Robin Page
Encyclopedia
Robin Page is a painter. He was one of the early members of the Fluxus
art movement.
, Dieter Roth
, Dorothy Iannone
, Daniel Spoerri
, Ben Vautier
, et al. His artwork embraced the sentiments of the movement. Namely, it’s ‘anti-art’ stance, inherited from the Dadaists, and its emphasis on the event as an artwork (called a Happening
or an Action Event). Page performed many Happenings, including one titled Guitar, which involved him in kicking his guitar with the help of an audience along the Mall for the ICA’s Misfits concert. Other events involved Page making a chalk portrait drawing of Joseph Beuys
, complete with begging bowl, on the pavement in front of the National Gallery.
By 1970, Page left the Fluxus movement and moved to Germany. He began to develop his own brand of cutting edge art and was one of the first artists to employ humour as a means of overtly challenging notions of ‘good taste’ in the art world. His Hey Wildon paintings stand as one of Page’s alter-ego puppets that mocked and commented on ‘art’ while at the same time embodied the traditional techniques of painting. Page poses the question “ Hey, Whildon, why has humour never replaced seriousness as the most respectable cultural attitude?” to which Whildon replies “Because people can’t fake it!”
Page’s artwork continued to develop an overtly biting and satirical commentary on cultural pretensions. By 1987 he had "died and gone to Bluebeard" which involved him in dying his beard blue (executed by Mike Spike Froidl - see the appropriate painting here) and producing a series of paintings that appropriate elements from poster and propaganda art. His Bluebeard AMuseum further places Page at the forefront of contemporary art; by both mocking the notion of the Institution and placing himself at the centre of his art ‘collection’, Page challenges the very basis upon which power is assigned to private and state run and cultural organisations. One notable example is the painting Freedom is a Burning Brush which features the artist posing as the Statue of Liberty holding a paintbrush as a torch.
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
art movement.
Biography
Page was born in England in 1932. His father, Peter Carter-Page, was a humorist and cartoonist who worked as an animator at the Disney studios in Hollywood in the 1930’s. The family moved to Canada where the young Page lived until the age of 27. Page moved back to Europe in 1959 and quickly found himself in the company of the international network of Fluxus artists, such as Robert FilliouRobert Filliou
Robert Filliou was a French Fluxus artist, who produced works as a filmmaker, "action poet," sculptor, and happenings maestro....
, Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth
Dieter Roth was an Icelandic artist of Swiss German origin best known for his artist's books and for his sculptures and pictures made with rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot....
, Dorothy Iannone
Dorothy Iannone
Dorothy Iannone is an American-born, Berlin-based self-taught artist famous for her psychedelic, erotically-charged work.-Biography:Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1933, Iannone graduated from Boston University in 1957 with a B.A. in American Literature. She went on to study English Literature at...
, Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania, who has been called "the central figure of European post-war art" and "one of the most renown[ed] [artists] of the 20th century." Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures...
, Ben Vautier
Ben Vautier
Ben Vautier , also known simply as Ben, is a French artist.Vautier lives and works in Nice, where he ran a record shop called Magazin between 1958 and 1973...
, et al. His artwork embraced the sentiments of the movement. Namely, it’s ‘anti-art’ stance, inherited from the Dadaists, and its emphasis on the event as an artwork (called a Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
or an Action Event). Page performed many Happenings, including one titled Guitar, which involved him in kicking his guitar with the help of an audience along the Mall for the ICA’s Misfits concert. Other events involved Page making a chalk portrait drawing of Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
, complete with begging bowl, on the pavement in front of the National Gallery.
By 1970, Page left the Fluxus movement and moved to Germany. He began to develop his own brand of cutting edge art and was one of the first artists to employ humour as a means of overtly challenging notions of ‘good taste’ in the art world. His Hey Wildon paintings stand as one of Page’s alter-ego puppets that mocked and commented on ‘art’ while at the same time embodied the traditional techniques of painting. Page poses the question “ Hey, Whildon, why has humour never replaced seriousness as the most respectable cultural attitude?” to which Whildon replies “Because people can’t fake it!”
Page’s artwork continued to develop an overtly biting and satirical commentary on cultural pretensions. By 1987 he had "died and gone to Bluebeard" which involved him in dying his beard blue (executed by Mike Spike Froidl - see the appropriate painting here) and producing a series of paintings that appropriate elements from poster and propaganda art. His Bluebeard AMuseum further places Page at the forefront of contemporary art; by both mocking the notion of the Institution and placing himself at the centre of his art ‘collection’, Page challenges the very basis upon which power is assigned to private and state run and cultural organisations. One notable example is the painting Freedom is a Burning Brush which features the artist posing as the Statue of Liberty holding a paintbrush as a torch.
