CO-OP artist cooperative Hamburg
The CO-OP was founded in Hamburg in 1968 by the visual artists Tomislav Laux, Bruno Bruni , Wolfgang Oppermann , Hans-Jürgen Kleinhammes , Konrad Schulz , Ernst Mitzka and Werner Nöfer as an artist cooperative. The occasion was the publication of a joint portfolio with lithographs and screen prints by the founding members.
history
The name of the artist group refers to the novel "CO-OP" by the American writer Upton Sinclair , who in 1936 had designed a social utopia in this book in which workers take the production, distribution and added value of goods into their own hands.
The idea of the cooperative corresponded to the desire to bring pictures, graphics and objects directly from the producing artist to the recipient, buyer or collector , bypassing the established art market . The proceeds were immediately invested in the production of new portfolio editions (printing, mailing and advertising). Expensive full-page advertisements in leading art magazines, brochures and posters could be financed. Editorial newspaper articles reported on this new edition by the authors.
Further portfolios were published and the visual artists Anna Oppermann , Klaus Geldmacher , Dieter Asmus , Dirk Zimmer, Peter Würtz, Nemo Struckmeier, Rolf Laute, Sigmar Polke , Ullrich Hohenhaus and Jan Voss joined them.
In 1968 there was a discussion about commodity aesthetics and art as a purchasable commodity. There was a lack of understanding that the gallery owners should earn 50% and more on every work sold and that the artists led a life on the subsistence level .
An effective advertising scandal occurred on May 14, 1969 in the renowned Michel Hauptmann gallery in Hamburg . Works by an artist from the CO-OP were shown. According to the contract, in addition to the sales commission to the gallery owner, he should also cover the costs for invitations and hospitality for the vernissage guests. This led to a scandal. Shortly after the opening speech in the overcrowded gallery, the CO-OP artists spontaneously, silently and almost simultaneously, hung up the pictures behind the backs of the vernissage guests and transported them from the gallery to a truck provided outside the building. Immediately afterwards, according to the number of pictures, copies of a manifest were hung on the empty wall surfaces . The artists of the CO-OP were responsible for this.
In 1968 the opportunity arose to organize a major exhibition of the current art scene at the Hamburg Art House at the Hamburg cultural authority. After funding for an extensive catalog was made available, the exhibition “Current Art in Hamburg” could take place. It received national media coverage - as far as Munich - and attracted a number of gallery owners to Hamburg. Most of the CO-OP artists took part in the exhibition curated by the exhibiting artists.
In the same year an attempt was made to expand the cultural and political possibilities in Hamburg. A so-called mixed media show was proposed to the board of the professional association of visual artists . The board of the association approved this proposal. The anarchist Dada show ended in the planned chaos. Inspired by CO-OP, the artist cooperative "Zehn / Neun" with a similar program was created in Munich in 1969. An attempt was made to work together, but it failed due to the economic inability of the CO-OP group in Hamburg. The “Zehn / Neun” cooperative existed for eight years and sold prints by many well-known German artists.
literature
- “CO-OP” poster and manifesto of the Hamburg Artists' Cooperative 1968.
- "Current Art in Hamburg", catalog of the exhibition in the Kunsthaus Hamburg 1968.
- SW gallery of the magazine "Schöner Wohnen". Article and edition of a graphic portfolio by the artists CO-OP 1971.
- “DIE ZEIT” ten / nine the end of an art cooperative, April 22, 1977 (ZEIT / online).
- Werner Nöfer “The change in the republic or a theory of architecture” Jörgen Bracker , monograph pp. 30–34, Museum for Hamburg History , Hamburg 1999 ISBN 3-00-002497-2 .
- "In the light of time" (Asango photo collection), the artists CO-OP Hamburg, Egon Teske 1968.
