Art/Object: Contemporary Works between Mediums

To view this online
exhibition please visit
http://tiny.cc/artobject
Jennie Waldow

Richard Long’s Georgia Granite Circle (1990, fig. 1) is a monumental
work, spanning a diameter of sixteen feet. White stones,
striated in tones of gray and black, are clustered together in the
form of a disc on the floor. The size and placement of the piece
shapes the movements of viewers as they navigate the surrounding
space, and its scale brings to mind massive, sculptural stone
sites such as prehistoric rock circles and industrial quarries.
The donation of this work to the Cantor Arts Center
in 2003 was accompanied by a white piece of paper (fig. 2).
Unframed and horizontal in orientation, the certificate for Georgia Granite
Circle contains precise installation instructions, which include neat diagrams
drawn in red and black pencil, and markers of authenticity, including the artist’s
signature, the date, and a red stamp. The block of text ends with a clear notation
that the certificate was produced for procedural purposes only and is not, in
Long’s conception, an independent artwork. This declarative text crystallizes
the bureaucratic leanings of postwar Conceptualism and Land art, in which
artists created certificates, instructions, and other documents that served as
corollaries to works of art that existed elsewhere: in nature, in the gallery, or
even in the mind of the viewer, as in the language-based works of artists such
as Lawrence Weiner.
Fig. 1
Richard Long (English, born in
1945), Georgia Granite Circle,
1990. Marble. © 2021 Richard
Long. All Rights Reserved, DACS,
London / ARS, NY. Gift of Rita
and Toby Schreiber, 2003.48
Fig. 2
Richard Long (English, born in
1945), Certificate for “Georgia
Granite Circle,” 1990. Pencil on
paper. © 2021 Richard Long. All
Rights Reserved, DACS, London
/ ARS, NY. Gift of Rita and Toby
Schreiber, 2004.7
3

But what do we make of the objects that remain? Are they archival documents,
artworks in their own right, or, as Long’s instruction asserts, notes for
curators, collectors, and installers? These questions are not incidental, because
the categorical schemas imposed by archives, libraries, and museums speak to
the values of particular institutions and the ways in which historical esteem is
assigned to objects. And on a more practical level, these classifications affect the
way these objects are displayed, their availability to scholars and the public, and
the frequency (or infrequency) with which they are exhibited, thereby shaping
the audience’s view of artistic developments of the recent past.
Discussing the informational potential of exhibition announcements, a
form even more nebulous than Long’s certificate, Clive Phillpot writes, “But just
as the ancient but ephemeral mayflies continue to be part of our contemporary
ecosystems, playing their part in food chains in which even humans participate
(e.g., plankton, naiads, mayflies, fish, humans), so too are such items as
exhibition announcements an important component in the art historical food
chain (e.g., announcement, research notes, dissertation, exhibition catalogue,
monograph, catalogue raisonné). They provide some of the atoms from which
art historians can synthesize molecules and new compounds.” 1 The forms of
these “new compounds” abound, including fresh chronologies, expanded artistic
biographies, and innovative theoretical models. Students, artists, and casual
museum or library visitors, in addition to art historians, stand to gain a fuller
understanding of a creator or historical moment when these marginal, ambiguous
objects are made visible.
This exhibition grew from my dissertation research on ephemera, an
ever-shifting and contested medium category described by media scholar Mary
Desjardins as “throwaways not thrown away.” 2 Artists today do not typically
differentiate between ephemera and fine art, making Long’s declaration that
his certificate is not an artwork somewhat unusual. Instead, this distinction
is largely imposed by collecting institutions to distinguish art that belongs
to traditional medium categories, such as painting and sculpture, from more
ambiguous objects, usually works on paper, that may be considered supplementary
to larger works of art, promotional in nature, mass-produced, or otherwise
elusive. The label of “ephemera” came under increased pressure in the 1960s
and 1970s—the era when medium hierarchies centered on painting, championed
by the influential modern art critic Clement Greenberg in the preceding
decades, were supposedly made irrelevant, and the “throwaway” status of new
art objects was a key component of their democratic, anti-capitalist potential. 3
For artists such as Ed Ruscha and Eleanor Antin, the
transient or “low” connotations of formats such as
the postcard, poster, or invitation offered enhanced
accessibility, allowing ideas and imagery to circulate at
greater scale and providing a forum to explore themes
of the everyday.
Art/Object expands this line of inquiry to consider
works in the collections of the Cantor Arts Center and
Bowes Library that fall between the cracks of obvious
medium categories, encompassing editions, documents,
posters and placards, invitations, and preparatory
documents. In one light, an object like the invitation to
Lawrence Weiner’s 1977 installation at Konrad Fischer
Gallery in Düsseldorf (fig. 3) could be considered purely
informational: it arrives at the home of the invited guest,
who notes the time and place of the show on her calendar
and then tosses it away, deeming its communicative
purpose fulfilled. But to someone else, or in another circumstance, the invitation
could be considered a work of art: it contains the dual-language translation
that is a hallmark of Weiner’s work; it has been thoughtfully divided into three
sections that correspond to Weiner’s interest in the portability of words and
concepts; and the installation’s unwieldy title, Having been marked with (i.e.
decorated), having been decorated with (i.e. marked), with a probability of being
seen, is akin to one of Weiner’s “statements,” written descriptions that, in the
rest of his body of work, are considered artistic expressions in their own right.
Significantly, the invitation has not, in fact, been tossed away: it has been
deemed worthy of preservation and now belongs to the collection of Stanford
University’s Bowes Library, available for future audiences. As Sarah Wasserman
writes in her survey of ephemera in US literature, “Because ephemera vanish in
principle and yet so often remain with us, they dramatize the dynamics between
the temporary and the permanent, between extinction and longevity, and thus
between the value-less and the valuable.” 4 The persistence and continuing
accessibility of similarly slippery art objects often depends on shifting individual
tastes, the renown of the maker, the passage of time, and the cultural authority
of collectors, archivists, librarians, and curators, allowing an invitation to
be considered a transient object under certain circumstances and schemas of
value, and an enduring artwork under others.
Fig. 3
Lawrence Weiner (American,
born in 1942), Sticker
(3 gummed labels, with
offset printing), exhibition
component from “A Work of
Lawrence Weiner Presented In
The Context Of Konrad Fischer
Gallery,” Konrad Fischer
Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany,
1977. Ink on paper, adhesive.
© 2021 Lawrence Weiner /
ARS, New York. Courtesy of
the Ute & Bill Bowes Art &
Architecture Library, Stanford
Libraries
4 5

