Fluxus, etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection

The installation of Fluxus, etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection can be considered one of the first highly performative exhibitions hosted by the Neuberger Museum of Art.

Across the decades, the Museum has frequently engaged its community in either performance-focused exhibitions or performances that accompany and support its exhibitions. It was in 1983, however—within the Museum’s first ten years of being established—that it hosted FLUXFEST in conjunction with the exhibition Fluxus, etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection.

A FluxFest (also described as a Fluxus Festival, or Fluxus Concert) is one of the main ways Fluxus artists present their works on a larger, and even more collaborative, scale. The very first formal FluxFest occurred in 1962 in Wiesbaden, Germany, with avant-garde artists from America, Europe, and Asia. The performances often relied on props and were either performed for an audience, or with the participation of one. Often, these stemmed from a set of instructions, a Fluxus score, that was performed by an individual, a duo, or a larger group.

The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection of Fluxus was organized and curated by Jon Hendricks, an artist, curator, and political activist who was commissioned by the Silvermans in 1981, just two years prior to its display and enactment at the Neuberger. The collection started circa 1977 when various Fluxus artists began selling works to raise money to cover the medical expenses of their good friend and fellow Fluxus artist George Maciunas. It was then, upon meeting Hendricks, that Gilbert Silverman was presented with the opportunity to learn more about and purchase Fluxus pieces. Hendricks provided deep insight into the world of Fluxus art, and worked tirelessly to organize their collection. Later, following the Neuberger Museum of Art’s exhibition, Hendricks also organized a 1988 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which eventually led to the collection being donated to MoMA exactly two decades later.

For the Museum’s FluxFest on March 5^th, 1983, students were hired as participants in thirty-seven (37) works, performing for and alongside artists such as Ay-O, Jean Dupuy, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Larry Miller, Yoshi Wada, and Robert Watts.

Since then, the Museum has regularly engaged Purchase College, SUNY, students in the real-time realm of art and artmaking, providing real-time, first-hand understanding of what art can be. In the words of Hendricks himself, when it comes to Fluxus:
“‘Art’ vs. ‘not art’ was not a criteria. What became a criteria was whether it was Fluxus or not. To us, a scrap of paper by George Maciunas with plans for a Fluxus concert or one with ideas for Flux Cabinet were just as important…. They all formed a part of the Fluxus movement and were the ‘Art’, are the art.”

Rem Ribeiro
Curatorial Assistant
Neuberger Museum of Art