Happenings (Action Events)
- 1962: The Door, London. Art Indicator, London. Guitar Piece, Misfits Concert, ICA, London. Simultaneous Document of the Space Flight of American Astronaut Walter Shira, London.
- 1963: Plant Piece, Little festival of New Music, London. Two Stones London and the Fluxus Festival, Nice. Wrap-up, BBC, New Comment, London. The Measurement of Motivation, London.
- 1965: Eclipse, Theatre Royal, Stratford, London.
- 1966: Krow 1, Destruction in Art Symposium, London. Beach Boxes, Scarborough. Merry Christmas ‘66, Leeds.
- 1967: Action Lecture on War, Cardiff. Protest March, Leeds.
- 1968: Professor Protozoa’s Mini Majestic Bilou Road Show Yeah, City of London Festival. The Wild Man of Woburn, Woburn Abbey. Event for Liz, St. Valentine’s Eve, Bradford. Concert of Experimental Music, Commonwealth Institute, London.
Solo exhibitions
- 1969: Art Intermedia, Cologne
- 1971: Eat Art Gallery, Düsseldorf
- 1972: Galerie Muller, Cologne
- 1973: Kunstverein, Cologne; Galerie Muller, Stuttgart; Galerie Gunter Sachs, Hamburg
- 1974: Galerie Foncke, Ghent; Salon de Mai, Paris (travelled to Braunschweig, Germany and Lijnbaacentrum, Rotterdam)
- 1975: Gallery Allen, Vancouver
- 1977: Junior Galerie, Goslar, Germany; Galerie Vallois, Paris
- 1979: Galerie Redmann, Sylt, Germany; Akademie der KünsteAkademie der KünsteThe Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
, Berlin - 1980: Galerie Redmann, Berlin; Galerie Redmann at ART'80, Basle; Kunsthalle, Darmstadt, Germany
- 1982: Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
- 1993: Galerie Klewan Munich
Group exhibitions
- 1953: Young West Coast Painters, Vancouver
- 1954: West Coast Hard Edge, Seattle
- 1962: Festival of Misfits, Gallery One, London; Richmond Jazz Festival
- 1963: Ten Year Show, Gallery One, London
- 1964 Cross Section, City Museum, Leicester; About Round, University of Leeds
- 1965: 45th Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London; Structures Vivantes, Redfern Gallery, London; Then & Now, Park Square Gallery, Leeds.
- 1966: Form& Image, City Museum, Leeds; Destruction in Art, Symposium, Leeds
- 1967: Concrete/Spatial Poetry, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham.
- 1969: Amadou in A, Antwerpen
- 1970: Happenings & Fluxus, Kunstverein, Koln
- 1972: Szene Rhein-Rhur, Museum FolkwangMuseum FolkwangMuseum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th and 20th century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patron Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen, founded in 1901.The term...
, Essen; Documenta 5, Kassel; Freunde ded Museums Sammein (Collections of the Friends of the Museum), Museum Folkwang, Essen - 1973: 6th International Triennial of Coloured Graphic Prints, Grenchen Galerie Muller, Koln.
Publications
- Paul Gravett, (2007) Pulp Fiction, Hayward Gallery Publishing, Southbank Centre, London
- J. Gray, (1993) Action Art, Greenwood Press, CT, USA, ISBN 0-313-28916-6
- Karl-Heinz Hering, (1974) Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Verheyen & Schulte, Düsseldorf
- ‘Art in a Brown Paper Bag’, Weekend Magazine (Montreal), May, 1975
- ‘I am a Unique Idiot’, Marq de VilliersMarq de VilliersMarq de Villiers, CM is an award-winning Canadian writer and journalist. He now chiefly writes non-fiction books on scientific topics. In the past he also worked as a magazine editor and foreign correspondent.-Biography:...
, Weekend Magazine, (Montreal), May, 1975 - ‘Artist Dips His Brush in Canadian Wry’, Art Perry, Vancouver Province, November, 1974
- ‘Everybody Invited’, John Anthony ThwaitesJohn Anthony ThwaitesJohn Anthony Thwaites was a British art critic and author, who lived and worked in West Germany from 1946.- Biography :Thwaites studied history at the universities of Lausanne and Cambridge. From 1931 he was a member of the British Foreign Service, and worked until 1943 as a British vice-consul in...
, Art and Artists, London, November 1974 - ‘Robin Page, Galerie Muller’, G. Wirth, Das Kunstwerke, Baden-Baden, July 1973
- ‘A Note on Robin Page’, E.Lynn, Art International, Lugano, May 1973
- ‘Robin Page: Bildparabeln, Exhibition Catalogue’, Augsburg, 1982
- ‘Mail Art: Communication a Distance’, Jean-Marc Poinsot, Paris, 1971
- ‘Robin Page’, Flash Art, May 1972