manner entirely different from his high-gloss portraits. For example, a 1976 contact
sheet (fig. 4) pictures Mick Jagger in a casual social setting, while Warhol’s
collage portrait of the singer from the same year (fig. 5) casts him in a distant
light: as an icon rendered in layers of bright crayon and iridescent Mylar. Warhol
met Jagger at a party in New York in 1964, during the Rolling Stones’ first US
tour. Jagger and his then-wife Bianca soon became members of Warhol’s glamorous
stable of friends, and in 1971 the artist designed the provocative cover of
the Stones’ album Sticky Fingers, which featured a high-contrast close-up of a
jeans-clad crotch, complete with a working zipper. The contact sheet, marked
with red circles to indicate which frames were printed, shows Jagger and his
daughter Jade on the beach in Montauk, Long Island, along with Warhol’s
Images across Objects
By bringing together objects produced by one artist across medium categories,
we can gain a greater understanding of their holistic production and creative
process. Imagery, compositional strategies, or thematic concerns often surface
across media, shifting in appearance or meaning depending on context. Rather
than presenting a divided hierarchy, these pairings present an artist’s production
as a continuum that unfolds organically across forms.
Consider, for instance, Andy Warhol’s formal portraits in juxtaposition
with his contact sheets. In 2014, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual
Arts selected the Cantor as the repository for 3,600 contact sheets created by
the artist between 1976 and his death in 1987. 5 With his Minox 35EL camera,
Warhol continually documented his famous and infamous friends in an offhand
Fig. 4
Andy Warhol (American,
1928–1987), Contact Sheet
[Montauk: Andy Warhol, Jed
Johnson, Mick Jagger, Jade
Jagger, dachshunds Archie and
Amos], 1976. Gelatin silver
print. © The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts,
Inc. Gift of The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts,
Inc., 2014.43.3016
Fig. 5
Andy Warhol (American,
1928–1987), Portrait of Mick
Jagger, 1976. Mylar, paper,
and crayon. © 2021 The Andy
Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by
Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. Given in honor of
Gerhard Casper, President,
Stanford University (1992–
2000), by Daryl and John Lillie,
2000.104
6 7

oyfriend, Jed Johnson, and their dachshunds, Archie and Amos. Portrait of
Mick Jagger, in contrast, pictures Jagger as the sole subject of an experiment in
material and color, against a placeless backdrop. While the contact sheet provides
glimpses of Warhol and Jagger’s private, informal interactions, the collage
portrait is a highly polished, outward-facing presentation, filtering Jagger’s body
and gestures through Warhol’s distinctive visual style.
Other couplings have subtler yet still significant variations in imagery,
such as Ed Ruscha’s print Swarm of Red Ants (fig. 6) and his poster for the
Kassel-based art fair Documenta 5 (fig. 7), both made in 1972. Inspired by
the German Surrealist J. T. Baargeld’s ink drawing of beetles, which Ruscha
described as picturing “some kind of fantasy racetrack” for the titular animals,
the artist conceived of six aerial views of bugs for the portfolio Insects, which
included Swarm of Red Ants. 6 Later in 1972, the Swiss curator Harald Szeemann
invited Ruscha to design the poster and catalogue cover for the fifth iteration of
Fig. 6
Edward Ruscha (American,
born in 1937), Swarm of Red
Ants, 1972. Screenprint. Gift
of Jerome Zipkin, 1982.183
Fig. 7
Edward Ruscha (American,
born in 1937), Documenta 5,
1972. Screenprint. Gift of
Jerome Zipkin, 1982.184
8 9

the Documenta art fair, which later was regarded as a foundational exhibition of
Conceptual art. 7 Ruscha’s promotional materials drew on similar visual motifs
as the Insects portfolio, with ants used to spell out the name of the show and
the numeral “5.” Seen together, Swarm of Red Ants and the Documenta 5 poster
contain comparable clusters of rust-colored ants, but their media and contexts
lead to different interpretations: the print, like the other works in Insects,
arranges bugs in aesthetically intriguing formations with no apparent narrative
purpose, while the poster’s use of insect bodies recalls the swarming movements
of artists, dealers, and curators as they traverse the international art circuit.
Two works by Frank Stella may seem fairly similar at first glance, but
a closer look reveals varying inspirations and technical processes. A Poster
(1970, fig. 8) and Sinjerli Variation III (1977, fig. 9) contain the artist’s signature
Fig. 8
Frank Stella (American, born
in 1936), A Poster, 1970. Color
lithograph. © 2021 Frank Stella /
Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. Gift of Norman A.
Strouse, 1975.51
Fig. 9
Frank Stella (American, born
in 1936), Sinjerli Variation III,
1977. Lithograph and screenprint.
© 2021 Frank Stella /
Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York. Given in
honor of Gerhard Casper,
President, Stanford University
(1992–2000), by Larry Horton,
2000.153
10 11

