GEORGE MACIUNAS WHERE DID HE FIT IN?
GEORGE MACIUNAS WHERE DID HE FIT IN?
Born NOVEMBER 8 1931 KAUNAS LITHUANIA USSR/Soc.
NUMBERS
SECURITY NO. : 106-24-6003 Drivers LICENSE : MO 1088 14198 837093 Passport no. : B 665003
SCHOOLS
Cooper Union School of Art graduated 1953
Carnegie Institute of Technology Bachelor Architecture 1955
Institute of Fine Arts NYU, 1955 TO 1959, postgraduate studies in history of art
1938 : Adenoidectomy 1940 : Appendectomy 1977 : pancreas CANCER : liver CANCER
HOSPITAL RECORDS
head-normocephalic eyes-sclerae clear fundi-benign ear-ceruminous heart-sinus tachycardia
BLOOD
Blood type : O WBC : 9000 hemoglobin : 16 gm pulse : 110 blood pressure : 120/80
conjugality FLUX WEDDING : February 25, 1978 SPOUSE : BILLIE HUTCHING
DEATH
May 9, 1978 Boston, MA UNITED STATES AGED 48
unfold it
AFTER
1978
1971
1961
1951
1941
MR. Fluxus = GEORGE MACIUNAS
1931
extened diagram of george maciunas’ life
1931 Born in Kaunas 1948 From Lithuania to USA
life
002 017 028
1931 – 1960
033 038
1961 – 1965
049 059
1966 1970
065 070
1971 – 1975
088
1976 – 1978
1949-1960 Learning years of 12 As an art historian 1963 Fluxus Manifesto Art / non-Art 1964 Fluxus shop opened 1966 Fluxhouse Cooperative Building Project 1970 Flux film 1971 Mr. Fluxus 1975 One eye blinded Left from New York
DEATH
1977 Cancer developed
094
1978 Last will & Fluxwedding Ken Friedman George Maciunas :Architect
FRIENDS
Jonas Mekas (Andy Warhol) Yoko Ono John Lennon Ben Vautier Emmett Williams
097 113 129 145
and after
MY MISTAKES IN THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE _ GEORGE MACIUNAS
1931 – 1960
FORGIVE ME
FIG. 01
1931 – 1960 George Maciunas (pronounced machew-nas; born Kaunas, Lithuania, November 8, 1931; died May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian-born American artist and founding member of Fluxus, an artist organized community including artists, composers, architects, and designers.
His mother was half-Pol-
ish and half-Lithuanian and his father was Lithuanian. After living briefly in Germany, Maciunas came to New York in 1948 to study graphic design at Cooper Union. He then studied architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and finally art history at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
FIG. 02
022
FIG. 03
MY SON By Leokadija Maciunas My son was a quiet child from
assigned to pour drops in his ears
birth. He neither screamed nor
hourly day and night. I carried
cried at all, but since the nanny
this out accurately though he
who was also my daughter’s wet
didn’t wake me with moaning. When
nurse, didn’t want him in the
the medicine didn’t help, we had
nursery fearing that lad would
to lanced stretched out his hands
disturb the girl, he slept next
to me, pressing his whole body
to me in the bed. Later when he
to my breast. The children caught
had beautifully proved h1mself and
cold time and time again: mustard
when the household had become ac-
plasters, cupping glasses, med-
customed to him, the nanny deigned
icines, and more ear drops. The
to accept him in the nursery.
abscesses in his ears even had to
There was something attractive in
be lanced a second time, but this
the child and I feared that he
took place in the hospital and the
would be offended and neglected
nanny was with him for two days
in the nursery. Though he didn’t
there.
demand special attention, I was often with him. As the nanny took the little girl out in the pram for fresh air, I had to carry the little boy in my arms and I sat in a nearby park with the sleeping child.
From childhood the chil-
dren were often sick–a cough, an inflamed throat, and my little son had an inflammation of the ears. He was quiet and patient when he was sick, and when the doctor said that inflammation of the ears was very painful I could barely believe that the child was suffering. Sometimes he would turn his head and moan quietly. I was
I was happy and proud of my serious boy.
024
–Leokadija Maciunas
FIG. 04
In the spring, in April of 1948
on stage and my Yurgis was among
we left Germany for America. We
them. After the final celebration
hadn’t one relative there. The
(of finals) many teachers told me
charitable organization “Church
many compliments about my son,
Velt (Field?) Service” took care
predicting a bright future for
of us. They met us, placed us in a
him. I was happy and proud of my
good hotel and soon found work for
serious boy.
my husband in his field, and in
the autumn they enrolled Yurgis in
made a small model of our dacha
a boarding school in Dobbs-Ferry
in Lithuania. All the measure-
where he excellently finished high
ments were precise according to
school in one year.
the directions of his father, my
husband.
At first he had no one
close to him at this school, and not knowing English he set to reading Dostoevskii who became one of his favorite authors. It was obvious that he solidly undertook his studies; he even wrote a long article on Dostoevskii in a school magazine which he edited. One of the editors of the “New York Times” paid attention to this serious article and even wrote about it in his paper.
After the solemn act
there were ten superior students
In this period Yurgis
FIG. 05
028
The next stage was Cooper Union
he entered the dates and names in
where there was no tuition, but
small print. The next page was who
a strict selection of especial-
changed the borders of the kingdom
ly talented students. The exams
and when and so forth. Page after
were varied–he had to do things he
page changed the stars and king-
had never done–sculpture, figure
doms of the Russian state. Through
modeling, drafting, drawing and
the transparent page one could see
math. Barely ten percent of those
the previous borders. This was a
who took the exam passed it and my
remarkable and interesting work
Yurgis was among that ten percent.
which could recall the entire past
He lived at home with us and went
course of study in one moment.
to his own school.
University he continued to study.
He also finished Cooper
When he finished this
Union with excellent grades and
At the beginning he started work
received a stipend to continue
as an architect, but was very
his study. He chose the Universi-
disappointed seeing that the work
ty of Pittsburgh in the school of
of young architects was limited
architecture. He wasn’t interest-
to drafting for which one needn’t
ed in sports or girls; he started
be either talented or possess an
to take music lessons and didn’t
education. He decided to study art
miss one concert. Besides this
history at New York City College
he took a course on the history
and become a professor.
of the Russian government. Then on his own initiative he made an interesting diagram of the Russian State from the very beginning to the revolution. The notebook was made of transparent pages, and beginning with the last page a map of Europe was drawn clearly underlining where the borders of the Russian princes were. Alongside
FIG. 01 Leader of the Lithuanian avant-garde /1936
FIG. 02 Immigrants to New York : From left, George, his sister Nijole, their mother, and two unidentified passangers. /1948
FIG. 03 The 5-year-old commaner-in-chief at Senapole, Lithuania /1936
FIG. 04 The young art historian at his parents’ house /1952
FIG. 05 Diagram of Historical Development of Fluxus and Other 4 Dimentional, Aural, Optic, Olfactory, Epithelial and Tactile Art Forms. /1973
FLUXUS SHOULD TEND ANTIEUROPEANISM. _ George Maciunas
1961 – 1965
TOWARDS
1931 – 1960 George Maciunas (pronounced machew-nas; born Kaunas, Lithuania, November 8, 1931; died May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian-born American artist and founding member of Fluxus, an artist organized community including artists, composers, architects, and designers.
