Artists’ Multiples 1935 2000

The artist’s multiple is perhaps the art of the twentieth century. If in the nineteenth century art could be seen as distinct from products of industry, in the early twentieth century industry could confidently project itself as art. The artist’s multiple, in its delight in reproducibility, industrial fabrication, and new processes and materials, exemplifies this trend. Stephen Bury explores the historical background of the multiple, examining its relationship to the jeu d’ esprit of the artist’s studio, the readymade, constructivism, the store and the everyday. It looks at the work of Marcel Duchamp, George Maciunas, Joseph Beuys and Felix Gonzalez-Torres as well as contemporary practice, such as ‘The Multiple Store’.