In 1969, the Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG, a pun on gag both in the sense of a joke and in the sense of constrained speech) was founded by two New York artists, Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche, who, disappointed by the lack of resonance to demonstrations of the open alliance Art Workers Coalition (AWC), acted against the conformity of the art world as well as the developing political and economic ogliopoly that controlled it. During the mid-60's Jon Hendricks acted as director of the Judson Gallery in Greenwich Village — the site of many famous ‘’Happenings''. Many of the performances were by Hendricks, Ralph Ortiz, Al Hansen and involved the ritualistic destruction of various objects. However, Hendricks came to believe that these symbolic performances for artistic audiences were politically ineffectual and, in collaboration with Toche and later Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, and Virginia Toche, began to organize public actions under the sobriquet of the Guerrilla Art Action Group.
Hendricks and Touche acted frequently against the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) whose board included the Rockefeller family, and thus believed made the museum implicit in the burgeoning weapon industry and the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Rooted in this activist mindset, GAAG became a founding organization in the trend toward politicized performative art and is seen as one of the precursors to Gran Fury and the Guerrilla Girls.
In 1969, their first performative act, “Blood Bath," directly protested the Vietnam War. Two men and two women entered the lobby of MoMa with plastic bags full of bull's blood hidden under their clothes; they then started wrestling each other, breaking the bags open and spilling blood until they lay in a pools of blood on the floor. They then promptly got up and left, scattering behind them printed papers demanding the resignation of the Rockefellers from the museum board. The documents, signed GAAG, claimed that the Rockefeller family used art to distract from their involvement in manufacturing weaponry for the Vietnam War.
With this unsolicited performance they hoped to force the museum to react, and despite taking the risk of being arrested, the piece successfully initiated conversations with the MoMa’s director and eventually lead to the collaboration “And babies," a poster shown at the museum. However, MoMA later decided to pull the piece due to the reaction of Nick Rockefeller and Paley (head of CBS), two members of the board. Although in a press release the museum refuted their influence, claiming that the work was outside of its “function” and as such did not belong in the museum.
“And Babies”: MoMA 1969 - Art workers Coalition (AWC)
1970: Art Workers' Coalition (AWC) with the Art Action Group (GAAG), and the Black & Puerto Rican Emergency Cultural Coalition stiking outside the MoMA.
January 8, 1970: Art Workers' Coalition and the Guerilla Art Action Group
protest in front of Picasso's "Guernica" at the Museum of Modern Art,
New York City with the AWC's "And babies?" poster.
(photo credit: Jan Van Raay)
New York City with the AWC's "And babies?" poster.
(photo credit: Jan Van Raay)
1981- poster of the Guerilla Art Action Group’s Definitive/ist Manifesto
Further information on GAAG:
March 24, 2010 - Interview with Jon Hendricks, Co-Founder, Guerilla Art Action Group
Book: GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A selection (reprint 2011)
References:
Kimmelman, Michael, “Art in Review” - New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/02/arts/art-in-review-900222.html
“Guerrilla Art Action Group” - Global Activism. http://www.global-activism.de/directory/guerrilla-art-action-group
Jan Van Raay phtotography. http://janvanraay.com/photos/
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