Aktual Schmuck [No. 4]
Milan Knížák [Ed.]
1974
Aktual Schmuck [No. 4]
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In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual ...
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Aktual Schmuck [No. 4]
Milan Knížák [Ed.]
1974
Devon and Mexico City: Beau Geste Press and Libro Accion Libre
Unpaginated [56 pages]
29.1 × 20.4 cm

In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual Czechoslovakia Schmuck (1974); No. 5, Teutonic Schmuck (1975); No. 6, French Schmuck (1974); No. 7, General Schmuck (1976); and No. 8, Japanese Schmuck (1976). Edited by the three core members of Beau Geste Press – Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor – the magazine was conceived as a cooperative “assemblage” project, bringing together dozens of pioneering avant-garde, Fluxus, and conceptual artists from around the world, including Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski, and Mieko Shiomi.


 


The Czechoslovakian issue was coordinated by Milan Knížák, leader of the Aktual Group, who smuggled out documentation of radical street performances and other experimental work. Under strict government censorship, artists behind the Iron Curtain turned to Schmuck and the wider Mail Art networks as clandestine channels for circulating and publishing their work. Through ingenious strategies of concealment, they disguised radical visual poetry and politically sensitive material as apparently meaningless doodles, sketches, or typewriter exercises.


 


The conception of this particular issue can thus be understood as a form of cultural survival. Knížák himself was brought before a Prague court and charged with discrediting the image of Czechoslovakia. He was ultimately acquitted, and the issue he had conceived as early as 1972 travelled safely to Devon, where it was published intact by Beau Geste Press two years later. Curated by Knížák, it brings together texts, drawings, photographs, and ideas by Soňa Švecová, Helena Pospíšilová, Robert Wittmann, J. Patočka, P. Tichý, Zdenka Žižková, Jan Maria Mach, V. Korejs, M. Marik, and Knížák himself.

Devon and Mexico City: Beau Geste Press and Libro Accion Libre
Unpaginated [56 pages]
29.1 × 20.4 cm

In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual Czechoslovakia Schmuck (1974); No. 5, Teutonic Schmuck (1975); No. 6, French Schmuck (1974); No. 7, General Schmuck (1976); and No. 8, Japanese Schmuck (1976). Edited by the three core members of Beau Geste Press – Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor – the magazine was conceived as a cooperative “assemblage” project, bringing together dozens of pioneering avant-garde, Fluxus, and conceptual artists from around the world, including Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski, and Mieko Shiomi.

 

The Czechoslovakian issue was coordinated by Milan Knížák, leader of the Aktual Group, who smuggled out documentation of radical street performances and other experimental work. Under strict government censorship, artists behind the Iron Curtain turned to Schmuck and the wider Mail Art networks as clandestine channels for circulating and publishing their work. Through ingenious strategies of concealment, they disguised radical visual poetry and politically sensitive material as apparently meaningless doodles, sketches, or typewriter exercises.

 

The conception of this particular issue can thus be understood as a form of cultural survival. Knížák himself was brought before a Prague court and charged with discrediting the image of Czechoslovakia. He was ultimately acquitted, and the issue he had conceived as early as 1972 travelled safely to Devon, where it was published intact by Beau Geste Press two years later. Curated by Knížák, it brings together texts, drawings, photographs, and ideas by Soňa Švecová, Helena Pospíšilová, Robert Wittmann, J. Patočka, P. Tichý, Zdenka Žižková, Jan Maria Mach, V. Korejs, M. Marik, and Knížák himself.

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In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual Czechoslovakia Schmuck (1974); No. 5, Teutonic Schmuck (1975); No. 6, French Schmuck (1974); No. 7, General Schmuck (1976); and No. 8, Japanese Schmuck (1976). Edited by the three core members of Beau Geste Press – Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor – the magazine was conceived as a cooperative “assemblage” project, bringing together dozens of pioneering avant-garde, Fluxus, and conceptual artists from around the world, including Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski, and Mieko Shiomi.

 

The Czechoslovakian issue was coordinated by Milan Knížák, leader of the Aktual Group, who smuggled out documentation of radical street performances and other experimental work. Under strict government censorship, artists behind the Iron Curtain turned to Schmuck and the wider Mail Art networks as clandestine channels for circulating and publishing their work. Through ingenious strategies of concealment, they disguised radical visual poetry and politically sensitive material as apparently meaningless doodles, sketches, or typewriter exercises.

