greg.org – the making of, by greg allen

On Kawara In Dialogue

dark almost black grey on kawara date painting reads 17 aug 1989 in white

@onemillionyears is the On Kawara @dailyrothko, which is complicated, because On Kawara was already the @dailykawara in so many ways. Anyway, today I wondered where Kawara was on 17 August 1989, so I went to Duncan McLaren’s site to see if he’d tracked him down.

[TL;DR no, but since he was in Nagoya in June, and since he used Esperanto when not in a Roman alphabet country, I’m fine to assume he was still in Japan for AŬG.]

Point is, Duncan has this whole fabulating passage where he imagines Kawara spending a week in Chicago, visiting a show of his work at the Renaissance Society. On Kawara Date Paintings: 1966-88 was a version of Again and Against, a show Kaspar König started at Portikus, to pair 23 date paintings with works by another artist from the same year. Duncan imagines Kawara spending time with each work, waiting for layers on his date paintings to dry.

jenny holzer's plaque reads AFFLUENT COLLEGE-BOUND STUDENTS FACE THE REAL PROSPECT OF DOWNWARD MOBILITY. FEELINGS OF ENTITLEMENT CLASH WITH THE AWARENESS OF IMMINENT SCARCITY. THERE IS RESENTMENT AT GROWING UP AT THE END OF AN ERA OF PLENTY COUPLED WITH REASSESSMENT OF CONVENTIONAL MEASURES OF SUCCESS — Jenny Holzer, Untitled, 1980, bronze, probably 8 x 10 in., installed at the Renaissance Society in May 1989, probably after the semester ended

The 1980 work was a Boomer-triggering bronze plaque from Jenny Holzer’s Living Series:

AFFLUENT COLLEGE-BOUND STUDENTS FACE THE REAL PROSPECT OF DOWNWARD MOBILITY. FEELINGS OF ENTITLEMENT CLASH WITH THE AWARENESS OF IMMINENT SCARCITY. THERE IS RESENTMENT AT GROWING UP AT THE END OF AN ERA OF PLENTY COUPLED WITH REASSESSMENT OF CONVENTIONAL MEASURES OF SUCCESS.

Thea and Ethan gave a bronze-colored plaque to the Whitney. A later, engraved version was recently reinstalled on the UChicago campus, and is visible on social media.

a richard prince cartoon gang of nine rephotographed sections of magazine cartoon drawings of white guys in suits, cropped in various ways, and arranged in a 3x3 grid using the white frames of 35 mm slides as a compositional device, then rephotographed all together and enlarged into a work titled missing and presumed dead — Richard Prince, Missing and Presumed Dead, 1986, c-print, looks to be about 24×24 in. in the Renaissance Society installation

The 1986 work, meanwhile, was a small, cartoon gang by Richard Prince whose title, Missing and Presumed Dead, sounds like a joking reply to an I AM STILL ALIVE postcard.

Only after ventriloquizing Kawara’s discourse with each of these works does Duncan discover/reveal that in fact, Kawara had been in Nagoya, the next venue for the Portikus show, for his week-long run of date paintings.

Duncan writes, “On Kawara seems to have been fascinated by Date Painting at the venues of his own shows at this stage in his life. He definitely site-specifically Date Painted while the Frankfurt and Sydney parts of the show were on. He definitely Date Painted in Nagoya a few months before the opening of the third stage of the tour…”

And this is alluring, as is the conceit of König’s concept, of lipsynching a dialogue between Kawara’s paintings and their immediate contemporaries. I think, though, that Kawara painted when he traveled, and painted when he was home. Painting these paintings involved about as much site-specificity and engagement as smoking: it happened when it was needed, sometimes alongside other people.

Previously, ventriloquizing-related: Johns said leave it open

Tillmans Making Picture of Tree Filling Window

a large wolfgang tillmans photo of an open window filled entirely with a view of a thickly leafed green tree, the greenery reflecting in the open panes on either side, and the photo framed to just about the frame of the window itself. the print is hung on a gallery wall at the beyeler in 2023 with white bulldog clips, image via sonam khetan — Wolfgang Tillmans, Tree Filling Window, 2002, 210.7 x 139.6 cm as installed at the Beyeler in 2023, image via Sonan Khetan

Speaking of early 2000s color, surfing around on Wolfgang Tillmans’ birthday [HBD, King!], the sheer majesty of Tree Filling Window (2002) just leapt out of the grid at me.

