NEWfirstInitial: Defining Moments From Fluxhistory

January 10 - February 23, 2002

Andrew Roth is pleased to announce the opening of “NEWfirstInitial: Defining Moments From Fluxhistory.” “NEWfirstInitial” is about new art forms, first performances, and initial contacts:

NEW — as in new series, new juxtapositions, new languages and new ideas …

First — as in first editions, issues or realizations, claims to first use of terms, technology or concept …

Initial — as in initial occurrences, initial instances, initial opportunities, meetings and groupings …

Featuring artists such as George Brecht, John Cage, Jim Dine, Al Hansen, Yoko Ono, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Whitman among others, “NEWfirstInitial” documents experimental art activity from the early ’60s, centered on and around Fluxus. Through posters, flyers, fake newspapers, and a variety of multiples it reveals an international network of artists, poets, musicians, and intermedia adventurers reaching out to find commonality through novelty, invention and innovation.

Selected from the collection of Ellsworth Snyder, himself a musician and artist friend to a number of the artists included — particularly John Cage and Jackson Mac Low —“NewfirstInitial” is rich in information and steeped in the unconventional aesthetic of the anti-art avant-garde. From pared-down notices for concerts in Yoko Ono’s loft to starkly dramatic posters for Allan Kaprow’s happenings; from the highly determined design of George Maciunas to the loose expressive scrawl of Red Grooms; from neo-dada collage to pre-pop appropriation, “NewfirstInitial” offers inroads into the history and glimpses of the birth of a new sensibility.

“NEWfirstInitial” is curated by Simon Anderson. An exhibition with an extensive catalogue documenting the complete Fluxus collection of Ellsworth Snyder entitled “Fluxus Necessarius” will open at Andrew Roth Anderson in Los Angeles on Valentines Day, 2002.