Artists' Multiples, 1935-2000

by Bury, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780754600756
• ISBN10: 0754600750
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Lund Humphries Pub Ltd

Summary

The artist's multiple is perhaps the art of the twentieth century. If in the nineteenth century art could be seen as distinct from products of industry, in the early twentieth century industry could confidently project itself as art. The artist's multiple, in its delight in reproducibility, industrial fabrication, and new processes and materials, exemplifies this trend. Stephen Bury explores the historical background of the multiple, examining its relationship to the jeu d' esprit of the artist's studio, the readymade, constructivism, the store and the everyday. It looks at the work of Marcel Duchamp, George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys and Felix Gonzalez-Torres as well as contemporary practice, such as 'The Multiple Store'.An illustrated and chronologically arranged catalogue of over 800 multiples produced between 1935 and 2000 provides a wide selection of different approaches by artists to the medium. A chronology, glossary and detailed bibliography are also included.

Author Biography

Stephen Bury is the Head of Modern English Collections at the British Library and a Research Tutor at Chelsea School of Art.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Preface	xi
The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction	1	(5)
The jeu d'esprit and the joke	6	(4)
Duchamp: the readymade	10	(4)
The artist as fabricator	14	(5)
The store and more: Pop Art and Fluxus	19	(7)
Joseph Beuys: `Why doesn't the ``Felt Suit'' have buttons?'	26	(4)
Conceptual art and the artist's multiple	30	(3)
The contemporary multiple	33	(4)
Afterword	37	(2)
Selective catalogue of artists' multiples 1935-2000	39	(130)
Chronology	169	(4)
Glossary	173	(2)
General bibliography	175	(8)
Index	183