{"title":"John Coplans","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Coplans (1920–2003) was a British-born American critic, curator and artist whose writing and institutional work were central to the formation of West Coast American art in the 1960s. As a founding editor of \u003cem\u003eArtforum\u003c\/em\u003e from 1962 and later its editor-in-chief, he shaped the critical language through which Los Angeles and California art was identified, debated and exported. His essays on artists including Larry Bell, Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman and others associated with Finish Fetish and Light and Space were among the earliest sustained critical accounts of those practices. Coplans later became director of the Akron Art Museum and subsequently developed a photographic practice of his own, producing large-scale self-portraits of his ageing body that received significant international recognition from the 1980s onwards.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"bell-delap-kauffman-reynolds-ruscha-5-at-pace-1965","title":"LARRY BELL \/ TONY DELAP \/ CRAIG KAUFFMAN \/ WILLIAM REYNOLDS \/ ED RUSCHA — 5 at Pace, Pace Gallery, New York, 1965","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarry Bell, Tony DeLap, Craig Kauffman, William Reynolds, Ed Ruscha. \u003cem\u003e5 at Pace\u003c\/em\u003e. Pace Gallery, New York, 1965. Exhibition announcement with separate opening and party invitation. Accordion-fold, offset-printed paper; 14 × 14 cm folded, 14 × 56 cm unfolded. Separate printed invitation card, 8 × 10.5 cm. Introduction by John Coplans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e5 at Pace\u003c\/em\u003e brought together five artists associated with the rapidly developing Southern California scene at Pace Gallery in New York in March 1965. The announcement reproduces one work by each artist alongside short biographies and an introduction by Coplans, who was identifying shared qualities of pristine surfaces, reflection, light, new materials and controlled fabrication before categories such as West Coast Minimalism, Finish Fetish and Light and Space became firmly established.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe design makes the geographic transfer explicit. A map of Los Angeles becomes the cover, overprinted with the large cream \u003cem\u003e5 AT PACE\u003c\/em\u003e; unfolding it reveals a continuous yellow field of individual artist entries in red and black. Bell’s mirrored glass cube, DeLap’s geometric construction, Kauffman’s acrylic work, Reynolds’s shaped painting and Ruscha’s \u003cem\u003eBOSS\u003c\/em\u003e image are presented almost administratively: image, name, biography, exhibition history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRuscha sits slightly outside the Finish Fetish and Light and Space trajectory shared by the other four, making the document an unusually early record of several different versions of Los Angeles modernism being exported together to New York. Contemporary records confirm the exhibition at Pace and its relationship to the Los Angeles artists and gallery networks around Ferus.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe separate invitation strengthens the object: announcement and social mechanism remain together. Exhibition information, transportation, reception and circulation survive as one small administrative set.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: very good. Light age toning, handling and minor edge wear; small manuscript notation to upper left of cover. Invitation with light handling consistent with age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecurely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pace Gallery","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54233578570066,"sku":"BELL-DELAP-KAUFFMAN-REYNOLDS-RUSCHA-PACE-INV-1965","price":325.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Bell_Larry.Delap_Tony.Kauffman_Craig.Reynolds_William.Ruscha_Edward.Showhandout_5atPace_.Includesinvitetoshowopeningandparty.1965back.jpg?v=1786465324"}],"url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/collections\/john-coplans.oembed","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}