BANG Arts Festivals, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI,

now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

1964, 1965, 1966, 1967

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BANG 1

Spring time 1964; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.April 25,1967;

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        BANG 1: 1964, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

 

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION ON BANG 1, 1964

 

I remember Jesse Fuller performing at RPI, and his performance may have been at BANG 1 in 1964. He was billed a' a one man band Blues singer.-"band full of instruments operated by various parts of his anatomy, Bay Area-legend Jesse Fuller was a folk-music favorite"-noted songs are: Jesse Fuller's 'Monkey and the Engineer', 'New Corrine' by Jesse Fuller (Contemporary Music, BMI, TIme 2:55), 'The Way You Treat Me',

 

 

Although" cover of Jesse Fuller 1958 with 'fotdella' (from cover of OBCCD-526-2, photographer: Roger Marschutz)

 

LINK:

Jesse   'The Lone Cat'   Fuller  (03/12/1896 - 01/29/1976)  Discography

by Stephan Wirz, www.wirz.de, Pictures of Jesse Fuller record album covers, all of them, an amazing and wonderful dense site:, :This discography is a non-commercial labor-of-love .Notes from Stephan Wirz page list: Quote:"First track on first Bob Dylan album (rec. Nov. 20, 1961, rel. Mar. 1962) is Jesse Fuller's "You're No Good". end quote. 

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Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller

Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller Introduction. One reason that the Grateful Dead and their music have endured for over a quarter of a century has been...

"Jesse Fuller was born in 1896 in Jonesboro, Georgia. He never knew his father and his mother gave him away to another family at the age of seven. He was beaten and starved, "treated worse than a dog" he said.Jesse Fuller died on January 30, 1976 in Oakland (California)."

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Fritz Richmond ;Article Reprint from the April & May 2002 BluesNotes;by J.T. "Bugs" Engel; FRITZ: Then, Jesse Fuller would show up at the Cabal, must have been about early 1963, and he'd play this device called the Fotdella. It was a sort of bass instrument he had made. It looked like he had cut up a couple of pieces of furniture glued them together in the SHAPE of a tombstone. Then attached the bass strings of a piano, about eight of them. Each string had a contraption sort of like a piano hammer attached to it and when he'd hit it with his toe it would hit the string. He even had one special shoe. Very pointy because he wouldn't want to play more than one string at a time. He could play the bass notes on the Fotdella, with the other foot he could play a high hat, and he had a neck set up for harmonica and kazoo and minced them both. Then he had a big 12-string guitar with a pickup. Of course, he sang too. It was just amazing to think that, here was this guy who lived in Oakland, surely didn't have much money, and had this do-it-yourself one-man band rig that worked. I was at his 68th birthday party one night there.

 

 

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CULTURE EVENTS: NEW YORK ART SCENE: via book: Painters Painting,- A Candid History of The Modern Art Scene, 1940-1970, by Emile de Antonio and Mitch Tuchman., page 182.

 

1963:

De antonio completes his first film, Point of Order, based on the Army-McCarthy Hearings.

 

DeKooning builds studio in The Springs.

 

Warhol paints Ethel Scull 36 Times and makes first films.

 

June 6, 1966. Baziotes dies.

 

November 4-23. Larry Poons (Age 26) , first solo exhibition, Green. [This is the Green Gallery, run by Richard Bellamey. cls]

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CULTURE EVENTS in Richmond, Virginia in 1963: (& 1965)

 

1963 & 1965, Limón Dance Company: A Modern Dance Treasure, founded in 1946 by Mexican-American José Limón and Doris Humphrey,Richmond audiences last greeted the Company and José Limón with standing ovations and sold-out houses at the Virginia Museum in 1963 and 1965., 2/1/2006 via vcu dance. http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/dance/press_highlights.asp

 

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BANG 2

April 19 to 26, 1965 ; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

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        BANG 2: 1965, April 19 to 26, 1965: Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Poster Design: Carol L. Sutton©1964-1965

    The Spring season RPI held the 'BANG' Arts Festival and Film Festival. One year I designed and silk-screen printed a poster, that had a super enlarged antique print I had found of a baby         screaming, at the top of the poster I put large fuchsia pink 19th century carnival wood type with the letters: B A N G. The posters were so popular that they often got taken down as fast as they were put in place.

 

POSTER:

"RPI SPRING ARTS FESTIVAL -

Synthesis- Communications- Drama- Music- Dance: JJ Johnston, L. Childs, R. Morris & Y. Rainer -

Panel: T. B. Hess, L. Rivers, R. Lichtenstien, A. Solomon-

Mississippi John Hurt- 2nd Film Festival, April 19 to 26, Gymnasium, Full Tickets $5.00 & $7.00."