His mother was half-Pol-
ish and half-Lithuanian and his father was Lithuanian. After living briefly in Germany, Maciunas came to New York in 1948 to study graphic design at Cooper Union. He then studied architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and finally art history at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
FIG. 06
036
In 1963, Maciunas composed the
its humor is reflective of a goal
first Fluxus Manifesto, (see
to bring life back into art, which
above), which called upon its
Maciunas states in his agenda, “If
readers to:
man could experience the world,
the concrete world surrounding
"...purge the world of
bourgeois sickness, ‘intellec-
him (from mathematical ideas to
tual’, professional & commer-
physical matter) in the same way
cialized culture ... PROMOTE A
he experiences art, there would
REVOLUTIONARY FLOOD AND TIDE IN
be no need for art, artists and
ART, ... promote NON ART REALI-
similar ‘nonproductive’ elements”.
TY to be grasped by all peoples,
[11] For this reason, Fluxus has
not only critics, dilettantes and
been described by Fluxus artist
professionals ... FUSE the cadres
and scholar Ken Friedman as “an
of cultural, social & political
active philosophy of experience
revolutionaries into united front
that sometimes only takes the form
& action."
of art” in acting as a critical
approach to art, life, and the
Shared by its sibling art
movements Pop Art and minimalism, Fluxus expressed a countercultural sentiment to the value of art and the modes of its experience –distinctly achieved by its commitment to collectivism and to decommodifying and deaestheticizing art. Its aesthetic practitioners, valuing originality over imitating overworked forms, reconceptualized the art object and the nature of performance through musical ‘concerts’, ‘olympic’ games, and publications.
By undermining the tra-
ditional role of art and artist,
mechanism of its methodologies.
ART
FLUXUS ART-AMUSEMENT
To justify artist's professional, parasitic and elite status in society, he must demonstrate artist's indispensability and exclusiveness,
To establish artist's nonprofessional status in society, he must demonstrate artist's dispensability and inclusiveness,
he must demonstrate the dependability of audience upon him, he must demonstrate that no one but the artist can do art.
he must demonstrate the selfsufficiency of the audience, he must demonstrate that anything can be art and anyone can do it.
Therefore, art must appear to be complex, pretentious, profound, serious, intellectual, inspired, skillful, significant, theatrical,
Therefore, art-amusement must be simple, amusing, upretentious, concerned with insignificances, require no skill or countless rehersals, have no commodity or institutional value.
It must appear to be caluable as commodity so as to provide the artist with an income. To raise its value (artist’s income and patrons profit), art is made to appear rare, limited in quantity and therefore obtainable and accessible only to the social elite and institutions.
The value of art-amusement must be lowered by making it unlimited, massproduced, obtainable by all and eventually produced by all. Fluxus art-amusement is the rear-guard without any pretention or urge to participate in the competition of “one-upmanship” with the avant-garde. It strives for the monostructural and nontheatrical qualities of simple natural event, a game or a gag. It is the fusion of Spikes Jones Vaudeville, gag, children’s games and Duchamp.
Manifesto on Art / Fluxus Art Amusement by George Maciunas, 1965.
t r a s u x
u l F
e f i l If man could experience the world, the concrete world surrounding him, in the same way he experiences art, there would be no need for art, artists, and similar ‘nonproductive’ elements.” – George Maciunas
042
FIG. 07
George Maciunas Design sketch for Flux Year Box 2, 1965
During this time, Maciunas was assembling Fluxus boxes and FluxKits, small boxes containing cards and objects designed and assembled by artists such as Christo, Yoko Ono, and George Brecht. According to Maciunas, Fluxus was epitomized by the work of George Brecht, particularly his word event, “Exit.” The artwork consists solely of a card on which is printed the words: “Word Event” and then the word “Exit” below. Maciunas said of “Exit”:
“The best Fluxus ‘Compo-
sition’ is a most non-personal, ‘readymade’ one like Brecht’s ‘Exit’—it does not require and of us to perform it since it happens daily without any ‘special’ performance of it. Thus our festivals will eliminate themselves (and our need to participate) when they become total readymades (like Brecht’s exit)”
044
Larry Miller : May I ask a stupid question? Why didn't it pay off? Because isn't part of the idea that it's low cost and multiple distribution... George Maciunas : No one was buying it, in those days. We opened up a store on Canal Street, what was it, 1964, and we had it open almost all year. We didn't make one sale in that whole year...
After his contract with the US Airforce was terminated due to chronic illness, Maciunas was forced to return to New York, September 1963. He began to work as a graphic artist at the New York studio of graphic designer Jack Marshad. He established the official Fluxus Headquarters and proceeded to make Fluxus into a sort of multinational corporation replete with "a complex amalgam of Fluxus Products from the FluxShop and the Flux Mail-Order Catalogue and Warehouse, Fluxus copyright protection, a collective newspaper, a Flux Housing Cooperative and frequently revised lists of incorporated Fluxus "workers". The shop, like all his business ventures, was notoriously unsuccessful, however. In an interview with Larry Miller in 1978 shortly
046
FIG. 06 Maciunas' Fluxus Manifesto, copies of which were thrown into the audience at the Festum Fluxorum Fluxus, Düsseldorf /1963
FIG. 07 Flux Year Box 2 /1967. Eric Andersen, George Brecht, John Cale, John Cavanaugh, Willem de Ridder, Albert Fine, Ken Friedman, Fred Lieberman, George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, Ben Patterson, James Riddle, Paul Sharits, Bob Sheff, Stanley Vanderbeek, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts. Mixed Media, Multiples, before his death, Maciunas estimated spending ‘about $50,000’ on fluxus projects over the years that would never recoup their investment. Larry Miller, “May I ask a stupid question? Why didn't it pay off? Because isn't part of the idea that it's low cost and multiple distribution...” GM; “No one was buying it, in those days. We opened up a store on Canal Street, what was it, 1964, and we had it open almost all year. We didn't make one sale in that whole year... We did not even sell a 50 cent item, a postage stamp sheet... you could buy V TRE papers for a quarter, you could buy George Brecht's puzzles for one dollar, Fluxus yearboxes for twenty dollars.”
Other.
I AM NOT AT ALL INTERESTED IN PROMOTING
– George Maciunas
1966 – 1970
MYSELF.
FIG. 08
1966 – 1970 In 1966, Maciunas began buying several loft buildings from closing manufacturing companies in Soho, with financial support from J. M. Kaplan Foundation and the National Foundation for the Arts. Maciunas envisioned the buildings as Fluxhouse cooperatives, collective living environments composed of artists working in many different mediums. By converting tumbledown buildings into lofts and living space, Maciunas pioneered Soho as a haven for artists. The rennovation and occupancies violated the zoning laws that designated Soho as a non-residential area, however, and when Kaplan left the project to embark on his own artist cooperative buildings in Greenwich Village, Maciunas was left with little support against the law. Still, he continued to buy new buildings and inventively find ways to continue his operations. Though the operations closed in 1968, the Fluxhouse cooperatives undoubtedly played a major role in making Soho what it is today.
FIG. 09
052
As an urban planner, Maciunas is
Moses, "Opposition to the express-
credited as the “Father of SoHo”
way was going nowhere. Our whole
for developing dilapidated loft
planning board couldn’t even slow
buildings and gentrifying this
it down. Then a handful of artists
New York neighborhood with art-
stepped in and stopped it cold”
ists cooperatives known as the
(South Houston Artist Tenants As-
Fluxhouse Cooperatives during the
sociation).
late sixties. Maciunas converted
buildings into live-work spaces
project to embark on other art-
for and envisioned the Fluxhouse
ist cooperative buildings, Maci-
Cooperatives as collective living
unas was left with little support
environments composed of artists
against the law. Maciunas con-
working in many mediums. With
tinued the co-op despite contra-
financial support from the J.M.
vening planning laws, buying a
Kaplan Foundation and the National
series of loft buildings to sell
Foundation for the Arts, Maciunas
to artists as working and living
began buying several loft build-
spaces. Although it was illegal
ings from closing manufacturing
to sell the units publicly with-
companies in 1966.
out first filing a full-disclosure
prospectus with the New York State
The renovation and occu-
When Kaplan left the
pancies violated the M-I zoning
Attorney General, Maciunas ignored
laws that designated SoHo as a
the legal requirements, beginning
non-residential area. The zoning
a series of increasingly bizarre
laws were in place to construct
run-ins with the Attorney General
the Lower Manhattan Expressway, a
of New York.
vast highway conceived by Robert Moses which would have obliterated much of Lower Manhattan's industrial loft district. Though the Lower Manhattan Expressway was opposed by dozens of public figures and over 200 community groups, Maciuanas' efforts and the loft artists' power effectively stopped
054
Maciunas began wearing disguises and going out only at night. Strategies included sending postcards from around the world via associates and friends to persuade the authorities that he was abroad, and placing razor-sharp guillotine blades onto his front door to avoid unwanted visitors. Though, like other Fluxus projects, Maciunas managed his duties without personal profit, financial disputes between the cooperatives led to problems.
