• Leopoldo Maler — Mortal Issues: A Sanctuary with Flames & Figures. Exhibition publication cover, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1976. Black-and-white photograph of Maler standing before a monumental archway, arms crossed. Bold typographic title below.
  • Interior spread from Leopoldo Maler exhibition publication, 1976. Black-and-white photograph of a typewriter with sheet of flames, captioned Hommage, 1974, Art Systems in Latin America, ICA London. Valerie Beston Library provenance stamp visible at top left.
  • Interior page 6 from Leopoldo Maler exhibition publication, 1976. Performance documentation Crane Ballet, 1971. Typewritten captions and bibliography. Black-and-white offset print.
  • Interior page 9 from Leopoldo Maler exhibition publication, 1976. Performance documentation including Playback 625, 1970 and Scene from X-IT2, 1970. Typewritten captions and bibliography. Black-and-white offset print.
  • Back cover of Leopoldo Maler exhibition publication, London 1976. Black-and-white photograph of Maler lying amid flames and figures. Caption reads: Leopoldo Maler London 1976. Visible handling wear and edge scuffing consistent with vintage condition.
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Whitechapel Art Gallery

LEOPOLDO MALER — Mortal Issues: A Sanctuary with Flames & Figures, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1976

LEOPOLDO MALER — Mortal Issues: A Sanctuary with Flames & Figures, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1976

£150.00 GBP
£150.00 GBP
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Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. 12-page exhibition publication. 30 × 21 cm. Stapled wraps. Black-and-white offset print.

Issued for Maler’s exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery, 26 February–4 April 1976, this booklet no longer reads only as exhibition support material. It remains as a compressed exhibition form: image, statement, bibliography, notes, documentation. A show reduced to pages. A public event retained as a portable object.

This copy bears the stamp: Valerie Beston Library / Gift of the Estate of John Edwards. That mark shifts the publication away from simple reference and toward association copy, custody trace, and art-world remainder. Not only a document of Maler’s Whitechapel exhibition, but a document of its later passage through another system of storage, attention, and inheritance.

The publication is not presented here as neutral catalogue matter, but as a minor object of retention: part guide, part dossier, part residue. The typewritten pages, bibliography, and black-and-white performance documentation do not stabilize the work so much as leave it in circulation under another form.

Maler’s work in the years leading up to this exhibition moved between performance, choreography, film, installation, text, and image. That instability is registered here. The booklet does not summarize the practice cleanly; it preserves its dispersion.

Condition: good vintage condition with visible handling wear, light creasing, rubbing to covers, minor edge wear, gentle toning, and slight waviness to some interior pages. Staples intact. Provenance stamp present.

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