Experiments in Electrostatics:
Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s
Collection, 1966–1986
Nov 17, 2017–Mar 25, 2018
Lesley Schiff (b. 1951), Flower in Hand, 1981, from the series Seasons, 1980-81. Color photocopy, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (26.7 x 21.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Judith Goldman 2004.3.9
Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 explores the use of the photocopier as a creative tool, from its public emergence in the 1960s to the dawn of the digital era in the 1980s. Despite the machine’s intended function to reproduce office documents, artists inventively utilized it as a camera and printing press to create original fine art prints. They placed objects on the flatbed, distorted imagery in the process of scanning, and manipulated the exposure, density, and saturation settings to achieve imaginative, often unexpected results. Far from “copies,” these still lifes, portraits, abstractions, and collages reflected the ingenuity of their makers. Focusing on three artists and one collective—Edward Meneeley, Lesley Schiff, Barbara T. Smith, and the International Society of Copier Artists—this exhibition investigates how artists found self-expression through a machine designed for replication.
Experiments in Electrostatics is organized by Michelle Donnelly, curatorial fellow.
Barbara T. Smith
1
Though best known as a pioneer of performance art, Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931, Pasadena, CA) was also one of the earliest artists to employ the photocopier. After rejection by the Los Angeles printmaking workshop Gemini G.E.L., she realized “lithography is in any case obsolete . . . We’re in the twentieth century and logically the print [technology] of our era would be the business machine!”
Working with a leased Xerox 914 in her dining room, Smith photocopied what was most readily available: foodstuffs, family photographs, and her own body. She created God’s Breath by pouring, blowing, and scraping flour across the copier’s flat bed. Her use of a domestic material often associated with the “feminine” slyly pokes at the male-dominated tradition of abstract painting.
Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931), God’s Breath, 1966
Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931), God’s Breath, 1966. Photocopies, 23 3/4 x 75 15/16 in. (60.3 x 192.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Print Committee T.2017.512. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Artists
Installation Photography
Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931), God’s Breath, 1966 (installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). Photocopies, 23 3/4 x 75 15/16 in. (60.3 x 192.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Print Committee T.2017.512. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 17, 2017–March 25, 2018). Six untitled works from the portfolio IBM Drawings, 1966, by Edward Meneeley. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 17, 2017–March 25, 2018). From left to right: Six untitled works from the portfolio IBM Drawings, 1966, by Edward Meneeley; thirteen works from the series Seasons, 1980-81, by Lesley Schiff. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 17, 2017–March 25, 2018). From the series Seasons, 1980-81, by Lesley Schiff, left to right: Beachball, Clock, Woman, Sony Radio, Flower in Hand, Man in Profile, Baby Doll, Fishbowl, Rocket Ship and Soldier, Globe, Bird, T.V. Gyroscope, Fruits, Sea Fan, Leopards, Toy Snake, Jewels, Column, Star, Flowers. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, November 17, 2017–March 25, 2018). From left to right: Barbara T. Smith, God’s Breath, 1966; twenty works from the series Seasons, 1980-81, by Lesley Schiff. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Robert Whitman, No title, 1974 (installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). Series of color photocopies, each 10 13/16 x 8 1/2 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Print Committee 2016.121.1-20. Photograph by Ron Amstutz