An argument with an elec-
trician over unpaid bills resulted in a severe beating, allegedly by 'Mafia thugs', November 8, 1975, which left him with 4 broken ribs, a deflated lung, 36 stitches in his head and blind in one eye. He left New York shortly after, to attempt to start a Fluxus-oriented arts centre in a dilapidated mansion and stud farm in New Marlborough, Massachusetts. The Fluxhouse cooperatives are often cited as playing a major role in regenerating and gentrifying SoHo. SoHo has since been an enclave in which contemporary art movements have developed and flourished.
FIG. 10
058
Whilst Maciunas was still alive, no fluxus work was ever signed or numbered, and many weren't even credited to any artist. As such, huge confusion continues to surround many key fluxus works; Maciunas strived to uphold his stated aims of demonstrating the artist's 'non-professional status...his dispensability and inclusiveness' and that 'anything can be art and anyone can do it.' This strategy was maintained throughout his life; key works that have been assigned to him include USA Surpasses all the Genocide Records!, c1966, an American Flag comparing massacres in Nazi Germany, Russia and Vietnam; the Flux Smile Machine c1970 in which a spring forces the mouth into a grimace, usually considered a critique on capitalist imperialism; and the film 12! Big Names!, 1973 in which the assembled audience, having been enticed into the cinema with the promise of 12 big names including Warhol and Yoko Ono, watched a film made entirely of 12 names-Warhol, Ono etc.- filling the 20-foot-wide (6.1 m) screen, one after the other, for a duration of five minutes each.
anything can be art and anyone can do it.
FIG. 08 George Maciunas performing for self-exposing camera, New York /1966.
FIG. 09 U.S. Federal Housing Authority subsidy enabled Maciunas to organize a plan to buy abandoned buildings and convert them into artists studios. /1966
FIG. 10 Fluxfilm by George Maciunas, ‘Artype’ / 1966
FIG. 11 Flux-Mass, Flux-Sports, Flux-Show George Maciunas /1970
FIG. 11
one eye is good enough. _ George Maciunas 1971 – 1975
1971 – 1975 His reputation began to grow during the Seventies. It seemed at one point that almost everyone had a Maciunas story or two to tell. He was always controversial, but it must be said that of the many people who hated him or thought they hated him, almost none knew him directly. A complex, quizzical person, a person who had the capacity to irritate others as much as he himself was irritable, Maciunas was nevertheless appreciated and respected by those who really knew and worked with him. All of his many friends have unfinished business with him—and bones yet to pick. It is characteristic of the loyalty he earned that the unsettled matters and little problems he left behind him remain treasured by his friends as gifts, just as they had previously been treasured as anecdotes.
ALLEGEDLY BY ‘MAFIA THUGS’, NOVEMBER 8, 1975, WHICH LEFT HIM WITH 4 BROKEN RIBS, A DEFLATED LUNG, 36 STITCHES IN HIS HEAD
and one eye.
072
One morning when Soho hadn’t begun
I felt very sorry seeing my son
its life fully, on the weekend,
after this incident. A famous
two men came to Yurgis. They asked
doctor in eye operations, tried to
him to show them a studio for
do everything possible, but, alas,
sale. He left with them and when
the eye was lost forever. But this
he turned his back to them to open
was the inescapable result of his
the door, they fell on him and
unjust deeds and actions. He was
began to beat him in the head iron
in debt, to many, promised to re-
rods. Covered with blood, he fell.
turn money to many and gave name
These criminals began to kick him
to anyone, or they pressed him
in the chest and stomach. Yurgis
very hard, he would; so as not to
started to call for help, begin-
lose friends, borrow form one and
ning to understand that they could
give to the other.
finish him off in such a fury.
A woman artist who lived in the
did he did lightly as if playing.
opposite studio recognized Yor-
He talked about his misfortune, a
gis’ voice, came out to see what
very tragedy with such an inimita-
all the noise was about, and the
ble humor that it was impossible
villains disappeared rapidly. She
not to laugh. Finally there were
brought Yurgis a wet towel, called
no more homes that could be sold,
the police who arrived momentarily
and if there were, they were very
and took him to the nearest hos-
expensive. Many people, moreover,
pital. Nine doctors set to saving
followed Yurgis’ idea, but they
him; they gave him 36 stitches in
succeeded; they acted legally,
his head, put a tube in his chest
wisely, sold them for great sums
through the air passed, and set
and earned a lot in the business.
his four broken ribs. They gave him an injection to ease the pain. He was in good hands, and the doctors when they found out who he was, were especially attentive and did everything possible to renew his health. He was in “intensive care” for nine days. Yurgis was almost happy and in elevated spirits. Only the bruise near his left eye, and the eye, full of blood witnessed the misfortune.
In general, all that he
GEORGE was almost happy and in elevated spirits. Only the bruise near his left eye, and the eye, full of blood witnessed the misfortune.
074
In general, all that he did he did lightly as if playing. He talked about his misfortune, a very tragedy with such an inimitable humor that it was impossible not to laugh.
FIG. 12
076
Yurgis decided to leave New York
but he sometimes gave money for
for another state–Massachusetts;
expenses–a very small portion. But
he wanted to buy a home and we had
as before Yurgis got the rest from
even chosen one house together
his sister, my daughter, who gave
which he planned to make over in
it to him, pitying him. Yurgis
his own style, to rent or sell.
was disappointed in his friends
And he wanted to retain a small
many times, but he loved them as
piece of land for himself and
a family and was grieved by their
build a house according to his own
estrangement.
taste, as he long dreamed of. It
was as if my Yurgis had returned
and improvements; he hired stu-
anew; he wanted to live with me
dents in the summer who helped
in quiet surroundings where he
him. He paid them a little, and
could work and go to New York. But
worked indefatigably himself; but
something went wrong again. Once
there was too much work and it
he went to look at houses with
demanded excessive expenditures.
a friend. They especially liked one large estate; it was a former estate of a rich horse breeder and stud farm. He decided immediately, like the father for all his children that he could house all his friends there, but not one of his friends wanted to live there and share the purchase. Everyone was tied to New York by his work and it wasn’t convenient for anyone to live three hours from the city. But the farm was already bought. He had to take everything on his own shoulders, all the cares and work. The friend who was with him also didn’t want to live there,
He made a lot of changes
FIG. 12 One of the sights of SoHo, the workroomtoilet in George’s “factory” apartments at 349 West Broadway. /1974
FIG. 01
I’m GOING TO DIE _ George maciunas
1976 – 1978
1976 – 1978 Perpetually sick, Maciunas developed stomach cancer in 1977. He died on May 9 of the following year in a hospital in Boston. Three months before his death, he married one of his tenants, Billie Hutching. Their wedding was a performance piece called "The Fluxwedding." The bride and groom traded clothing. An oratorio loosely based on Maciunasand titled Machunas premiered in August 2005 in the St. Christopher Summer Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania. Machunas was conceived by artist Lucio Pozzi, with music by Frank J. Oteri. Several of Maciunas' friends and colleagues protested the fact that the libretto was mistaken by many as a biography.
