blake 3:17
10th January 2012, 02:35
I just came across this after years of being on the furthest edges of the concrete poetry and mail art world. Nothing much to say other than enjoy for those who do enjoy and/or produce this type of work.
The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
Ninth Revision October 2011
Introduction
Ruth and Marvin Sackner founded the Archive in Miami Beach, Florida in 1979, later moving it to Miami, Florida in 2005. Its initial mission was to establish a collection of books, critical texts, periodicals, ephemera, prints, drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures, objects, manuscripts, and correspondence dealing with precedent and contemporary, internationally produced, concrete and visual poetry. The antecedent material had at its starting point, Stephane Mallarme’s poem, “Un Coup de Des” (Cosmopolis, 1897). The historic examples included works with concrete/visual poetic sensibilities from such twentieth century art movements as Italian Futurism, Russian and Eastern European Avant Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Ultra, Tabu-Dada, Lettrisme, and Ultra-Lettrisme.
The initiators of the contemporary, international, concrete poetic movement included Öyvind Fahlstrom (1953), Eugen Gomringer (1953) and the Noigandres Group, i.e., Augusto De Campos, Haroldo De Campos, and Decio Pignatari (1955). The Sackners collected their works as well as those of subsequent poets and over the years expanded the scope of the Archive to include unique or small edition artist books that integrated text and image or consisted of experimental typography. They added examples of typewriter art and poetry, experimental calligraphy, correspondence art, stamp art, sound poetry, performance poetry, micrography, assembling periodicals, ‘zines,’ graphic design, and artist magazines as well as conventional poetry and prose written by concrete/visual poets and artists in the collection. Further, they collected experimental typographic, text and image works from such contemporary art movements as Fluxus, Transfuturism, and Inism. They included experimental fictional and non-fictional books with uniquely designed layouts such as Raymond Federman’s “Double or Nothing,” Alasdair Gray’s “1982 Janine,” B.E. Johnson’s “House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy,” Avital Ronell's "The Telephone Book," and Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves.” Pre-twentieth century examples of pattern poetry were added to the Archive such as Rabanus Maurus’ “Liber de Laudibus Sanctae Crucis” (1503) and Publili Optatiani Porfyrii’s “Panegyricus Dictus Constantino Augusto” (1595). The Sackners collected manuscripts, sketchbooks and letters written by poets and artists. In 2008, Linda Bandt Depew donated a large collection of books, manuscripts, drawings, prints and photographs made by her deceased husband, Wally Depew. The Archive has evolved into a word/image poetic and artistic resource rather than a restricted collection of concrete and visual poetry. In March 2005, the Sackner Archive moved from their house in Miami Beach to a two story apartment in Miami. The floor space of this new dwelling is comparable to the house but the layouts are very different. In the house, books were displayed in two large libraries. But with limited space to show books and much greater wall space in the apartment, artworks now dominate the display.
We have retained copies of the correspondence to and from dealers, curators, artists, poets and critics since the collection was formed. None of this correspondence has yet been catalogued. Yes! The Sackners do all the cataloging of their collection. We chose to call our collection an ‘Archive’ because an Archive includes correspondence, documentation and ephemeral material as well as core items of the collection. With the growth of the collection, the Sackner Archive took on features of an Archive of Archives. This direction might have subconsciously originated from our attendance at the blockbuster exhibitions held at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris: PARIS-NEW YORK (1977), PARIS-BERLIN 1900-1933 (1978), PARIS-MOSCOU, 1900-1930 (1979), and PARIS-PARIS 1937-1957 (1981). The wealth of background (archival) material was an eye-opener to us. It brought life to these inanimate works and put them into matters of the moment that often uncovered unforeseen links to others. We have enjoyed cultivating personal contacts with artists and poets or their relatives and friends whose works constitute an Archive beginning with the multi-dimensional artist, Tom Phillips, in 1975 and still ongoing today. Such documentation may be found in our catalogue (1986) published in an edition of 500 copies that unfortunately is long out of print and the movie ‘Concrete!’(2003) made by our daughter, Sara Sackner, that is available on DVD and on streaming video (http://www.ubu.com/film/sackner_concrete.html).
