4.2000: Chocolate

Identification and Creation

Object Number

4.2000

People

Edward Ruscha, American (Omaha, NE born 1937)

Title

Chocolate

Other Titles

Series/Book Title: Assembling, vol. 1, Henry Korn and Richard Kostelanetz, compilers

Classification

Prints

Work Type

artist's book

Date

1970

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/187132

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Chocolate on paper

Dimensions

sheet: 27.9 x 21.6 cm (11 x 8 1/2 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

E.. M17

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Anonymous Loan in honor of Linda Norden

Copyright

© Ed Ruscha

Object Number

4.2000

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Commentary

The periodical in which Ruscha's chocolate smear is contained was an unedited compilation of works submitted by artists and writers who can best be described as anti-establishment in 1970, a very anti-establishment year for many. (A kind of editorial oversight was imposed, of course, by the list of invitees.) The only restriction on the submissions was that they be four pages or less and that they be susceptible to reproduction on 8 1/2 x 11" sheets at the artists' own expense.

This issue of "Assembling" is the first volume in a series that would be issued annually over the next decade or more. One of "Assembling"'s editors, Richard Kostelanetz, began another periodical in 1977, "Precisely," which was more oriented toward criticism, but its introduction conveys the same anti-establishment sentiments, directed toward the current vogue in art-world status, official grants to projects: "This initial issue appears without any assistance whatsoever from the NEA, NYSCA, CCLM or the Canada Council, which is to say that its purposes are eminently serious and eleemosynary." An essay in that issue was also devoted to artist's books, evidencing the interest continuing in the art form embodied by "Assembling." Other artists of some note who participated in the first issue of "Assembling" include Vito Acconci, Arakawa, and Dan Graham.

For "Chocolate," Ruscha saved printing money and doubtless used up excess 'pigment' from his production of "The Chocolate Room," an installation at the 1970 Venice Biennale in which his gallery's walls were covered with paper onto which chocolate had been screen printed. This was the beginning of his 'stains' period, in which he printed and painted with all kinds of natural, or at least not ordinarily artistic, substances.

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