9
interlocking or layered shapes and thick bands of bold color. The 1970 work
was created to celebrate the centennial of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York, and its central shape follows the contour of a blocky “M.” Sinjerli
Variation III is based on Sinjerli I from Stella’s Protractor paintings (1967–70).
Sinjerli was a Hittite city, now an archaeological site in modern-day Turkey,
surrounded by circular walls; in this work, the half-moon shapes of two protractors
combine to mimic the shape of the city as seen from above. While the color
bands in A Poster are smooth and perfectly monochromatic, those in Sinjerli
Variation III are rendered in a scribbled fashion. This deceptively simple effect
was created through three printing stages: the first created a toned ground, the
second implemented a textured drawing in lithographic crayon, and the third
deposited a color glaze or clear varnish, depending on the location within the
composition. The variations across A Poster and Sinjerli Variation III reveal
Stella’s diverse experiments in coloration and printing techniques, even as his
core imagery remained consistent and recognizable.
The Artist’s Hand
The following pieces contain material markers of the artist’s touch: scrawled
signatures in pen, scribbled sentences in pencil, and brushstrokes in paint. They
include a rock fashioned as a capstone, a drawing related to a performance, and
a preparatory work in gouache and tempera designed for wide reproduction in
the form of a poster. In their unsettled status as mementos and sketches, these
works contain markers of their creators’ past presence and intentions.
A jagged piece of sandstone signed by Andy Goldsworthy and his assistants
(fig. 10) commemorates the completion of Stone River, a sinuous stone
wall installed in 2001 in a shady grove near the parking lot of the Cantor Arts
Center (fig. 11). To mark the completion of each of his projects, Goldsworthy
and his assistants usually sign a piece of the building material as a celebratory
marker; in the case of Stone River, this material was an irregular block of
sandstone. It functions like a capstone or certificate, preserving the names of
the laborers whose skill enabled the installation of a complex sculptural work.
Though the piece of sandstone has been in the museum’s possession since the
2001 completion of Stone River, its relationship to the larger installation was
not formally noted in the Cantor’s files until 2017, indicating that its status as an
artistic supplement was not immediately evident to the museum staff.
Eleanor Antin’s Ghost Ballroom I, from “Before the Revolution,” (1975,
fig. 12) is a large drawing of an elegant fireplace. It floats in a field of negative
Fig. 10
Andy Goldsworthy (English,
born in 1956), Triangular stone
signed by Andy Goldsworthy
to commemorate “Stone River,”
2001. Sandstone, permanent
marker. Stanford Museum
Collections, TP.1695
Fig. 11
Andy Goldsworthy (English,
born in 1956), Stone River,
2001. Sandstone. Given in
honor of Gerhard Casper,
President, Stanford University
(1992–2000), for his vision and
commitment to making the
arts an integral component of
university life, by the Robert
and Ruth Halperin Foundation,
2001.46
12 13

space punctuated by penciled musings about the preordained nature of life’s
performances. This work on paper is a sketch related to the performance Before
the Revolution (1979), which featured Eleanora Antinova, a fictional Black
ballerina in the Ballets Russes company and one of Antin’s alter egos, in the role
of Marie Antoinette. Detached from the nesting-doll layers of performance and
the specter of blackface (Antin engaged a Black actress to embody the Antinova
character in subsequent enactments), the drawing stands as a detached, and less
evidently problematic, element of an ephemeral performance. 8
For the poster advertising his 1974 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of
American Art in New York, the painter Jacob Lawrence chose to create a new
work rather than feature an existing painting or drawing. The resulting composition
(fig. 13) succinctly combines his frequent themes of family, labor, and
city life in Harlem, and is rendered in the rich primary colors and browns typical
of his work. It is a striking summation of his artistic production, as befitting an
image that promoted a retrospective exhibition, and is one of twenty-six artworks
by Lawrence donated to the Cantor in 2014, forming the largest collection
of the artist’s work on the West Coast. 9 This work on paper was reproduced to
cover almost the entire space of the finished Whitney poster, with sans-serif
Fig. 12
Eleanor Antin (American, born
in 1935), Ghost Ballroom I, from
“Before the Revolution,” 1975.
Watercolor, pen, ink, and pencil
on paper. Museum purchase
made possible by a gift from
Tracy and Gary Mezzatesta,
2015.5
text in unobtrusive gray added at the bottom to convey the name, place, and
dates of the show. The study possesses a sense of texture, especially in the dark
suit of the central figure, that is flattened and smoothed in the poster reproduction.
When viewed as a separate work from the finished poster, the study
conveys a greater sense of Lawrence’s gestures and the grain of his materials.
Fig. 13
Jacob Lawrence (American,
1917–2000), Poster Design,
Whitney Exhibition, 1974.
Gouache, tempera, and
graphite on paper. © 2021 The
Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight
Lawrence Foundation, Seattle
/ Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. Gift of Dr. Herbert J.
Kayden and Family in memory
of Dr. Gabrielle H. Reem,
2013.104
14 15

