MULTIPLES, INC. — Artists & Photographs — Librairie Marian Goodman — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 20 → May 29, 2021

Librairie Marian Goodman is pleased to present the portfolio, Artists & Photographs, as well as a selection of photographic works published by Multiples, Inc., the publishing house founded in 1965 by a group of five people including Marian Goodman.

The idea of the “multiple,” an artwork produced in a limited edition, was very much in the air at the time. In New York, there were already several publishers of multiples, but no spaces for showing them. The aim of the Multiples Gallery, which opened in 1965, was not only to make these works known, but also to exhibit them, sell them, and distribute them. The procedure of the multiple opened up new sales circuits: affordable objects brought contemporary art within reach of a wider public. New materials and production techniques replaced the more traditional methods of painting and bronze casts. Numerous multiples in the form of boxes could easily be kept on shelves. Multiples Inc. commissioned works from artists associated with Op Art and Pop Art, and also went on to work with lesser-known artists such as Sol LeWitt, Dennis Oppenheim, and Robert Smithson.

The new generation of artists were looking for an alternative way of showing their work. In response to this need, Multiples, Inc. offered its 1970 Artists & Photographs edition, in which the works of nineteen American and European artists were brought together in a single box. These artists worked with photography, not as a traditional medium, but in order to document their art processes and conceptual works. Among them were LeWitt and Smithson, but also Jan Dibbets, Dan Graham, Bruce Nauman, and Edward Ruscha, to name but a few. In lieu of objects, the box contained artists’ books, brochures, leaflets, and folders in various formats done in black-and-white offset. Despite its considerable print run of 1,200, this edition was not a commercial success at the time; today, however, its contents are in high demand.

Marian Goodman recognizes this edition, at once a “multiple of multiples,” a portable museum and a “play box,” as one of the most exciting projects of her long career in publishing. In 1975, the Artists & Photographs box was followed by a portfolio bearing the same name, and became notable for the participation of European artists such as Bernhard and Hilla Becher, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Dibbets, and Ger van Elk.

Alongside these two editions, several prints by Richard Hamilton, Peter Hutchinson, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, published at this time, will also be featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, presenting the history and complete editions of Multiples, Inc., has been curated by Dieter Schwarz.