Weirdly, it didn’t leave such an impression at MoMA, where the vibe was overwhelming. I do think it gains from Tillmans’ bulldog clip exhibition practice vs the framed for sale edition [which is also slightly different dimensions? 208.3 x 141 cm? Which, does that mean the Beyeler has the AP?]

And while those edges matter, obviously, it’s seeing the image on its own that hit me: the reflections in the window panes, the framing, the references, the colors. That tree may be filling that window, but Wolfgang was making that picture. I would really love to stand in front of it again.

[googling again a few minutes later update] lmao

“Tree Filling Window is a multidisciplinary agency, that operates and supports in the development of ideas, concepts, design and strategies across contemporary industries.” treefillingwindow.com

Martha Stewart Color Theory

a unabomber cabin painted yellow is shoved into a loft too short so its cropped, a work by daniel martinez

When Daniel Joseph Martinez first installed The House America Built, his replica of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s cabin, which was a replica of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden cabin, at The Project in September 2004, it didn’t quite fit, so he cropped it. Also it was split, like Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting (1974).

Kaczynski’s cabin had become famous as a piece of evidence in his trial in Sacramento in 1996, and had been dramatically photographed by Richard Barnes for The New York Times Magazine in 1998. It’s fate in 2003-04, however, when Martinez conceived of his piece, was unknown.

The House America Built was painted in the colors of the season from Martha Stewart Everyday Colors, chosen by Martha Stewart Living Magazine from the paint line licensed to K-Mart by Stewart’s firm, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: Araucana Green, Hosta Leaf, and Cosmos Lemon. In the spring of 2004 Stewart had been convicted of insider trading and obstruction of justice and sentenced to five months in federal prison, which she began serving in October. The prosecutor in Stewart’s case was James Comey.

Sometimes even just writing the facts of something that happened feels insane.

Gagosian Shop Now: Richter Titian

a fullscale facsimile of gerhard richter's blurry painting after titian's annunciation has the angel in red robes levitating on the left side of the composition, while a kneeling mary in darker robes, illuminated by a beam of light from the upper left to her forehead, is on the lower right. there is a small shadow along the bottom edge which indicates this is a plexi mounted print, flat and glossy, not a painting. anyway, this one sold at koller in zurich, but larry gagosian has another one in his shop — Gerhard Richter Facsimile Object Annunciation after Titian (P12). 2015, Diasec-mounted Giclée print on aluminum, 125.4 × 200.3 cm, ed. 27/50 [above] sold at Koller in Zurich in Nov 2025.

To have the kind of relationship with a dealer where they’re always looking out for things, and when something comes up they know you’ll love, they just email it to you, is a wonderful thing.

So thanks, Larry, for the invite to “explore a selection of newly available prints and limited editions online,” and for the heads up on what you must know is my absolute favorite Gerhard Richter Facsimile Object—at least in my top two*. Since another of the edition sold in the fall for like half the shop’s asking price of $69,000 [nice], I think I will not shop now, but definitely thx for lmk.

Gerhard Richter, Annunciation after Titian Print, 2015, ed. 21/50 +3 AP, $69,000 [gagosianshop]
Lot 3694, 27 Nov 2025, Gerhard Richter, Annunciation after Titian (P12), 2015, ed. 27/50, sold for CHF 37,500 [kollerauctionen.ch]
Previously, related: 946-3 is the new 724-4
I Shall Call Him Heni-Me

SMK Joint Custody

several plaster cast figures in greek robes on wooden pallets clump together next to a 19th century brick building, with an array of noguchi paper lamps glowing warmly overhead, a detail of an installation in the sculpture street atrium of smk in copenhagen by the artist danh vo — Danh Vo Akari lamps and plaster casts installation at SMK in August 2019, via trendbeheer

I had a jumpscare back in the spring, when I was looking at the frameless Wilhelm Hammershøi paintings Claudio Santambrogio sent, which Elmgreen & Dragset showed at SMK in Copenhagen. It was from Inge Pollet’s blog post about visiting the show in August 2019, but it wasn’t from the show.