Supplements
Long’s certificate, Weiner’s invitation, and a mask by the Guerrilla Girls (2015,
fig. 14) are works on paper that serve as supplements to other artworks and
events. Respectively, they serve as corollaries to the solid forms of Georgia
Granite Circle, Weiner’s long-passed gallery show, and the Guerrilla Girls’
events and protest actions. They share a bureaucratic color palette of black,
white, and, in the case of Long’s certificate, red. Their material composition
is also a significant element of their “in-between” status; the absence of a
saturated color palette or sophisticated printing technique brings the material
slimness of these documents to the fore. Paper, as Wasserman notes, “is itself
marked by the tension between durability and disappearance,” making for a
potent ground to investigate questions of categorization and preservation. 10
To pose one such question: What do we make of these works when they are
separated from the objects or events that necessitated their production?
Fig. 14
Guerrilla Girls (American,
founded in 1985), Guerrilla Girls
Cut-out Mask, 2015. Digital print
on foam core. © Guerrilla Girls,
courtesy guerrillagirls.com
Long creates large-scale sculptures and installations using natural materials;
these sculptures are often integrated within the landscape, or designed
to be moved and reassembled over time. Due to the transportable nature of the
works, purchasers receive a certificate of authenticity with instructions for
proper installation. The certificate for Georgia Granite Circle provides detailed
directions to gallery workers, along with a neat diagram. As discussed previously,
Long emphatically positioned it as a procedural document and appendage
to the installation, rather than an artwork in its own right. However, the
certificate is categorized as a drawing within the Cantor’s internal cataloguing
system, reflecting the way it was created and its connection to the artist’s hand.
Even if we accept Long’s conception of the certificate as purely instructional or
validating, it was created with a graphic flair and sense of draftsmanship that
contradicts its supposed lack of aesthetic value. Existing simultaneously as a
drawing and a document, the certificate demonstrates the technical skill that an
artist such as Long brings to an object he considers purely informational.
Weiner, a New York Conceptual artist, produces works in the form of
written statements that can be physically built or communicated to viewers,
or “receivers,” in the form of open-ended language. For example, the oblique,
conditional title of Weiner’s 1977 installation at Konrad Fischer Gallery—
Having been marked with (i.e. decorated), having been decorated with (i.e. marked),
with a probability of being seen—may provoke different associations and imagery
in the mind of each receiver. In line with Weiner’s interest in translation and
reading, this invitation is composed of three separate paper segments: the first
contains the title in English, the second conveys the same title in German, and
the third includes venue and date information in both languages. As David
Senior noted in his introduction to Please Come to the Show, a 2013 exhibition
of contemporary art show invitations at the Museum of Modern Art Library,
“Invitations reflect, disguise, or reconstitute artworks and can act as mechanisms
that direct the audience’s experience of the work, and some are also
artworks themselves.” 11 Weiner’s invitation operates in this spirit, intertwining
functionality and creative expression.
The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous collective of female artists whose
artworks and actions advocate for greater representation of women and people
of color in the art world. The group is best known for its bold, text-heavy posters
(figs. 15, 16) that use humor to spotlight galleries, museums, and publications
that maintain a power structure favoring white male artists. To preserve their
anonymity, members adopt the names of famous female artists, and when
16 17

Fig. 15
Guerrilla Girls (American,
founded in 1985), Pop Quiz,
1990, from the portfolio
“Guerrilla Girls Talk Back:
The First Five Years,” 1990.
Screenprint on paper. ©
Guerrilla Girls, courtesy
guerrillagirls.com. Courtesy
of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art &
Architecture Library, Stanford
Libraries
Fig. 16
Guerrilla Girls (American,
founded in 1985), When Racism
and Sexism Are No Longer
Fashionable, 1989, from the
portfolio “Guerrilla Girls Talk
Back: The First Five Years,”
1990. Screenprint on paper.
© Guerrilla Girls, courtesy
guerrillagirls.com. Courtesy
of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art &
Architecture Library, Stanford
Libraries
protesting in person they don gorilla masks. A cheeky, portable version of the
mask was produced in paper and foam core in association with preparations for
two 2016 exhibitions in London, The Guerrilla Girls’ Complaints Department
at Tate Modern and Is It Still Even Worse in Europe? at Whitechapel Gallery. 12
A similar paper mask was circulated in Guerrilla Girls publications such as
the 2020 book The Art of Behaving Badly so that supporters could punch out
a personal copy and take up the Guerrilla Girls’ activist mission, extending
the group’s actions in time and space. Paper gorilla masks were also produced
by the Guerrilla Girls West (fig. 17), an unconnected Bay Area faction that
“appropriated” the name of the original group, according to Guerrilla Girl
“Käthe Kollwitz.” 13 The existence of the two masks, with their divergent designs,
encapsulates debates around authenticity and “official” designs in various activist
groups. The scale, reproducibility, and low-cost materials of such objects
enhance their ability to be circulated, copied, altered, and adopted, changing
in purported authorship or purpose as they move through the world.
Fig. 17
Guerrilla Girls West
(American, founded in 1985),
Paper Gorilla Mask, c. 1990s.
Paper, wood. Courtesy of
the Ute & Bill Bowes Art &
Architecture Library, Stanford
Libraries
18 19

