James Kalm brings viewers along for a trip down memory lane. 1969 was a seminal year marking the end of the age of Aquarius and the depth of the quagmire in Vietnam. The art world was in revolt politically and aesthetically. Changes were coming fast and furiously. In hind sight many of these “radical” positions have become accepted and represent the current establishment. Still, this run-through allows us to appreciate the first dawnings of this new horizon of creative energy. Organized by Neville Wakefield, P.S. 1 Senior Curatorial Advisor; Michelle Elligott, MoMA Archivist; and Eva Respini, MoMA Associate Curator of Photography.

Due to popular demand - OK actually it was just editor Steven Kaplan’s request - I’m reposting this snippet of video from an expanded program that will appear soon on my “super page” at Babelgum.

Call me nostalgic, I prefer to think of it as interested in “history”, but this clip of Smithson and Holt gives us a great insight into the types of people they were, their habits (check out Smithson lighting his cigarette) and their dry sense of humor. “1969” is the kind of show that makes PS1 so essential to the New York arts dialog.

Robert Smithson and Nance Holt riff in an experimental video performance and we sneak a view at the exhibition within an exhibition, a re-staging of MoMA's 1969 exhibition, Five Recent Acquisitions, organized by noted curator Kynaston McShine, highlighting then-recently acquired works by Larry Bell, Ron Davis, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, and John McCracken.