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PRESS RELEASE

ONE CENT LIFE (Abstract to Pop)

13th MARCH - 20th APRIL 2012

A&D GALLERY, 51 CHILTERN ST, LONDON, W1U6LY

PRIVATE VIEW 13th MARCH 6.30-9.30

A&D Gallery is pleased to present an extensive exhibition of original lithographs from the

1964 portfolio One Cent Life. This unique collection was the conceived by the Chinese,

artist & poet Walasse Ting, with the support and initial funding from the Abstract

Expressionist, Sam Francis.

'One Cent Life' is comprised of 62 lithographs created by 28 very different artists from

Europe and America. The choice of European artists is a reflection of Tings experience

since leaving China, while the choice of American artists appear to owe more to the

access provided by Sam Francis.

The short lived CoBrA group (Co-penhagen, Br-ussels, A-msterdam) had a major

influence on Ting, and he selected founder members Asger Jorn, Pierre Allechinsky plus

many other key artists of that group, as well as those, who, like Ting, were influenced by

their improvised, naive approach.

The American artists were more diverse, and included 2nd generation Abstract

Expressionists, notably Francis, himself plus Joan Mitchell and Jean Paul Riopelle.

Many of the artists, who would later be called Pop artists, were selected from

participants in two of New York's defining art events. Artists such as Jim Dine, and

Robert Rauschenberg, were working in Allan Kaprow's "Happenings", while others

including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein exhibited as New Realists at Sydney Janis

Gallery. No mention of Pop Art is made, but One Cent Life is considered to be a defining

moment in that movement’s development.

Having made the selection of artists, Ting provided the text with a series of stream of

consciousness neo-beat poems, though their relevance to the images is tenuous at best.

It was edited by Francis and published, in an unbound book format, by Swiss publisher

Kornfeld as an edition of 2000.

The gaping hole is of-course the lack of British artists (The Scotish artist Alan Davie being

the only exception). In 1963 the Atlantic and the English Channel were apparently a lot

wider than they are today.

//ENDS

For further details and images contact hc@aanddgallery.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS

(Artists in red have a looser Connection)

Abstract Expressionist (2nd Generation):

Joan Mitchell, Jean Paul Riopelle, Kimber Smith, Sam Francis,

Alfred Leslie, Kiki O.K, Alfred Jensen, K. R. H. Sonderborg

CoBrA Member Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam:

(influenced by) Bram Van Velde,

Asger Jorn,(founder member), Karel Appel,(founder member), Pierre Alechinsky (member),

Reinhoud d'Haese (member),

Alan Davie, Walasse Ting, Antonio Saura

Happenings:

Allan Kaprow, Tom Wesslemann, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine,

New Realists. Sidney Janis Gallery

James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Enrico Baj

Oyvind Fahlstrom, Mel Ramos

CoBrA

Coming together as an amalgamation of the Dutch group Reflex, the Danish group Høst and the

Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group, the group only lasted a few years but managed to

achieve a number of objectives in that time; the periodical Cobra, a series of collaborations

between various members called Peintures-Mot and two large-scale exhibitions. The first of

these was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, November 1949, the other at the Palais

des Beaux-Arts in Liège in 1951. Cobra was a milestone in the development of Tachisme and

European abstract expressionism. The group and it's working methods based on spontaneity

and experiment, are celebrated at the Cobra Museum for Modern Art in the Netherlands.

HAPPENINGS

Robert Rauschenberg (with Jasper Johns) painted an instalation for "18 Happenings in 6 Parts"

in 1959—the performance conceived by Allan Kaprow that forever changed the course of art

history by moving art off of the wall and into life, involving the participation of the audience and

incorporating sound, smell, poetry, music, and lights. Between 1958 and 1963 these events

transformed art, the perception of art, and its reception by the public. As ground-breaking as the

Abstract Expressionists had been, they remained within the historic traditions of painting and

sculpture. As Rauschenberg said "The Happenings artists, each in his or her own way,

destroyed the boundaries between art and life."

NEW REALISTS

As a result of this exhibition artists such as Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell resigned from

the Sidney Janis Gallery, not wishing to be identified with these "Johnny Come Latelys"

The artists whose names would eventually be tied to the Pop movement were working and

showing separately until the early 1960s when gallerists and museums began linking these

artists together. In the beginning, there wasn't even an agreed upon label to apply to the art--

Neo-Dada or New Realists were used until the British term Pop Art was universally adopted.

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