Art Library Exhibitions Spaces and Special Events

Fluxus: Challenging Art

Fluxus is an international avant-garde art collective that gained popularity in the 1960’s and still continues today. Created by George Maciunas, it focuses on a common attitude about art rather then a particular style or medium. Many of the works are performative in nature and challenge traditional thinking surrounding the notion of “What is art?”. Rutgers has been a major artist hub for this style with seminal works being performed on campus, including Maciunas's Flux-mass (1970) which took place at the Voorhees Chapel. 

The exhibition highlights books available through Rutgers University Libraries centered around the Fluxus art movement. Some examples include:

Klar, Alexander. Fluxus at 50. Bielefeld: Kerber, 2012.

Maciunas, George, et al. Mr. Fluxus: A Collective Portrait of George Maciunas 1931-1978: Based upon Personal Reminiscences. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

Maciunas, Goerge. Diagram of Historical Development of Fluxus and other 4 Dimentional, Aural, Optic, Olfactory, Epithelial, and Tactile Art Forms. Brooklyn, NY: Primary Information, 2015.

Thomas, Chris. Felt: Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, and the Dalai Lama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011.

Other items on display are an array of art pieces from the recent exhibition at the Jewish Museum, Take Me (I’m Yours), which ran from September 16, 2016 – February 5, 2017. Art works include Self-Portrait (Lapel Pin) by Alex Israel, ball of air from Yoko Ono’s Air Dispenser, and a t-shirt from Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Untitled 2016 (Form Follows Function or Vice Versa No. Two) (2016).