In the Library

Companion Pieces 

Documenting Concepts, Events, Environments

April 24 – August 25, 2017

National Gallery of Art
In the Library

Companion Pieces 

Documenting Concepts, Events, Environments

10 The 1960s and ’70s marked a sea change in the production 

and exhibition of art. Avant-garde art movements of the time 

emphasized ideas, experience, and process over the tangible 

artwork. Art became temporary, site-specific, or dematerialized 

altogether. Happenings, events, and performances took place 

at a specific time and place — such as a chilly day in 1968 spent 

moving empty metal barrels from site to site for Allan Kaprow’s 

happening Transfer (no. 9). Art lovers ventured out from the 

white-walled gallery space to immersive environments, as seen 

in Daniel Spoerri’s Room No. 631 at the Chelsea Hotel (no. 6). Other 

“exhibitions” seemingly took place outside of time and space, as 

with Seth Siegelaub’s catalog for the immaterial exhibition One 

Month (no. 2). Even visual artists working in traditional media, 

such as painting and sculpture, used conceptual frameworks and 

aspects of performance to create their artwork. For example, the 

game board for Lucio Pozzi’s Inventory Game of 1975 supplied a set 

of materials, concepts, and techniques that the artist combined to 

create his paintings (no. 25).

As artworks became more ephemeral, artists, galleries, 

and museums conceived of new ways to record, distribute, and 

exhibit works of art. Companion pieces — photographs, films, 

videos, written narratives, or instructions — provided evidence 

of the existence of a work, or acted as surrogates for the artwork itself. Many of these documents are now highly valued 

art objects in and of themselves, found in museums and private 

art collections. The companion pieces presented here, however, 

were primarily unsigned documents with unlimited print runs 

intended for broad distribution. Selected from the Vertical Files, 

the library’s ephemera collection, these postcards, invitations, 

programs, and exhibition catalogs promoted, recorded, and 

explained performances, environments, and conceptual artworks. They invited participation, as in the invitation for John 

Cage and David Tudor’s Variations IV (no. 5); recounted what 

happened, as with the exhibition catalog for Chris Burden’s 

Do You Believe in Television? (no. 17); provided evidence of a 

work, such as the exhibition catalog for Jan Dibbets’s AudioVisuelle Dokumentationen (no. 24); and, as is often required 

of avant-garde movements, perhaps provided answers to a 

skeptical audience that continually asked, “Is it Art?”

While many of the companion pieces presented here provide 

a fragment of a finished performance, environment, or conceptual 

artwork, they fully reflect the spirit of the 1960s and ’70s. Influenced by the civil rights, antiwar, and feminist movements, artists 

of the time were interested in the democratization of the art 

experience. Space exploration and the 1969 moon landing fueled 

interest in new technologies. Not only did the artists embrace 

state-of-the-art tools when creating their works, as in 9 Evenings: 

Theatre & Engineering (no. 7) and Dick Higgins’s Computers for 

the Arts (no. 26), increasingly available printing methods, such 

as the Xerox machine, allowed for quick and easy reproduction 

and dissemination of flyers, programs, and postcards. Easily 

printed and widely circulated, the items from this show allowed 

for greater engagement with the artist, his or her artwork, and 

with the experimental spirit of the time.
Section 1

New Exhibitions and New Catalogs for a New Art

The new art of the 1960s and ’70s required imaginative modes 

of exhibition. Curator Lucy Lippard described her numbers 

shows, including the Buenos Aires show 2.972.453, as “suitcase 

exhibitions,” meaning that works no longer had to be shipped 

to a venue. Rather, installations, site-specific works, and 

conceptual pieces could be mounted in distant locations using 

local resources by following instructions and plans from the 

artist. The innovative catalog for 2.972.453 (no. 1), composed 

of index cards for artists and works, invited participation, allowing the reader to “curate” the show by arranging the cards in any 

order. Seth Siegelaub, another curator known for championing 

conceptual art, published exhibition catalogs for which there 

was no concurrent gallery show at all. For One Month and Carl 

Andre, Robert Barry, Daniel Buren . . . (no. 3), artists contributed 

works that were either conceptual in nature or decentralized 

to several sites. The gallery Art & Project exhibited works 

by many conceptual artists. Its eponymous bulletin (no. 4)

occasionally served as a typical promotional mailing, but more 

often operated as a venue for artists to extend the reach of 

their conceptual works, as when Robert Barry announced that 

“during the exhibition the gallery will be closed.”

1 Lucy Lippard and Jorge Glusberg, 2.972.453, catalog for exhibition 

at Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1970, 

National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

2 Seth Siegelaub, One Month, exhibition catalog, New York, 

New York, 1969, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, 

Vogel Collection

3 Seth Siegelaub, Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, 

Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, N.E. Thing 

Co. Ltd., Robert Smithson, Lawrence Weiner, exhibition catalog, New 

York, New York, 1969, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, 

Vogel Collection 

4 Art & Project, Art & Project Bulletin, miscellaneous issues, 

Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1969 – 1975, National Gallery of Art 

Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection 

Section 2 

Documenting the Future

The invitations, postcards, and programs displayed here accessorized events the audience would soon be witnessing. At 

their most straightforward, they request attendance, as with the 

invitation to Joseph Beuys and composer Henning Christiansen’s 

FLUXUS event on March 20, 1967 (no. 8). At their most comprehensive, they provide detailed and informative descriptions of 

performances, as with the suite of materials that accompanied 

Dan Graham: Performance, Film, Television, & Tape at New York 

University in 1970 (nos. 10 – 12). 

