Articles & Reviews

TV as a Creative Medium attracted interest from critics, scholars, artists and the general public when it opened May 17, 1969. Provocative in tone and presentation, it actively engaged the critical discourses on cybernetics and communication theory at play during the postwar period. The following articles and reviews were published on the occasion of this landmark exhibition. Full versions of these texts may be viewed by clicking on the appropriate link.


   

John S. Margolies, "TV--The Next Medium"

Art in America 57.5 (September-October 1969): 48-55.

In this comprehensive article, John Margolies charts the early evolution of the televised image within artistic practice. Positioning Howard Wise's TV as a Creative Medium exhibition as a touchstone of this movement, he features the work of a number of up and coming artists, including Nam June Paik, Allan Kaprow, and Otto Piene. Margolies not only assesses the new relationship between the art object and its audience during this period, but he also engages more generally with the medium's theoretical underpinnings.
 
Jud Yalkut, "Critique: TV as a Creative Medium"

Arts Magazine 44.1 (September-October 1969) 18+

A key figure in the documentation of early video history, Yalkut peppers his review with quotes from participating artists and describes many of the pieces included in Wise's exhibition.
 
Richard Skidmore, "TV as Art" (1969)

Detailing the work of Paik, Seery, and Tadlock, Skidmore suggests that television, as the "new art form," might lead to the revitalization of cable programming.
 
Stephanie Harrington, "TV: Awaiting a Genius"

The Village Voice (May 29, 1969): 29.

Fascinated with the Moorman-Paik TV Bra collaboration yet overwhelmed by the technological gadgetry of the exhibition as a whole, Harrington concludes that TV as a Creative Medium is a mere "collection of technical details waiting for a unifying aesthetic genius."
 
"The Medium: Taking the Waste Out of the Wasteland"

Time (May 30, 1969): 74.

Designating television as the "preoccupier of youth," this article emphasizes the generation gap between the magazine's readership and Wise's participating artists.
 
Reproduction of Howard Wise Gallery Press Presentation

Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice (May 22, 1969).

Joseph Schwartz, "TV Success, Failure in Exhibit,î"The Jersey Journal (June 12, 1969):29.
Drawing an analogy between Wise's exhibition and the historic Armory Exhibit of 1913, Schwarz finds the work in the exhibition a sign of hope amidst television's "sonmanbulant and worthless" programming.

Grace Glueck, "Art Notes: T-Visionaries," The New York Times (May 25, 1969): D42.
Printed with a picture of Charlotte Moorman wearing the infamous TV Bra, Glueck's article covers the highlights of the exhibition.

John Gruen, "Art in New York," New York 2.23 (June 9, 1969): 57.
Touting the Moorman-Paik collaboration as a "show-stopper," Gruen also mentions the work of Reiback, Ryan, Boutourline and Tambellini in his short review.