FIG. 13
084
He began to grow ill in the summer
to live or what to do. Reading
of 1977. After he ate he stom-
my wonderful Teaching, and call-
ach ached, especially when he lay
ing God I took myself in hand and
down. He noticeably lost weight
wrote letters to my son nearly
and went on a diet. He loved dried
every day. I wanted to prepare him
fruits, but they made him worse.
for crossing to the next World.
At that time in the autumn he had
Although the doctor had told him
to go to Seattle to do an exhibit
ambiguously, “fifty-fifty.” I knew
for the museum Avant Garde–he had
that there was no salvation and
been invited. He got worse there
that his days were numbered. But
and went to a doctor. They ran
I still clung to the hope that
different tests, but found noth-
perhaps my prayers coming from the
ing. When he arrived at home he
heart, full of love and anxiety
was seriously worried and went to
would help. I believed in mira-
the different where they ran tests
cles and asked many friends to
once more and found nothing blame-
pray for him even though I wrote
worthy once again.
him from the beginning that he
shouldn’t fear death that it was
Near Christmas his friend
went to her mother’s for the hol-
only a shift from one plan of life
iday, and he was left alone, sick
and that there he would be happi-
with three goats who had to be
er that he would be healthy and
milked fed and cared for. I had
would achieve the fulfillment of
already scheduled an urgent opera-
all his dreams and aspirations.
tion for the 21 of December, 1977.
But I didn’t want to distress a
It was a long operation, lasting
man still young who was only forty
three and one half hours. Three
six, and so I wrote about mirac-
pounds of blood had to be given to
ulous healings, about prayers of
my body. I lay there for nearly
good will, about his psychologi-
three weeks. Neither I nor my son
cal energy and about his desire to
were able to be at my daughter’s
live. I wrote him about my limit-
for the Christmas Eve celebration
less love, recalling his wonderful
as we usually were. My daughter
childhood, our links, and the un-
and grandchildren were saddened by
forgetable time we spent together.
our absence.
up my mind to go see him. It was
On the sixth of January
But I still hadn’t made
they did a biopsy on my son and
a severe winter and they had been
found that a terrible CANCER had
buried by the snow and inside it
taken refuge in the most danger-
was not warm and I had neither
ous place in the vital organs
warm shoes or a warm coat. More-
and glands. It was impossible to
over he wrote me that he wanted
remove it. They succeeded only in
to marry the tenant and I didn’t
taking a small piece for research
want to become entangled with them
on the tumor. I was still in the
right away. And my leg still ached
hospital at that time.
badly, perhaps even more than be-
fore the operation. He very simply
I received the saddest
She, of course, knew that he was at death’s door and decided to get married.
news from my daughter that cancer
wrote me that he liked Billy, that
of the pancreas was incurable and
he could talk with,her, that she
that my son had two more months to
helped him, but that there was no
live. This news destroyed me; in
intimacy between and that he had
the beginning I didn’t know how
told her that he
he had told her that he was still a virgin, and simply didn’t know HOW to approach a woman.
After the wedding she slept next to him, and that is the only reason he got married.
088
was still a virgin, and simply didn’t know to approach a woman and put the initiative in her hands. But she hadn’t decided to approach him, and as he expressed in his letter, both treated each other like fragile glass ware. But the disease was, in the meantime, developing and he faded with each day, losing strength. The doctor had told him that he would die between March and April and he decided to get married in the end of February. He wanted to repay her, and most importantly he felt depressed at night and panicked at being alone. After the wedding she slept next to him, and that is the only reason he got married. He never touched her as a woman and never experienced any kind of sexual feeling for her, and later when we were in Jamaica he told me that he never had loved her and that he didn’t know what the feeling of passion meant which morphine had long ago deadened for him, this morphine so necessary in delivering him from inhuman pain. She, of course, knew that he was at death’s door and decided to get married. (she was not a girl; she had a daughter from her first husband from whom she was divorced) because she couldn’t as a good Christian be close him even at night; her name would nor have suffered from this though, since everyone could plainly see that he was a fatally ill person. On the contrary, only those who didn’t know the tragic news judged her as a cunning and egotistical woman.
The wedding was celebrated
at my daughter’s, who arranged the celebration so beautifully, sparing neither energy nor money. Only the most immediate family were invited. I flew from Florida. But I didn’t even take a gala dress with me; it seemed to me that the celebration was a very sorrowful
LIFE CHRNOLOGY
LAST WILL
092
one, like a “feast during the time
Once Yurgis told me bitterly how
of the plague.” My heart wept from
he had been unlucky his whole
the depression and pain of see-
life! He had so many operations,
ing my son so strangely changed
so many different serious illness-
thinner, weak and terribly pale.
es, and now diabetes had showed
They had already rushed to be reg-
up with the cancer. Soon after
istered in Massachusetts and came
he returned home, his legs began
as man and wife. It seemed that
to swell and the doctor said it
Yurgis had undertaken a new game
was a blood clot. In the hospi-
which was unusual-as was every-
tal in Boston they found out that
thing that he did.
jaundice had started owing to the
hunger, and that he was complete-
In the morning at break-
fast I spoke with Billy alone and
ly weak. I longed to go to the
she asked me why he had married
hospital, foreseeing the end was
her. I told her plainly and truth-
near, and I wanted it so that he
fully that it was terrible for
should die in my arms, I prayed to
him to be alone and he wanted to
be with him before his exit into
have someone near him. Yurgis also
the other world. But the doc-
married because he wanted to repay
tors didn’t allow it; there were
her, thinking she would receive
instances where they had to cure
a pension after his death. But
the relatives afterwards; they
she would receive the pension at
suffered such torment at the bed
62 and not earlier–Yurgis dldn’t
of the dying. My daughter visited
know about this. In the beginning
him two days before his death; she
he wanted to leave her everything
couldn’t speak about him without
but later, obviously disappointed,
tears, he looked so terrible. But
he didn’t write any will at all,
he still hoped to get better, and
and his papers were in disorder.
he clearly wanted to live. But on
Everything that my daughter had
the ninth of May at three o’clock,
give him–thousands and thousands
in the afternoon, my daughter
of dollars, and my only savings
phoned him. He seemed to have been
went to him as down a bottomless
waiting for the call; he was very
well; all this waS lost. But she
happy, but spoke confusedly, get-
retained many valuable things, his
ting excited and rushing; my poor
work, and most importantly his
daughter couldn’t make out a word.
NAME, which this alien woman was
But she was able to understand by
completely unworthy to bear.
the tone that he had lost the hope of getting better; the doctors were not undertaking anything, and there was no sense in fighting. Fifteen minutes after this conversation he died.
In the coffin, which they opened especially for my request, he looked young, even his thinness was not so terrible, but the expression on his face was strangely offended. He was offended by fate, so many failures and so much suffering.
FIG. 13 "Fluxwedding" performance in a friend's loft in SoHo, the bride and groom traded clothing /1978
FIG. 14 maciuNAS V TRE laudatio ScriPTa pro GEoRge, Fluxus newspaper. /1978
FIG. 14
George was first of all an architect. _ KEN FRIEDMAN
098
Ken Friedman, (born September 19, 1949 in New London, Connecticut) is a seminal figure in Fluxus, an international laboratory for experimental art, architecture, design, literature, and music. He had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1966. He has also been involved with mail art, and he has written extensively about Fluxus and Intermedia.
