Bern Porter - Editions New York Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Catalogue Essay

    Bern Porter (1911–2004) contributed to some of the most important scientific and artistic innovations of the twentieth century. He worked on the development of the cathode-ray tube (for television), the atomic bomb (with the Manhattan Project), and NASA’s Saturn V Rocket. When the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in 1945, Porter walked away from his position with the Manhattan Project and, disappointed with his work as a physicist, turned his attention to artistic pursuits. In the aftermath of World War II, a flood of visual information spread across the United States. Advertisements in newspapers and magazines and on billboards and television promised an easier and happier life through the purchasing of products. For his collages, which he dubbed “Founds,” Porter gathered the waste of this new culture—advertisements, junk mail, instruction booklets, scientific documents, and other material—and turned it into art. In addition to his books of Founds, Porter authored treatises on the unification of science and art (what he called “Sciart”) and books of experimental poetry. He published work by major figures in art and literature, such as Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, and Dick Higgins. Also, as the self-proclaimed inventor of mail art, Porter was an active participant in a vast international network of artists who shared their work with each other through the post.
    ___ LOST AND FOUND:The work of Bern Porter from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art Library
    April 7-July 5 2010
     
    "Porter is to the poem what [Marcel] Duchamp was to the art object"   __Peter Frank
     

281

Last Acts of Saint Fuck You (Window Shade Version)

1990
Screenprint in colors, on window shade with wood panel,
full shade: 36 x 52 in. (91.4 x 132.1 cm);
wood panel: 5 x 40 in. (12.7 x 101.6 cm)

signed in pencil and numbered 11 on a label affixed to the wood panel, the edition was 20 and 2 artist's proofs, published by Volatile Editions, Cincinnati, in very good condition.

Estimate
$2,500 - 3,500 

Sold for $625

Editions

8 June 2010
New York