Öyvind Fahlström

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The Complete Graphics and Multiples of Öyvind Fahlström

Organized by the Bank One, and the University of Illinois at Chicago

September 2 – October 16, 2002

Sept. 8 4:00 p.m.: Director Dan Mills will present a multi-disciplinary lecture on Fahlström in the Gallery Theatre. Catalogue available.

Exhibition Brief: Öyvind Fahlström (1928-1976) was an artist, poet, journalist, playwright, critic, filmmaker and activist. This exhibition is a comprehensive survey of his graphics and object multiples, and is one of two Fahlström exhibitions that have traveled the world since 1999. Fahlström immersed himself in modern avant garde traditions as well as contemporary popular culture, and produced an oeuvre of work across the disciplines of film, performance, installation, sculpture, and painting, as well as prints and multiples. His influences were diverse and included European and American 20th century art movements, both pre-Columbian manuscripts and modern Mexican art, the work of John Cage, and underground American comic books. He employed the strategies of game-theory, mapping, puzzles and comics. He also created visual and aural languages, critiqued globalism and also promoted utopian ideas in visually fascinating, complex, information-filled art. Fahlström's extraordinary work focused on recent history, and through his art he investigated the world around him in terms of political, social and economic concerns.

After a posthumous retrospective at the Guggenheim in 1982, recognition of Fahlström's significant contributions to 20th century art were somewhat overlooked until recently. However, this has been changing dramatically over the last several years. Öyvind Fahlström, a major retrospective of his paintings, installations, and other work was organized by Museu d'art contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), and has been traveling in the US and Europe since 1999. This is the last stop of a national tour for Öyvind Fahlström: The Complete Graphics and Multiples, which has traveled the US since 1999. A second survey of his multiples is currently traveling in Europe as well; several significant books, catalogues, and recordings on Fahlström have been published since 1999 as well. This exhibition provides the Bucknell University community and this region of Pennsylvania the opportunity to participate in the current rediscovery of this international artist.

Originally curated by Sharon Avery Fahlström at Galerie Ahlner, Stockholm, in 1976. Fahlström images © Sharon Avery Fahlström