (later). He certainly seemed to get along fine with Yoko Ono at the time." George's opposition to the festival was not sexist. It was an issue of programmatic positions in his aesthetic-political system. George saw the Avant-Garde Festival as a large, eclectic stew of projects -- in essence, this raised the problem of the "neo-Baroque" position to which he opposed the "neo-haiku" Fluxus position. George's problem with Carolee was based on the same argument. She was doing happenings and messy, sexy, meaty multimedia performance that stood at the other end of a spectrum from George's demand for a clean, clear, simplified art. This, incidentally, was also George's argument against happenings in general, and this is part of the difficulty with Al Hansen's work. George was a purist but never a sexist. At a time when there was little room for women in the art world, George welcomed and worked with Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi, Shigeko Kubota, Yoko Ono, Alice Hutchins, Carla Liss and others. It seemed to many others that there was room for a great deal of overlap, fuzziness and ambiguity in the Fluxus position. The fact that George rejected the Avant Garde festivals did not bother the many Fluxus artists who took part in them. But it should be stated that George was a person who made decisions -- including silly decisions -- on principle, not on the basis of personality, gender, sexual preference, race, religion, etc. To the degree that George was occasionally "cranky," he was an equal-opportunity crank. Ken Friedman --