Everyday Things Made Anew
In our quotidian habits and movements, we continually interact with carefully
and cleverly designed items, from road signs to book jackets. The works in this
category enliven such everyday objects through artistic intervention, altering
their normal purposes and appearances. Many are tactile, inviting viewers to
turn pages, shuffle cards, or flip a postcard from front to back.
Some destabilize the idea that posters are intended to advertise a product
or clearly relay information. Three metal placards by Allen Ruppersberg,
collectively titled Poster Objects (The Color of Perfection Is Pink) (1988, fig. 18),
combine slogans and symbols; devoid of context or clear purpose, phrases such
as “the color of perfection is pink” and a clip-art image of a cheery fisherman are
rendered surreal. Throughout his career, Ruppersberg has collaborated with
the Colby Poster Printing Company, a commercial poster manufacturer in Los
Angeles that produced neon-hued paper notices typically used to promote sales,
concerts, and other events. These placards cast the distinctive colors and fonts
of Colby Posters onto the more durable material of aluminum, so that they become
absurdist versions of the informational metal street signs that dot the urban
landscape. 14 Black-and-white photographs by Harry Bowden also use posters to
designate metropolitan sites as spaces for compositional play. Figures 19 and 20
show posters in unusual surroundings—a dusty construction site, accompanied
Fig. 18
Allen Ruppersberg (American,
born in 1944), Poster Objects
(The Color of Perfection Is
Pink), 1988. Screenprints on
aluminum. Gift of the Marmor
Foundation (Drs. Michael and
Jane Marmor) from the collection
of Drs. Judd and Katherine
Marmor, 2006.112.a–c
Fig. 19
Harry Bowden (American,
1907–1965), Nude and Bowden
Poster, Construction Site,
1942–1965. Gelatin silver print.
Gift of Charles Campbell,
1979.113.35
Fig. 20
Harry Bowden (American,
1907–1965), Poster Behind
Grating, 1942–1965. Gelatin
silver print. Gift of Charles
Campbell, 1979.113.18
18
20 21

y a nude female model, or behind an accordion subway grate—that subvert the
broadsides’ usual legibility, emphasizing their status as props within a photographic
context of Bowden’s own making.
Beginning in 1988, software magnate Peter Norton and philanthropist
Eileen Harris Norton commissioned artists to create editioned works
as Christmas gifts for their friends and art-world contacts. 15 Instead of the
bland well-wishes and inoffensive, wintery imagery of typical holiday cards,
the editions, issued through 2018, often touched on challenging political,
social, or historical topics, yet they remained “playful and inviting,” as Harris
Norton described in a 2004 interview. 16 This sense of play was often conveyed
through a kinetic or interactive component, allowing Peter Norton Family
Christmas Project recipients to maneuver or otherwise use the works in some
ongoing fashion. Unlike the average yuletide greeting, the editions demanded
some form of participation or contained prickly, thought-provoking content,
recasting the mild template of the yearly holiday card into a vehicle for artistic
experimentation.
The 1997 commission was an intricate pop-up book, Freedom: A Fable,
designed by Kara Walker (fig. 21), who uses the genteel medium of silhouettes to
Fig. 21
Kara Walker (American, born
in 1969), Freedom: A Fable,
1997. Illustrated pop-up book
with laser-cut silhouette
designs; paper, letterpress text
and leather. Anonymous gift,
1998.24
convey horrific tales of slavery tinged with an unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere.
The subtitle of the book is “a curious interpretation of the wit of a negress in
troubled times, with illustrations,” and it tells the story of an unnamed woman
who travels across the sea in search of emancipation. Viewers participate in the
unfolding of the story through tactile elements; on one particularly evocative
page, the main character “births” quintuplets when a tab is pulled.
Oblique Strategies (figs. 22, 23), a set of cards originally created by the
musician Brian Eno and the artist Peter Schmidt in 1975, was reissued as the 1996
Norton Christmas Project, with the subtitle “a more universal edition.” Each card
presents a strategy for avoiding creative blockages, such as “work at a different
speed,” “ask your body,” or “use an old idea.” Peter Norton persuaded Eno to collaborate
on this fresh version of the cards, and the artist Pae White updated their
graphic design with enticing colors and created a sleek, biomorphic case for the
set. As befitting the “more universal” title of this edition, the one hundred cards
include translations in Hindi, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.
Figs. 22 and 23
Brian Eno; Peter Schmidt;
Peter Norton; Pae White
(Brian Eno, English, born in
1948; Peter Schmidt, English,
born in Germany, 1931–1980;
Peter Norton, American,
born in 1943; Pae White,
American, born in 1963),
Oblique Strategies: A More
Universal Edition, 1996.
Corian and paper.
Anonymous gift, 1998.21.1–2
22 23