Time Sync

two prints by vija celmins show similar or identical [sic] small square images of the planet saturn in larger sheets of paper. the image is fuzzy, with the rings at an angle, based on an antique photo, i think, but the smaller sheet on the right is an offset print edition based on a single example of the mezzotint print edition on the left. both were made in 1985, and were based on a celmins drawing. they're relevant here because huygens saturn, obv, but also because they are in their own way an experiment in making things the same — Vija Celmins, Untitled (Saturn), 1985, mezzotint, 11 x 9 1/4 in., ed. 150, collection Whitney Museum; Untitled (Saturn), 1985 “offset lithograph from a unique mezzotint”? ed. 50, via Phillips

In 1657, two years after discovering Saturn’s moon Titan and accurately characterizing the planet’s rings, the Dutch mathematical physicist Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock, which was an order of magnitude more accurate than previous clock mechanisms.

Huygens spent several years experimenting with pairs of clocks as part of a pan-European attempt to calculate longitude at sea. In a 1665 letter at The Royal Society about their onboard tests of his reinforced maritime pendulum clocks, Huygens reported “an odd kind of sympathy perceived by him in these watches [two maritime clocks] suspended by the side of each other.”

Full Circles: Ian Wilson Circles at Camel Gallery

a white card on a wood table has the text circle on the floor, circle on the wall in small type at the center, an invitation from yoshi hill and camel gallery for a 2026 ian wilson exhibition in nyc — *Ian Wilson: Circles* announcement card, 17 July — 16 August 2026, designed by ko_haubrok for Yoshi Hill/Camel Gallery

This is the last week to see Ian Wilson’s Circle on the Floor, Circle on the Wall, two 1968 works presented by Yoshi Hill at Camel Gallery in NoHo [by appt].

The circles are instruction-based objects, released in an open, numbered edition that closed at Wilson’s death in 2020. They immediately preceded, and in some ways perhaps precipitated, Wilson’s shift from physical art to art comprised of language and oral communication, which became his Discussion series. These continued until 1986, when Wilson returned to the physical by making artist books, first as editions, and then in unique sets.

fourteen large white volumes with small black text on the spines between two very thin black bookends sit on a white shelf, a set of unique artist books by ian wilson, sections 195-208, produced in 1997 and at jonathan a hill booksellers — Ian Wilson, Sections 195-208, 14 unique volumes and bookends, 1997, via Jonathan A. Hill

In his other guise as a rare and art book dealer, Hill has at least one such set of unique volumes, Sections 195-208, was published in 1997 by Robert Ryman and belonged to Wilson’s dealer Peter Blum. Each book (or Section) has a single abstract word or phrase repeated on every page.

In his 2013 Artist on Artist talk on Wilson at Dia, Ken Lum said,

The repetition of the word or phrase takes on the effect of a mantra, which in Indian philosophies is a verbal sound considered capable of “creating spiritual transformation.” Mantra, as some of you may know, can also mean circle. The sounds are meant to engage the minds of both the one who chants as well as the one who listens.

Hill also has a copy of Ian Wilson: The Discussions, the fascinating and now-rare catalogue raisonné of forty years’ worth of these non-material artworks, which was published by the Van Abbemuseum in 2009.

a black and white photo of a wooden loft or gallery floor with a six foot wide circle drawn neatly in white chalk, taken from head height outside the bottom of the circle, which is why the circle reads as an oval here. a diagrammatic photo by ian wilson — Ian Wilson, reference image for Chalk Circle on the Floor, 1968, via kenlumart

Later on in his talk, Lum connected his fresh experience of a Discussion with Wilson to Circle on the Floor, which Lum made and showed in his storefront Vancouver gallery in 1983:

When I participated in Wilson’s most recent Discussion here at Dia last month, titled “The Pure Awareness of the Absolute,” I arrived about ten minutes early to find a group of people sitting in a circle that was approximate to the size of Wilson’s Chalk Circle on the Floor of 1968. This work now takes on new meaning for me as a spatial marker for a participatory dialogue in the round. It is no longer possible for me to see it exclusively as a reductivist gesture, for there is now always an accompanying image that I have of strangers seated together and opening up to one another through self-reflection.

