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I have prepared these texts, on the 50th anniversary of concept art, at the generous invitation of Catherine Christer Hennix and Grimmuseum.
As the 1961 essay says, concept art is “first of all” an art of which the material is concepts, and thereby, language. Quite so, but I was writing telegraphically. I was not writing defensively; I was not striking pre-emptively against all possible misunderstandings. By the time my label gained general currency in 1963, people wanted it to be a synonym for word pieces. (They wanted to give word pieces a promotion.) The problem was, for example, that they did not study what I offered. What they supposed or imagined was altogether at odds with what I offered.
La Monte Young left two of my 1961 pieces out of my section in An Anthology. Only now have I seriously tried to recall what one of them was about; I call it Teseqs. I had submitted Teseqs directly to Young, with supplementary additions; perhaps he left it out because of its requirement of a specially cut removable page. In any case, you couldn’t possibly know about this missing piece unless I told you.

Henry Flynt is a philosopher, composer, and artist born in Greensboro, NC in 1940. In 1960 and 1961 he announced some of the ideas that have occupied him ever since, including concept art. Most of his concept art documents were published in ‘An Anthology’, ed. La Monte Young (1963).

In 1975, he led a country rock band called Nova’billy. (Examples of their performances of Flynt’s music are available on three published recordings.)
In the same year, his book ‘Blueprint for a Higher Civilization’ was published by Multhipla Edizioni, Milan. Flynt was in the Ph.D. program in Economics at the New School from 1970 to 1978, writing his dissertation on socialist economic administration.
Flynt resumed making concept art in 1987. He was represented by Emily Harvey Gallery and has shown at the Venice and Lyon Biennales.

In 2008, Flynt returned to live music, performing an improvised rock instrumental with his niece Libby Flynt in several cities in Europe and the U.S. Numerous recordings of his music have been released, including the just-released ‘Glissando No. 1’.

“Concept Art 50 Years Anniversary”
curated by Catherine Christer Hennix

front cover design Henry Flynt

front Rainbow Column, Innperseqs (2011)

back Innperseqs Diagram, remade 2011 from the vintage copy in the Young archive
design by www.andreanicolo.com