The Art Institute of Chicago

One Cent LifeAuthor(s): Danielle N. KramerSource: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, Art through the Pages:Library Collections at the Art Institute of Chicago (2008), pp. 56-58, 94Published by: The Art Institute of ChicagoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205628 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 11:14

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Art Institute of Chicago is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Instituteof Chicago Museum Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:14:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The collection has expanded over the years, and two

printed catalogues document its holdings, as does an issue

of Museum Studies.1 Through additional gifts and purchases the collection has grown to more than eight hundred titles,

focusing on publications by and about the international

Surrealist movement from 1920 to the 1960s, with particular

emphasis on Paris during the interwar period.

Reynolds herself was a bookbinder; although trained in the workshop of Pierre Legrain, an acclaimed French

designer of fine bindings, she appears not to have practiced

professionally.2 She bound books for friends and family members, as well as binding volumes for her own library that were given to her by friends such as Jean Cocteau and the writer Raymond Queneau. Consequently, the Reynolds Collection holds the largest collection of her artistic work.

Because Duchamp destroyed most records and documents

associated with their relationship, it is difficult to attribute

creative responsibility for the bindings and their Surrealist

sensibility with exactitude. Like their relationship, the

bindings were most probably, as Duchamp noted, the product of a "true liaison, over many years, and very agreeable."3

A notable recent addition to the collection and a pre

viously unknown example of Reynolds's work is an edition of Night-Flight by the French writer and aviator Antoine

de Saint-Exup?ry, published in English translation in Paris

by the American expatriates Harry and Caresse Crosby.4 At

first glance, Reynolds's binding seems somewhat ordinary and uncharacteristic of her exuberant and uniquely creative

style. The binding, in full dark blue, vegetable-tanned

sheepskin with no tooling or other decoration, recalls the

night sky; the title, blind-stamped onto the spine, adds little in the way of visual interest. However, once the book's cover

is opened, the vivacity often found in Reynolds's bindings is revealed. She frequently employed interesting and spirited endpapers, infusing her works with an element of surprise, and this binding is certainly no exception. In Night-Flight, made flyleaves incorporate Corolles, the first in Duchamp's

Rotorelief series of 1935, with radiating concentric circles

effectively evoking the dynamism of flight (see fig. i).5 The

images of Corolles were relief-printed in black ink onto very thin, tan wove paper, with additional hand applications of black ink, and framed by an offset-printed border of orange ink. Reynolds used the same paper for another binding; as

Susan Glover observed, it is almost certainly proofs for the cover Duchamp designed for the Winter 1935 issue of the Surrealist journal Minotaure.6

ONE CENT LIFE

DANIELLE N. KRAMER

In 1964, the artist and poet Walasse Ting published a

pioneering illustrated book of poetry entitled One Cent

Life, which brought together artists of divergent approaches and backgrounds, many of whom would soon dominate the

contemporary art scene. Twenty-eight artists illustrated the

pages of the volume with sixty-two original lithographs, working with Ting to harmoniously meld Western artistic

movements, from Abstract Expressionism to American Pop Art, with the poet's Eastern-infused English verse.1 The

Ryerson Library holds a copy of the regular edition (number 1,348 in an edition of 2,000), which features a hand-printed cover by participating artists Pierre Alechinsky and Roy Lichtenstein. One hundred special edition copies were also released on handmade paper and signed by individual artists.

In many ways the book reflects Ting's circuitous artistic

trajectory. Born in China in 1929, he traveled to Paris in

1952, where he met Alechinsky and the founders of the CoBrA group, Karl Appel and Asger J?rn. In 1956, he settled in New York, befriending the Abstract Expressionist artist Sam Francis and two emerging Pop artists, Claes

Oldenburg and Tom Wesselmann.2 Such global explorations and the discovery of creative counterparts inspired Ting to

publish a book that encompassed diverse artistic movements

and artists from around the Western world. He began this

undertaking by writing the poems that would later be illustrated by fellow artists in One Cent Life.3, He recounted the genesis of the compilation:

I wrote 61 poems in '61 in a small room like black coffin, inside room only salami, whiskey, sexy photographs from