So make your appointment at Camel Gallery before August 16.

Ian Wilson, Circles: 17 July — 16 August 2026, Yoshi Hill at Camel Gallery [jonathanahill]
Previously, related, from 2010: On Ian Wilson’s Art Objects
The Art World Has the Attention Span of a Gnat
And Who Was Writing Those Ian Wilson Discussion Invoices?

How Does It Feel? Peter Saville’s Color Code

peter saville's cover for new order's 1983 album power corruption and lies depicts a detail of a very lushly painted basket of flowers, mostly white and pink, against a mottled grey background. in the upper right corner is a column of six color blocks, the last one with two halfblocks side by side, which encodes the text, fact 75, the release number of the album, in a code saville devised. via wikipedia — FACT75: Peter Saville, New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983, via wikipedia

I’m not sure I have anything to say about them yet, but I’ve been looking at Peter Saville’s color code from his New Order album covers, which he developed with Brett Wickens.

the back cover of new order's 1982 album power corruption and lies has peter saville's color coding wheel at the center of a nearly all white field. two black rounded spots, a line below and a dot above, echo the design of a floppy disk. — Back cover of New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983 via discogs

The outer two rows of the color wheel on the back of Power, Corruption & Lies is the key to deciphering the one- or tw0-color blocks that represent both the numbers 1-9 and the alphabet. It’s clearer, perhaps, in the cover for the 12″ release of Blue Monday, that the design is based on a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk, but this reference is already lost in some design discussions.

Michael Heizer Earth Art Ephemera

a 55 year old sheet of notebook paper with to-do lists and reminders for, we're told, michael heizer, and a wound length of blasting fuse for dynamite from, again, we're told, michael heizer's double negative, taped to another sheet of paper. via la modern auctions — Michael Heizer, Double Negative [sic] notes and fuse (two works [sic]), 1971, via lamodern

Michael Heizer built Double Negative in 1969-70, and in the early days eyewitnesses were sparse. Curator Jan van der Marck told the story of visiting Double Negative and Walter de Maria’s Las Vegas Piece on a Viriginia Dwan-organized junket in early 1970, blazing across the desert with German art volks in the back of Heizer’s truck.

MoMA curator Jennifer Licht seems to have gone with Heizer in November 1971, just before she made the presentation to the trustees on the museum’s acquisitions committee about Double Negative, Las Vegas Piece, and Spiral Jetty that appears in Calvin Tomkins’ 1972 New Yorker feature on earth art.

I say seems because that is the implication of the annotations on these two pieces of Michael Heizer ephemera that just turned up at auction in Los Angeles, from Licht’s collection. One, a loop of dynamite fuse taped to a sheet of paper, is labeled “Dynamite from Double Negative (from Michael Heizer)” and “Overton, Nevada November 1971.” That’s the town at the base of Mormon Mesa where Double Negative is.

The other sheet is a disparate list of items that someone (else) has annotated with, “Heizer work notes, Nevada, November 1971.”

The notes mention Montana several times: “Butte KOA [campground],” “Missoula Dept Engineering,” “Mill Creek [Trail] photos.” Heizer traveled and scouted sites for works in Montana, but the closest thing to a direct work reference is “NESW,” which is also the name of an earth work he planned in 1967, partially executed in the desert with funding from Robert Scull, and then realized in full in 2002 at Dia Beacon; it’s his set of holes in the floor. Except for being annotated as from Nevada, their connection to Double Negative seems unclear to me, especially as work notes for a work that’d been done for almost two years by that point.

[a few minutes later update] greg.org hero Julian Myers notes that Goplen & Yokoyama were Heizer’s engineers in Berkeley, and “NESW blues” could be blueprints, which was calling to get “one copy to me.” Myers also recalls a possible second round of excavation at Double Negative after the initial late 1969 phase. But Tomkins and Virginia Dwan visited it “a year and a half since the piece was finished,” so the summer of 1971, and found erosion and some graffiti. Perhaps after this visit, and after thwarting Dwan’s sale of the work, Heizer (and Licht?) went back to touch it up with some dynamite.

