Articles & Reviews

This page includes a selection of articles and reviews of the 7th through 12th Annual Avant Garde Festivals, from 1971 to 1975, which were published in New York newspapers and magazines. A document containing a bibliography for the festivals from 1963 to 1969 can also be found below. Please click on the appropriate links to read the documents.

Bibliography: Annual Avant Garde Festivals 1963-69

This three-page document lists bibliographic references, including newspaper and magazine articles, for the 1st through 6th Annual Avant Garde Festivals, from 1963 to 1969.

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1971: 8th Annual Avant Garde Festival

Grace Glueck, “Art Notes: Divertissement.”
New York Times (November 7, 1971)

In this short article, Glueck describes the 8th Annual Avant Garde Festival at the Armory as "a sort of country fair of the far-out." She mentions the electronic emphasis of this year's festival, and outlines the many different art forms to be featured, including video, film, electronic music, earth art, poetry, actions, environments, inflatables and other spectacles.

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Richard F. Shepard, “Avant Garde Festival Held at Armory.”
New York Times (November, 1971)

This article gives a brief, enthusiastic account of the 8th Annual Avant Garde Festival. The author refers to Moorman as the "dynamic shoestring impresario," describes a number of pieces, and states that the event was "a breathless, enjoyable walkaround for the many hundreds of people who attended."

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Fred W. McDarrah, “Avant Garde Festival: Down to His Last Mouse.”
Village Voice (November 25, 1971)

This extensive three-page article includes several photographs from the 8th Annual Avant Garde Festival, as well as vivid, personal descriptions of a number of the works. The reviewer describes the Festival as "a combination trade show, circus, and high school Christmas fair." He also quotes some of the soldiers stationed at the Armory, who express their candid thoughts on the Festival's participants.

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J.P. “Charlotte’s Festival: Why Do They Do It?”
Village Voice (November 25, 1971)

In this brief piece, the reviewer considers the event "a study in contradictions of terms. The idea is so absurd and has been for so long that one begins to think it is outrageous." However, the writer hails the spirit of Charlotte Moorman: "To promote and organize eight of these disasters so far and to convince otherwise serious artists to participate takes some spunk."

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Carman Moore, “That Festival Was Needed.”
Village Voice (December 9, 1971): 49.

The writer of this review considers many of her colleagues to have treated the 8th Annual Avant Garde Festival unjustly, with some critics arguing that avant-garde art doesn't belong in a festival-carnival. She refers to Moorman as an "amazing ‚ perhaps revolutionary ‚ woman," and states, "Carnival is probably the value of the current avant-garde. Carnival ‚ a time and place for amazing yourself while you walk around with lots of people: Carnival ‚ also historically a kind of protest against Lent and against the strictures of your religion." The writer also discusses pieces by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

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Tom Buckley, “Electrified Spaghetti on Avant Garde Fete Menu.”
New York Times (October 29, 1972): 70.

The author of this review of the 9th Annual Avant Garde Festival on the Alexander Hamilton excursion boat gives positive, extensive descriptions of several works, including pieces by Tony Martin, Ay-O, Larry Miller, and Yoko Ono. He quotes Charlotte Moorman as saying that "ÖEverybody is very lucky that we're hereÖ" but that "Some people think we're crazy."

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Annette Kuhn, “The Underwater Cellist: ‘Push Her Further Down."
Village Voice (November 2, 1972): 70.

This reviewer of the 9th Annual Avant Garde Festival gives her personal impressions of some of the works, the audience, the participants, the site, and the overall ambience. She describes in detail Charlotte Moorman's underwater cello-playing event. She is generally critical towards the preponderance of video works, stating that "there is too much video stuff everywhere" and it's just not interesting."

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Carman Moore, “The Avant-Garde in Dry Dock.”
Village Voice (November 9, 1972): 47.

This writer attempts to put the 1970s' avant-garde in a historical context of the 1950s and 1960s, and discusses at length what she sees as its current failings, including the artist-audience relationship. She praises works by Woody Vasulka, Shirley Clarke, and Charlotte Moorman, whose efforts to "hustle the straight world for some concessions to the arts" are seen as the "freshest (and most hopeful, perhaps) aspect of the avant-garde ideal."

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“Ninth Annual.”
New Yorker (November 11, 1972)

In this unattributed Talk of the Town piece, the author takes a lighthearted, anecdotal approach as he or she waits for Charlotte Moorman to play her cello underwater. A bystander from Texas sum up the event: "I always thought the purpose of the avant-garde was to repel people, and I've been all over that ship and I haven't been truly repelled once."

