Title
S.M.S. No.3
June 1968
Artists
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Details
- Other Title
- SMS #3
- Date
- June 1968
- Media categories
- Ephemera , Mixed media , Time-based art
- Materials used
- portfolio of twelve mixed media works
- Edition
- 2000
- Dimensions
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12 works: dimensions variable
:
a - William Bryant (USA b1946) - 'Clouds' 1968 - 9 offset lithographs printed both sides of sheet, 22.7 x 31.2 cm, each sheet
b - Dick Higgins (England/ USA 1938-1998) - 'Ode to London' 1967 - colour screenprint on mylar, 27.6 x 17.5 cm, sheet
c - Man Ray (USA 1890-1976) - 'The father of Mona Lisa' 1967 - colour offset lithograph, 27.1 x 17.5 cm, sheet
d - Ronnie Landfield (USA b1947) - 'Two drawings' 1967 - two colour offset lithographs, 27.6 x 17.6 cm, each sheet
e - Roland Penrose (England 1900-84) - 'Bush in hand' 1968 - colour photo lithograph, 27.4 x 17.6 cm, overall [irreg.]
f - Hannah Weiner (USA 1928-97) - 'Signal flag poems' 1968 - 2 offset printed lithographs printed both sides of sheet, 2 colour offset lithographs printed both sides of sheet, 19.7 x 17.1 cm, each leaf
g - Aftograf (Russia/ USA active 1960s) - 'Poems' 1965-66 - 2 colour offset printed books, 3 loose colour offset printed sheets, 14 x 20.4 cm, each book
h - Enrico Baj (Italy 1924-2003) - 'Glove' 1968 - synthetic polymer glove, tissue paper, mylar cover, 26.6 x 17.2 cm, cover
i - Joseph Kosuth (USA b1945) - 'Four Abstracts' 1968 - 4 offset lithographs, envelope, 13 x 13 cm, each sheet [folded]
i - Joseph Kosuth (USA b1945) - 'Four Abstracts' 1968 - 4 offset lithographs, envelope, 50.5 x 50.5 cm, each sheet [open]
i - Joseph Kosuth (USA b1945) - 'Four Abstracts' 1968 - 4 offset lithographs, envelope, 26.2 x 27 cm, envelope [closed]
j - Horace Westerman (USA 1922-81) - 'Correspondence' 1968 - 4 offset printed envelopes, 4 letters, stamps, 9.9 x 19 cm, envelope [small]
j - Horace Westerman (USA 1922-81) - 'Correspondence' 1968 - 4 offset printed envelopes, 4 letters, stamps, 10.6 x 24.1 cm, each envelope [3 large]
k - Terry Riley (USA b.1935) - 'Poppy Nogood's All night flight (The first ascent) 1967 - cassette tape and box, 13.2 x 13.2 x 1.4 cm, box
l - John Battan (USA 1943-76) - 'Untitled abstract landscapes' (Cover) 1968 - colour offset lithograph, 35 x 51 cm, cover [open]
- Signature & date
Signed and dated upper verso [c], [inscribed on screen] ".../ Man Ray 1967".
Signed and dated l.r. sheet 1 [d], [inscribed on screen] "Ronnie Landfield 1967".
Signed and dated l.r. sheet 2 [d], [inscribed on screen] "Ronnie Landfield '67".
Signed and dated lower edge [e], [inscribed on screen] "... 21.2.68 ROLAND PENROSE".
Signed u.l. each envelope [j], [inscribed on screen] "H.C. Westermann/...". Not dated.- Credit
- Purchased 1995
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 492.1995.a-l
- 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 (colour illus.).
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