VARIOUS ARTISTS (20th century)
S.M.S. (Shit Must Stop)
1968
collection of 73 original multiples (six portfolios)
illustrated paper portfolios in their original cardboard mailing boxes
dimensions variable, 35.6x19.1 cm (each box)
signed and numbered
published by The Letter Edged in Black Press Inc., New York
first original edition
Among the many artist represented are the following:
Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Roy Lichtenstein, Christo, Julien Levy, Ray Johnson, Meret Oppenheim, Dick Higgens, Joseph Kosuth, John Cage, On Kawara, Arman, Bruce Nauman, Mel Ramos, Hannah Weiner, Claes Oldenbug, Bernar Venet, Richard diterHamilton, Enrico Baj, Yoko Ono and Dieter Roth.
Founded in New York City by artist, collector and dealer William Copley, S.M.S. was an art collection in a box, filled with small-scale, often whimsical, artworks available by subscription. Delivering art through the post offered Copley, and his collaborator Dmitri Petrov, a way to circumvent the art market and make contemporary art accessible to nearly anyone.
Inspired by Copley’s mentor and friend Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, S.M.S. was conceived as an inter-media and intergenerational publication that would present artworks by prominent and unknown artists side by side.
The magazine gathered an impressive range including the Surrealist luminaries Man Ray and Meret Oppenheim, Pop artists Richard Hamilton and Roy Lichtenstein, composers Lamont Young and Terry Riley, and an up-and-coming generation of conceptual and post-studio artists such as Joseph Kosuth and Bruce Nauman.
Regardless of stature, each was paid $100 for their contribution. This egalitarian spirit extended to the communal atmosphere of Copley’s upper west side Letter Edged in Black Press loft which functioned as an unofficial hangout for many of the participants.