Geoffrey Hendricks (July 30, 1931 in
Littleton, New Hampshire
Littleton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,005 at the 2020 census. Situated at the northern edge of the White Mountains, Littleton is bounded on the northwest by the Connecticut River.
The main vill ...
– May 12, 2018) was an American artist associated with
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
since the mid 1960s. He was professor emeritus of art at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, where he taught from 1956 to 2003 and was associated with
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as ...
,
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...
, and
Lucas Samaras
Lucas Samaras (born 1936) is a Greek-American artist.
Early life and education
Samaras was born in Kastoria, Greece. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal.
Career
Samaras participated in ...
during the 1960s.
In 2002, he edited ''Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia and Rutgers University, 1958–1972'', a book that documents the seminal creative activity and experimental work of faculty members such as
Bob Watts,
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow (August 23, 1927 – April 5, 2006) was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as ...
,
George Brecht
George Brecht (August 27, 1926 – December 5, 2008), born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson ...
, Hendricks, and others.
He had participated in Fluxus festivals worldwide and exhibited internationally. He was renowned by students he mentored over his 48 years of teaching, and for his skill in preparing
macrobiotic
A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a fad diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce ...
meals. He maintained studios and residences in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and a farm in Colindale,
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The island accounts for 18. ...
,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
, along with his partner and sometimes collaborator Sur Rodney (Sur). Hendricks styled himself a "cloudsmith" for his extensive work depicting
skies in
paintings
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
, on objects, in installations, and in performances.
In 2006, he had solo exhibitions at the
Art Gallery of Windsor
Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) (formerly known as the Art Gallery of Windsor) is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local ...
in Ontario; the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery at the
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...
; Galerie Esplanade,
Bad Ischl
Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haiden' ...
, Austria; the Egon Schiele Art Centrum,
Český Krumlov
Český Krumlov (; german: Krumau, , or ''Böhmisch Krumau'') is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. The historic centre with the Český Krumlov Castle complex is protected by law as an urban monument reservation, and sin ...
, Czech Republic; and taught "Artist as Nomad" at the International Summer Academy, in
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
, Austria. Prior to his death in May 2018, he performed "Headstands for Peace", an event organized by Julie Evanoff in
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
.
Hendricks was married from 1961 to 1971 to artist
Bici Forbes (Nye Ffarrabas). Later, his partner was artist Sur Rodney (Sur).
Selected bibliography
*Hendricks, Geoffrey. ''Ring Piece: The journal of a twelve hour silent meditation''.
Something Else Press
Something Else Press was founded by Dick Higgins in 1963. It published many important Intermedia texts and artworks by such Fluxus artists as Higgins, Ray Johnson, Alison Knowles, Allan Kaprow, George Brecht, Daniel Spoerri, Robert Filliou, Al ...
, 1973.
*Hendricks. ''Sheep's Skeleton & Rocks.'
Unpublished Editions 1977.
*Hendricks, ed. ''Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia, and Rutgers University, 1958–1972''.
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.
History
Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...
, 2002.
References
External links
Archivio ConzFluxus.orgFluxlist* Fluxus Museum in Potsdam, Germany
fluxus debris! @ art / not artThe Fluxus BlogGeoffrey Hendricksin th
Video Data BankHendricks' page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
1931 births
2018 deaths
Fluxus
American art curators
American artists
People from Littleton, New Hampshire
Rutgers University faculty
{{US-academic-bio-stub