Getting the Word Out: Artists' Magazines in Los Angeles
Last updated: February 15, 2021
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Throughout the 20th Century artists across the globe staked out claims and arguments in small run publications, “little magazines” and manifestos. We can think of Duchamp’s The Blind-Man, or any number of Surrealist publications. Previewing their groundbreaking work of the 60s, Brazilian artists Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica outlined their ideas in the Manifesto Neoconcreto. Later, Art&Language, 0 to 9, The Fox, generated a dialogue among hitherto unrelated disciplines, from philosophy to dance, laying out the parameters of new forms of hybrid, conceptually driven art. This same impulse allowed local art scenes to develop a sense of difference, and Los Angeles has proved a fertile ground for such publications intended, in one way or another, to foster a sense of interrelatedness, of community. Some, like the LAICA Journal, began as a supplement to an exhibition program, and grew into something separate, raising a critical voice against commercialism. Others, like The Dumb Ox, and Straight Turkey, aimed to give direct voice to artists who found it difficult to break through mainstream gatekeeping. A significant number of artists from Los Angeles are now firmly in that mainstream, yet dissent still seeks a voice and small, often short-lived publications continue to enliven local discourse.
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Getting the Word Out: Artists' Magazines in Los Angeles Archive