Catalog accompanying Sam Wiener’s ingenious mock-archaeological exhibition, first presented at O.K. Harris Gallery in 1980 and subsequently circulated to museums and university galleries across the United States. 4to (8.5 × 11 inches), printed wrappers, illustrated in black-and-white. Inscribed on the title page by Wiener to noted children’s author Ann McGovern: “For my good friend Annie McGovern,” signed both Sam Wiener and Evangeline Tabasco, Wiener’s artistic alter ego. Conceived as a parody of the blockbuster archaeological exhibition—and specifically the Metropolitan Museum’s celebrated Tutankhamun exhibition—Splendors of the Sohites presented discarded objects excavated in SoHo as artifacts of the vanished “Sohite” civilization, classified into invented historical periods and displayed by the equally fictitious Metropolitan Container of Art. A particularly sharp example of late-1970s/early-1980s New York Conceptual Art, combining institutional critique, archaeological parody, found objects, and satire of museum culture. Calvin Tomkins discussed the exhibition in The New Yorker.
The recipient, Ann McGovern (1930–2015), was the prolific American author of more than fifty children’s books, including Stone Soup and Too Much Noise. Separate folded poster originally associated with the publication not present. Light bumping and rubbing to extremities. Otherwise near fine.
Catalog accompanying Sam Wiener’s ingenious mock-archaeological exhibition, first presented at O.K. Harris Gallery in 1980 and subsequently circulated to museums and university galleries across the United States. 4to (8.5 × 11 inches), printed wrappers, illustrated in black-and-white. Inscribed on the title page by Wiener to noted children’s author Ann McGovern: “For my good friend Annie McGovern,” signed both Sam Wiener and Evangeline Tabasco, Wiener’s artistic alter ego. Conceived as a parody of the blockbuster archaeological exhibition—and specifically the Metropolitan Museum’s celebrated Tutankhamun exhibition—Splendors of the Sohites presented discarded objects excavated in SoHo as artifacts of the vanished “Sohite” civilization, classified into invented historical periods and displayed by the equally fictitious Metropolitan Container of Art. A particularly sharp example of late-1970s/early-1980s New York Conceptual Art, combining institutional critique, archaeological parody, found objects, and satire of museum culture. Calvin Tomkins discussed the exhibition in The New Yorker.
The recipient, Ann McGovern (1930–2015), was the prolific American author of more than fifty children’s books, including Stone Soup and Too Much Noise. Separate folded poster originally associated with the publication not present. Light bumping and rubbing to extremities. Otherwise near fine.
