Unique portfolio of works from the collection of the artists, compiled for Carl Vogel, including numerous works of original artwork, texts, photographs, etc. Quarto (12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches). Original hand-painted corrugated cardboard cover, title hand-written and stamped, with a small plastic whistle tied to a safety pin affixed to cover, contents loose as issued. Light scattered handling wear, old adhesive coming loose on some pieces, overall very good. N.p.: Knizak, n.d. (circa 1983).

Unique and apparently unpublished artist's book created and compiled specially by Milan Knizak (b. 1940) for Carl Bogel (1923-2006), art collector and president of the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts. Knizak is a Czech performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and dissident. Knizak studied at the Pedagogical University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, before abandoning formal education in early 1962 and founding the “Actual Art” group (Aktuální umení, later shortened to AKTUAL). He created his first happenings, installations, and art environments in the streets and plazas of Prague beginning in the early 1960s and also became a member of the international Fluxus movement. In 1965 he became the director of Fluxus East, and organized and performed numerous happenings and concerts in Czechoslovakia, as well as festivals in Vilnius, Prague, Budapest, and Poznan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Knizak was able to come to the United States for a brief period at the end of the 1960s, during the time of the Prague Spring, but in 1970 returned to Czechoslovakia where he was under permanent police surveillance, often being arrested and detained but never giving up on his artistic activities.

This portfolio contains approximately 35 total works across 65 sheets including drawings, reworked illustrations and photographs, texts, music, collages, etc. Relevant to the title, many of the works contain applied swatches of red paint. A handful of other works also include safety pins. Some of the titles include "Clothes Painted on a Body", "Both Sided Hat", "How to Make Clothing Aktual", "Erotic Clothes", "Scars as Jewelry", "The Process of Creation", "Destroyed Music", "Stone Ceremony", "Painted Ear as a Jewel", "TV Earing [sic]", and "Sense of Flying".

A unique portfolio of original works from an important and influential contemporary artist.

Book ID: 53475

Price: $9,500.00