Works and Words: International Art Manifestation Amsterdam

Amsterdam: De Appel, 1980. Tall quarto (29.5 x 21 cm). Original printed red and white cardstock wrappers; 92 pp., profusely illustrated. Some light soiling and browning to covers, interior clean, overall very good. A compendium of documentary material published in conjunction with an exhibition which was organized by the Foundation Holland Experimental Film in collaboration with the Foundation De Appel, presenting avant-garde film and video-based artworks from Conceptual, Action Body, and Land Artists, mostly Dutch and obscure Eastern European artists, including artists hailing from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia.

The preface to the catalogue reads in part, "Foundation De Appel organized an international ten-day art event, which took place between 20th-30th of September 1979; it comprised lectures, discussions, performances, installations, video, film, historical documentation, and an exhibition of photo works by visual artists, 15th-30th of September 1979...For several years Foundation De Appel endeavoured to follow the activities of certain visual artists from East-Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia...Several times a year important, international art manifestations are organized in Poland and Yugoslavia; many western artists are invited for these meetings. Rarely, however, avant-garde artists from Central Europe are invited to international art events which are regularly organized in West Europe and the USA. Believing that it was high time to break this one-way traffic, we decided to devote part of our 1979 programme to several artists from East-Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia."

Some of the artists whose work is featured here include: Zoran Belic, Jerzy Beres, Gabor Body, Miklos Erdely, Tomimslav Gotovac, Agnes Hay, Sanja Ivecovic, Tomasz Konart, Dalibor Martinis, Dora Maurer, Jozef Robakowski, Mladen Stilnovic, Endre Tot, Jiri Valoch, Natalia LL, Karel Miler, and many others.

A scarce work on the 1970's avant-garde in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, and East Germany. As of May 2023, OCLC locates six holdings in North American libraries.