June 15th, 2011 was a historic day in Boston.
On that evening, a renegade art exhibition with 21 artists organized by artist/journalist Greg Cook took place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
… also the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 39 years.
Presented here is my video documentation of the slightly less famous of the two events.
Excerpts from Greg Cook’s press release for the event:
“The exhibit celebrates the 40th anniversary of the exhibition “Flush with the Walls”, in which six Boston artists—Bob Guillemin, Kristin Johnson, Todd McKie, Martin Mull, David Raymond and Jo Sandman—snuck their art into a men’s room at the MFA for a renegade, joke exhibition on June 15, 1971. A report in the newspaper Boston After Dark after the original event said “Flush with the Walls” ingeniously and wittily pointed out “that the men’s room seems to be the only place in the Museum of Fine Arts that an exhibit by contemporary local artists can be seen.”
In this spirit, and in honor of the original show a group 21 Boston-area artists and collaboratives will again, without permission, sneak their drawings, prints, photos and sculptures into a pair of bathrooms at the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts, on June 15.”
Artists featured in the “Best of Boston 40-enniel” exhibition are Elizabeth Alexander, Antoniadis and Stone, Resa Blatman, Laura Chasman, Caleb Cole, Greg Cook, David Curcio, Bob Guillemin aka Sidewalk Sam*, The Institute for Infinitely Small Things, Paul Laffoley, Chaz Maviyane-Davies, Maria Molteni, Ernest Morin, Dan Moynihan, Mary O’Malley, Kari Percival, David Raymond*, Jo Sandman*, Ben Sloat, Joe Wardwell, and Deb Todd Wheeler.
* Participants in the original 1971 show.
Video Documentation: shot and edited by James Manning with additional footage by Amber Day.
Coverage of the 2011 event by Greg Cook including images of many of the works in the show, can be seen at The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research.
A great article by Charles Giuliano about the original “Flush With the Walls” event can be found at Berkshire Fine Arts.
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