Conclusion
In considering the objects that surround us in everyday life, sorting through
keepsakes and rubbish, the decorative and the documentary, we make determinations
similar to those of curators and archivists. But these judgments are not
binary, and what may be considered mutely communicative and informational
one day might be valued for its aesthetic or nostalgic qualities the next. In his
introduction to Collecting Printed Ephemera (1988), the scholar, collector, and
“ephemerist” Maurice Rickards attempted to define the term, but quickly ran
into exceptions to all of his rules. He finally concluded, “In these and many
other grey areas the answer must be left to the individual. There is no hard and
fast list of officially sanctioned categories.” 20 The same may be said of all the
works discussed in this essay and the exhibition it accompanies, which chart
the fluidity of artistic practice and the ways in which this fluidity confounds the
hierarchical sorting mechanisms that still persist within collecting institutions
and the field of art history. In their engagement with everyday formats, from
the broadsheet to the deck of cards, they invite us to consider the design, formal
innovations, and materiality of ostensibly marginal objects with fresh attention.
Bean Threads (for Henri Chiarucci) (fig. 24) was Alison Knowles’s contribution
to a 1977 postcard “show” by the Vancouver Image Bank, a Canadian
collective that circumvented traditional art world venues by distributing
artworks by mail. Containing small-scale images by forty-nine contemporary
artists in a single box and sold in an edition of 750, the “Image Bank Postcard
Show” was designed to unfold over the amorphous terrain of the postal service
and, depending on the preferences of the box-set buyer, could be split up and
further dispersed to addressees across geographic boundaries. 17 Knowles, who
makes performances, event scores, and publications focused on the musical or
poetic potential of daily rituals, created a postcard dedicated to the physicist
Henri Chiarucci, a member of the experimental Musical Research Group. 18 It
features a faded image of a bag of bean threads (a kind of noodle made from the
mung bean); Knowles used beans throughout her practice to represent “a world
culture of sustenance.” 19 In combining an image of the bean package, seen from
a flattened perspective, with the quotidian template of the postcard, Knowles
provokes viewers to contemplate the surrealist capacities of overlooked items.
Fig. 24
Alison Knowles (American,
born in 1933), Bean Threads
(for Henri Chiarucci), from the
“Image Bank Postcard Show”
by Michael Morris and Vincent
Trasov, c. 1977. Ink on paper.
Courtesy of the Ute & Bill
Bowes Art & Architecture
Library, Stanford Libraries
Notes
1. Clive Phillpot, “Flies in the Files: Ephemera in the Art
Library,” Art Documentation 14, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 13.
2. Mary Desjardins, “Ephemeral Culture/eBay Culture:
Film Collectibles and Fan Investments,” in Everyday
eBay: Culture, Collecting, and Desire, ed. Ken Hillis,
Michael Petit, and Nathan Scott Epley (New York:
Routledge, 2006), 32.
3. See Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch”
(1939) and “Towards a Newer Laocoön” (1940), in
Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, ed. Francis
Frascina (London and New York: Routledge, 2000),
48–70.
4. Sarah Wasserman, The Death of Things: Ephemera
and the American Novel (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2020), 3.
5. Robin Wander, “Works from American Art Giants
Enter Stanford’s Collection,” Stanford Report, July 24,
2014, https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/july/
gifts-cantor-collection-072414.html.
6. Ruscha as quoted in a lecture at the Getty Center,
Los Angeles, July 17, 1998. See also Siri Engberg, “Out
of Print: The Editions of Edward Ruscha,” in Edward
Ruscha, Editions 1959–1999: Catalogue Raisonné
(Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1999), 31.
7. See Philip Ursprung, “The Indispensible Catalogue,”
Log no. 20 (Fall 2010): 100–101; “Documenta 5,”
Documenta.de, https://www.documenta.de/en/
retrospective/documenta_5#.
8. See Huey Copeland, “Revolutionary Fragments,”
in Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin’s “Selves” (New
York: Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2013);
Reed Johnson, “PST: Eleanor Antin Revisits ‘Before
the Revolution,’” Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2012,
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2012-
jan-28-la-et-eleanor-antin-20120128-story.html.
9. Wander, “Works from American Art Giants Enter
Stanford’s Collection.”
10. Wasserman, The Death of Things, 3.
11. David Senior, “Please Come to the Show: Invitations
and Events from the MoMA Library,” MoMA.org, 2013,
https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2013/
please_come_show.
12. Email from Guerrilla Girl “Käthe Kollwitz” to the
author, May 22, 2021.
13. Email from Guerrilla Girl “Käthe Kollwitz” to
Shanna Dickson, associate registrar, Cantor Arts
Center, March 29, 2021, shared with the author, with
Kollwitz’s permission, on March 30, 2021.
14. Christopher Michlig, Brian Roettinger, and Jan
Tumlir, eds., In the Good Name of the Company:
Artworks and Ephemera Produced by or in Tandem
with the Colby Poster Printing Company (Brooklyn:
PictureBox; Los Angeles: ForYourArt, 2013).
15. Peter Norton and Eileen Harris Norton divorced
in 2000.
16. Kris Kuramitsu and Eileen Norton, “Different Ways
to See the World,” Art on Paper 8, no. 6 (July–August
2004): 21.
17. Jeremy Cooper, The World Exists to Be Put on a
Postcard: Artists’ Postcards from 1960 to Now (London:
Thames & Hudson and the British Museum, 2019), 123.
18. Kim S. Courchene and Beatriz Ferreyra, “A
Conversation with Beatriz Ferreyra,” Computer Music
Journal 25, no. 3 (2001): 15.
19. Alison Knowles, “Alison Knowles General Bio,”
https://aknowles.com/hannah.html.
20. Maurice Rickards, Collecting Printed Ephemera
(New York: Abbeville, 1988), 15.
24 25