 

The conception of this particular issue can thus be understood as a form of cultural survival. Knížák himself was brought before a Prague court and charged with discrediting the image of Czechoslovakia. He was ultimately acquitted, and the issue he had conceived as early as 1972 travelled safely to Devon, where it was published intact by Beau Geste Press two years later. Curated by Knížák, it brings together texts, drawings, photographs, and ideas by Soňa Švecová, Helena Pospíšilová, Robert Wittmann, J. Patočka, P. Tichý, Zdenka Žižková, Jan Maria Mach, V. Korejs, M. Marik, and Knížák himself.

Devon and Mexico City: Beau Geste Press and Libro Accion Libre
Unpaginated [56 pages]
29.1 × 20.4 cm

In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual Czechoslovakia Schmuck (1974); No. 5, Teutonic Schmuck (1975); No. 6, French Schmuck (1974); No. 7, General Schmuck (1976); and No. 8, Japanese Schmuck (1976). Edited by the three core members of Beau Geste Press – Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor – the magazine was conceived as a cooperative “assemblage” project, bringing together dozens of pioneering avant-garde, Fluxus, and conceptual artists from around the world, including Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski, and Mieko Shiomi.

 

The Czechoslovakian issue was coordinated by Milan Knížák, leader of the Aktual Group, who smuggled out documentation of radical street performances and other experimental work. Under strict government censorship, artists behind the Iron Curtain turned to Schmuck and the wider Mail Art networks as clandestine channels for circulating and publishing their work. Through ingenious strategies of concealment, they disguised radical visual poetry and politically sensitive material as apparently meaningless doodles, sketches, or typewriter exercises.

 

The conception of this particular issue can thus be understood as a form of cultural survival. Knížák himself was brought before a Prague court and charged with discrediting the image of Czechoslovakia. He was ultimately acquitted, and the issue he had conceived as early as 1972 travelled safely to Devon, where it was published intact by Beau Geste Press two years later. Curated by Knížák, it brings together texts, drawings, photographs, and ideas by Soňa Švecová, Helena Pospíšilová, Robert Wittmann, J. Patočka, P. Tichý, Zdenka Žižková, Jan Maria Mach, V. Korejs, M. Marik, and Knížák himself.

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In its relatively short run, from 1972 to 1976, Schmuck magazine produced eight international issues: No. 1, Schmuck Presents Real Schmuck (1972); No. 2, Icelandic Schmuck (1972); No. 3, Hungarian Schmuck (1973); No. 4, Aktual Czechoslovakia Schmuck (1974); No. 5, Teutonic Schmuck (1975); No. 6, French Schmuck (1974); No. 7, General Schmuck (1976); and No. 8, Japanese Schmuck (1976). Edited by the three core members of Beau Geste Press – Felipe Ehrenberg, Martha Hellion, and David Mayor – the magazine was conceived as a cooperative “assemblage” project, bringing together dozens of pioneering avant-garde, Fluxus, and conceptual artists from around the world, including Robert Filliou, Dick Higgins, Carolee Schneemann, Marcel Broodthaers, Christian Boltanski, and Mieko Shiomi.

 

The Czechoslovakian issue was coordinated by Milan Knížák, leader of the Aktual Group, who smuggled out documentation of radical street performances and other experimental work. Under strict government censorship, artists behind the Iron Curtain turned to Schmuck and the wider Mail Art networks as clandestine channels for circulating and publishing their work. Through ingenious strategies of concealment, they disguised radical visual poetry and politically sensitive material as apparently meaningless doodles, sketches, or typewriter exercises.

 

The conception of this particular issue can thus be understood as a form of cultural survival. Knížák himself was brought before a Prague court and charged with discrediting the image of Czechoslovakia. He was ultimately acquitted, and the issue he had conceived as early as 1972 travelled safely to Devon, where it was published intact by Beau Geste Press two years later. Curated by Knížák, it brings together texts, drawings, photographs, and ideas by Soňa Švecová, Helena Pospíšilová, Robert Wittmann, J. Patočka, P. Tichý, Zdenka Žižková, Jan Maria Mach, V. Korejs, M. Marik, and Knížák himself.

MORE BOOKS