The Complete Run: Highlights from the Chaplick Collection

November 14 – December 24, 2002


Andrew Roth is pleased to announce the opening of “The Complete Run.” On view will be a selection of artists’ books, multiples, and ephemera from the ’70s.

“The Complete Run” focuses on the collecting impulse for a rigorously thorough cataloguing of every issued edition and its variant. In the case of artists’ books from the ’70s, this strategy becomes an overwhelming challenge since the multiple deviation is at the core of its conceptual premise.

Highlighted in “The Complete Run” are works by an array of internationally renown artists, including Carl Andre, Alighiero Boetti, Marcel Broodthaers, Gilbert and George, On Kawara, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol to name but a few. In addition, we will present a selection of periodicals and multiples that were central to the Conceptual Art movement.

Seth Siegelaub’s publications, such as the Xerox Book (1968), act as both catalogue and exhibition itself. The Artists and Photographs Box, published by Marian Goodman’s Multiples Inc. (1970), presents an unspecified edition of works by artists who utilized the photographic medium to document and illustrate an idea. And in the ephemeral arena, we display On Kawara’s I Got Up, a run of postcards that he sent out to various recipients, each one indicating the time he awoke that particular day. A sampling of several more substantial objects will also be presented, including Andy Warhol’s famous Brillo Boxes (1968) and Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. (1964), one of an edition of 35 produced by Galerie Schwartz.

In the ’70s, with the advent of inexpensive methods of printing, cheap air travel, and the proliferation of Correspondence Art, we saw a broad dissemination of ideas and a widening international community of artists and audience. The artists’ book was an essential component of this Zeitgeist, offering an insight into the shared methods and language that defined the Conceptual Art movement.