Also, did anyone dare to ask the artist if they are works? They sure are objects, artifacts, ephemera. And if they’re what they appear to be, they are incredible, exceptional, and—until they’re sold—invaluable.

18 Aug 2026 Lot 143, Michael Heizer, Double Negative Working Notes and Blasting Fuse (two works), est. $3-5,000 [lamodern]
Previously, related: A report from the Las Vegas Piece junket
Walter De Maria’s Las Vegas Piece
Backroads Backstory: Walter De Maria on Michael Heizer
Double Double, on Sturtevant’s Heizer Double Negative

A Boli We’ve Met

It’s been a minute since I watched videos from the Met’s The Artist Project, and this time Nayland Blake discussing a Bamana boli from Mali landed differently.

Part of that is my own deeper appreciation of Blake’s work, especially their interest in specific forms of creativity or aesthetic experience that break with the artist/audience, object/viewer paradigm: Blake’s talked about both BDSM and furry communities as sites where understanding is predicated on participation, not just observation. And that resonates with their discussion of the Met’s boli as an object created by a community, through ritual use, whose power and form are the result of accretion, not individualized making.

a boli or bamana power object from mali is an accreted form of mud and blood and other organic matter in the abstracted, rounded shape of a large humped animal, like a zebu. this one is at the met — Boli, Bamana initiate, Komo association, 20th c., 14 x 7 20 in. or so, collection Met Museum

And part of that is also an expanded awareness of boliw themselves, specifically the recurrence of a boli in Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS. For a minute I figured it was being newly aware of boli typology that made me think the Met’s boli looked like Joseph’s boli. But it’s not just the Met’s boli on Funmilayo Akechukwu’s Stanford poster, but the Met’s photo of the Met’s boli.

a black and white poster for a 2024 talk by funmilayo akechukwu at stanford university about the resonance field features a water buffalo shaped object that appears in the film blknws, as does the quote by christina sharpe, no one dies of old age in the ocean, superimposed on a dark sea.

I have to watch the film again to see, but before now, I’d have been surprised if the boli in several of the film’s scenes was the Met’s boli. Now I’m thinking that if Joseph wanted, his film’s community of artists and scholars could absolutely get the loan for the Trans-Atlantic Biennial.

The Artist Project, Season 1: Nayland Blake on boli [metmuseum]
Boli (power object) [metmuseum]
Previously: Spiraling on BLKNWS

Betye Saar Facsimile Object

a ny times photo of a small vitrine on a blank white wall with a harp-shaped black glazed augusta savage sculpture of a line of incrementally smaller african singers leaning back, forming the harp shape. above it is color photocopy of a betye saar washboard sculpture, smaller than the actual missing object. to the left are museum labels explaining the objects, but not mentioning that one has been replaced by a picture of it. — a picture of a picture of a Betye Saar at the NY Historical, by Lexi Parra for NYT

Robin Pegrebin reports in the Times that soon after opening its debut exhibition in its swanky new wing, the New York Historical quietly removed 20 objects and replaced them with reproductions. The issue was light sensitivity; the director directed that giant, south-facing windows be uncovered, because blinds that protected the artworks and historic artifacts were “disrespectful of the architect [Robert A.M. Stern]’s final museum project.”

Go to Pogrebin’s story for the on the record quotes of how this went down, and stay to admire its immediate impact. Because after several weeks of displaying it, when the NYH found out the Times was on it, they removed the flat color picture of Betye Saar’s 2017 sculpture, Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines.

Which, honestly? Right call. The NYH’s facsimile is slightly smaller than Saar’s object. Based on the dimensions of the Augusta Savage sculpture below it, the paper is close to the size of the sculpture (21 1/2 x 8 5/8 in.), but the image is 10-15% smaller.

