The 1960's Fluxus art movement is enjoying a welcome survey at Grey Art Gallery at NYU. Whether it is the youth of the movement or its innate resistance to easy categorization, Fluxus has not enjoyed the sort of recent, major art exhibits as other contemporary movements like Pop and Post Modernism.
Instead, there are a number of notable Fluxus collections, including archives in Stuttgart, Verona, and Budapest, and foundations at MoMA, Tate Britain, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The result of these collections is that Fluxus works have been collected and maintained, yet these works are not frequently presented in major exhibitions.
The Grey exhibit, titled "Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life", is both descriptive and suitably wry. Given the spirit of the times, the cultural revolution that was the 1960's, it is no surprise that Fluxus was both a loose collective in a distinctly bohemian manner, and was remarkably inclusive, featuring works by artists as diverse as composer John Cage, visual artist George Maciunas, and filmmaker Jonas Mekas. What united many of the artists loosely grouped under the Fluxus moniker was a dedication to the avant garde.
Cage's experimental compositions of the late 1950's are often sited as the seeds that would be sown a few years later by the likes of artists such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and George Brecht, whose work often included music or musical inspiration in its early permutations. Many more artists would become associated with Fluxus, including avant garde pioneers Jonas Mekas and Yoko Ono.
Given the inclusive nature of the movement, the exhibit at Grey Art Gallery is likewise diverse, featuring short films, installations, and sculpture. What's clear is that Fluxus was influenced by Dada and was likewise an influence on Pop. In fact, an argument could me made for Fluxus as one of the most influential modern art movements. Given the talent on display, it also gets my vote for the movement most deserving of reappraisal.
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