 

POSTER DESIGN and silk screened printing by : Carol L. Sutton. The screaming baby head was taken from an early line engraving of a baby, that I blew up multiple times in the dark room to super enlarged the antique print and then I printed it on clear acetate in order to make it into a silk screen. The wood block letters were property of the RPI typography department and I used them as they were except that I increased their size. I put large pink 19th century carnival wood type with the letters: B A N G 2 .I would like to give credit to my teacher of typography, Mr. Willard Pilchard, who helped me with the type aspects and general support. The ink was black, and a fluorescent fuchsia pink for the word: BANG 2. I wanted to make something that had clear impact and could be seen from a great distance away. I think of this design as rather classical.The posters were so popular that they often got taken down as fast as they were put in place. CLS

 

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detail of bottom of Poster Design: Carol L. Sutton©1965

 

ARTISTS:

J. J. Johnston, American tenor saxophonist JJ Johnston, is James Louis Johnson, b. January 22, 1924, Indianapolis, USA, d. February 4, 2001, LINK: J.J. Johnson http://www.jazzmasters.nl/johnson.htm

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L. Childs in Lucinda Childs, dancer,

LINK: Lucinda Childs Choreographer. Lucinda Childs began her career as choreographer and performer in 1963 as an original member of the Judson Dance...

| www.losangelesopera.com/production/preformer.asp?personid=241

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R. Morris is Robert Morris.-LINK: Guggenheim Collection - Artist - Morris - Biography

Born February 9, 1931, in Kansas City, Missouri, Robert Morris turned to art and art criticism ... known as the Judson Dance Theater, for which

| www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_115.html

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Y. Rainer is Yvonne Rainer,

LINK:

Rainer, Yvonne (1934- ), American modern dance choreographer and film-maker, one of the leading representatives of..

"Dancer, choreographer, performer, filmmaker and writer Yvonne Rainer, who began choreographing in 1961 and made her first film in 1967.Yvonne Rainer was one of the first dance practitioners to make a wholesale return to the 'everyday body' as an alternative to the 'performing body' which displays skills and virtuosity."

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/rainer.html

 

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Panel: T. B. Hess, L. Rivers, R. Lichtenstein, A. Solomon-

 

T. B. Hess is Thomas B. Hess, author; and , editor of Art News magazine, who wrote many art books, include one on Hans Hoffman; quote: from website that list Hoffman books:http://www.binbooks.com/books/photo/i/l/51636AEFF8

"Although critics Thomas B. Hess and Harold Rosenberg became staunch Hofmann fans in the mid-1950s, it took Hofmann a long time to win their support and that of others such as painter and critic Walter Darby Bannard, who defended his stylistic plurality with the assertion that "it's the picture that is obliged to be consistent, not the artist." Greenberg partially blamed the art-viewing public for not accepting the work of any artist who went beyond one easily identifiable style, but he did concede that "the variety of manners and even of styles in which [Hofmann] works would conspire to deprive even the most sympathetic public of a clear idea of his achievement."

+

L. Rivers is Larry Rivers, (American, 1923-2002)

LINK:Larry Rivers Online

Larry Rivers [American Pop Painter and Sculptor, 1923-2002] Guide to pictures of works by Larry Rivers in art museum sites and image archives...

| www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/rivers_larry.html

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R. Lichtenstein is Roy Lichtenstein [American Pop Artist, 1923-1997] Link: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/lichtenstein_roy.html

+ book cover: NEW YORK, THE NEW ART SCENE, by Alan Solomon

A. Solomon is the important Pop Art proponent and curator Alan Solomon (author of an informative essay "New York, New Art Scene"; which appears in a book on ANDY WARHOL Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston., 1966, First Edition; and New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1967.

Broad Quarto. 341 pp. " , Quote: "the earliest printed details on The Factory's silkscreen techniques, and some reproductions on fluorescent pink paper." web link:http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/ara/008170.shtml and book with pictures: http://www.ewolfs.com/past_auctions/oct_books/117.html. This book includes many names famous in the New York Art Scene including Larry Poons, Lee Bontecou, Frank Stella, Ken Noland, Robert Rauschenberg.

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Mississippi John Hurt-Blues legend was born March 8, 1892 in Carroll County, Mississippi. and Died November 2, 1966, Grenada, MS

LINK:Mississippi John Hurt and the Delta Blues

Mississippi John Hurt Links All other Mississippi John Hurt links I have located on the web.

| www.mindspring.com/~dennist/

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CULTURE EVENTS: NEW YORK ART SCENE: via book: Painters Painting,- A Candid History of The Modern Art Scene, 1940-1970, by Emile de Antonio and Mitch Tuchman., page 183.

 

1964:
Johnson commissions works by John Chamberlain, Indiana, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, and Warhol (Thirteen Most Wanted Men) for New York State pavillion, World's Fair.

