Lithuanian-born artist, architect, designer, and self-appointed “chairman” of Fluxus, George Maciunas (1931-1978, Cooper Union School of Art graduate 1952) radically challenged the idea of avant-garde art, whether as object, concept, or commodity. Fluxus, an international community of conceptual artists, poets and musicians, sought to redefine the role of the artist by substituting art for everyday tasks, experiences, actions, and sensations.

This exhibition, curated by Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt, focuses on works and documents from Ay-O to Robert Watts. Rarely exhibited Fluxus scores and pieces are accompanied with Maciunas’s manifestos, charts, and plans for artist housing in SoHo. Anything Can Substitute Art sheds new light on a pivotal historic period for both the city of New York and contemporary art’s recent history, connecting the countercultural activism of the 1960s and 1970s to the moment of Fluxus.
 
41 COOPER GALLERY, New York City, December 11 – February 02, 2013

George Maciunas, Sketch for an announcement of the Fluxus yearboxes, c. 1965. (Detail.) Clippings on card board, 24.3 x 17.5 cm. © Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Vilnius