WALLACE BERMAN (1926-1976)
Radio/Aether, 1966

each signed 'W Berman' (lower left); title page signed and inscribed 'Originals - W Berman' (lower left)
13 unique Verifax collages on board accompanied by a printed and annotated title page

each: 12 x 13 in. (30.5 x 33 cm.)
framed: 12 3/4 x 13 1/2 in. (32. 4 x 34.3 cm.)

Each work is in its original frame as specified by the artist and made by Sid Zaro.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1974

Exhibited
Los Angeles, Timothea Stewart Gallery, Wallace Berman, 9 July-August 1977
Los Angeles, Otis Art Institute, Wallace Berman Retrospective, 24 October 1978-February 1980 (traveled to Fort Worth, Fort Worth Art Museum; Berkeley, University of California, University Art Museum; Seattle, Seattle Art Museum)
Venice, CA, L.A. Louver, Wallace Berman, 11 April-10 May 1997
Santa Monica, Patricia Faure Gallery, Tony DeLap & Wallace Berman, 10 September-15 October 2005
Paris, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Wallace Berman: Be-bop Kabbalah, 8 January-19 February 2010
Paris, Centre Pompidou, Espace 315, Un Nouveau Festival, 16 February-7 March 2011
Pasadena, Armory Center for the Arts, Speaking in Tongues: Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken 1961–1976, 2 October 2011-20 May 2012 (traveled to Tucson, Center for Creative Photography)

Literature
Rosetta Brooks, Wallace Berman: L.A. Louver, Artforum, October 1997, p. 105
Sophie Dannenmüller, Wallace Berman: Be-bop Kabbalah, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, 2010, pp. 15-23, 26, 31, illustrated
Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon, Speaking in Tongues: Wallace Berman and Robert Heinecken 1961–1976, The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, 2011, pp. 37, 44, illustrated


Wallace Berman is undeniably one of the most profound and resonant figures in the art history of Los Angeles. A legend whose presence in and contributions to creative circles remain as relevant and as thought-provoking today as ever. A major figure in the Beat Generation of the 1950s and 1960s, Berman is often considered a forefather of California Assemblage and a spiritual and artistic vanguard. Berman's epic story continues to be a point of interest, gaining more traction with every exhibition and publication. The present lot of thirteen individually signed Verifax collages is one of the most significant groupings of work by the artist to come to auction and is a preeminent example of Berman's artistic genius and nuanced visual language. Created in 1966 and purchased directly from the artist at his Topanga Canyon studio by gallerist and artist Timothea Stewart, these works, viewed as individual collages or as a group, represent the apex of Berman's artistic and spiritual powers.

The present lot of thirteen original Verifax collages lies at the epicenter of Wallace Berman's tireless exploration of his creed, 'Art is Love is God'. Though Berman worked across many media, his most iconic and sought-after body of work is the Radio Aether series of collages. By creatively and elaborately manipulating the technology of the Verifax machine Berman examined spirituality, religion, philosophy, technology, mass media, and sexuality through serial imagery. The enduring subject of Radio Aether is a handheld Sony transistor radio inset with found images of varying religious, cosmic, and esoteric subject matters, often cut out from publications such as Time, Life, and National Geographic magazines. An essential motif in Berman's oeuvre, the radio served as a symbol that acutely encapsulated the elusive mechanisms of communication while embracing the complexity of an America after World War II yet in the throes of the Cold War and the Vietnam War.

A sonar technician in the Navy during World War II, Berman cemented an interest in communication through evolving technologies. Berman 'was aware of a larger cultural tendency to cloak the fear and anxiety produced by technological change in the rhetoric of the irrational and mystical- to enchant or to make magical the transformations caused by new technology' (Ken D. Allan, 'Wallace Berman American Aleph' Kohn Gallery, 2016, p. 83 American Aleph). In conversation with innovative technologies of the time, Berman was also acutely interested in ancient ways of communicating and processing information. To this point, Berman incorporated Jewish mysticism and teachings from the Kabbalah (a religious text of hidden symbols and signs), in his work through the inclusion of Hebrew letters hand applied in the upper right corner of each of the present thirteen unique collages. The fluid relationships between symbol and image deny codified meaning, consequently they embrace and reflect the synapses of cultural, political, and spiritual semiotics and define Berman's visual language.

Born in New York, Wallace Berman grew up in Los Angeles where he spent time with artists, musicians, and poets alike. Though he dropped out of art school, Berman was making a living as a full-time artist by the early 1950s. In 1955, Berman founded an underground but greatly influential publication, Semina, which consisted of poems, writings, and photographs by prominent poets and artists. Semina was distributed to Berman's circle of friends and peers and was an activation of his interest in transformation through exchange. Berman's infamous 1957 solo show at Ferus Gallery became the source of scandal after the Los Angeles Police Department shut down the exhibition and jailed the artist on obscenity charges. Berman did not frequently exhibit his work publicly thereafter and yet despite his reclusive habits and private life, remained a steady and significant influence on his contemporaries as well as generations to follow.

In 1977 Timothea Stewart Gallery presented its inaugural exhibition: Wallace Berman, which, in the wake of the artist's unexpected passing in 1976, cemented and celebrated the legacy of Berman's artistic endeavors in and beyond his lifetime. The present lot was at the heart of this exhibition; a superlative example from Berman's oeuvre, these thirteen unique and individually signed Verifax collages served as the basis for the artist's first and only series of prints published by Gemini G.E.L. in 1974. This significant exhibition at Timothea Stewart Gallery was welcomed and embraced by Berman's community and as Henry J. Seldis wrote in his 1977 review that Berman's 'personal alchemy and those who shared his life are represented fully in this retrospective which Berman himself might have avoided. But the time was long overdue for recognition by the general public of his peculiar and particular genius' (Los Angeles Times, 'Reality Edited by Wallace Berman,' 25 July 1977). These original Verifax collages have been in Timothea Stewart's personal collection since she purchased them directly from the artist who gifted Stewart a signed and annotated title page from the print series to accompany the unique works.

Since the groundbreaking exhibition at Timothea Stewart Gallery in 1977, Wallace Berman has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally. Berman's work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Jewish Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena; the San Francisco Museum of Art; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Berardo Museum, Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal; Mamco, Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland; and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, among others. In addition, the Radio/Aether Series will be highlighted as the visual alphabet to Berman's iconography in an extensive publication on the artist by Claudia Bohn-Spector and Ken D. Allen. The release is scheduled coincide and celebrate the artist's centennial.
For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com