Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Today let us bow to the Mail Queen, aka Patricia Tavenner,and her long reign as a contributor to and curator within the global network of mail art and artists’ stamps. The Oakland-based artist adopted this nom de plume around the time that she began teaching courses on the “hidden” history of women artists. In 1972 she cofounded the Northern California Women’s Caucu... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

“A long time ago (or so it seems), people made films just for the fun of it. Then someone got the idea that film had to hurt. No pain, no gain. Somehow film showcases decided they were right. Today people still make films just for the fun of it. And we show them at the No Nothing Cinema.” — Dean Snider, 1983, co-founder, No Nothing Cinema (1982-1997, now New Nothing Cinema)

T... More

In a search for something pleasing from the museum’s collection to share with you all today, I typed “pie” into ArtScope. And what a nice return on my effort: 141 works came up. That’s because PIE returns Pierre, and Pierrot, and pier, and pierce; along with photocopies and poppies, and more. I chose a handful of favorites I hadn’t fallen in love with before:

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

“The event resulted in a collaborative network that exceeded the boundaries of a single institution and its authority.” —Lew Thomas on 8 x 10, 1975

Juliet Clark

“I will talk to you of art, for there is nothing else to talk about.”
—Maxwell H. Brock (Julian Burton) in A Bucket of Blood

California, 1959: in an apartment on San Francisco’s Fillmore Street, Jay DeFeo, a central figure in the city’s artistic bohemia, labors over a mammoth monochromatic painting called Deathrose. Meanwhile... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

“Several intentions were announced in early press releases, but one of the most important functions of the gallery was to serve as a (store)front for my ‘guerilla art’ activities, for which the imprimatur of the gallery structure confers legitimacy and lays down a smokescreen … A basic philosophy of the Samore Gallery has always been subversion, sabotage, and upheaval.”

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Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

The name A.R.E. was open to interpretation, encouraged in fact by a chalkboard at the stairs. This was apt for a space that was interested in the present moment, resistant to being fixed and going on the path toward institutionalization taken by the first wave of alternative spaces in the 1970s. Artists for Revolution in the Eighties is how A.R.E. was best known and listed on the group cal... More

The presidential debate wasn’t even half way over when the Facebook page for “We have women in binders” reached 80,000 likes. Just as quickly, countless silly images could be seen on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and on blogs across the political spectrum. In case you missed it, here are a few of them.

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

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A reply to an unusual inquiry received by the SFMOMA Education Department 10/7/12:

Dear Clock Smith,

Thank you for your inquiry as to what sort of chainsaws SFMOMA has in stock. Currently we have two different versions of Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting, both of which include the artist at work on his site-specific “building cuts,” in wh... More

When I was living in San Francisco, it was hard to find really good used records. In New York however, they are all over the place and it seems the more I look, the more I find. So for the benefit of those who thought record collecting was dying out, I am here to say it’s not. In fact, a whole lot of great records can be bought for about $1.0... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Bay Area ceramicist Richard Shaw and his wife, painter Martha Shaw, have collaborated on music and art for many years; their renowned artistic family includes Alice Shaw and Virgil Shaw. This weekend an estimated 750,00 people will ‘walk in the park’ to attend the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, an annual free music concert in San Francisco.

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

“Many thanks again for the guided tour through the Bay Area. It was one of the richest evenings during our trip: in one night four artists for documenta 5. This is to confirm the documenta will officially invite for participation Terry Fox, Howard Fried, John C. Fernie, and Jim Melchert.” – Harald Szeemann (correspondence with Carol Lindsley, Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco, Dec... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

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Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

“I had the idea that my outdoor work was going to appeal to two different audiences: my friends and the artists who received mailers on this will look at it as artwork. And then there... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

This Labor Day weekend post highlights Limbo, an artist-run project by Artspace (founded 1986) that transformed a restaurant on the corner of 9th Street and Folsom in San Francisco. Click here for several videos from the mid-1990s of different artists in the kitchen and their guest Wednesday night menus.

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Press release (excerpt):

“X:THE UNKNOWN is purposefully being presented concurrently with Introductions, the exhibitions of emerging artists at San Francisco commercial galleries, and the equivalent program in the East Bay, Bay Currents. The works comprising X:THE UNKNOWN provide a powerful aesthetic alternative to the often ‘safely marketable’ selections of unknown artists w... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Mike Mandel (b. 1950) and Larry Sultan (1946–2009) began their 30-year collaboration around their shared interest in cultural artifacts and the idea of the billboard. Designing and then docu... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

A birthday tribute to Jess (1923–2004), whose magnificent works are on view here in two collection shows. Click the image to enlarge the 1960 text by his partner, the great poet Robert Duncan (1919–1988).

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Today we celebrate the 73rd birthday of Memphis, Tennessee, photographer William Eggleston. Mr. Eggleston has been photographing in the American South since the ’60s, and there are a number of his fantastic pictures in the SFMOMA collection. While I was searching for something special of his to share this afternoon, I was struck especially by... More

Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.

Bernie Lubell and I were catching up the other day, talking about his recent work. I mentioned that I was interested in learning more about his 1980s-era exhibition cards. He clarified that those particular invitations for his sculpture shows in San Francisco were not just instruction-based, but could actually be assembled into paper mechanisms. These cards were the perfect format for an ... More