 

February 26,1966- Revenue Act of 1964 revises older tax laws by extending the base period for income tax

 

March 16, 1964, Hartford opens his Gallery of Modern Art.

 

Spring. Olitski makes his first spray paintings.

 

August 4,1966 U.S. Senate passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution, enabling President Johnson to wage offensive war against North Vietnam.

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BANG 3: 1966, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poster Design: Carol L. Sutton©1965

 

PROMOTIONAL PRESS RELEASE FLYER FOR BANG3, 1966:

PROMO: BANG3: 1966, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

The PROMOTIONAL PRESS RELEASE FLYER FOR RPI BANG3, 1966:

This flyer to promote the BANG, BANG, BANG, or BANG3, was designed by a group headed by Carol Lorraine Sutton or Carol Lorraine Sutton-Martin and was a unique design. Carol Sutton, - I designed the above, 'John Cage & David Tudor-Variations "VI", which I silkscreened onto a cuts from a running band of computer paper, where I drew heavy black outlines around the photographed heads of John Cage and David Tudor. I was not happy with the David Tudor photo, but it was the only one I had available at the time of the promotion production.

 

The concept was Carol Sutton's idea, and the group was made up of a collection of about five top Commercial Art & Design students at RPI. I know Suzanne Mastracco, designed the Judith Dunn dance silkscreen, but I am not sure who were the other designers. Suzanne Mastracco is the wife of Vincent T. Mastracco - "Vince" of Norfolk, Virginia. The concept was to have each person responsible to design a page for a specific event and then produce it. The pages, plus the information sheet, would all be inserted into a plain brown paper bag and shrink sealed in plastic wrap and then mailed out to the Richmond, Virginia arts community. Probably about 300 to 500 were produced. The individual designers and artists were not given any credit in the information sheets. The concept was approved by our teachers, a team made up of: James Bumgardner, Jonathan Bowie, co/directors and originators of the Bang Festivals, along with Richard Carlyon, Jewett Campbell, Willard Pilchard, Bernard Martin. And also on the term was William Livingston, who was not a teacher at RPI, but a fellow student.

[Thanks go to Judy Bumgardner for writing me in 2009, that: Quote: "Bill was never a teacher at RPI." and that ""Jim and Jon Bowie were the co/directors and originators of the Bang Festivals. They were able to bring in visiting artists through Jim's friendship with Dick Bellamy in New York and Jon's connection with the Once Festival in Ann Arbor." End quote.]

 

ALL QUOTED from package of flyer;

information:

From: RICHMOND PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE

901 WEST FRANKLIN STREET,RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, 23220, 353-2711, EXT. 36

 

THE ANNUAL RICHMOND PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE Spring Arts Festival will be held March 21- March 25.  1966 (BANG, BANG, BANG) now in its third year has established itself as a major avant-garde art festival. BANG was listed in the Winter issue of GENERATION Magazine as a regularly scheduled festival of the stature of the Ann Arbor ONCE Festival. The New York FLUXUS Concerts, the New York Avant-Garde Festival, The Antioch SUPER-VALU Series, the New York THEATRE RALLY, the Detroit RED DOOR GALLERY Series, the San Francisco PERFORMERS Choice Series, the Seattle NEW DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC Concerts, the Waltham Mass. ROSE MUSEUM SERIES, the SAN ANTOINIO McNay INSTITUTE Series and the BUFFALO CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL. These Festivals and a growing umber of smaller irrecgulary scheduled performances have been found to give contemporary artists working in new directions and with new concepts of traditional art forms an opportunity to perform, exhibit and discuss new directions.

 

The RPI Festival has grown in scope and contribution to the Art scene in Richmond. The aims have not changed. These are to bring to Richmond contemporary music, dram, choreography, film, painting and graphics as well as promote discussion and contact with active creative artists from outside the immediate community. This year with John Cage, David Tudor, Barnett Newman and Donald Judd, who have performed and exhibited outside the United States, the festival takes on an international dimension. We invite you to attend and participate in the broader and more exciting program this year.

 

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Monday, March 21st: (1966) - 8:15 P.M.Scottish Rite Temple

JOHN CAGE AND DAVID TUDOR IN CONCERT

 

press silkscreen & design, by Carol Sutton©, 1965

 

John Cage and David Tudor. Their concert, entitled VARIATIONS VI will premiere in Richmond with this performance.

