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Art by Telephone / Richard Hamilton (1969)

Richard Hamilton

Claes Oldenburg

Album title: Art by Telephone
Title: Richard Hamilton (Track 17)
Publisher: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Date: 1969
Medium: record 30 cm
Cover: Sherman Mutchnick

Art by Telephone was an art and exhibition project of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 1969. It took place two years after the museum opened in the building of the former Playboy headquarters. The museum invited artists from the US and Europe to submit their idea for a work of art conveyed over the telephone, whereupon the museum staff began to implement the idea. The project relied exclusively on oral communication by telephone; written memos or drawings were avoided. The central figure in the project was curator David H. Katzive, who took the phone calls and relayed the work assignments to the staff. This resulted in room-sized installations, some of which were geared towards visitor participation, but also small-scale conceptual works or instructions for short happenings or performances to be carried out by visitors. The exhibition was dedicated to John Cage and Marcel Duchamp, who had leaned on participation, but by whom a large number of the participating artists had been influenced. It ran from November 1st to December 14th 1969, after which all the works were destroyed or disposed of by the museum.

The Museum of Contemporary Art's vinyl release Art by Telephone was conceived as an exhibition catalogue. It contains a few minutes long excerpts of telephone instructions by 37 artists made between September and October 1969, along with a brief introduction by the curator.

The participating artists were: Siah Armajani, Arman, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Iain Baxter, Mel Bochner, George Brecht, Jack Burnham, James Lee Byars, Robert H. Cumming, Francois Dallegret, Jan Dibbets, John Giorno, Robert Grosvenor, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Dick Higgins, Davi Det Hompson, Robert Huot, Alain Jacquet, Ed Keinholz, Joseph Kosuth, Les Levine, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Guenther Uecker, Stan VanDerBeek, Bernar Venet, Frank Lincoln Viner, Wolf Vostell, William Wegman and William T. Wiley.

The Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1967 under the direction of Jan van der Marck and from the beginning showed itself to be a place for the latest, multi-faceted expressions of contemporary art. Thus, in the same year as Art by Telephone, the museum building was the first to be wrapped by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Conceptual art, sound art, video art, happenings and performances took place as well as reflective symposia, readings and discussions.

In addition to Richard Hamilton, Claes Oldenburg is also represented on soundcollection.de with his Art by Telephone interview excerpt.

PS