Up for bid is a very interesting and rare artist card from the original Lucy Lippard 557,087 / 955,000 catalogue from 1969-1970. These offset lithograph cards are guaranteed to be from the original first edition catalogue. Each card measures 4"x6" (10x15cm) and is printed on a thin white card stock. The backs of all cards are blank, and they are all in excellent vintage condition. As I understand it, the original catalogue was produced in an edition of about 1000, however not many survived are now very scarce and quite collectible. Buyer is to receive one single artist's card unless otherwise stated. The last image featuring the title/description card is for reference only and is not included in the auction. Please see below for more information about this important Conceptual Art exhibition and catalogue. Free shipping to all US locations. All foreign buyers will ship via ebay International Standard Delivery. All questions welcomed.

In 1969, the well known Art Historian Lucy Lippard, along with the help of the dealer/curator Seth Siegelaub organized the first of her famous "Numbers Shows" entitled 557,087 (the approximate population of Seattle in 1969) for the Contemporary Art Council of the Seattle Art Museum at the Seattle Art Museum Pavilion. The exhibition ran from September 5 to October 5, 1969, and then traveled to Vancouver, Canada a couple months later where the title was changed to 955,000. This leg of the exhibition was held at the Vancouver Art Gallery from January 13 to February 8, 1970. These two sister exhibitions have proven to be some of the earliest and most important survey shows that have ever been developed about Conceptual Art. The show featured about 65 artists, including some of the biggest names in Art History to have ever come from this important art movement. Lippard went on to create other versions of her Numbers Shows for several years, and featured many other artists who were exploring popular themes and practices of the genre.

For the purposes of these first two exhibitions, Lippard issued a survey questionnaire and a blank index card to each of the invited artists. The artists were asked to design the cards as they saw fit to help illuminate their contribution to the exhibit. The information from the index cards was then used by gallery assistants, and Lippard herself to create and install the artworks. In some cases the actual cards became the work and were displayed in the gallery. Because of the ephemeral nature to the artworks in these exhibitions, the cards have mostly come to be the only surviving documentation of the original works. The cards were also used to create an extraordinary catalogue, which consisted of a simple paper envelope filled with full scale offset lithographs of each artist's original card. Please note, all original artist cards are now part of the Lucy Lippard archive at the Smithsonian.

The 557,087/ 955,000 catalogue consists of 137 unique artist cards along with several supplemental curatorial/project cards. Many of the artists created separate artworks/cards for each of the Seattle and Vancouver venues. A few artists exhibited only in Seattle, while others only in Vancouver... some artworks were displayed in both venues. All said...95 of the cards represent works from the first Seattle venue, while the other 42 cards represented works shown only at the Vancouver venue. Please note, both the Seattle and Vancouver venues sold the same exact catalogue (both versions included all 137 cards). The only difference was the Seattle version was packaged in a plain brown (manila) envelope, while the Vancouver version was packaged in a white envelope with a printed logo.

Participating artists included Vito Acconci, Morrie Alhadeff, Carl Andre, Keith Arnatt, Richard Artschwager, Michael Asher, Terry Atkinson, John Baldessari, Michael Baldwin, Robert Barry, Rick Barthelme, Iain Baxter, Gene Beery, Mel Bochner, Bill Bollinger, Jonathan Borofsky, Donald Burgy, Daniel Buren, Rosemarie Castoro, Hanne Darboven, Walter de Maria, Jan Dibbets, Robert Dootson, Rafael Ferrer, Barry Flanagan, Anne Gerber, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Michael Heizer, Eva Hesse, Douglas Huebler, Robert Huot, Stephen Kaltenbach, On Kawara, Edward Keinholz, Robert Kinmont, Joseph Kosuth, Christini Kozlov, John Latham, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, Lucy R Lippard, Roelof Louw, Duane Lundon, Thomas Maythem, Bruce McLean, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, NY Graphic Workshop, Dennis Oppenheim, John Perreault, Adrian Piper, Polly Rawn, Robert Rohm, Alan Ruppersberg, Robert Ryman, Ed Ruscha, Fred Sandback, Alan Saret, George Sawchuk, Richard Serra, Randy Sims, Robert Smithson, Keith Sonnier, Frank Viner, Jeff Wall, Lawrence Weiner, Ian Wilson and Jenny Wright