In the late 1950s, a young generation of artists began producing short instructions for actions, called “event scores,” meant to be interpreted in the most open-ended way. Often grouped together under the moniker “Fluxus”—coined by George Maciunas, the movement’s self-proclaimed chairman—this new art championed experimentation over form and embraced simple materials and actions. In Maciunas’s words, Fluxus sought to “promote living art, anti-art, promote NON ART REALITY, to be grasped by all people, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.”
Artists in places as far-flung as New York, Germany, Latin America, and Japan expressed similar attitudes to art making, and took their actions directly to the street, frequently producing work barely distinguishable from its environment. The spirit of Fluxus has sparked a long tradition of irreverence and provocation, and some have claimed that Fluxus not only is not over, it has not even begun.
Organized by Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints, and Jon Hendricks, Consulting Curator, The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, with Ana Torok, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.
