Henry Martin: An Active Ear – Selected Writings, Conversations, and Correspondences
September 23, 2024
Magazzino Italian Art in collaboration with the Emily Harvey Foundation presents Henry Martin: An Active Ear – Selected Writings, Conversations, and Correspondences
A book presentation dedicated to the work of the writer, critic, curator, and translator
Cold Spring, NY, September 23—On Friday, October 4, 2024, Magazzino Italian Art, in collaboration with the Emily Harvey Foundation, will host the book launch for Henry Martin: An Active Ear – Selected Writings, Conversations, and Correspondences, the first publication dedicated to the work of African-American writer, critic, curator, and translator Henry Martin (Philadelphia, US 1942 – South Tyrol, Italy 2022). Curator and book editor Emanuele Guidi will offer a presentation on the new publication at the Emily Harvey Foundation in New York.
Guidi gathered the texts and documents published in Henry Martin: An Active Ear from Martin’s archive, conserved at the Archiv der Avantgarden - Egidio Marzona in Dresden. The book includes selected articles, essays, conversations, and personal correspondence from 1965 until Martin’s death in 2022 that reveal his contributions to and influence on Italian, European, and US cultural and artistic movements, including Fluxus, Mail Art, Concrete Poetry, Arte Povera and Conceptual Art.
The project maps Martin’s experiences: his lifelong friendships with a variety of artists and intellectuals, his practice as a translator, and his decision to leave the main centers of contemporary art and move permanently to the Italian Alps in 1971, presenting his life and work from a contemporary perspective at the intersection of ecology and a sustainable working culture.
Along with writings by Martin, the book includes essays by Emanuele Guidi, Lisa Andreani, Luca Cerizza, Allison Grimaldi Donhaue, Rosalyn D’Mello, Elisabetta Rattalino. It is edited by Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Archiv der Avantgarden–EgidioMarzona, Emanuele Guidi, Rudolf Fischer in collaboration with Friederike Fast and Clemens Ottenhausen. The book design is by Helen Stelthove and the publisher is Spector Books OHG, Leipzig (Germany). The project is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (12th edition, 2023), which aims to promote Italian contemporary art worldwide.
Event Details
Friday, October 4 at 6:00pm
Emily Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
Free admission
About Magazzino Italian Art
Magazzino Italian Art is a museum and research center dedicated to advancing scholarship and public appreciation of postwar and contemporary Italian art in the United States. Located in Cold Spring, New York, the museum was founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. In 2017, the first building, designed by architect Miguel Quismondo and set within several landscaped acres of the Hudson Highlands, was inaugurated with an exhibition drawn from the Olnick Spanu Collection and dedicated to Margherita Stein, founder of the historic Galleria Christian Stein in Milan and a key advocate and supporter of the artists associated with Arte Povera.
In 2023, Magazzino inaugurated the Research Center, named for the art critic and historian who gave Arte Povera its name. Created as an educational not for profit museum, Magazzino Italian Art increased its indoor space by two-thirds in September 2023 by opening the freestanding Robert Olnick Pavilion designed by architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo and named in memory of philanthropist and art advocate Robert Olnick. This new building provides a multipurpose room with auditorium capabilities, a store, and Café Silvia serving Italian specialties.
About Emanuele Guidi
Emanuele Guidi is a writer, curator and researcher based in Berlin. He is a PhD candidate in Practice in Curating at the University of Reading & Zurich University of the Arts and teaches Curatorial Studies at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti). With the support of the Italian Council Grant, Guidi edited the book Henry Martin – An Active Ear, with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) and the Archiv der Avantgarden (ADA) – Egidio Marzona, jointly published by Spector Books. He is research fellow at Archiv der Avantgarden (ADA) – Egidio Marzona.
From 2013 and 2022 he was artistic director at ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, where he curated solo shows by, a.o. Alessandra Ferrini, Adji Dieye, Mohamed Bourouissa, Ho Tzu Nyen, Jumana Manna, Slavs and Tatars, Otobong Nkanga, Lorenzo Pezzani. Other projects include: hostileenvironments.eu (online platform and symposium, 2020-2021), Silver Rights, Elena Mazzi (Södertäljie Konsthal, and Bienalsur/Museo Udaondo, both 2021), Shadow Writings, Lorenzo Sandoval (Centro Párraga, Murcia, 2020). Among his edited publications: Silver Rights, (Archive Books, 2021, with E. Mazzi), Image Diplomacy, Vladislav Shapovalov (Mousse Publishing, 2020, with A. Siclodi); Spaces of Anticipation (Oncurating Journal, 2018, with L. Sandoval); The Variational Status (Humboldt Books, 2017 with R. Giacconi); Rehearsing Collectivity – Chore-ography Beyond Dance (Argobooks, 2012, with E. Basteri, E. Ricci); Urban Makers –Parallel Narratives of Grassroots Practices and Tensions (Bbooks, 2008).
About the Emily Harvey Foundation
Established in 2004, Emily Harvey Foundation operates between New York and Venice. In its New York SoHo space - 537 Broadway - it conducts an experimental art program of performances, poetry readings, screenings, exhibitions, and concerts. Since its inception, the EHF’s Residency Program has offered over five hundred artists the opportunity to reside and work in Venice, Italy for extended periods of time, and has hosted a great number of exhibitions and events at its gallery space.
EHF is the seat of the historical Collection inherited from the Emily Harvey Gallery, with works by Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Simone Forti, George Brecht, John Cage, Henry Flynt, Robert Filliou, Al Hansen, Ray Johnson, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Carolee Schneemann, Albert Fine, Daniel Spoerri, among others.
537 Broadway was George Maciunas’ last Fluxhouse (1975), then Grommet Gallery (1982-84), followed by the Emily Harvey Gallery (1983-2004) and finally, since 2004, The Emily Harvey Foundation.