Charles Ray has said that to feel “life-size,” a figural sculpture has to be just slightly larger than its human subject, in order to account for the person’s physical movement. Of course, a static sculpture doesn’t occupy space in this way. But printing an 8.625 inch sculpture on 8.5 inch paper, then not accounting for the margins, and calling it close enough feels hilariously half-assed.

two photos side by side of the front and back of betye saar's 2017 sculpture extreme times call for extreme heroines, which is a text saar painted onto the top panel of the washboard, which is the front face of her artwork, tho the back, blank panel of the washboard itself. a sewn caricature mammy doll is attached to the metal ribbed panel below, and a wind up alarm clock with a black face is attached to the top. on the right, the back of saar's sculpture shows the front of the washboard has a scene of a sailing ship painted or printed on it, to which saar has applied the illustration of the slave ship brookes, in white. this motif is also in the added apron of the mammy figure. from the collection of the ny historical — Betye Saar, Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines, 2017, 21 1/2 x 8 5/8 x 1 1/2 in., via a NY Historical blog post, not the collection listing

And this is all before considering the installation of a multi-sided sculpture on a wall. Saar’s washboard sculpture has the abolitionist image of the slave ship Brookes on the back—which is actually the original front—and that motif is also printed on the Mammy figure’s apron. I would love to find out that the photocopy they tacked to the wall was printed on both sides.

And this leaves unaddressed the question of what happens next. The NYH really should decide if the Tang Wing is going to be a museum space where light-sensitive objects can never be shown. Partly because if it is, they really should get better at their facsimiles. And partly because the Met is building a Tang Wing, too, and it’d be good to let curators know in advance, rather than have to resign after the fact.

Yes, the show has drawn raves. But some of the objects are not real [sic] [nyt, ht @allthebeset]
Previously, related: The OG No Kings at the NY Historical
Museums Will Not Save Us, Annotated

Jonathan Anderson Dream T-Shirt

gisele bundchen looking over her glasses and emily blunt with her mouth open, both with expressions of stunned disbelief in a screenshot from the devil wears prada

“Are you wearing the—”

a thin fair skinned model with straight dark hair back wears an off white tshirt style dress in sheer organza i think with intermittent strings of beads, that comes to her mid calf. there is a faintly painted or printed outline in airbrushed rainbow colors of a figure, and the faint letters artf across the chest. the model stands on a black parquet floor with palm fronts behind her, and holds a platinum colored pleated metallic bag. this is from the lynda benglis inspired dior haute couture show, and the figure alluded to on the dress is benglis, posing with a giant double dildo for a work she published in artforum in 1974 as an advertisement. but none of that is really legible in this five-figure made to order garment — Mirage is the name of the dress, Dior Haute Couture F/W 26-27 via Yahoo

“The airbrushed T-shirt version of the 1974 artwork Lynda Benglis ran as a two-page advertisement in Artforum that sparked an editorial protest and eventually led to the founding of October Magazine, printed as an almost unrecognizably ethereal palimpsest on a sheer, beaded, short-sleeved dress in Jonathan Anderson’s Benglis-inspired Dior Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2026-27 collection? Yeah, yeah I am.”

“And are you wearing the—”

boy faced short ginger haired and serious looking jonathan anderson in a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and brown trousers amidst a seated crowd of fashionistas amidst palm fronts sandwiched between black reflective floor and roof planes at the end of the fall winter 2026-2027 haute couture show. a lynda benglis artforum advertisement t-shirt is peeking out from under his very unbuttoned blue shirt, which is the point of this picture and blog post — screenshot detail from the Dior Haute Couture F/W 26-27 show via

“The actual 1974 T-shirt, first issued as an edition of 25, but one of perhaps as many as 50 total, some of them framed, and each with different screenprint and airbrush variations, so it’s peeking out from under my strategically unbuttoned shirt? Yeah, yeah I am.”

