Jean Dupuy

As part of the Soho Arts Network Downtown Culture Walk, the Emily Harvey Foundation (EHF) will host a special screening of Jean Dupuy’s collective performance concerts and a selection of his works from the EHF collection.

In 1976, after purchasing the second-floor loft at 537 Broadway from George Maciunas, Dupuy launched a pivotal phase of downtown performance art in the space that he dubbed Grommet Studio, which remained active until 1982. Marking an extraordinary moment of collaboration among some of the leading artists of his generation, Dupuy’s collective performances represent a unique and radically interdisciplinary moment in the history of the experimental arts of the 1970s. Dupuy best captured the character of his activities on Broadway in a conversation with John Howell, published in Collective Consciousness, PAJ, New York, 1980 - a book which he edited and which retraces his concept of “collective performances”:

The real avant-garde of the seventies was not followed by art critics, museums, and art dealers at all. Therefore, as artists we must have a job to survive. Through these performances, sometimes you can see the jobs of the artist. So mixed-media and performance artists are very close to everyday reality and reflect something very real, the world where he or she is living and working. It is not an ivory tower kind of art. And mixed-media and performance make it possible for the artist to use anything. In art terms, it’s probably a consequence of the Marcel Duchamp revolution. Part of that is escaping the structure too. This mixed-media and performance defined seventies art to me.

The following collective videotapes will be screened throughout the day:

Soup & Tart, 1975

Jean Dupuy, NYC. 1⁄2’’ open reel video, black and white, sound, 56’, (English). The Kitchen (59 Wooster St.), Nov. 30.

Artists: Olga Adorno, Joanna Akalaitis, Charles Atlas, Robert Breer, Jean Dupuy, Jon Gibson, Philip Glass, Jana Haimsohn, DeeDee Halleck, Joan Jonas, Richard Landry, Gordon Matta-Clark, Donald Monroe, Tony Mascatello, Carl Paler, Kate Parker, Charlemagne Palestine, Yvonne Rainer, Arthur Russell, Alan Saret, Joan Schwartz, Richard Serra, Nancy Topf, David Warrilow, Sylvia Whitman, Hannah Wilke.

Artists Propaganda I, 1976

Jean Dupuy, Defess Production (Jean Dupuy, Kit Fitzgerald, and John Sanborn), NYC. 3⁄4’’ open reel video, color, sound, 60’, (English)

Artists: Olga Adorno, Laurie Anderson, James Barth, S. Billingsley, Kit Fitzgerald & John Sanborn, Jana Haimsohn, Suzanne Harris, Dick Higgins, Pooh Kaye, Les Levine, Nancy Lewis, Tony Mascatello, Larry Miller, Donald Munroe, Nam June Paik (with John Cage), Charlemagne Palestine, Richard Prince, Stuart Sherman, Zadik Zadikian.

Banana Dupuy, 1977

Jean Dupuy, NYC. 1⁄2’’ open reel video, black and white, sound, 25’, (English)

Filmed by Kit Fitzgerald and John Sanborn

Artists: Olga Adorno, Jean Dupuy, Jana Haimsohn, Dick Higgins, George Maciunas, Tim Maul, R. White, Irene Von Zahn.

Artists Propaganda II, 1977

Jean Dupuy, Defess Production (Jean Dupuy, Kit Fitzgerald, and John Sanborn), NYC. Video, color, sound, 30’, (English)

Artists: Olga Adorno, Maureen Connor, Jean Dupuy, Kit Fitzgerald & John Sanborn, Jared Fitzgerald, John Giorno, Jana Haimsohn, Elaine Hartnett, Pooh Kaye, Dicky Landry, Les Levine, Tim Maul, Tony Mascatello, Andrew Moszyinski, Lil Picard, Lucio Pozzi, Stuart Sherman, Michael Smith, Martha Wilson.

Jean Dupuy (b. 1925, France) is a pioneer of experimental practices combining art and technology. His works range from the study and devise of anagrams, to paintings, as well as experiments with lenses and new technologies. In 1967, Dupuy moved from France to New York, where he started performing collectively with other New York artists in his loft at 405 E 13th St. Between 1976 and 1982, he lived and organized activities at the Grommet Studio, the second-floor loft at 537 Broadway. During his time in New York, Dupuy organized collective performances at other locations, including the Whitney Museum, The Kitchen, the Judson Church, and PS1, among others. In the mid 80s, Dupuy moved to Nice, France, where he currently lives and works.