ART-PRESENTATION: Multiples, Inc

Marian Goodman Gallery presents the first historical exhibition of Multiples, Inc., the art publishing company founded by Marian Goodman and a few partners in the 1960s. During its existence, Multiples, Inc. published seminal editions with some of the most important artists of the 20th century over a period of almost three decades between 1966 and 1992.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marian Goodman Gallery Archive

The exhibition “Multiples, Inc.” gathers for the first time a selection of over 150 editions published by the company in collaboration with over 70 artists. On view are works in a broad variety of media ranging from objects, works on Plexiglas, jewellery, and furniture pieces to an extensive selection of prints, portfolios and artist books. Multiples, Inc. was founded in 1965 in New York by a group of five partners, some of which had already been producing editioned banners with contemporary artists as part of the Betsy Ross Flag and Banner Company, the conpany opened its first gallery on Madison Avenue (close to 74^th Street), where it exhibited its own editions as well as those of various other U.S. and European publishers. In 1966, was published its first portfolio, “Artists & Photographs” with works by Philip Guston, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, and Larry Rivers. The 1960s were the high times of multiples; artworks were not conceived as single objects but as objects to be published in several examples, often using new materials and contemporary manufacturing techniques. Producing artworks in editions allowed a democracy of distribution, permitting them to be offered at lower prices, in turn making current developments in the art world available to a larger audience. While in its initial phase, from the mid-sixties to the early seventies, the company placed a strong emphasis on publishing three-dimensional works by artists such as Arman, Richard Artschwager, Marisol, and Man Ray. Multiples, Inc. also produced the first multiples of Sol LeWitt, Fred Sandback, and Robert Smithson. Marian Goodman played the main role in artist relations, and during this era, the publishing company also enthusiastically supported emerging Pop artists Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol, amongst others. In 1970, was published the famous “Artists & Photographs” box that assembled editions from a number of artists whose work used photography in various unconventional ways, including Dan Graham, Richard Long, Robert Morris, and Bruce Nauman. The box contained a selection of brochures, offset prints, and other types of printed matter which artists used as appropriate media. Published in an edition of 1200 copies, the box, which was initially a commercial setback, is now considered an artistic landmark. While many publishers emerged in the U.S. and in Europe in the 1960s, not all of these organisations remained active into the future, whereas Multiples, Inc. survived the initial impetus of the new medium and went on to increasingly produce prints in the 1970s and 1980s. The art publishing company edited a number of more classical print portfolios, featuring some of the period’s greatest printmakers—Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, and Ed Ruscha. Multiples, Inc. was one of the main publishers of Sol LeWitt prints, and it launched the first series of etchings by Robert Wilson and editioned the furniture created for his stage sets. Besides commissioning works from U.S. artists, the company worked with European artists including Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Jan Dibbets, and Richard Hamilton. For a brief time in the early 1970s, the company also maintained a branch in Los Angeles. In 1974, Marian Goodman assumed sole ownership over the company, and in 1977 she also opened Marian Goodman Gallery. Even with the inauguration of the new gallery on 57^th Street, the publication of editions under the Multiples, Inc., imprint continued with artists John Baldessari, Dan Flavin, Richard Tuttle and Tom Wesselmann, among others. During its existence, over 80 objects and over 800 prints were published in collaboration with more than 90 artists. In 1992, with no hint of pathos, Multiples, Inc. concluded production with prints by Richard Artschwager and Lawrence Weiner. The exhibition stands as a historical survey of the pioneering art publishing company, which in turn established the intellectual and artistic trajectory of what has become the Marian Goodman Gallery.

Photo: Christian Boltanski, Après

Info: Curator: Dieter Schwarz, Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, New York, Duration: 12/1-27/2/2021, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00 (Book an appointment), www.mariangoodman.com