Lynda Benglis Artforum Advertisement 50th Anniversary Fact Sheet [pacegallery]
Dior Haute Couture F/W 26-27 via Fashion Feed [youtube]
cf. “The designer couldn’t resist sneaking a particularly ‘if you know, you know’ reference into the collection” — Julia Halperin writing on the Benglis collab in the NYT [nytimes]

The Only Arch I Want To See

a dense woodblock print tiled together from 36 sheets depicts a comically ornate triumphal arch propagandizing the reign of emperor maximilian. — Albrecht Dürer et al, The Triumph of Maximilian, 1515-17, printed 1799, collection NYPL

Rather than build an actual f’ing arch the Emperor Maximilian commissioned a monumental print arch, which could be reproduced and installed all over. It was the only of his grandiose print projects that was completed during his lifetime. Albrecht Dürer and a workshop of least four other artist/printers spent two years producing 198 woodblocks to print on 36 folio sheets (18 x 24 inches). The assembled image is 12 x 10 feet, and was printed in five editions, beginning in 1517. The first edition of around 700 was distributed to the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Fraktur typeface was commissioned for this print.

The New York Public Library says their The Triumph of Maximilian on view at 42nd Street at the moment, printed in 1799, is a third edition. But the third edition was printed in 1559; the edition printed in 1799 was the fourth, which sounds a little rough. [The NYPL item listing has this correct.] Nevertheless, it is on view, and should be seen before it goes into storage in October. [h/t @arthistory.bsky.social for the heads up].

Meanwhile, a few years ago The Met discovered that they had an uncatalogued copy of the print, which they called Arch of Honor, since 1928. After a major conservation project in 2019 it was identified as a proof copy, complete with inset and overlaid corrections and 16th century annotations.

a detail of an intricate woodblock print of a triumphal arch encrusted with decorations and panels illustrating historical moments in the life or genealogy of maximilian the holy roman emperor, and a red line marking the edge of one sheet which includes part of a column and six historical event panels, except the one on the lower right corner is blank, because it was supposed to be a picture of the tomb of the emperor who was yet alive so let's come back to that one, hmm? he said. — Detail of the Met’s proof of Maximilian’s arch, with blank space, and the outline of Folio sheet 28.82.25

[A FEW MINUTES LATER UPDATE] In the three 16th century editions, the 24th panel of historical events was left blank. It was to contain an image of Maximilian’s tomb, which would be created, printed, and distributed for installation after his death.

a fragment of the monumental durer woodblock print of maximilian's arch is the cropped blank panel, with its accompanying scroll label and a decorative border from an adjacent sheet, that was cut out of the larger arch assemblage and replaced with another picture. via the national gallery of victoria — Albrecht Dürer [sic], The blank 24th historical panel (1559) [sic] from the 1st edition [sic] of the Triumphal Arch, woodcut with traces of gilding and hand colouring, 258 x 159 mm, upside down at NGV

In the Met’s proof, that folio sheet includes the thick column at the center of the detail above, and two rows of scenes. The National Gallery of Victoria, meanwhile, has a 3rd edition of the Arch, printed in 1559, with the 24th panel replaced. But they also have the blank 24th panel [from a 1st edition?] The inclusion of a border likely means it was cut out of an assembled Arch, not from the sheet, and not, it seems, from their Arch, whose decorative border looks intact. Also, they show it upside down.

It would be my new favorite Dürer print, but the Met says only the column and the first two scenes on that sheet are by Dürer; the rest is by Hans Springinklee. So I guess it is my favorite Springinklee.

I would hang it next to my favorite Titian woodcut.

Previously, related: Titianic: Titian Woodcut Print was almost the same mometn

George Catlin, Floyd’s Grave, 1832

a small landscape painting dominated by a large green hill in the right foreground, a river behind it, anda pale blue sky. two figures climb the grassy hill toward a post at the top, a grave market for sergeant charles floyd, who died in 1804 — George Catlin, Floyd’s Grave, Where Lewis & Clark Buried Sergeant Floyd in 1804, 1932, oil on canvas, 11 1/4 x 14 3/8 in., collection SAAM

Had a fascinating conversation with a scholar working on early 19th century American painting, and we talked some about George Catlin. Though I’ve long been interested in Catlin’s unusual and sometimes problematic career, I did not know about this painting.

Catlin spent the 1830s exploring and painting Native American culture up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. His first trip was with William Clark, of Lewis & Clark. Which might be how he came to know this site, on the top of a hill above the Missouri, 1,200 miles north of St Louis, where Lewis & Clark buried Charles Floyd, who died just four months into their 1804 expedition. Catlin returned to it multiple times.