Acknowledgments
This exhibition grew out of my personal and professional interest in postcards,
posters, invitations, and the like: things that are made with great skill but not
always considered fine art objects by collecting institutions, despite the alleged
diminishment of medium hierarchies in Conceptualism and its aftermath. I am
thrilled to have had the opportunity to explore the wider subject of “artworks in
between” with such a thoughtful and creative group of collaborators.
I am profoundly grateful to the expert team at the Cantor Arts Center
for their support, ingenuity, and kindness, especially as this project evolved to
encompass a digital format. Kate Holohan shepherded this project from initial
conversations on Zoom to its final form, offering essential insights throughout
the curatorial and writing processes and imbuing the project with a sense of
possibility and fun. Elizabeth Mitchell’s feedback helped shape the publication,
sharpening its focus, and her expertise in works on paper contributed greatly to
the scope of the objects included in the exhibition. The imaginative, editorial,
and practical contributions of Robert DeArmond, Shanna Dickson, Jody Hanson,
Michael Heffernan, María José Alvarado Luna, McKenzie Lynch, Celeste
McMullin, Tiffany Sakato, Robin Wander, Lindsey Westbrook, and Margaret
Whitehorn were essential to the successful realization of this project. At Bowes
Library, Vanessa Kam and Amber Ruiz provided crucial images and information,
broadening the exhibition to include fascinating new materials. I would also like
to acknowledge the generous support of the Sue and John Diekman, the Geballe
Fund for Academic Initiatives, and the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund.
In the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University, Richard
Meyer, Alexander Nemerov, Elis Imboden, and Perla Miranda Garcia have
provided vital support for this project since its inception. My recent research
and curatorial work have been immeasurably strengthened by ongoing conversations
with Richard, Alex, Pamela M. Lee, Nancy J. Troy, Peggy Phelan,
Usha Iyer, Marci Kwon, Jason Linetzky, and Allen Ruppersberg on the topic
of liminal art objects and their afterlives, and I also deeply appreciate Mary
MacNaughton’s mentorship. In this year of separation, I have been especially
grateful for the ability to exchange ideas and research discoveries with Maite
Barragán, Rachel Bolten, Jon Davies, Kelly Filreis, Lianna Fox, Lucy Gellman,
Lexi Johnson, Joseph Larnerd, Megan Liberty, Levi Prombaum, Ann Tartsinis,
Lora Webb, and Yechen Zhao. Finally, I am thankful to Chelsea Halprin, Danielle
Hausner, Ann Markowitz, Estelle Markowitz, Mackenzie Millan, Maddie Miller,
Lauren Teplin, Julia Waldow, and Richard Waldow for their generosity and
encouragement.
Works in the Exhibition
This list reflects the information available at the time of
publication.
Eleanor Antin (American, born in 1935), Ghost Ballroom I, from
“Before the Revolution,” 1975. Watercolor, pen, ink, and pencil
on paper. Museum purchase made possible by a gift from Tracy
and Gary Mezzatesta, 2015.5
Harry Bowden (American, 1907–1965), Nude and Bowden Poster,
Construction Site, 1942–1965. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Charles
Campbell, 1979.113.35
Harry Bowden (American, 1907–1965), Poster Behind Grating,
1942–1965. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Charles Campbell,
1979.113.18
Brian Eno; Peter Schmidt; Peter Norton; Pae White (Brian Eno,
English, born in 1948; Peter Schmidt, English, born in Germany,
1931–1980; Peter Norton, American, born in 1943; Pae White,
American, born in 1963), Oblique Strategies: A More Universal
Edition, 1996. Corian and paper. Anonymous gift, 1998.21.1–2
Andy Goldsworthy (English, born in 1956), Triangular stone
signed by Andy Goldsworthy to commemorate “Stone River,” 2001.
Sandstone, permanent marker. Stanford Museum Collections,
TP.1695
Guerrilla Girls (American, founded in 1985), Guerrilla Girls
Cut-out Mask, 2015. Digital print on foam core. © Guerrilla Girls,
courtesy guerrillagirls.com
Guerrilla Girls (American, founded in 1985), Pop Quiz, 1990,
from the portfolio “Guerrilla Girls Talk Back: The First Five
Years,” 1990. Screenprint on paper. © Guerrilla Girls, courtesy
guerrillagirls.com. Courtesy of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art &
Architecture Library, Stanford Libraries
Guerrilla Girls (American, founded in 1985), When Racism and
Sexism Are No Longer Fashionable, 1989, from the portfolio
“Guerrilla Girls Talk Back: The First Five Years,” 1990. Screenprint
on paper. © Guerrilla Girls, courtesy guerrillagirls.com.
Courtesy of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art & Architecture Library,
Stanford Libraries
Guerrilla Girls West (active 1990s), Paper Gorilla Mask, c. 1990s.
Paper, wood. Courtesy of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art & Architecture
Library, Stanford Libraries
Alison Knowles (American, born in 1933), Bean Threads
(for Henri Chiarucci), from the “Image Bank Postcard Show”
by Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov, c. 1977. Ink on paper.
Courtesy of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art & Architecture Library,
Stanford Libraries
Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917–2000), Poster Design, Whitney
Exhibition, 1974. Gouache, tempera, and graphite on paper.
© 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation,
Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Gift of Dr.
Herbert J. Kayden and Family in memory of Dr. Gabrielle H.
Reem, 2013.104
Richard Long (English, born in 1945), Certificate for “Georgia
Granite Circle,” 1990. Pencil on paper. © 2021 Richard Long. All
Rights Reserved, DACS, London / ARS, NY. Gift of Rita and Toby
Schreiber, 2004.7
Allen Ruppersberg (American, born in 1944), Poster Objects (The
Color of Perfection is Pink), 1988. Screenprints on aluminum. Gift
of the Marmor Foundation (Drs. Michael and Jane Marmor) from
the collection of Drs. Judd and Katherine Marmor, 2006.112.a–c
Edward Ruscha (American, born in 1937), Swarm of Red Ants,
1972. Screenprint. Gift of Jerome Zipkin, 1982.183
Edward Ruscha (American, born in 1937), Documenta 5, 1972.
Screenprint. Gift of Jerome Zipkin, 1982.184
Frank Stella (American, born in 1936), A Poster, 1970. Color
lithograph. © 2021 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. Gift of Norman A. Strouse, 1975.51
Frank Stella (American, born in 1936), Sinjerli Variation III, 1977.
Lithograph and screenprint. © 2021 Frank Stella / Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. Given in honor of Gerhard Casper,
President, Stanford University (1992–2000), by Larry Horton,
2000.153
Kara Walker (American, born in 1969), Freedom: A Fable, 1997.
Illustrated pop-up book with laser-cut silhouette designs; paper,
letterpress text and leather. Anonymous gift, 1998.24
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Contact Sheet [Montauk:
Andy Warhol, Jed Johnson, Mick Jagger, Jade Jagger, dachshunds
Archie and Amos], 1976. Gelatin silver print. © The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Gift of The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2014.43.3016
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Portrait of Mick Jagger,
1976. Mylar, paper, and crayon. © 2021 The Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. Given in honor of Gerhard Casper,
President, Stanford University (1992–2000), by Daryl and
John Lillie, 2000.104
Lawrence Weiner (American, born in 1942), Sticker (3 gummed
labels, with offset printing), exhibition component from “A Work
of Lawrence Weiner Presented In The Context Of Konrad Fischer
Gallery,” Konrad Fischer Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1977. Ink
on paper, adhesive. © 2021 Lawrence Weiner /ARS, New York.
Courtesy of the Ute & Bill Bowes Art & Architecture Library,
Stanford Libraries
26 27

