Billedkunst / Arkitektur og Billedkunst / A + B (All Published)

Copenhagen, 1966-1970. Minor scuffing to some of the illustrated wrappers, with scattered foxing to their versos, else a near fine set. An impressive chronicle of the international avant-garde of the 1960s, situated within its broader post-War contexts.. Artist's magazine (all published). Small quarto. An entire run of 17 volumes from this pioneering Danish arts journal, co-edited by the hyper-disciplinary artist Per Kirkeby; one of Denmark's most celebrated painters. Emerging as an illustrated review of post-War painting, sculpture, and cinema (e.g. Mark Tobey, Alberto Giacometti, Sergei Eisenstein), the journal gradually came to embrace avant-garde tendencies from both Europe and America (e.g. Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Henry Flynt, Guerilla Art Action Group), with a growing appetite for architecture and new media. So much so that the annual 1969 issue, which broke from the journal's quarterly structure, explicitly adopted architecture as part of its new title (Arkitektur og Billedkunst), with its contents arranged into three broad themes: Utopia, Escapism, and Reality. Notably, in addition to an essay by Nam June Paik on the emergence of digital culture, as well as a rich representation of Archigram projects, this issue featured arguably the earliest articulation of cyberspace—over a decade before William Gibson—from the artist/architect duo Susanne Ussing and Carsten Hoff ("Form, Rum, Natur, Computer"). By the final year of publication (1970), as themes became more political (e.g. Situationism, radical urbanism, post-structuralism), Per Kirkeby had officially joined the editorial board—having earlier contributed an impressive range of content: a psychedelic cartoon interpreting Henry David Thoreau's Walden, a photographic essay on Copenhagen's bus network, an exploration of arctic geology, and a treatise on Pop Art as History. Contents thoroughly illustrated, often in color, including installation and performance views. Text in Danish, with some English. This set accompanied by prospectus materials and/or press releases from 1966, 1967, 1969, and 1970, as well as the folded color poster (Fisse Er Godt Nok) designed by Bjørn Nørgaard and Erik Hagens for the final issue. (Inventory #: 31168)