[Complete Set of Three Silk-Screened Posters for Cage's Performance of HPSCHD]

[CAGE, John and Lejaren A. Hiller]

Price: $7,500.00

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Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois, 1969. First Edition. Three large original silk-screened posters, each roughly 38" by 28" and on heavy "construction"-like paper. Occasional tiny edge tears. A small chip here and there. Some minute pin holes. Else bright and sharp. Easily near fine or better. (Item ID: 12883)

HPSCHD (pronounced "harpsicord") was premiered at the Assembly Hall of University of Illinois at UrbanañChampaign on May 16, 1969 as the culmination of Cage's artistic residency there. One of the earliest musical works for computer, and ultimately a five-hour multimedia extravaganza, it remains a landmark happening of the 1960's. Cage helped design and produce two of the posters using change operations. The final example, depicting Cage as a dragon slayer, we suspect is the work of a student who'd read too much Tolkien. Fewer than one hundred of each poster were produced, however, and were so popular on campus that most were stolen for dorm display by students. Rare. OCLC locates just one complete set (at the Getty) and no individual examples(though we are aware of an uncatalogued set at Northwestern). A complete set of striking posters documenting a major Fluxus performance and a key event of the 1960's avant garde, one that Richard Kostelanetz called "one of the great artistic environments of the decade" (JOHN CAGE: An Anthology p. 173).

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