Stromberg, Harvey. Illegal Show { 12 images } Created 11 Dec 2021
Harvey Stromberg “paste-up” artist. NYT published Sunday, August 1, 1971 Museum of Modern Art
4 contact sheets, negs and tearsheet
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/01/archives/the-sneakiest-show-in-town.html
One of the most well-known pranks in art history happened in 1971 when Harvey Stromberg pasted roughly 300 life-sized photographs of utility objects—such as bricks, keyholes, and light switches—around the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in what he deemed a photo exhibit. It became the museum’s longest-running one-man exhibition as it eventually took museum personnel two years to discover and remove the photographs. Stromberg even threw himself an official show opening, formally inviting guests and media to MoMA to celebrate with champagne. The New York Times joined in the fun labeling him, “photographer, or a media manipulator, or a self-made chance factor, or a guerilla artist or a fraud. All of the above. None of the above.”
4 contact sheets, negs and tearsheet
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/01/archives/the-sneakiest-show-in-town.html
One of the most well-known pranks in art history happened in 1971 when Harvey Stromberg pasted roughly 300 life-sized photographs of utility objects—such as bricks, keyholes, and light switches—around the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in what he deemed a photo exhibit. It became the museum’s longest-running one-man exhibition as it eventually took museum personnel two years to discover and remove the photographs. Stromberg even threw himself an official show opening, formally inviting guests and media to MoMA to celebrate with champagne. The New York Times joined in the fun labeling him, “photographer, or a media manipulator, or a self-made chance factor, or a guerilla artist or a fraud. All of the above. None of the above.”