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Mary Breasted, “Ms. Moorman’s Water Music.”
SR (December 2, 1972): 19-20

The author of this article is unimpressed by the Festival. "As I strolled about the ship [Ö] it struck me that quite a few of the artists must have been chosen for their lack of inhibitions, a character trait that was not always accompanied by much creative talent." She is exhausted by the "sights and sounds and absurd goings on" and reveals a preference to old-fashioned "blipless museums" and conventional concert halls. She describes in some detail Nam June Paik's TV Bed and Shigeko Kubota's Video Birthday Party (60th) for John Cage.

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Bibliography of the 10th Avant Garde Festival of New York

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Michael Kaufman, “When Festival is 10, Is It Avant-Garde?”
New York Times (December 10)

In this article, Michael Kaufman gives a biographical introduction to Charlotte Moorman, from her beginnings as a classical cello student at Juilliard to her discovery of the music and art avant-garde via John Cage. Kaufman describes works in the 10th Festival at Grand Central Station, including those by Yoko Ono and Fred Stern, and speaks with John Cage, Shirley Clarke and her Videospace Troupe, and Antoni Miralda, who distributes "edible art." The writer praises Moorman's resourcefulness in arranging the entire Festival on a $13,000 grant.

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Lee Sheridan, “City Collectors Participate in Avant Garde Festival.”
Daily News (December 7, 1973)

This reviewer considers the 10th Annual Avant Garde Festival to have been "an historic event charting the course of the unconventional art of the 1970s." He finds several works unforgettable, including John Cage's "Work in Progress." What entices the reviewer most is the element of interaction present throughout the Festival. He states that it is not an on-stage performance but a one-on-one experience, where the distinction between artist and spectator partly disappears.

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Diane Dreyfus, “A Day at the Station,”
Nightwatch (December 20, 1973: 6)

This is the author's personal account of the tenth Annual Avant Garde Festival. The reviewer spent the day at the Grand Central Station and describes to the reader what she, her fellow spectators and the performers were up to. She appears to be charmed by the playfulness of the Festival.

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Peter Frank, “The Avant Garde Festival: And Now, Shea Stadium.”
Art in America (November/December 1974): 102—106

This extensive article, published in Art in America, covers the history of the Annual Avant Garde Festival up to its eleventh year. Over several pages Peter Frank gives an account of how the festival came about, what difficulties Charlotte Moorman has encountered in organizing it, how it went from an exclusive to a public event, and which artists have been involved since its inception. Frank argues that the art presented at the Festival has not changed much in ten years. However, he praises it for being "wildly uneven" and not just presenting the "Best New Art."

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Ellen Stock, “Best Bests: Shea It With Music.”
New York (7:46 1974)

This short announcement for the 11th Annual Avant Garde Festival at Shea Stadium is illustrated with a playful drawing of the venue and performers.

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Richard F. Shepard, “With Left Bank in Right, Avant-Garde Fete is Far Out.”
New York Times (November 17, 1974)

This short article portrays a sprawling 11th Annual Avant Garde Festival at Shea Stadium as an exhibition of "unusual creative outbursts" and mentions the eclectic range of works by artists, including Yoko Ono, Ay-O, Otto Piene, John Cage.

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Robin Reisig, “The Avant-Garde Festival at Shea: In Which Charlotte Moorman Attempts to Play Her Cello on a Trapeze and Succeeds in Kicking It, Thereby Making a Sound.”
Village Voice (November 21, 1974): 83

This reviewer gives a detailed description of her time at the 11th Annual Avant Garde Festival, writing, "I touched, heard, and played with the art works. I even ate several of them." She describes at length the audience's playful, festive interaction with the pieces and the site, and writes with enthusiasm on Geoff Hendrick's works. The text ends with a vivid description of Charlotte Moorman performing Flying Cello, in which she swings on a trapeze over Shea Stadium, attempting a mid-air meeting with her cello, which flies on a second trapeze.

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Alan Shapiro, “11th Annual Avant Garde Festival.”
Good Times (December 4-17, 1974):11

This short commentary on the 11th Annual Avant Garde Festival features numerous photographs of artists and works at the festival.

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Ernest Leogrande, “En Garde, Floyd Bennett!”
New York Daily News (September 20, 1975): 15

This article announces the 12th Annual Avant Garde Festival, to be held at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The author mentions some of the artists to be featured, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and advises visitors to bring a picnic.

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Alan M. Kreigsman, “A Gorple Grows in Brooklyn.”
The Washington Post (September 29, 1975): B1, B7.

This two-page review describes several works included in the 12th Annual Avant Garde Festival. The author is enticed by the event as a whole, but concludes that: "The label 'avant-garde' seems to have lost most of its former connotations of insurgency and radicalism."

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