Friedman has edited sev-
eral Fluxus publications and has been widely published in peer-reviewed academic journals as well as in popular and small press publications. He has worked closely with other Fluxus artists and composers such as George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, and Nam June Paik, as well as collaborating with John Cage and Joseph Beuys. He was the general manager of Dick Higgins Something Else Press in the early 1970s.
Ken Friedman, A Flux Corsage, 1966-76, clear plastic box with paper label containing seeds.
GEORGE MACIUNAS : ARCHITECT by Ken Friedman
George Maciunas had several careers in his short, active life. One of these was architecture.
George was first of all an
architect. The art world has neglected George’s work as an architect, social planner, and designer to emphasize a dramatic but somewhat inaccurate role casting him as founder and chief impresario of Fluxus. This image is inaccurate for many reasons. The dramatic narrative often represents Fluxus as a flying circus rather than a laboratory, or a cranky, cartoon version of an art movement. George plays the part of a latter-day Andre Breton in this drama, but the role is flavored by touches of Tristan Tzara, Joseph Stalin, and Napoleon. This story positions George as sole founder and central figure in Fluxus, rather than as co-founder and one among several central figures.
Despite its dramatic
charm, this story and is variations is misleading. This misrepresentation diminishes the historical George Maciunas. It also diminishes the community of artists, architects, designers, and composers who worked together in the Fluxus laboratory of intermedia, social creativity, art, and music. Most of all, it fails to capture the nature of a complex social network that was by turns both artistic and experimental.
In George’s own mind, he
was an architect. He had a vision of city planning, housing,
George Maciunas Pencil and ink on paper circa. early 1950s
102
and the distribution of social
George did not agree with me on
measure of a human being. George
decisive role of science, technol-
goods for the common well being
everything. George brought me
attained this admirable standard,
ogy, and innovation in a future
of all citizens. He was a social
into Fluxus when I was just 16,
demanding of himself as much as he
shaped by the long span of human
planner who based his work with
and I often did things in a way
asked of others. In the end, that
history and the short length of a
projects such as Fluxus or cooper-
that George thought could be done
is the measure of a woman or a
human life. He also understood the
ative housing on a deeper, under-
better. No one follows their own
man. For an artist, it may be pos-
quarter-century time lag between
lying vision. While some of his
advice completely, and even though
sible to separate work and life.
many conceptual and technical
hypotheses and ideas turned out
George believed I ought to find
Neither George nor most of us in
innovations and their implemen-
to be unworkable, his vision was
me own way to do things, he also
Fluxus separated art and life, but
tation in the artifacts of daily
not. His ideas about the nature of
gave me the advice that an expe-
many do, manufacturing art as a
life. Because of this, Fuller was
a good life never found expres-
rienced craftsman would give to a
kind of fungible commodity.
patient in a way that George was
sion in workable media. In the
young colleague. He often gave me
not, and he applied his effort to
best tradition of social experi-
the advice I’d have given myself
we get to planning and its dis-
processes that would take a grip
menters from Thoreau or the now
if I could travel back in time or
tant cousin, politics. We do not
in ways different to the kinds of
vanished Shakers to Gandhi or the
send a letter to the young man I
respect an architect who builds
innovations that George attempted
still-thriving Amish, he practiced
was then. Like George, though, I
things he does not want to inhabit
to create.
the life he preached. He lived his
tried things full out. Some things
or someone who plans a world for
theories. He tested them, changing
worked and some didn’t.
others in which he does not intend
ideas were not wrong. Many of his
his approach, while modifying and
to live. Like Gandhi and the Shak-
contributions were pioneering.
expanding his views.
ston Churchill stated that
ers, George tried to live in the
Some echo today in ways that still
we don’t have the privilege of
world he envisioned. Like them,
resonate with contemporary cul-
1966, he was already quite differ-
knowing in advance the results of
this quality gave George a founda-
ture, reshaping and enlivening the
ent to the George Maciunas oth-
our actions. We can never finally
tion of authenticity and ethics.
world in which we live. Time
ers described to me. He was not
determine our historical legacy.
the mercurial, intolerant, zeal-
Actions that seem grand at one
George. He felt that art distract-
ot that others described. He was
moment appear foolish the next.
ed the world from what it should
open-minded, easy to work with,
Historians revise their views in
be doing. As a result, he felt
and quite supportive of what were
the light of mounting evidence,
that he could revolutionize con-
then new approaches to Fluxus.
and what seems unworkable at one
temporary culture by attacking and
People spoke to me about a George
moment may prove to have been a
overturning the social and econom-
who demanded that everyone do
valuable contribution while what
ic patterns of art and music.
things his way. I met a man whose
seemed essential may prove to be a
most frequent expression was, “Do
minor sidetrack.
to achieve George’s social goals
it yourself.” Along with that came
would have been to follow a path
the implicit understanding that I
was that we must live according to
blazed by such pioneering archi-
had an obligation to find my own
our conscience. We do the best we
tects and designers as Buckmin-
way forward.
can with what we have. That’s the
ster Fuller. Fuller understood the
When I met George in
In a famous speech, Win-
Churchill’s conclusion
It is different when
Art was a distraction to
The straightforward way
Nevertheless, George’s
104
art and anti-art
He did not see the world as it is, but as it might have been. He saw it as it might have been – or ought to be.
scales and social factors made a
and economic theory, it was easy
difference, though. But that’s a
to believe this to be so, but the
story to be told another time.
outcome was as inconclusive in the
Here, I consider George’s work as
1960s or 1970s as it had been in
a planner, and planning social
the 1920s and 1930s.
change through art or anti-art is
difficult. What happens in the art
to see is that few theories in
world has cannot bring about the
those days managed to account
massive social and cultural change
for relations among the differ-
that George hoped to achieve.
ent elements of an art world best
described as a complex adaptive
The art market plays an
The reason this was hard
immense role in today’s experience
system, and few described the
economy. Most individual artists
linkages that constitute the ef-
are insignificant in the social
fect of art as a series of multi-
ecology of the market, and this
ple networks located in a larger
has always been then case. Art-
society. The nature of that system
ists who seem to be major cultural
was not as clear as it seems to be
figures at one moment are nearly
today. We lacked many of the con-
forgotten a decade later. If we
cepts and tools that have emerged
average a common career trajecto-
in the years since George died.
ry in major art markets with the
Complexity theory, behavioral eco-
hundreds of thousands who barely
nomics, and design theory help us
achieve local recognition in the
to understand far more about human
world’s satellite markets, fifteen
choices and cultural interaction
minutes of fame is more than most
than we knew then.
people achieve. The role of art in
human culture is mediated by an
one has offered a comprehensive
art world governed in by social
sociology or economics or art, and
systems, and the economic struc-
we still have much to learn about
tures of the art market control
how art, aesthetics, and creativ-
most of those systems.
ity affect different kinds of
cultural structures.
