Group Material Archive
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Active from 1979-1996, Group Material was an artists' collaboration that produced over forty-five projects addressing a wide range of social, political, and artistic issues. Members included Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mundy McLaughlin, Karen Ramspacher and Tim Rollins, among others. The collective also worked with artists such as Vito Acconci, Mike Glier, Barbara Kruger, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Faith Ringgold, Martha Rosler, Andres Serrano, Nancy Spero, Anton van Dalen, Carrie Mae Weems, and many others. Materials in the collection document the origins, processes and context of Group Material's activities.
Historical Note
"Group Material was founded by a number of artists who sought a collaborative practice in which they could fuse their interests in art and politics. The original thirteen members included Tim Rollins, Patrick Brennan, Julie Ault, Mundy McLaughlin, Marybeth Nelson, and Beth Jaker. In 1980 and 1981 Group Material operated a storefront exhibition space on East Thirteenth Street, where it staged a series of shows focused on social themes.
After 1981 the group shrunk to three members and chose not to maintain its own space but instead to create installations in existing venues (alternative art spaces, university galleries, and museums) and multiform projects in public (primarily through interventions using public advertising spaces). Doug Ashford joined the group in 1982, Felix Gonzalez-Torres in 1987, Karen Ramspacher in 1989, and Thomas Eggerer and Jochen Klein in 1995. Group Material's dense installations were typically thematic and combined fine art in various media and styles, mass-produced items, and artifacts to form designed environments. These exhibitions were concerned with topical issues or debates in culture and politics and were institution- or site-dependent, such as "Subculture" on the IRT subway trains in 1982; "Democracy" at the Dia Art Foundation in 1988; and "AIDS Timeline" at the University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, in 1989. Group Material ceased its activities in 1996."
- Excerpt from Alternative Art New York: 1965–1985, University of Minnesota Press and The Drawing Center, 2002., edited by founding member Julie Ault
Chronology:
Missing Title
Bibliography:
- Bibliography
- Ashford, D. (2006). A conversation on social collaboration. Art Journal, 65(2), 58-82. doi: 10.2307/20068466
- Ault, J., Wallis, B., Weems, M., & Yenawine, P. (1999). Art matters: How the culture wars changed America. New York: New York University Press.
- Ault, J. (2002). Alternative art, New York: 1965-1985. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press & New York: The Drawing Center.
- Avgikos, J. (1995). Group Material Timeline: Activism as a work of art. In Nina Felshin, (Ed.), But is it art? (pp. 85-116). Seattle: Bay Press.
- Fairbrother, T. J., Potts, K., & Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (1993). In and out of place: contemporary Art and the American social landscape. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts.
- Group Material (Firm : New York, N.Y.), & Temple Gallery (Philadelphia, Pa.). (1987). Constitution. Philadelphia, PA: Temple Gallery.
- Group Material (Firm : New York, N.Y.), & Ault, J. (ed.) (2010). Show and tell: A chronicle of Group Material. London: Four Corners Books.
- Lippard, L. R. (1984). Get the message?: A decade of art for social change. New York: E.P. Dutton.
- Olander, W. (1989, January). Material world. Art in America, 167, 123–128.
- Wallis, B., Group Material (Firm : New York, N.Y.), & Dia Art Foundation. (1990). Democracy: A project. Seattle: Bay Press & New York: Dia Art Foundation.
Arrangement
All efforts were made to preserve the original arrangement of the collection. Within each series, most items are arranged chronologically, when material is dated.
Materials that are not arranged chronologically are noted in the detailed series descriptions, found in the Container List.
Certain materials are also grouped by format (including Photographic Material, Video, Audio, Computer Discs, and Objects). Objects, Artworks, and artifacts were grouped together in Series X. The researcher should expect to find some overlapping of materials throughout all series.
Oversized archival materials from the various series are located in a number of oversize boxes...
