Edition Patrick Frey, 2015, Softcover, 136 pages, 28 × 21.5 cm
Contributions by Richard Artschwager, Larry Clark, Franz Gertsch, On Kawara, Bruce Nauman, Albert Oehlen, Meret Oppenheim, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Karlheinz Weinberger, Lawrence Weiner, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela
69 / 96 documents an exhibition organized by Fredi Fischli, Niels Olsen and Bob Nickas, presented in Switzerland in 2014. Structured as two shows in parallel, 69 brought together art works from 1969, chosen by the American curator, Bob Nickas, while 96 featured works from 1996 selected by the Swiss curators Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen. For Nickas, 1969 marks his earliest entry point into what has become a lifelong pursuit of the art of his time, just as for Fischli and Olsen, 1996 marks the beginning of their own engagement with art and artists. In 69 / 96, the three curators have entered an inter-generational dialog about exhibitions that is both personal and art historical, while also reminding us that art history must in some way reflect the lived texture of life.
The sense of temporal overlay in the exhibition continues in this publication with a third layer of images and information. The left-hand pages in 69 / 96 reproduce pages from a xerox catalog edited by Bob Nickas in 1991. This accompanied his exhibition of works from 1969, held at Daniel Newburg Gallery in New York. The right-hand pages and doublepage spreads document the collaborative 69/96 exhibit in 2014.
