Irving Petlin - Cover for S.M.S. No. 1 - 1968

Irving Petlin (1934-2018)

Little Box of Earthquake and Cotton.

Portfolio cover for the SMS series (SMS 1), February 1968.

29.8 cm x 18.3 cm x 1.9 cm.

Contribution by the ever-committed American artist to one of the famous portfolios published by William Copley and Dimitri Petrov between February and December 1968.

Publisher: The Letter Edged in Black Press, 1968


Initially an edition of 2000 copies was proposed. Finally, because of the cost of the edition and the abandonment of many copies in a warehouse by the editor W. Copley, there were barely a few hundred left. Today is a milestone in the History of Contemporary Art.

The 'SMS' portfolios (inspired by the famous Boîte-en-valise, by Marcel Duchamp and, in general, by the irreverence of the DADA movement and the multiples of the FLUXUS movement), represented a reaction against the elitism of the art world by to deliver, by regular subscription, pieces by artists we consider today among the most important of the 20th century (Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichstenstein, Joseph Kosuth, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, John Cage, Bernar Venet, Mel Ramos, Walter de Maria, Christo Javacheff, Dieter Roth, Claes Oldenburg..),. The deliveries of Shit Must Stop barely lasted 1 year due to the increase in the cost of publishing the works and their distribution.


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