 

SIX SHORT INVENTIONS FOR SEVEN INSTRUMENTS. He was born in Los Angeles, 1912, attended Pomona College and later studied with Adolph Weiss, Arnold Schoenberg, and others. For three decades he has devoted himself to new horizons in music. He has composed much for the concert stage and for dancers (he is musical director for Merce Cunningham and Dance Company). His work has brought him a Guggenheim Fellowship and an award form the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

 

David Tudor, who has been performing with Mr. Cage since 1949. Born January 20, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pa., Mr. Tudor studied with H. William Hawke in Philadelphia ( organ & theory), Josef Martin and Irma Wolpe (piano), Stefan Wolpe ( composition and analysis). Form 1944-1948 he was organist at Swarthmore College. From 1948-1951 he was an instructor of piano at Contemporary Music School in NYC. Form 1951-1953 (summers) he was pianist in residence and instructor of piano at Black Mountain College, lecturer and instructor of piano at International Vacation courses for New Music at Darmstadt, Germany (1956,1958, 1959, and 1961). Since 1948 Mr. Tudo has been devoted to the performance of contemporary piano music, presenting many first performances of American and European works, many of which were written expressly for him, and has toured extensively throughout Europe and America 

Tuesday, March 22nd, (1966) - 8:15 P.M. , Scottish Rite Temple

 

 

BIRD PARK LAKE: A VUE-GRAM

 

Six artists, Jon Bowie, Jim Bumgardner, Richard Carlyon, William Livingston, Bernard Martin and Willard Pilchard will perform Tuesday evening. This presentation is entitled, BIRD PARK LAKE. This group is similar to cooperative performing groups that have been found in many areas of the country.

(Most notably on the West Coast, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City). These groups consist of individuals from many diverse disciplines in the arts who are interested in expanding the ideas of why, who and what constitutes art.

 

It is harder to define in what directions these groups work than in what they don't concern themselves with; their productions usually take form as cooperative ventures, usually performances conceived and performed by individuals or the group. Expansion and synthesis of existing art forms is characteristic of the work. Happenings in which a group is formed for the performance, then disbanded, Environments, Events and Synthesis are all terms used to describe productions. Possibly influenced by the cinema, whose production necessarily calls for a group effort, it is more likely the the natural evolution and logical extension of art forms such as dance, painting, music, films and photography are the motivating forces behind these groups. some groups deny historic precedents and consciously avoid these, trying to create totally new forms by using recently developed materials and methods. Many individuals admittedly look to the contemporary environment for their images and most of their work is described as "Pop Art".

 

 

Wednesday, March 23rd, (1966) - 8:15 P.M. , Scottish Rite Temple

 

JUDITH DUNN IN CONCERT

 

A performance of the so-called "New Dance" will be given by Judith Dunn assisted by musicians, Bill Dixon and Alan Silva.

 

Miss Judith Dunn has been recently associated with a group of young dancers from New York who have helped introduce expanded notions of who and what can be included in dance. They are: Robert Rauschenberg, painter; Robert Morris, sculptor, Alex Hay, former long-distance runner; Carolee Schneeman, sculptress; Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Carolyn Brown, Lucinda Childs, Anthony Holder, and Deborah Hay, dancers, some of whom have been associated with Merce Cunningham's company. The group has been known as the Surplus Dance Company (when they danced in a warehouse) and the Judson Dance Group (when they were based at Judson Memorial Church).

 

The repertory of the "New Dance" Dancers is made up of their own dances which incorporate traditional dance movements, ordinary gestures, traditional and contemporary music, speech; any TYPE of sound or only the sound of the dancer's motions, as well as all sorts of constructions, props, and costumes are sued. Game ideas, animate assemblage, simple commentary, improvisations and poetic interests are expressed in works that have the spirit of play. Some of the pieces have scores,and all of the dances have general instructions so that a dancer's understanding of the piece's working will enable him to create new situation in performance.

Robert Morris , Judith Dunn, by Jerry Lake, 1967, to my other RPI BANG PAGE: Morris,Dunn"" dance,BANG4 Arts Festival,Richmond Professional Institute, RPI>VCU,1963-1967

 

 

Thursday, March 24th, (1966) - 8:15 P.M. , Scottish Rite Temple

 

SYNTHESIS II, a presentation conceived and performed by students enrolled in the Richmond Professional Institute. The concept of the Synthesis is in part an extension of the attitudes propounded by such diverse artists as John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Pierre Boulez and the cooperative performing groups mentioned earlier in this release. The first Synthesis was given as part of the program offered in the 1965 (BANG 3) 2 Arts Festival. It was a multi-level performance incorporating sculpture, drama, choreography, music, noise, sound, architecture, projections, and cinema integrated into a unified simultaneous area of experience.

Friday, March 25th,  (1966) - 2:30 P.M. , Shafer Street Playhouse

 

The student s of the Drama Department of R.P.I. will present two contemporary - English Plays, PRIVATE EAR and PUBLIC EYE by Peter Shaffner

 

A panel of five distinguished American artists will discuss the topic, ART, NON-ART, ANTI-ART. The artists on the panel will be:

ALLAN KAPROW, BARNETT NEWMAN, ERNEST TROVA, DAN FLAVIN, DONALD JUDD.

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