The Group Material Archive is arranged in the following series:
***Scroll down to Container List for detailed series and subseries descriptions***
Series I: Project Files and Exhibition Materials Series II: Correspondence Series III: Press and Promotional Material Series IV: Clippings [Source Material] Series V: Financial files Series VI: Photographic Material Series VII: Video Series VIII: Audio Series IX: Computer files Series X: Objects Oversize Series I: Project Files Oversize Series II: Correspondence Oversize Series III: Press and Promotional Material Oversize Series VI: Photographic Material Oversize Series X: Objects
All efforts were made to preserve the original arrangement of the collection. Within each series, most items are arranged chronologically, when material is dated.
Materials that are not arranged chronologically are noted in the detailed series descriptions, found in the Container List.
Certain materials are also grouped by format (including Photographic Material, Video, Audio, Computer Discs, and Objects). The researcher should expect to find some overlapping of materials throughout all series.
Oversized archival materials from the various series are listed at the end of the finding aid.
The Group Material Archive is arranged in the following series:
[detailed series and subseries descriptions can be found in the container list]
Series I: Project Files
Series II: Correspondence
Series III: Press and Promotional Material
Series IV: Clippings
Series V: Financial files
Series VI: Photographic Material
Series VII: Video recordings
Series VIII: Sound recordings
Series IX: Computer files
Series X: Objects
Series XI: "Vital Archive" (Accretion 2011)
Oversize Series I: Project Files
Oversize Series II: Correspondence
Oversize Series III: Press and Promotional Material
Oversize Series VI: Photographic Material
Oversize Series X: Objects
Scope and Content
The Group Material archive is comprised of working notes, meeting minutes, proposals, posters, flyers, announcements, installation photographs, source material, press releases, magazine articles, reviews, financial documents, color slides, catalogs, audio tapes, video tapes, computer discs, artifacts, artworks, ephemera, and exhibition materials. Julie Ault assembled the archive in the summer and fall of 2008, with contributions from Doug Ashford, Sonia Finley, Sabrina Locks, and Rasmus Röhling.
The archive also includes artwork by Vito Acconci, Dennis Adams, Ida Applebroog, Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Jimmy De Sana, Gran Fury, Mike Glier, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Michael Jenkins, Barbara Kruger, Mundy McLaughlin, Aric Obrosey, Saul Ostrow, Richard Prince, Tim Rollins, Martha Rosler, Andres Serrano, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, Haim Steinbach, Carrie Mae Weems, among many others.
Subjects
Organizations
People
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Group Material Archive; MSS 215; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Provenance
Julie Ault assembled the Group Material Archive by compiling her own material, which included some that was previously integrated from Mundy McLaughlin and Tim Rollins, and combining it with material from Doug Ashford and from other group members. NYU Libararies acquired the Group Material Archive in 2008.
Ault outlines her archiving process in greater detail in the book Show and Tell: A Chronicle of Group Material:
"The group's material traces had been dispersed since 1983 when the collaborative decided it would no longer maintain an exhibition space or headquarters and instead function nomadically, working from members' homes and aided by the temporary infrastructural support of art institutions that invited GM to make projects. Decentralized, members kept their own paper trails or not. While no single person had the official responsibility of keeping up documentation of GM's process and projects, former member Mundy McLaughlin did so for the most part until 1986, at which point I took over the informal role, as well as the files. Founding member Tim Rollins gave me his files soon after. Others who left did not turn their collected material over to those who continued. What remains tangible for the archive, thirty years after GM's founding, is a mixture of several individuals' saving habits stimulated by idiosyncratic, conceptual, and practical factors. Some of what was saved is of ambiguous value and much that should have been kept was not. Things got lost and thrown out early on because as barely solvent young New Yorkers we had space constraints and moved frequently."
Separated Materials
Many books that were part of the archive have been removed, and will be cataloged as part of the Fales Downtown Book Collection.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In April of 2019, accession 2008.215 boxes 7,8,9, and 11 were prepared for offsite stoarage and rehoused into acid free folders following their orginal order in their boxes. Boxes 62, 63, 64, and 65 replaced original box numbers of accession 2008.215.
In December 2024, materials in Box 39 were rehoused into a new box.
