Title
S.M.S. No.2
April 1968
Artists
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Details
- Other Title
- SMS #2
- Date
- April 1968
- Media categories
- Ephemera , Mixed media , Time-based art
- Materials used
- portfolio of eleven mixed media works
- Edition
- 2000
- Dimensions
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11 works: dimensions variable
:
a - Bernard Pfriem (USA 1916-97) - 'A proposed comic section of the N.Y. Times' 1968 - colour photo lithograph printed both sides of sheet, folded, 60.7 x 80.3 cm, sheet [folded]
a - Bernard Pfriem (USA 1916-97) - 'A proposed comic section of the N.Y. Times' 1968 - colour photo lithograph printed both sides of sheet, folded, 60.7 x 161 cm, sheet [open]
b - Ray Johnson (USA 1927-95) - 'A 2 year old girl choked to death today on an easter egg' 1967 - photo lithograph, 27.3 x 16.8 cm, sheet
c - Alain Jacquet (France b1939) - 'Three colour separations' 1968 - 3 colour photo lithographs, 24 x 17 cm, each sheet
d - Nicolas Calas (Switzerland 1907-88) - 'Cynocephalus & Co' 1968 - screenprint on mylar, collage, 26.6 x 16.6 cm, cover [closed]
e - Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland 1913-85) - 'The mirror of Jenoveva' 1968 - colour offset lithograph, embossed, 25.3 x 17.2 cm, sheet
f - Lee Lozano (USA 1930-99) - 'Thesis' 1968 - offset printed bound book, 7.5 x 12 x 0.7 cm, cover
g - Bruce Conner (USA 1933-2008) - 'Legal Tender' 1968 - 30 colour offset lithographs printed both sides of sheet, 14.6 x 6.7 cm, each bank note
h - Clovis Trouille (France 1889-1975) - 'Album' 1968 - colour offset printed book with red felt cover, 28 x 16.5 cm, cover
i - Marcia Herscovitz (USA 1945-74) - '10 collages' 1968 - 10 photo lithographs, 15.3 x 10.8 cm, 10 cards, dimensions variable
j - George Reavey (England 1907-76) - 'Farwell to Faust' 1968 - colour screenprint, 36.7 x 13.8 cm, sheet 1
j - George Reavey (England 1907-76) - 'Farwell to Faust' 1968 - colour screenprint, 95.5 x 17.1 cm, sheet 2
k - Marcel Duchamp (France 1887-1968) - 'Contrepèterie' (Cover) 1968 - vinyl record, 17.4 cm, record, diameter
k - Marcel Duchamp (France 1887-1968) - 'Contrepèterie' (Cover) 1968 - vinyl record, 35 x 51 cm, cover [open]
- Signature & date
Signed l.r. page 5 [a], [inscribed on screen] "Bernard Pfriem". Not dated.
Signed and dated l.r. [b], [inscribed on screen] "Ray Johnson 1967".
Signed and dated l.r. [e], [inscribed on screen] "M.O. / v.67" and l.r. verso [e], [inscribed on screen] ... "M.O. v.67.
Signed l.r. sheet 2 [j], [inscribed on screen] "George Reavey". Not dated.
Signed and dated verso cover [k], [inscribed on screen] ".../ Marcel Duchamp/ 1953".- Credit
- Purchased 1995
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 491.1995.a-k
- Copyright
- © Estate of William Copley/ARS. Copyright Agency
- Artist information
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Various artists
Works in the collection
- Artist information
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The Letter Edged in Black Press Inc.
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Artist, dealer, collector and patron, William Copley became involved with art in the mid 1940s when he met John Ployart, who became his brother-in-law and partner in a short-lived gallery in Beverley Hills. Exhibiting the work of the surrealists, who were just beginning to exhibit in New York – René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Joseph Cornell, Man Ray, Roberto Matta and Max Ernst among others – the gallery sold only two paintings and closed after six months. Copley moved to Paris, where he worked as an artist before he returned to the United States in the early 60s and settled in New York.
Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s reproductions and multiples of ‘La boite-en-valise’ (the box in a suit-case) 1934–41, Copley set out to produce a new form of art journal in 1966. He invited a diverse range of artists, writers and musicians to submit a work of art that would be reproduced and included, without comment, in a boxed collection that was available by mail order subscription with an edition of 2000. The deliberately ambiguous title ‘S.M.S.’, which was a private joke between Copley and his lawyer, stood for ‘Shit must stop’.
Although decidedly utopian in concept and lasting only six issues, the publication included contributions from Copley’s surrealist friends and representatives from almost every art movement that was vying for public attention at that time: the Fluxus artists, pop artists, minimalist artists, colour field artists, conceptual artists and even the work of Congo the chimpanzee, whose paintings were introduced to the art world by the writer Desmond Morris and were the subject of hilarious debate concerning the validity of abstract art. As the title implied, ‘S.M.S.’ was a reaction against the elitism of the art world in which reputations were made and destroyed by a small clique of dealers, critics and curators. It was the initiative of an artist idealistically striving to provide artists with direct access to a public audience. Contributors, regardless of their current reputation, were paid a standard fee of $100. Their contribution could be any size or form they wished as long as it could be folded down and packaged within a standard carton.
© Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection Handbook, 2006
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Ideas and Actions: Performance, Process and Documentation, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 Oct 1999–23 Jan 2000
YES YES YES YES: Graphics from the 1960s and 1970s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Dec 2016–19 Feb 2017
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Michael Wardell, Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, 'Ideas and actions', pg.60-107, Sydney, 2006, 98.
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