George Catlin, Floyd’s Grave, Where Lewis & Clark Buried Sergeant Floyd in 1804, 1832 [americanart.si.edu]

Lawler, Buren, LeWitt

louise lawler's black and white snapshot of a truck on 53rd st in manhattan with the museum of modern art in the background, a 1978 work titled truck — Louise Lawler, Truck, 1978, offset lithograph, 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in., a 2015 gift to MoMA from David Platzker and Susan Inglett

While studying MoMA’s Louise Lawlers the other day, this little snapshot-sized print loomed larger than it does in real life. At first Truck (1978) seems like basic street photography, out of step with the art-in-the-wild practice Lawler became known for.

But then you realize the truck that gives the photo its name is in front of MoMA. And that MoMA has Sol LeWitt banners on it. Because LeWitt’s first US retrospective opened on February 3rd. Those Lines in Four Directions read immediately as LeWitt, but they don’t map immediately onto any works in the show or the catalogue. Combined with the Museum’s name along the top, I expect these were ads, not works in themselves.

a 1978 photo titled volkswagen by louise lawler is a black and white snapshot of a vw beetle in front of the museum of modern art on 53rd st in nyc. striped banners of sol lewitt hang on the glass panel facade, and a cluster of people holding placards with vertical stripes pass under the awning, a performance art piece by daniel buren, which is why louise lawler was photographing there that day — Louise Lawler, Volkswagen, 1978, offset lithograph, 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in., a 2015 gift to MoMA from David Platzker and Susan Inglett

The stripes sure reflect in the Harrison & Stone building’s glass panels, though. And for a second, it seems like they’ve gotten picked up by the protest signs on the street. Did LeWitt get picketed? No. Those are Daniel Buren stripes. And so 31yo Lawler has caught two of her [older] contemporaries in one shot on the street. Or, rather, two, since there’s a related picture called Volkswagen.

In fact, though, it was a setup. By Lawler herself. In 1978 Lawler and artist Chris D’Arcangelo helped organize and document ten performance works Buren staged in New York City, Twelve Ballets: Ballets #8 à #19. A continuation of his 1975 performance, Seven Ballets in Manhattan, the first two, Ballets Nos 8 & 9, were staged by Buren himself in late 1977. After Buren left, John Weber Gallery managed the rest of the project, which involved a group of five performers holding Buren-striped signs walking—and getting photographed—along various routes through town. Ballet No. 11, which went through midtown, happened on Febrary 2nd. Lawler’s photos of each performance are on Buren’s website—except for the two she made for herself, I guess.

louise lawler's black and white photo of daniel buren's 1978 performance artwork documents five white art people carrying protest signs on sticks with buren's signature vertical stripes, mingling and/or marching with an electrician union picket line on a midtown manhattan street. everyone's wearing coats because it's february, and whatever the present and future hold, february used to be the coldest of winter in the 1970s. — Daniel Buren, Ballet No. 11, 2 Feb 1978, Le long de la 5ème av., entre 6e av. (O-E.) et Lexington av. ; entre 42e rue et 53e rue (S-N.), New York, photographed by Louise Lawler, image via danielburen.com, where it has a massive copyright watermark, vive la France ig

Because now that we know they passed it, it seems like a choice that Buren’s photos don’t include MoMA, Even though 53rd Street & Sixth was the northwest corner corner of their route [a loop, I think, from 42nd & 6th, across 53rd to Lex, and then down to 4nd. Except Buren talks about walking along Fifth Avenue. idk] They do include the art protestors showing solidarity with some electricians picketing a jobsite, though. It’d be interesting to see Lawler’s contact sheets.

Until then, artist book dealer-turned-MoMA curator David Platzker does shed some light on Lawler’s process. His catalogue essay for MoMA’s 2017 Lawler show explores the development of the artist’s use of ephemera as an artistic medium. These two pictures—which he dates to Feb. 1st—were first printed as Kodak postcards, snapshots, then Lawler had them printed commercially. The examples Platzker and Susan Inglett donated to MoMA are from this offset run. With just the one word title and her name, date, and copyright on the back, they look like the barest definition of a postcard, and she apparently sent them out to people as such. Love that for her.