Times Square. No Bible, no cookbook, no telephone book,

no checkbook. Short Two fingers typing, talking about World & garbage, You and I, Egg and Earth.4

The collective aspect of the project took physical shape when

Ting's and Francis's friends around the globe began creating lithographs in response to the poet's seedy and erotic poetry. Francis, who acted as editor for the volume, also provided

funding to purchase the seventeen tons of paper needed, and the Swiss art dealer E. W. Kornfeld printed the editions.5

One Cent Life makes the reader a witness to the

inspirations and interactions of the artists brought together by the project. Artistic approaches representing various

56

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:14:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

/.> A*

1.1*

GRASS GREEN BREATHES tflTH H RAIN VISIT FROM SKY BLACK STONE HAPPY WARM HEART AROUND BLACK STONE SUNLIGHT GIVES LIFE ELECTRICITY REFLECTS LOVE SUOOENLV

Figure i. Sam Francis (American,

1923-1994). In this lithograph, the

explosive energy of Sam Francis's

primary colors showers the ground of Walasse Ting's poem Black Stone.

Published in One Cent Life (E. W.

Kornfeld, 1964), pp. 104-05.

JADE WHITE BUTTERFLY

WMfl e*m?Na >rtng com* happy long owl* ring gent happy iked ?dtp? ?pmg go

msnMng Uu pink mnbcm Wu* oki I* ?nonlng imp? kw* to mMikwn e? aay ftiohf .kin

Mwuafy Homi? Mt tnM mifth potri pick

Figure 2. Andy Warhol (American,

1928-1987). Warhol's iconic

representations, including this

lithograph, provided his fellow

collaborators a bridge to Pop Art.

These colorful lips accompany Walasse Ting's Jade White Butterfly. Published in One Cent Life, pp. 112-13.

57

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:14:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

movements appear and blend with each successive page.

While most of the lithographs glow with the intense, unmixed colors associated with the CoBrA group, the book

also exudes the aggressive energy of Abstract Expressionism

in the work of Francis (see fig. i) and of Joan Mitchell, who

both went on to illustrate Fresh Air School, another of

Ting's poetic compilations.6 Roy Lichtenstein, on the other

hand, created his first self-proclaimed Pop Art images after

working with Jim Dine, Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol on the

project (see fig. 2). The emergence of Pop Art is also evident

in the ways that many images incorporate reproductions of

advertisements, postcards, and postage stamps.7 One Cent

Life captures these developments through wide-ranging

examples of the era's great innovators and provides a

window onto the vibrant origins of overlapping movements

and their creators, all inspired by the vision of the artist and

poet Walasse Ting.

HAIRY WHO CAT-A-LOGS: EXHIBITION COMICS, 1966-69

THEA LIBERTY NICHOLS

Hairy Who was the name adopted by artists Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum for a series of three exhibitions held at

Chicago's Hyde Park Art Center between 1966 and 1968.' All six were graduates of the School of the Art Institute of

Chicago and, under the tutelage of faculty member Don

Baum, organized, participated in, and promoted these

groundbreaking exhibitions.

Nutt later recounted the genesis of the name Hairy Who, with its subversive, perverse, and silly underpinnings,

as a

punch line provided by Wirsum during one of the group's

playful gatherings:

At the time art show names were very cool, the less they

said about the work the cooler (better). There had been a

number of shows at MoMA ... titled "Sixteen Americans"

or "Thirteen Americans"_All of us were determined not

to emulate such suave coolness, but didn't have a clue what

would work. At our first get-together to discuss the show

we were getting nowhere with this problem. This was also

our first exposure to Karl in the flesh for the five of us. As

frustration mounted from not solving the dilemma, group

discussion disintegrated into smaller units, when Karl was

heard saying plaintively, "Harry who? Who is this guy?" At which point some of us were hysterically incredulous

that he didn't know about Harry Bouras, the exceptionally

self-important artist who was the art critic for WFMT, the

cultural FM station in Chicago. All of us found this very

funny, including Karl, and as we bantered about variations

of the situation, we realized the potential for the name,

especially if we changed Harry to Hairy.1

Their comedie irreverence also manifested itself in

exhibition catalogues that took the form of comic books.