Previous Cantor Curatorial Fellowship
Exhibitions and Publications
Danny Smith, Exquisite Reality: Photography and the Invention
of Nationhood, 1851–1900, Spring 2021
An earlier iteration of this initiative was supported by The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and included the following
projects:
Erik Yingling, Aura: Art and Authenticity, Spring 2020
Alexandria Hejazi-Tsagaris, Crossing the Caspian: Persia and
Europe, 1500–1700, Winter 2020
Yinshi Lerman-Tan, Blackboard, Fall 2018
Sydney Skelton Simon, Working Metal in 20th-Century Sculpture,
Winter 2018
Michael Metzger, Environmental Exposure: Photography and
Ecology after 1970, Fall 2017
Yu-chuan Phoenix Chen, A Mushroom Perspective on Sacred
Geography, Winter 2017
Rachel Newman, Blood in the Sugar Bowl, Spring 2016
George Philip LeBourdais, Arboreal Architecture: A Visual History
of Trees, Spring 2015
Annie Ronan, Astley D. M. Cooper and Mrs. Stanford’s Jewels,
Fall 2015
John R. Blakinger, The New Landscape: Experiments in Light
by György Kepes, Fall 2014
This exhibition and publication are part of a collaborative initiative
between the Cantor Arts Center and Stanford’s Department
of Art & Art History. The initiative, the Cantor Curatorial
Fellowship, aims to make the multifaceted museum a compelling
and vivid component of the department’s graduate student
academic experience. The resulting exhibition projects are
designed to provide doctoral students with the unique opportunity
to work directly with objects as they curate focused, scholarly
exhibitions that relate both to their own research interests and to
the museum’s holdings.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Sue and John Diekman,
the Geballe Fund for Academic Initiatives, and the Drs. Ben and
A. Jess Shenson Fund.
All works reproduced in this publication are from the Cantor Arts
Center collection unless otherwise noted. Not all works pictured
herein appear in the virtual exhibition. Additional copyright
credits appear below the images.
First published in 2021 by the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford
University, 328 Lomita Drive, Stanford, California 94305-5060.
© 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior
University. All rights reserved.
No parts of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the Cantor
Arts Center.
Graphic designer: Jody Hanson
Editor: Lindsey Westbrook
IRIS & B. GERALD CANTOR CENTER FOR VISUAL ARTS
AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY
The Cantor Arts Center is the hub for deep explorations of visual arts on the
Stanford University campus. By showcasing both contemporary works and
historic ones, exhibitions at the Cantor spark interdisciplinary conversations
about critically important issues. With a collection that spans thousands
of years, it is one of the most visited university art museums in the country,
attracting visitors from the area and around the world.
Front and back cover: Allen Ruppersberg (American, born in
1944), Poster Objects (The Color of Perfection Is Pink), 1988.
Screenprints on aluminum. Gift of the Marmor Foundation
(Drs. Michael and Jane Marmor) from the collection of Drs. Judd
and Katherine Marmor, 2006.112.a–c
This publication accompanies the virtual exhibition Art/Object:
Contemporary Works between Mediums, curated by Jennie
Waldow and presented by the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford
University beginning October 2021, and accessible at
http://cantor.2.vu/artobject.
/cantorarts
@cantorarts
museum.stanford.edu
29