Lee Lozano (1930-1999) - Thesis (All Men Are Hardly Created Equal) - 1968

LEE LOZANO (1930-1999).

"Thesis (All Men Are Hardly Created Equal)".

Object-illustrated notebook with satin ribbon. 12.5 x 7.6 cm.

Multiple from Portfolio S.M.S. #2 (Shit Must Stop), April 1968.

Contribution by the great American artist to the famous portfolios published by William Copley and Dimitri Petrov between February and December 1968.

Publisher: The Letter Edged in Black Press, New York, 1968.

Edition of approximately 2,000 copies, many of them lost (according to experts, probably between 800 and 1,000).

Copy in perfect condition. One of the most sought-after artworks from the 68 subscription.

The "SMS" portfolios (inspired by Marcel Duchamp's famous Boîte-en-valise and, in general, by the irreverence of the DADA movement and the multiples of the FLUXUS movement) represented a reaction against the elitism of the art world by providing, through regular subscriptions, pieces by artists we now consider among the most important of the 20th century (Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichstenstein, Joseph Kosuth, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, John Cage, Bernar Venet, Mel Ramos, Walter de Maria, Christo Javacheff, Dieter Roth, Claes Oldenburg, etc.). Shit Must Stop deliveries barely lasted a year due to the rising cost of publishing and distributing the works.

"Lee Lozano presents a small, hardcover artist's book containing a purported printed thesis on 45 pages (front only) presented through words and pictures and titled "All Men Are Hardly Created Equal." The book is covered with patterned paper featuring a baroque-style design featuring swirling dragons and leaves in brown, gold, and cream and tied with a purple satin ribbon. The first page states that it is a "THESIS / prepared by O.S., / candidate for / MASTER'S DEGREE / in / BIOLOGY, THE HUMANITIES and / THE SOCIAL SCIENCE." In the book, Lozano brings together, through scientific-style drawings, an astonishing array of laboratory instruments made of Pyrex glass, imbued with a phallic connotation, as compelling evidence to support her thesis that "Hardly all men are equal." The book's illustrations are labeled in Latin. With a heavy irony, Lozano delivers a pointed feminist critique, simulating a kind of phallocentric universe that plays upon her scientific training, her delight in spicy wordplay, and her research based on texts such as Herbert Marcuse's "Eros and Civilization" (1955), which characterized her work since the late 1960s"
[Text by Roberto Díaz, for an exhibition at the Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art, Cáceres, Spain, 2021.]

There is extensive bibliographical documentation on the revolutionary SMS portfolios.

- SMS. A Collection of Original Multiples. The Letter Edged in Black Press Inc., New York 1968.
Copley, William. Published by Junghans, Bln., 1989

-Art America June 1968

-Ursula Block & Michael Glasmeier: Broken Music Catalog of the exhibition at the Daadgalerie Berlin 1989, page 230 ff.

-Another Door: Art of Books in the 20th Century; Urawa Art Museum 2000, catalog p.181-182

-Marie Boivent: Revue d’Artistes Une sélection Rennes 2008, p.62-ff.
-Documenta 6 Kassel 1977, catalog volume 3, p.335-ff.

-Thomas Kellein : Fröliche Wissenschaft Das Archiv Sohm : Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 1986 n°319 p.177-ff.

-Anne Moeglin-Delcroix Esthétique du livre d’artiste p.116-ff.

-Duccio Dogheria: «It was a surprise: «SMS, the periodical-museo» in “Charta” n°117 (September-October 2011).

-Béatrice Hernad and Karin V. Maur: Papiergesänge Prestel 1992, n°106, p.225-ff.

-Constance W. Glenn, The Great American Pop Art Store p.77. ff.

-Daniel Buchholz and Gregorio Magnani: International Index of Multiples, p.221-ff.

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