LARRY BELL / TONY DELAP / CRAIG KAUFFMAN / WILLIAM REYNOLDS / ED RUSCHA — 5 at Pace, Pace Gallery, New York, 1965

Larry Bell, Tony DeLap, Craig Kauffman, William Reynolds, Ed Ruscha. 5 at Pace. 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.

5 at Pace 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.

The design makes the geographic transfer explicit. A map of Los Angeles becomes the cover, overprinted with the large cream 5 AT PACE; 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 BOSS image are presented almost administratively: image, name, biography, exhibition history.

Ruscha 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.

The separate invitation strengthens the object: announcement and social mechanism remain together. Exhibition information, transportation, reception and circulation survive as one small administrative set.

Condition: 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.

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