The Fluxus Newspaper

The Fluxus Newspaper collects all eleven newspapers published by the Fluxus art collective between January 1964 and March 1979. The newspapers were edited by an ever-changing team of artists known as the Fluxus Editorial Council for Fluxus and every issue, except the last two, was designed by Fluxus founder George Maciunas.

Although published irregularly, the newspapers were used to promote Fluxus events and publications, especially the group’s famous multiples and Fluxkits, with advertising materials, order forms, and pricelists interspersed throughout. More than just a space for promotion and information, the Fluxus newspapers featured the work of over sixty artists as well as appropriated newspaper headlines, advertisements, articles, and comic strips that are indicative of the group’s anti-art sensibility and characteristic humor.

The Fluxus Newspaper is exemplative of the “do-it-yourself” creative attitude characteristic of Fluxus––an approach that is collaborative, interdisciplinary, anti-commercial, humorous, and open to anyone. The periodical is also an early example of the artist newspaper, a medium which grew out of the underground press movement and flourished in the late 60s and 70s as artists began to seek new mediums for presenting and distributing their work.

Fluxus was a loose international collective of artists, poets, and musicians with a shared impulse to challenge the existing conventions of art making and propose a model of how art could be part of one’s life. After a series of year-long festivals in Europe between September 1962 and Summer 1963, Fluxus established its headquarters in downtown New York, and soon developed offshoot centers across the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. George Maciunas acted as the spokesperson of the collective from 1962 until his premature death in 1978. He coined and employed the term Fluxus to describe the collective’s wide range of activities, including performances, concerts, publications, multiples, and the founding of collective live/works spaces for artists (Fluxhouse Cooperatives) among other things.

80 pages
10.5 x 14 inches
Paperback
March 2024
ISBN: 9798987624982