Original Adrian Piper Area Relocation #2 Advertisement/Artwork; plus Yayoi Kusama, Lucy Lippard and Dwan Gallery Ads in The Village Voice, Vol. XIV, No. 33 (1969)
The Village Voice (May 30–June 5, 1969), Vol. XVI, No. 33, featuring several significant and now-scarce advertisements related to conceptual art, including works by Adrian Piper and Yayoi Kusama, as well as advertisements for exhibitions by curators Lucy Lippard and Virginia Dwan.
The issue includes:
- A 2" × 1" advertisement on page 15, the second in a series of conceptual artworks from the beginning of American conceptual artist Adrian Piper's career. Engaging in the ideational relocation of geometric space, the "advertisement" consists solely of a statement by the artist designating the 2" × 1" space as an area that has been "relocated from Sheridan Square, New York, N.Y. [The Village Voice headquarters] to (your address)." Through this conceptual gesture, Piper investigates perceptions of time and space while challenging conventional ideas of what constitutes an artwork.
- Two separate advertisements (pages 54 and 58) for Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's photography and body-painting studios, one for the 404 Sixth Ave location, and the other for 664 Sixth Ave. These short-lived commercial studios and boutiques offered photography sessions, body-painting, studio rentals and live models. The 404 location was also a boutique that sold Kusama's dresses, textiles and custom bags. These ventures were closely connected to Kusama's New York practice during the 1960s, when she protested the Vietnam War through nude body-painting, happenings and "love-ins" that combined artistic experimentation with anti-war activism.
- A 2" × 1" advertisement for the conceptual art exhibition Number 7 at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, curated by writer, art critic and activist Lucy Lippard. The exhibition marked the first of Lippard's influential "Numbers" exhibitions, organized between 1969 and 1974. Describing herself as a compiler rather than a traditional curator, Lippard brought together works by 39 conceptual artists in this exhibition, including Adrian Piper, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Hans Haacke and others, to explore the expanding possibilities and interconnected nature of conceptual art.
- A 2" × 1" advertisement for the Dwan Gallery exhibition Language III. The third in founder Virginia Dwan's four-part annual summer exhibition series, begun in 1967, Language III explored the intersections between art and language through the work of key conceptual artists.
An impressive collection of historical and ephemeral conceptual art moments all within one edition of The Village Voice. The Voice was founded in 1955 in Greenwich Village, New York, as an alternative weekly newspaper and a platform for the city's creative, political and cultural communities.
Condition: Fair/Poor, newsprint heavily toned and brittle; edgewear and chips, some tears along edges and folds; 11" tear bisecting the front cover at middle fold; all ads in good condition.
Price: $750.00