http://ww2.rediscov.com/sacknerarchives/Welcome.aspx?15201211155
The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
Ninth Revision October 2011
Introduction
Ruth and Marvin Sackner founded the Archive in Miami Beach, Florida in 1979, later moving it to Miami, Florida in 2005. Its initial mission was to establish a collection of books, critical texts, periodicals, ephemera, prints, drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures, objects, manuscripts, and correspondence dealing with precedent and contemporary, internationally produced, concrete and visual poetry. The antecedent material had at its starting point, Stephane Mallarme’s poem, “Un Coup de Des” (Cosmopolis, 1897). The historic examples included works with concrete/visual poetic sensibilities from such twentieth century art movements as Italian Futurism, Russian and Eastern European Avant Garde, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, Ultra, Tabu-Dada, Lettrisme, and Ultra-Lettrisme.
The initiators of the contemporary, international, concrete poetic movement included Öyvind Fahlstrom (1953), Eugen Gomringer (1953) and the Noigandres Group, i.e., Augusto De Campos, Haroldo De Campos, and Decio Pignatari (1955). The Sackners collected their works as well as those of subsequent poets and over the years expanded the scope of the Archive to include unique or small edition artist books that integrated text and image or consisted of experimental typography. They added examples of typewriter art and poetry, experimental calligraphy, correspondence art, stamp art, sound poetry, performance poetry, micrography, assembling periodicals, ‘zines,’ graphic design, and artist magazines as well as conventional poetry and prose written by concrete/visual poets and artists in the collection. Further, they collected experimental typographic, text and image works from such contemporary art movements as Fluxus, Transfuturism, and Inism. They included experimental fictional and non-fictional books with uniquely designed layouts such as Raymond Federman’s “Double or Nothing,” Alasdair Gray’s “1982 Janine,” B.E. Johnson’s “House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy,” Avital Ronell's "The Telephone Book," and Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves.” Pre-twentieth century examples of pattern poetry were added to the Archive such as Rabanus Maurus’ “Liber de Laudibus Sanctae Crucis” (1503) and Publili Optatiani Porfyrii’s “Panegyricus Dictus Constantino Augusto” (1595). The Sackners collected manuscripts, sketchbooks and letters written by poets and artists. In 2008, Linda Bandt Depew donated a large collection of books, manuscripts, drawings, prints and photographs made by her deceased husband, Wally Depew. The Archive has evolved into a word/image poetic and artistic resource rather than a restricted collection of concrete and visual poetry. In March 2005, the Sackner Archive moved from their house in Miami Beach to a two story apartment in Miami. The floor space of this new dwelling is comparable to the house but the layouts are very different. In the house, books were displayed in two large libraries. But with limited space to show books and much greater wall space in the apartment, artworks now dominate the display.
We have retained copies of the correspondence to and from dealers, curators, artists, poets and critics since the collection was formed. None of this correspondence has yet been catalogued. Yes! The Sackners do all the cataloging of their collection. We chose to call our collection an ‘Archive’ because an Archive includes correspondence, documentation and ephemeral material as well as core items of the collection. With the growth of the collection, the Sackner Archive took on features of an Archive of Archives. This direction might have subconsciously originated from our attendance at the blockbuster exhibitions held at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris: PARIS-NEW YORK (1977), PARIS-BERLIN 1900-1933 (1978), PARIS-MOSCOU, 1900-1930 (1979), and PARIS-PARIS 1937-1957 (1981). The wealth of background (archival) material was an eye-opener to us. It brought life to these inanimate works and put them into matters of the moment that often uncovered unforeseen links to others. We have enjoyed cultivating personal contacts with artists and poets or their relatives and friends whose works constitute an Archive beginning with the multi-dimensional artist, Tom Phillips, in 1975 and still ongoing today. Such documentation may be found in our catalogue (1986) published in an edition of 500 copies that unfortunately is long out of print and the movie ‘Concrete!’(2003) made by our daughter, Sara Sackner, that is available on DVD and on streaming video (http://www.ubu.com/film/sackner_concrete.html).
http://ww2.rediscov.com/sacknerarchives/Welcome.aspx?15201211155