Tenth Annual New York Avant Garde Festival. [Poster]
New York: Charlotte Moorman, 1973. Original folding illustrated poster printed on natural paper with autograph address and postage and inkstamps to one panel (measures 34" x 22" unfolded).
Original folding mailer poster for the Tenth Annual New York Avant Garde Festival, the copy of postmodernist writer and performance artist Kathy Acker, inscribed to her by composer Christopher Berg. Established in 1963 by American cellist Charlotte Moorman (dubbed the "Jeanne d'Arc of the avant garde") while a student at Julliard, the showcase served as an open forum for experimental music, kinetic art, and performance. Emerging from the Fluxus movement, noted performers included John Cage, Morton Feldman, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneeman, and Nam June Paik. The festival ran for fifteen editions over the course of seventeen years in various New York locations such as Central Park, the deck of the Staten Island Ferry, and Shea Stadium. The tenth annual festival, organized in 1973 and held at Grand Central Station and on various train cars, featured 320 artists from 27 countries, including Berg. This poster was designed by Philadelphia-based avant garde artist and performer Jim McWilliams, who designed most of the festival's posters. Berg has drawn arrows in blue ink pointing to his pseudonym Clay Fear where it appears printed on the poster, and inscribed "Love" along the bottom, with a drawing of a spiral. (He has also penned in the name of video artist Mary Lucier, who possibly participated in the festival but whose name is not printed here.) The poster is hand-addressed to Acker, who was living in San Francisco at the time, with the return address of Michael Cooper, who presumably sent the poster on Berg's behalf in his official capacity as the festival's poetry director. (Acker would participate in later iterations of the festival.) Pinholes and small tears to corners, with tape residue to verso, some creasing and edgewear, a few small splits at folds. Good, with exceptional provenance. Item #12870
$600.00