The Ryerson Library's holdings feature a complete series of

the four Hairy Who comics, published between 1966 and

^"^^^^mS^^^^B *--*? s^tt?b &&& 2s?3S&fe

Figure i. Front covers of all four Hairy Who comics: The Portable Hairy Who

(1966), The Hairy Who Sideshow (1967), Smoke Hairy Who (1968), and Hairy Who (cat-a-log) (1969).

5?

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:14:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Webster, "The Life Work of Dard Hunter " pp. 48-49.

1. Dard Hunter II, The Life Work of Dard Hunter: A Progressive Illustrated

Assemblage of His Works as Artist, Craftsman, Author, Papermaker, and Printer

(Mountain House Press, 1981), vol. 1, p. 1.

2. The Ryerson Library's copy is number 63 of the "regular" edition, which was

printed on thirty-four pound white stock. The fifty copies called "special" are full

leather bindings on forty-four pound cream paper, signed by the author. Both

editions were bound by Gray Parrot, Hancock, Me.

Oliveri, "Sculpture: An Essay on Stone-Cutting with a Preface about God" pp.

49-50. 1. Fiona MacCarthy, Eric Gill (Faber and Faber, 1989) pp. 94, 96. 2. Eric Gill, Sculpture: An Essay on Stone-Cutting with a Preface about God (St. Dominic's Press, 1924), p. 8.

3. Ibid, p. 5.

4. Ibid, p. 36.

5. Ibid, p. 38.

P?rtala, "The Artist as Creator and Collector: The Edgar Degas Estate

Auction Catalogues," pp. 50-52. 1. The eight auctions took place at Galerie Georges Petit, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, and H?tel Drouot. The Ryerson Library has seven of the eight original auction

catalogues in its collection.

2. Ann Dumas, "Degas and His Collection," in Anne Dumas et al., The Private

Collection of Edgar Degas, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry N.

Abrams, 1997), p. 3.

3. Ibid., p. 5. Dumas mentioned the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Mus?e du Luxembourg, and the National Gallery, London, as

having a distinct presence at the auctions.

4. Gary Tinterow, "Degas' Degases," in Dumas et al. (note 2), pp. 79, 91. Ernest

Rouart, husband of Berthe Morisot's daughter Julie Manet, along with Degas' other relations and confidants, chose not to honor this request.

5. The National Gallery's Young Spartans was painted around the same time as the

Art Institute's version and later reworked by Degas before he submitted it to the

Fifth Impressionist Exhibition in 1880. For an in-depth comparison of the two

paintings, see Jean Sutherland Boggs, Degas (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), pp.

16-18; and Richard R. Brettell and Suzanne Folds McCullagh, Degas in the Art

Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Harry N. Abrams, 1984), pp. 32-33. 6. James Bolivar Manson, The Life and Work of Edgar Degas (The Studio, 1927),

p. 8.

7. See Dumas et al. (note 2), p. 9. 8. Edgar Degas, quoted by Daniel Hal?vy in Degas parle (La Palatine, i960); as

cited in Dumas et al. (note 2), p. 12.

9. Ibid., pp. 16, 24-25. Dumas noted that Degas feared the administrative aspect of

managing a museum along with the prospect of the government assuming control

of his collection after his death.

10. Sold as lot 92 at the Mar. 1918 auctions held at Galerie Georges Petit. Rebecca

A. Rabinow, ed., C?zanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2006), p. 374. 11. Ibid., p. 374. 12. Jan Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches (J.

M. Meulenhoff/John Benjamin, 1996), p. 296; and A. M. and Renilde Hammacher, Van Gogh: A Documentary Biography (Thames and Hudson, 1982), p. 125.

Wakeford, "Partnerships in Print: Avant-Garde Periodical Design," pp. 52-55. i. For further reading on avant-garde publication design, see Jaroslav Andel,

Avant-Garde Page Design, 1900-195o (Delano Greenbridge Editions, 2002); Steven Heller, Merz to Emigr? and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the

Twentieth Century (Phaidon, 2003); and Jan Tschichold, The New Typography: a Handbook for Modern Designers, trans, by Ruari McLean (University of

California Press, 1995). The Art Institute's Mary Reynolds Collection (see pp.