George had the insight
Even today, however, no
that one could change contemporary
culture by revolutionizing the art
and creativity are more powerful
While art, aesthetics,
world. Dadaists and Surrealists
and vital as processes than they
had held this notion before. In
sometimes seem to be, the markets
the absence of a broader social
that mold artistic careers pay
106
* ECCE HOMO – is the Latin word used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of John 19:5, when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion.
ecce-homo little attention to the deep and
genius to seek ways to use the
two years of college, and I was in
George Maciunas was a genius, a
understand it. George had a sly,
resilient processes that make art
cultural inertia of art worlds to
New York to look around.
man of passionate moral zeal,
complex sense of humor. He was
a factor in human social life and
shift the larger culture around
intellectual vigor, and artistic
famous for his love of vaudeville
culture. This, in turn, denatures
it. George’s mistake was that
rections brought me to his fifth
strength. George possessed aston-
jokes, sight gags, and music hall
many of the properties that might
this could not be done. Deflect-
floor walk-up apartment on West
ishing power, depth, and insight
entertainment. He also had a sense
make art the force that artists
ing the course of an iceberg does
Broadway in a decaying industrial
in the fields that he understood,
for subtle elegance. George’s two
often hope it will be.
not change the ocean currents that
section of New York City that was
but he understood nothing at all
favorite composers were Claudio
move the iceberg from one part of
then part of Little Italy. Hen-
about other things. The strength
Monteverdi and Spike Jones. In his
many artists allow the market
the planet to another.
ry Flynt later took over George’s
and clarity of his focus
complexity, George embraced these
narrative to shape their practice.
apartment, and the neighborhood
often gave him what seemed
two polarities, and they embraced
At least most hope that this will
George was wrong. Like Bucky
became the Soho art district.
to be a unidirectional, even nar-
him. He could equally enjoy – and
help them to earn a living, but
Fuller, George had the profound
Back then, it was just a tene-
row vision.
honor – the sublime and the ridic-
most fail to do so because the
insights of an inventor and sci-
ment. I walked up the stairs to
ulous, a sixteenth century Italian
systemic effects of this posi-
entist. He put them to work in
find a black door covered with
ing effects with simple elements
master and a twentieth century
tion denatures them. At the same
what scientists might label a toy
violent, emphatic NO! SMOKING!!!
of type and image. He was able to
clown. George lived as much in the
time, those who refuse to meet the
world. His contributions and dis-
signs. I knocked.The door opened a
create an absolutely modern design
realm of the intellect as in the
needs of the market fall outside
coveries are still bearing fruit.
crack, and a pair of eyes framed
with a range of elements from
realm of the senses. He interpret-
the system, often entirely outside
George’s main problem was that
in round, wire-rimmed spectacles
medieval woodcuts to Japanese cal-
ed sense through the eye and the
the system. They exert no effect
he died too soon to harvest his
peered out. That was George Maci-
ligraphy and outline maps. Because
mind, not through the body. He was
because – as Archimedes observed –
best ideas and refine them for the
unas. George was a small, wiry man
color printing was expensive, he
famous for odd, intellectually
one must have a place to stand to
next step.In August of 1966, Dick
with a prim, owlish look. He was
used little color. Instead, he
oriented diets that were devised
move the earth.
Higgins sent me to meet George
dressed in a short sleeve busi-
developed a colorful design sensi-
on principles of economy and effi-
Maciunas for the first time. I
ness shirt, open at the neck, no
bility primarily using black and
ciency rather than to lose weight,
significant on a deep level embed
began corresponding with Dick to
tie. He wore dark slacks and black
white.
taste good, or provide more than
it in a resolutely stable network
make radio programs based on the
cloth slippers. His pocket was
If this was his strength, it was
basic nourishment. These diets
of patterns and behaviors. The
Something Else Press books of Dan-
cluttered with number of pens. In
also his weakness. It was typical,
were as enigmatic and perplexing
specific patterns and behaviors
iel Spoerri, Emmett Williams, Al-
current jargon, we’d call him a
perhaps even symptomatic that he
as they were uninteresting and
of art and art markets are his-
ison Knowles, Ray Johnson, Robert
used only black and white. He saw
austere.
torically contingent. So are most
Filliou and others for my programs
the world in sharp, moral terms,
of the forms and media to which
at Radio WRSB. This was a col-
not in moderated shades of gray.
all-orange-juice season. Another
they gave rise. Like an iceberg,
lege-based radio station in Mount
Awake to the myriad logic forks
time, he spent some months eating
however, only a small part of the
Carroll, Illinois. Dick and Alison
in a chess game, he was insensi-
crackers six days of the week and
larger system is visible. The
Knowles invited me to stay with
tive to the hundreds of thousands
stuffing himself at an all-you-
largest portion lies beneath the
them for a while at their home in
of colors that human eyes distin-
can-eat-for-a-dollar Scandinavian
waterline, out of sight, subject
New York, a few blocks away from
guish. Someone once told me that
Smorgasbord on the seventh day,
to the physics of inertia.
the press. I was sixteen years
George was color-blind.
maintaining that this cycle was
old. I’d just finished the first
Perhaps it was true. If so, I can
simple, cost-effective and nu-
To work and earn a living,
The factors that make art
It was George Maciunas’s
This doesn’t mean that
George’s telephone di-
George created astonish-
I met George during an
108
GEORGE interpreted sense through the eye and the mind, not through the body.
tritious. I also recall hearing
himself from the world by adopting
about a year of dried fish and
an austere and sometimes doctri-
grain Vodka. George’s art offered
naire approach where others might
an ironic mirror to his diets. He
meet life with a warm, hearty ap-
went to amazing lengths to prepare
petite. This did not bother those
food works. Once, for example, he
who knew and loved George. Fluxus
found a way to liquefy and distill
was a crowd of misfits. Most of us
all the elements of a meal. He
were out of touch with aspects of
reduced soup, salad, vegetables,
the culture around us. Then again,
meat and desert to clear, flavored
it was the 1960s, and it seemed
liquids that he served in flasks
that dedication and an astonish-
and test tubes. His food pieces
ing idea could change the world.
were part of a major Fluxus tra-
That’s true, of course, but cre-
dition of feasts and food events,
ating social change also requires
but only Alison Knowles with her
a robust set of tools and skills,
beans and tofu dishes ever went to
and the nature of these tools was
George’s extremes.
not as apparent then.
Emmett Williams once told
George had a passion for
me about a lunch that George host-
catalogues and structures that
ed for Daniel Spoerri, an artist
paralleled his black-and-white
with a second life as a chef and
mentality. Confident people see
gastronome. To Daniel’s horror,
life and change as an opportunity.
George served a lunch of crack-
George was fascinated by change,
ers, peanut butter, and yogurt,
but he often wanted to control and
accompanied by soda water. It was
structure every possible change.
neither an art event nor an ironic
I see that sort of a response to
gesture. It was George’s way of
the ebb and flow of life as a fear
living the simple life.
of losing control. At one point,
this resulted in George’s famous
George was not the
self-assured character that some
attempts to purge Fluxus by expel-
feel his public persona suggested.
ling those who failed to meet his
Quite the contrary. His zeal-
expectations.While these expul-
ous, sometimes rigid positions
sions were mistaken, they weren’t
could only have been mistaken for
as arrogant as some felt them to
self-assurance from a distance. In
be. Exclusion is a characteristic
retrospect, I suspect that George
tone of arrogance, but George’s
lacked confidence. He protected
early and much publicized expul-
110
MEETING GEORGE sions were a defense mechanism.
“nerd” or a “geek.” He’d fit right
a prototype, or if this is just a
a glass of orange juice.
George was not truly arrogant. It
in with the computer jocks, engi-
memory of a planning diagram that
Maciunas peppered me with ques-
would be more accurate to say he
neers, and architects at Carnegie
George showed me.
tions. What did I do? What did I
was nervous. George wanted things
Mellon University, his alma mater.
think? What was I planning? At
to be orderly and under control.
George ushered me into his kitch-
en, George had what looked like a
that time, I was planning to be-
He was warm and friendly to those
en. It was a steamy, New York
huge, walk-in closet or a small
come a Unitarian minister. I did
whom he knew, shy and nervous to-
summer day, but the apartment was
storage room. The room was filled
all sorts of things, things with-
ward almost everyone else. Since
cool. It smelled like rice mats. I
with floor-to-ceiling shelves,
out names, things that jumped over
he didn’t know how to deal with
recognized the smell. It remind-
like an industrial warehouse. In
the boundaries between ideas and
colleagues with whom he disagreed,
ed me of a Japanese store I used
fact, it was an industrial ware-
actions, between the manufacture
he simply removed them from the
to frequent as a youngster in New
house, the comprehensive inventory
of objects and books, between phi-
category of colleague.