5 Feigen / Palmer Gallery, John Cage with David Tudor Present a 

Performance of Variations IV, invitation, Los Angeles, California, 1965, 

National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

6 The Green Gallery, Daniel Spoerri’s Room No. 631 at the Chelsea 

Hotel, poster/ invitation, New York, New York, 1965, National Gallery 

of Art Library, Vertical Files

7 25th Street Armory, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering,

program, New York, New York, 1966, National Gallery of Art 

Library, Vertical Files 

8 Franz Dahlem, FLUXUS: Joseph Beuys, Henning Christiansen,

invitation, Munich, Germany, 1967, National Gallery of Art Library, 

Vertical Files

9 Wesleyan University, Transfer: A Happening (For Christo), by Allan 

Kaprow, poster/ invitation, Middletown, Connecticut, 1968, National 

Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

10 New York University, Dan Graham: Performance, Film, Television, 

& Tape, invitation, New York, New York, 1970, National Gallery of 

Art Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection 

11 New York University, Dan Graham: Performance, program, New 

York, New York, 1970, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, 

Vogel Collection

12 John Gibson Gallery, Performance 1: Dan Graham, periodical, New 

York, New York, 1970, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, 

Vogel Collection

13
Section 3 

Exhibiting the Past

Contemporary art spaces in the 1960s and ’70s were challenged 

to mount exhibitions of events from the recent past. Occasionally this involved repeating performances in a new space, as 

when Barry Le Va re-created his performance and sound work 

Velocity Piece — which had been performed a year earlier at 

Ohio State University — for the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition Projections: Anti-Materialism (no. 14). The 

Smolin Gallery’s small catalog Words accompanied a series of 

environments and happenings, and included clear definitions for 

these new art forms (no. 13). Exhibition catalogs, like those for 

Valie Export (no. 15) and Marina Abramović (no. 16), documented 

performance artists’ work, while also presenting components 

and instructions, indicating the potential for repetition and recreation. The catalog Eleanor Antin: The Angel of Mercy described 

the artist’s multipart and multimedia artistic practice, which 

included performance, photography, and installation (no. 18).

13 Smolin Gallery, Words, exhibition catalog, New York, New York, 

1962, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

14 La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, Projections: AntiMaterialism, exhibition catalog, San Diego, California, 1970, National 

Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection

15 Biennale de Paris, Valie Export: Works from 1968 – 1975, a Comprehension, exhibition catalog, Paris, France, 1975, National Gallery of 

Art Library, Vertical Files

16 Muzeja Savremene Umetnosti, Marina Abramović: Ritam 10, 5, 2, 

4, 0, exhibition catalog, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1975, National Gallery 

of Art Library, Vertical Files

17 Alberta College of Art Gallery, “Do You Believe in Television?”: 

Chris Burden, February 18, 1976, exhibition catalog, Calgary, Canada, 

1976, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

18 La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, Eleanor Antin: The Angel 

of Mercy, exhibition catalog, San Diego, California, 1977, National 

Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

Section 4 

Art from Afar

The postcards, catalogs, and pamphlets presented here reflect 

the tendency toward democratization and mobility of the art 

experience, despite the fact that site-specific and performance 

artworks implicitly excluded audiences who either couldn’t attend 

or weren’t invited. Joseph Beuys’s postcard multiples reflected 

trends of repetition and serialization while extending the reach of 

his artistic practice through the everyday action of sending mail

(nos. 19 – 22). Artworks for which only the artist was present, 

including those of Richard Long (no. 23) and Jan Dibbets (no. 24), 

were documented and distributed through pamphlets, catalogs, 

and audio recordings.

19 Edition Staeck, Cologne, postcard by Joseph Beuys, Heidelberg, 

Germany, 1968 / 1969, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files

20 Edition Staeck, Joseph Beuys, postcard, Heidelberg, Germany, 

1974, National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files 

21 Edition Staeck, joseph beuys auf dem flug nach amerika,

postcard, Heidelberg, Germany, 1974, National Gallery of Art 

Library, Vertical Files

22 Edition Staeck, Joseph Beuys: Honigpumpe am Arbeitsplatz, set of 

ten postcards, Heidelberg, Germany, 1977, National Gallery of Art 

Library, Vertical Files

23 A Sculpture by Richard Long Presented by Konrad Fischer,

pamphlet, 1971, National Gallery of Art, Vertical Files 

24 Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Jan Dibbets: Audio-Visuelle 

Dokumentationen, exhibition catalog, Krefeld, Germany, 1969, 

National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection

Section 5

Instructions

Blurring the line between artist and audience, artists published 

instructions, guides, and games for the creation of new 

artworks — incorporating elements of play, humor, and chance. 

Dick Higgins, an early member of Fluxus, created a guide, Computers for the Arts (no. 26), which uses the FORTRAN computer 

language to generate concrete poetry. For those wanting to dive 

into the art world, Les Levine provided a fee-based consultation 

service, which included advice for “earth artists” and “computer 

artists,” as well as advice on where to be seen, how to avoid 

becoming an artist’s spouse, and art supplies for conceptual 

artists (no. 27).

25 Lucio Pozzi, Inventory Game, grid with instructions, 1975, 

National Gallery of Art Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection 

26 Dick Higgins, Computers for the Arts, Abyss Publications, 

Somerville, Massachusetts, 1970, National Gallery of Art Library, 

Vertical Files

27 Les Levine, Museum of Mott Art inc.: Catalogue of Services, 

Museum of Mott Art inc., Washington, DC, 1971, National Gallery 

of Art Library, Vertical Files, Vogel Collection 

Checklist of the exhibition In the Library: Companion Pieces,

April 24 – August 25, 2017

Copyright © 2017 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington. Written by Anne H. Simmons

For more information, please visit nga.gov/content / ngaweb/

exhibitions / 2017/ in-the-library-companion-pieces.html