55-56) contains a wide variety of Dada and Surrealist periodicals.

2. Wendingen was published monthly from 1918 to 1931, with a total run of 116

issues. The Ryerson Library owns two sets, one bound and one loose; the latter was part of a gift from the Bruce Goff estate in 1990.

3. Merz was published in Hanover from 1923 to 1932. Several issues were

combined within numbers 1-24; numbers 10 and 22-23 were never published. 4. Bauhaus: Zeitschrift f?r Gestaltung was published quarterly in Dessau from

1926 to 1931; it suspended publication during 1930 and ceased publication with

the July 1931 issue.

Fabian and Brown, "Never Judge a Book by Its Cover: Mary Reynolds's

Binding for Night-Flight" pp. 55-56. 1. Hugh Edwards, Surrealism and Its Affinities: The Mary Reynolds Collection, A

Bibliography (Art Institute of Chicago, c. 1956), 2nd edition, 1973; ana Art Institute

of Chicago Museum Studies 22, 2 (1996). This issue of Museum Studies is also

available at www.artic.edu/reynolds/, along with an on-line collection catalogue. 2. Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Marcel Duchamp

= Eros, C'est la vie: A Biography

(Whitston Publishing, 1981), p. 242.

3. Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (Thames and Hudson, 1971),

p. 68. For more on Reynolds and Duchamp, see ?tant donn? 8 (2008). This is the

most in-depth published treatment of Reynolds's life and art, based on extensive

documentary research in, among other places, the Mary Reynolds Archive in the

Ryerson Library. 4. Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry, Night-Flight, trans, by Stuart Gilbert (Crosby Continental Editions, 1932); bound 1935 or later.

5. The terms "made endpapers" and "made flyleaves" refer to techniques in which

decorative papers, marbled or otherwise, are incorporated into the endsheets of a

binding. Typically one or both leaves of a decorated sheet are pasted onto the plain endsheet leaves, which are often uncolored paper similar to that of the text. Matt

T. Roberts and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books

(Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 163-64. For an extended

consideration of Duchamp's rotoreliefs, see Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, 3rd ed. (Delano Greenidge, 1996), vol. 2, pp. 728-31. 6. Susan Glover, "Cendres chaudes: vie et carri?re de Mary Reynolds," in ?tant

donn? 8 (2008), p. 27. The same stock was used as endpapers for Reynolds's copy of Raymond Queneau 's Lion de Rueil, published in 1944.

Kramer, "One Cent Life " pp. 56-58.

1. Mary Lee Corlett, The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein: A Catalogue Raisonn?,

1948-1993 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Hudson Hills Press,

1994), pp. 20-21. The complete list of participating artists includes Pierre

Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Enrico Baj, Alan Davie, Jim Dine, ?yvind Fahlstr?m, Sam Francis, Robert Indiana, Alfred Jensen, Asger J?rn, Allan Kaprow, Alfred

Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Mitchell, Kiki O.K., Claes Oldenburg, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Reinhoud, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, Antonio

Saura, Kimber Smith, K. R. H. Sonderberg, Walasse Ting, Bram Van Velde, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann. 2. A. F. Page, "An Action Painting," Bulletin of The Detroit Institute of Arts 39, 1 (1959-60), p. 12.

3. Wake Forest University, Print Collection, One Cent Life, www.wfu.edu/art/

pc/pc-ting.html (accessed Nov. 29, 2007).

4. Walasse Ting, "Near 1 Cent Life," Art News 65, 3 (May 1966), p. 6j.

5. Ibid., p. 38; Walasse Ting, One Cent Life, regular ed. (E. W. Klipstein, 1964),

top verso, n.pag. 6. See Willemijn Stokvis, Cobra: An International Movement in Art After the

Second World War (Rizzoli, 1988), p. 20; and Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Fresh Air School (Carnegie Institute, 1972).

7. Corlett (note 1), pp. 20-21.

Nichols, "Hairy Who Cat-A-Logs: Exhibition Comics," pp. 58-59. 1 The fourth, 1969 exhibition was held at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. 2. Dan Nadel, "Hairy Who's History of the Hairy Who," in The Ganzfeld 3

(2003), pp. 121-22.

94

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:14:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions