Primary Information and Franklin Furnace Archive are pleased to announce the digital publication of all sixteen issues of The Flue as free pdfs on our respective websites. 

About

The Flue was a periodical published between 1980 and 1989 by the venerable institution Franklin Furnace Archive, which was founded in 1976 by the artist Martha Wilson to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, cultural bias, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. The periodical took on a multitude of media forms and functions, from organizational newsletters to exhibition supplements and catalogs, to scholarly surveys of contemporary and historical artists’ book movements. This shapeshifting approach was supported by a changing cast of editors and designers that included Barbara Kruger, Richard McGuire, Linda Montano, and Buzz Spector. The Flue also featured artist projects and writings by Anna Banana, Dawoud Bey, Ulises Carrión, Paula Court, Agnes Denes, Peter Frank, Ken Friedman, Gilbert & George, David Hammons, Ray Johnson, Leon Golub, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Anna Mendieta, Richard Nonas, Nam June Paik, and Nancy Spero, among many others. Thematic issues included Multiples by Latin American Artists; Artists’ Books, Archives, and Collections; Cubist Prints / Cubist Books; Sex, Performance, and the 80s; and Mail Art: Then and Now, all of which are accompanied by scholarly texts, checklists, and exhibition documentation. No less ambitious are the artist resources, performance and exhibition documentation, book reviews, and event calendars that provide a keen snapshot of New York in the 1980s, a decade that the Franklin Furnace Archive helped shaped and nurture.

History

The Flue was initially conceived and created in 1980 by artist and master printer Conrad Gleber. Conrad did offset printing for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and with Gail Rubini and Jim Snitzer, was one of three artist/founders of Chicago Books, an organization that established an offset printing workshop to produce artists’ books in collaboration with artist/authors. Offset printing was developed during the late 19th century in England. It had the advantages of producing high quality images of stone lithography with the high speed of mechanical printing presses. By the 1970s many innovations led to a highly refined process that was able to reproduce photographic images and full color graphics making it a natural choice for publishing artists to learn and explore. Chicago Books’ 1980 exhibition at Franklin Furnace, “Chicago,” included a tabloid-format publication/catalog of the installation; a Flexidisc (a 45 rpm record imprinted on plastic), and Franklin Furnace news. It was such a hit that the organization decided to produce artist-driven publications in any format the artists wanted, from tabloid to poster to magazine; including artists’ pages; and sometimes serving as catalogues to major exhibitions. Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. published The Flue from 1980 through 1989, engaging artists Laurie Anderson, Vanalyne Greene, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Marja Samsom, Regina Vater, Tony Whitfield, and others, as designers and editors. When Barbara Kruger was invited to design another 1980 Flue, she in turn invited Louise Lawler and Sherrie Levine to collaborate with her on an artwork displayed therein. In the centerfold of that tabloid were four images of a book by Alberto Moravia, photographed from above. Their appropriation contained more than the maximum number of words allowed to be quoted without permission, and Franklin Furnace received a bill from the book’s publisher for $50.  In those early days, this small amount was big money, so I made the archivally irresponsible decision to print this issue of The Flue on newsprint. All told, The Flue numbers sixteen issues. 

— Martha Wilson, July 2021.

More Information

For more information, please contact James Hoff at james@primaryinformation.org. For press inquiries, please contact Hiji Nam at hiji@primaryinformation.org.

About Primary Information

Primary Information is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that receives generous support through grants from the Michael Asher Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Greenwich Collection Ltd, the John W. and Clara C. Higgins Foundation, the Willem de Kooning Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Orbit Fund, the Stichting Egress Foundation, Teiger Foundation, The VIA Art Fund, The Jacques Louis Vidal Charitable Fund, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Wilhelm Family Foundation, and individuals worldwide. Primary Information is a W.A.G.E.-certified organization.