London, Connecticut.
of Fluxus editions in unassembled
losophy and literature. Maciunas
form. The shelves were loaded with
listened for a while and invited
He loved his work best
The apartment contained
To the left of the kitch-
of all. Work was everything for
three rooms. To the right was a
boxes storing the contents of
me to join Fluxus. I said yes.
George. Work was not a means of
compact, well-designed office and
Fluxus multiple editions, suitcas-
A short while later, George asked
living. Work was life itself.
workroom. The floor was covered
es and year boxes. When an order
me what kind of artist I was.
George gave himself completely to
with rice mats. George said not
came in for a Fluxbox, George
Until that moment, I had never
his work. When he admired others
to go in without slippers, so I
would go to back of the closet,
thought of myself as an artist.
and their work, hg gave his love
looked in from the door to see
select the appropriate plastic
George thought about this for a
and admiration unstintingly to
drafting tables, desks, shelves
or wooden container, and march
minute, and said, “You’re a con-
their work. At the same time, this
and an astonishing clutter of
through the room plucking out the
cept artist.” It always pleased
was an intellectual passion. He
papers, projects, notebook, and
proper cards and objects to emerge
me that I became part of Flux-
didn’t further Fluxus because he
files. It was the most order-
with a completed work. He’d select
us before I became an artist. I
loved the people. It was his love
ly clutter I’ve ever seen, the
the proper label, glue it on, and
usually worked with George from a
of the work that drove him to do
opposite of my own chronological
have a completed edition ready
distance, so I couldn’t say much
so much for Fluxus.George was a
layers of projects.
to mail. The kitchen had a sink,
about his work habits. I do recall
bundle of memorable personality
windows, stove, table and chairs.
the way he kept all the parts of
traits. It seems to me he was one
George’s workspace, it was rigged
These were all quite ordinary ex-
Fluxus items stored in neat cubby-
of the most intriguing figures in
out with a marvelous contraption
cept for the refrigerator. George
holes, and compartments.
art in the twentieth century. As a
that enabled him to reach up and
had a bright orange refrigerator.
memorable avant-garde character,
tap a weight to summon items he
When he opened it, I could see he
sumed by a rage for order. Rath-
he ranks with Alfred Jarry, Le
wanted. By means of a counterbal-
had filled it with oranges from
er than organizational ability,
Douanier Rousseau, Tristan Tzara,
ance and some strings and rods,
the bottom clear to the top shelf.
though, this was planning ability
and André Breton.
whatever he wanted would float
The top shelf, on either side of
linked to boundless energy and
into his grasp. At least, this is
the old-fashioned meat chest and
an obsessive-compulsive mania.
my memory. I am not sure if I ac-
ice tray, held four huge jugs of
Organizational management requires
tually saw the working device, or
fresh orange juice. He offered me
leadership, and George lacked the
The first time I saw
George Maciunas was con-
112
ability to convince and persuade.
then a monopoly controlled by ATT
He only had organizational ability
– tried to increase long-distance
in the sense of organizing clos-
usage by creating wide-area tele-
ets and organizing plans. Even so,
phony for large volume purchas-
people loved to work with George.
ers. Many universities purchased
This was the result of his abili-
wide-area contracts, and San
ty to lure people and charm them
Francisco State College was one of
with wonderful ideas. Most people
these. My office at San Francisco
worked with George as a fellow
State College Experimental College
artist, attracted by his ener-
had a phone that allowed me to
gy and the dynamic vortex of his
call anywhere in North America for
activities. No one followed him as
roughly the price of a local call.
an organizer. George and I got on
It was not as cheap as Internet
well and worked together for many
telephony today, but it was much
years, but I sometimes think this
cheaper than the long-distance
is because we worked in New York
rates individuals had to pay. As
and California, several thousand
I traveled from place to place, I
miles apart.
also found similar phone services
at other universities.
George’s ideas, though,
and his plans astonished and inspired me. George was a constant source of inspiration and energy. From the time we met through the early 1970s, I called George two or three times a week, wherever I was. George always used to tell me that I should save money by writing rather than calling, but I valued our dialogues. George didn’t always have time to write back – something he often complained of. Conversation enabled me to learn from him and sometimes to debate with him. This was not always as expensive as the notoriously frugal George feared. In the 1960s, the telephone company –
WARHOL AND GEORGE WARHOL AND FLUXUS SOMEWHERE VERY DEEP THEY WERE SAME. _ jonas mekas
Eric Andersen John Armleder Ay-O Michael Basinski Joseph Beuys Bazon Brock Peter Brötzmann Joseph Byrd John Cage John Cale Giuseppe Chiari Henning Christiansen Philip Corner Jean Dupuy Robert Filliou Henry Flynt Julien Friedler Ken Friedman Al Hansen Geoffrey Hendricks Dick Higgins Alice Hutchins Ray Johnson Joe Jones Franz Kamin Allan Kaprow Milan Knížák Bengt af Klintberg Milan Knížák Alison Knowles
Takehisa Kosugi Philip Krumm Shigeko Kubota George Landow Vytautas Landsbergis Jackson Mac Low Richard Maxfield George Maciunas Jonas Mekas Gustav Metzger Charlotte Moorman Yoko Ono Robin Page Nam June Paik Ben Patterson Terry Riley Dieter Roth Takako Saito Carolee Schneemann Mieko Shiomi Daniel Spoerri James Tenney Yasunao Tone Cecil Touchon Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshi Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE MACIUNAS by Jonas Mekas
Zefiro Torno: Scenes From the Life of George Maciunas by Jonas Mekas is a moving tribute to his friend. This film is a beautifully interpretive as well as documentary record of Maciunas’s life. Maciunas loved music and found special inspiration in the great Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi. The phrase Zefiro Torno refers to an aria from one of Monteverdi’s operas. Mekas included an old recording of this aria on the film’s soundtrack, as rich in analog sound scratches as the film’s surface is with grain.
Mekas montaged many 16mm
film clips of Maciunas over the years to create a form that might be called biographical cinema. Footage that Mekas shot between 1951 and 1978 while the two friends were close collaborators predominates; the film concludes with the memorial service after Maciunas’s death. Mekas narrates as scenes flicker by.
Mischievous yet ten-
der, the visuals and voiceovers in Zefiro Torno: Scenes From the Life of George Maciunas describe Maciunas’s very body as a Fluxus project.
Mekas’s signature experimental techniques in shooting, editing, and montage are all in play. Shot in different 16mm film stocks as chance and choice would have it, some cuts are balanced for daylight while others transpire in monochrome blue. Transitions are often simple black intervals. Available light at interior gatherings creates dramatic chiaroscuro, while bright sunlight renders some outdoor scenes nearly too bright to see. The camera’s physicality is given its due at every moment, especially in a scene where a dinner party is treated to one complete 360 degree rotation.
From a historical per-
spective, it’s noteworthy that Andy Warhol appears in a number of the vignettes that comprise Zefiro Torno: Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas. Warhol can be seen enjoying dumplings with Yoko and John at one of the dinners George cooked for friends, for example. Twenty-two minutes or so into the film, Mekas’s narrative considers Maciunas’s and Warhol’s mutual interest in nothingness.
Comparisons between Maci-
unas and Warhol have not been extensively considered to date, perhaps because Warhol’s cultivation of fame and a highly public artistic persona were regarded by many as antithetical to Fluxus. Warhol was born 1928 in the US to Czechoslovakian immigrant parents; Maciunas in 1931 to Lithuanian parents
who emigrated to the US, as noted earlier. Both artists studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology in the 1950s, and both became fascinated by the benday dot and other kinds of halftone screen patterns. (They were not alone, of course; the influence of graphics on fine art was widespread during the 1960s in art of the US and internationally.) In quite different yet parallel ways, Maciunas and Warhol both established a contrary position regarding the artist’s role in society. Each had deep artistic insights into the power of mass media technologies including film; the politics of gender; and performance as an art form. Both were exposed to avant garde film through Mekas. For all that they differ, Maciunas and Warhol presented a destratified spectacle of everything that was commonplace – from opposite ends of the anti-art spectrum, as it were.
