Arcana:

Gaines, Charles & Catherine Lord. Irvine, CA: Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Irvine, 1993. First Edition 1/1000. 4to. Embossed and Printed Wrappers. Exhibition Catalog. Fine.. 92pp, profusely illustrated in b&w. Designed by Susan Silton. Photographs by Catherine Opie. With artists' biographies. In 1993, Charles Gaines and Catherine Lord mounted a category-breaking exhibition at the University of California, Irvine, entitled "The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism. that featured Black artists from different generations working across Fluxus, Conceptualism, assemblage, photography and installation. Challenging the racializing of Black artists’ work, the show confronted the discourse around race difference in the United States by including excerpts of writings discussing the participating artists: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Renée Green, David Hammons, Ben Patterson, Adrian Piper, Sandra Rowe, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Pat Ward Williams, and Fred Wilson. The catalogue contains essays by Gaines, Lord, and Maurice Berger along with a typographic transcription of a roundtable of between the exhibition's artists and writers. A most handsome example of the uncommon 1993 first edition of this important document limited to one thousand unnumbered copies. 1-884355-00-5 Inventory Number: 027643