SPEAKING IN TONGUES: WALLACE BERMAN AND ROBERT HEINECKEN 1961-1976

Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon

In Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace Berman, founder of the influential artist journal Semina, and Robert Heinecken, who established UCLA’s photography department, were kindred spirits. Both reveled in appropriating and juxtaposing images and text, using as a point of departure the art of the historical avant-garde, updating its subjects, techniques, and irreverent stance for contemporary use. This catalog in the form of a treasure box brings Berman and Heinecken together for the first time. It is packed with images, reproductions, ephemera, and essays that capture the random spirit of innovation that permeated this important era in Southern California. These two artists bridged modernist and emerging post-modernist trends, ushering in the use of photography as a key element of the contemporary avant-garde art.

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