124
Maciunas’s anticipation that Fluxus would creatively disrupt hierarchical conventions of post-
as both dealt with nothingness
war art proved to be on point. Its novel strategies, particularly in time-based media and performance, helped set in motion new forms of
“both took life as a game and laughed at it.”
artistic expression. Influenced by the work of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp, the Fluxus group shifted the emphasis from what an artist makes to the artist’s personality, actions and opinions. At the same time, a sense of community devel-
Warhol standing on the side, never a part of it, with George “laughing, laughing all the time.”
oped around the social aspect of art making, and thereby bolstered the sanity and survival of artists who found themselves at odds not only with formalist aesthetics but also with political currents of the 1960s. Fluxus: To George With Love offers suggestive new evidence of how deeply the very being of George Maciunas was woven into this remarkable movement.
126
THAT THIEF! WARHOL ALREADY STOLE EVERY ONE OF MY IDEAS. – George Maciunas
John often said that he had never met anyone so bohemian and so eccentric as George Maciunas. _ YoKO ONO
Eric Andersen John Armleder Ay-O Michael Basinski Joseph Beuys Bazon Brock Peter Brötzmann Joseph Byrd John Cage John Cale Giuseppe Chiari Henning Christiansen Philip Corner Jean Dupuy Robert Filliou Henry Flynt Julien Friedler Ken Friedman Al Hansen Geoffrey Hendricks Dick Higgins Alice Hutchins Ray Johnson Joe Jones Franz Kamin Allan Kaprow Milan Knížák Bengt af Klintberg Milan Knížák Alison Knowles
Takehisa Kosugi Philip Krumm Shigeko Kubota George Landow Vytautas Landsbergis Jackson Mac Low Richard Maxfield George Maciunas Jonas Mekas Gustav Metzger Charlotte Moorman Yoko Ono Robin Page Nam June Paik Ben Patterson Terry Riley Dieter Roth Takako Saito Carolee Schneemann Mieko Shiomi Daniel Spoerri James Tenney Yasunao Tone Cecil Touchon Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshi Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young
134
Lennon was very fond of describing George's lifestyle to others, as though his sleeping on a shelf in a cubbyhole in a dampish basement space, his busy Fluxus cottage industry, his making tea from rope were John’s discoveries.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono standing in front of Maciunas' USA Surpasses all the Genocide Records, 1970.
140
Handwritten note from John Lennon and Yoko Ono found in a copy of George Maciunas’ New Flux Year.
let's tell the press we understood him LETS TELL THE PRESS WE DID EVERYTHING _ BEN VAUTIER
Eric Andersen John Armleder Ay-O Michael Basinski Joseph Beuys Bazon Brock Peter Brötzmann Joseph Byrd John Cage John Cale Giuseppe Chiari Henning Christiansen Philip Corner Jean Dupuy Robert Filliou Henry Flynt Julien Friedler Ken Friedman Al Hansen Geoffrey Hendricks Dick Higgins Alice Hutchins Ray Johnson Joe Jones Franz Kamin Allan Kaprow Milan Knížák Bengt af Klintberg Milan Knížák Alison Knowles
Takehisa Kosugi Philip Krumm Shigeko Kubota George Landow Vytautas Landsbergis Jackson Mac Low Richard Maxfield George Maciunas Jonas Mekas Gustav Metzger Charlotte Moorman Yoko Ono Robin Page Nam June Paik Ben Patterson Terry Riley Dieter Roth Takako Saito Carolee Schneemann Mieko Shiomi Daniel Spoerri James Tenney Yasunao Tone Cecil Touchon Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshi Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young
BEN VAUTIER — monogram designs for Fluxus associates, 1963-66, BY George Maciunas
148
Ben Vautier swimming in the harbour of Nice, 26 July 1963, Nicea, during the Fluxus Festival
Ben Vautier, A Flux Suicide Kit, 1963.
AND EACH OF US WILL BE THERE TO TELL
GET THE PRESS CONFERENCE READY
ALL WE WANT IS WE WANT MONEY PRESS
WHO CARES ABOUT THEORY
ALL WE WANT TODAY IS GLORY
NOBODY WANTS TO BE A FLUXUS SAINT
150
LET'S TELL THE PRESS WE DID EVERYTHING
LET'S TELL THE PRESS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM
WITH OUR EGO AS BIG AS OUR ASS
WHY TELL THE PRESS THAT
WHY TELL THE PRESS WE WERE JEALOUS OF HIM
IF THE KEY TO GLOTY IS MACIUNAS
LET'S REWRITE HISTORY
WHO CARES ABOUT MACIUNAS
HOW WITH MANY THANKS TO YOKO HE LEARNT TO WALK
MACIUNAS WOULD HAVE BEEN LOST
HOW WITHOUT US
HOW WE DID EVERYTHING 152
Eric Andersen John Armleder Ay-O Michael Basinski Joseph Beuys Bazon Brock Peter Brötzmann Joseph Byrd John Cage John Cale Giuseppe Chiari Henning Christiansen Philip Corner Jean Dupuy Robert Filliou Henry Flynt Julien Friedler Ken Friedman Al Hansen Geoffrey Hendricks Dick Higgins Alice Hutchins Ray Johnson Joe Jones Franz Kamin Allan Kaprow Milan Knížák Bengt af Klintberg Milan Knížák Alison Knowles
Takehisa Kosugi Philip Krumm Shigeko Kubota George Landow Vytautas Landsbergis Jackson Mac Low Richard Maxfield George Maciunas Jonas Mekas Gustav Metzger Charlotte Moorman Yoko Ono Robin Page Nam June Paik Ben Patterson Terry Riley Dieter Roth Takako Saito Carolee Schneemann Mieko Shiomi Daniel Spoerri James Tenney Yasunao Tone Cecil Touchon Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshi Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young
EMMETT WILLIAMS — monogram designs for Fluxus associates, 1963-66, BY George Maciunas
158
GEORGE WILL HAVE THE PROGRAM ALL MAPPED FOR US – Emmett Williams
Eric Andersen John Armleder Ay-O Michael Basinski Joseph Beuys Bazon Brock Peter Brötzmann Joseph Byrd John Cage [83] John Cale Giuseppe Chiari Henning Christiansen Philip Corner Jean Dupuy Robert Filliou Henry Flynt Julien Friedler Ken Friedman Al Hansen Geoffrey Hendricks Dick Higgins Alice Hutchins Ray Johnson Joe Jones Franz Kamin Allan Kaprow Milan Knížák Bengt af Klintberg Milan Knížák Alison Knowles
Takehisa Kosugi Philip Krumm Shigeko Kubota George Landow Vytautas Landsbergis Jackson Mac Low Richard Maxfield George Maciunas Jonas Mekas Gustav Metzger Charlotte Moorman Yoko Ono Robin Page Nam June Paik Ben Patterson Terry Riley Dieter Roth Takako Saito Carolee Schneemann Mieko Shiomi Daniel Spoerri James Tenney Yasunao Tone Cecil Touchon Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Yoshi Wada Robert Watts Emmett Williams La Monte Young
GEORGE IS
FLUXUS
= george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS = george MACIUNAS
= Dreamer = Child = Utopian = Fascist = Christ = Democrat = Madman
= A realist
= A realist whose realism always needed another kind of reality.
= A realist His conceptions of reality never coincided with the accepted reality.
He was beautiful foolish dogmatic charming AND Impossible.