Marty Greenbaum (1934-2020)
''Brooklyn Local in Weege Wisconsin''
Lithograph, with hand-coloring, blind stitching, stitching, burning, tape collage and paint
with Jewish, Hasidic, Sleepy Moishy character.
Marty Greenbaum (1934-2020) was an American painter, mixed media assemblage and book artist.
Greenbaum is best known for his mixed media assemblage, painting and artist books. Greenbaum appeared in three films: Hallelujah the Hills in 1963 by Adolfas Mekas, Life Dances On, in 1980 by Robert Frank, and The Present in 1996 by Robert Frank. Between 1962 and 1965 he took part in happenings by Allan Kaprow and experimental dance by Yvonne Rainer. Greenbaum authored his own happenings, i.e. Coney Island Carny, including artists such as Eddie Barton, Remy Charlip, Paul Kaplow, Paul Krasner, Al Hanson, Ed Blair, Allen Ginsberg, John Hammond, Eddie Rabkin, Lou Gossett, Renee Renee, Allan Kaprow, Phyllis Yampolsky, Thomas Hoving, Jackie Ferrara, Peter Schumann, Jim Bell, Bill Marshall, Corla Lopez, Bruce Waite, and Mark di Suvero, as well as organizing the Hall of Issues with Phyllis Yampolsky at The Judson Memorial Church.
Greenbaum had several teaching positions in the New York City public school system and was a member of the Creative Artists Public Service program twice, he also participated in various exhibitions with book objects. His work is in several public collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Artists' Books, The Brooklyn Museum Collection, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, Citibank, NYC, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI, SUNY at New Paltz, NY and more.
Books as Objects
"Greenbaum, an early conceptualist, burned books in the 1960s, exhibiting the remains as 'corpses.' Today, he makes fetishistic notebooks filled with colored paper and scribbled equations, accretions of feathers and Rhoplex."
"Marty Greenbaum and Barton Lidice Benes destroy texts to create sculpture: Benes 'Bound Book,' a literal rope and wax imprisonment, and Greenbaum's 'Cutting Up,' a mixed media paste over of muted colors." Some of his most notable artist books include: "Batman" 1963-67, "In '84 Returned in 2004". Two stories about Marty from James Pernotto: we met at William Weege print shop in 1974 when he drove out from NYC with Alan Shields and Paco Grande and I was a lithography printer hired to work with them. Alan recalled on the trip out that Marty was working on his altered books and putting airplane glue on the pages and lighting it with a match. Enough said. I printed for Marty.
Solo exhibitions
2007 Two Artists, Windsor Whip Works, Windsor NY
2001 Pacifico Fine Art, NYC
1972, 1979, 1985 Allan Stone Gallery, NYC
1977 Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton NY
1963, 1964, 1965 Stryke Gallery, NYC
Group and Traveling exhibitions
2019 One Plus One Equals Three, curated by Roger Winter, Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, TX
Collage and assemblage by Romare Bearden, Roy Fridge, Marty Greenbaum, David McManaway, Robin Ragin, Nancy Willis Smith, and Roger Winter.
2017 Sorcery & Craft, Allan Stone Projects, New York, NY
2008 8 Artists 8 Books, 5 + 5 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1999 Talent, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
1998 Artist Books, Bound & Unbound Gallery, New York, NY
1992 Fetishism, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY
Salon of the Book, Caroline Corre, Paris, France; Artists; Books, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1979 "Book Makers: Center for Book Arts First Five Years", Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Gallery, The Cooper Union, NYC
1978 The Detective Show MoMA, PS1, Queens, NY (with Richard Artschwager and
Gordon Matta Clark...