S.M.S. #3 (Deluxe Edition)

Enrico BajWW-1968-136686

1968·Mixed media·Installation dimensions variable

The Letter Edged in Black Press produced six issues of a journal called SMS (Shit Must Stop) from February to December 1968. Founded by artists William N. Copley and Dmitri Petrov, the journal was not bound like a traditional magazine but rather took the form of a folder containing individual contributions from more than 70 artists. Each issue of the journal featured items of varying media and formats, including prints, diminutive multimedia works, and sculptures produced in small editions. Employing the postal system as an alternative exhibition format, the series expresses the artists’ desire to share their ideas in novel, frugal, and accessible ways—a playful jab at the restrictive criteria of museums and “high art.” The Art Institute’s complete set is one of 100 copies of the deluxe version, in which nearly every contribution is signed by its creator. The issues feature pieces by well-known artists like Marcel Duchamp, Ray Johnson, On Kawara, Yoko Ono, Roy Lichtenstein, and Lil Picard, as well as a multitude of unusual, interactive objects including audio recordings, a booklet about bathrooms in art galleries, a folded hat, luggage stickers, a phenakistoscope with instructions for use, and poetry. An unreleased special seventh edition was in the works, with an intended contribution from Dorothy Iannone, now also part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection. SMS (Shit Must Stop) , no. 3, 1968 Cover by John Battan (American, 1943–1976) Aftograf (Russian, 20th century), Poems Enrico Baj (Italian, 1924–2003), Glove William Bryant (American, b. 1946), Clouds Dick Higgins (American, 1938–1998), O de tes London Joseph Kosuth (American, b. 1945), Four Titled Abstracts Ronnie Landfield (American, b. 1947), Two Drawings Roland Penrose (English, 1900–1984), Bush in Hand Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), Mona Lisa’s Father H. C. Westermann (American, 1922–1981), Correspondence Hannah Weiner (American, 1928–1997), Signal Flag Poems Terry Riley (American, b. 1935), Poppy Nogoods All Night Flight (The First Ascent)

Catalogue

Year: 1968
Medium: Mixed media
Dimensions: Installation dimensions variable
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Enrico Baj

Artist

Enrico Baj

Painting

Enrico Baj was an Italian painter and sculptor who emerged from the postwar avant-garde, cofounding the Art Brut movement in Europe and later developing a distinctive visual language combining collage, assemblage, and figuration. His work frequently incorporated found materials, bright colors, and gestural mark-making to create densely layered compositions that engaged with abstraction while maintaining a connection to the figurative. Active from the 1950s until his death in 2003, Baj occupied a singular position between European informalism and the more anarchic impulses of Surrealism and Dada revival.

Vergiate, Italy

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