''Art-Rite'' was a cheaply produced newsprint

art magazine An art magazine is a publication whose main topic is art. They can be in print form, online, or both and may be aimed at different audiences, including galleries, buyers, amateur or professional artists and the general public. Art magazines can be ...

that was published from 1973 to 1978. Located in downtown New York City, it was distributed freely there. Its editors were Mike (Walter) Robinson,

Edit DeAk Edit DeAk (; formerly deAk; ; September 16, 1948 – June 9, 2017) was a Hungarian-born American art critic and writer, co-founder of the journal '' Art-Rite'' and the non-profit bookstore and artist book distributor, Printed Matter, Inc. Early l ...

, and Joshua Cohn. Cohn dropped out of Art-Rite relatively early.

Formation and Trajectory

DeAk, Robinson, and Cohn met in 1972 in an

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...

class taught by

Brian O'Doherty Brian O'Doherty (4 May 1928 – 7 November 2022) was an Irish-American art critic, writer, visual artist, and academic. He lived in New York City for over 50 years, serving as an art critic for ''The New York Times'' and NBC, as well as an edit ...

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in New York. Based on this experience, the magazine took an agglomerative ground-level view of the art world. The editors often wrote anonymously, reflecting a collaborative process. Indeed, ''Art-Rite'' had a collaborative relationship with the art world (particularly with its own generation) and had a close relationship with the post-minimal and

post-conceptual Post-conceptual, postconceptual, post-conceptualism or postconceptualism is an art theory that builds upon the legacy of conceptual art in contemporary art, where the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work takes some precedence over traditional ...

downtown art community that was in the process of moving away from

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scie ...

and towards an art of appropriation. ''Art-Rite'' appeared irregularly; according to a subscription flier there were to be four to nine issues per year. Some appeared out of sequence and #16 was never published. The magazine ceased publication in 1978. A facsimile edition published in 2019 includes the complete collection of twenty issues of the underground arts magazine.

Covers

The magazine was famous for its covers, made by such artists as Alan Suicide,

Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...

Dorothea Rockburne Dorothea Rockburne DFA (born c. 1932) is an abstract painter, drawing inspiration primarily from her deep interest in mathematics and astronomy. Her work is geometric and abstract, seemingly simple but very precise to reflect the mathematical co ...

, William Wegman,

Christo Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific art, site-specific environmental art, environmental art i ...

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational p ...

Pat Steir Pat Steir (born 1940) is an American painter and printmaker. Her early work was loosely associated with conceptual art and minimalism, however, she is best known for her abstract dripped, splashed and poured "Waterfall" paintings, which she s ...

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

Judy Rifka Judy Rifka (born 1945) is an American artist active since the 1970s as a painter and video artist. She works heavily in New York City's Tribeca and Lower East Side and has associated with movements coming out of the area in the 1970s and 1980s s ...

Robert Ryman Robert Ryman (May 30, 1930February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York C ...

Rosemary Mayer Rosemary Mayer (1943–2014), was an American visual artist who was closely associated with the feminist art movement and the conceptual art movement of the 1970s. She was a founding member of A.I.R. Gallery, A.I.R. gallery, the first all-female ...

, and

Ed Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

References

External links

Interview about ''Art-Rite''
by

Phong Bui Phong H. Bui (born September 17, 1964, in Huế, Vietnam) is an artist, writer, independent curator, and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of ''The Brooklyn Rail,'' a free monthly arts, culture, and politics journal. Bui was named one of the "100 ...

in ''

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

'' *
Art-Rite
' at

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

{{Authority control Visual arts magazines published in the United States Magazines published in New York City Magazines established in 1973 Magazines disestablished in 1978 English-language magazines Defunct magazines published in the United States Free magazines