Anti-magazine #7 (Miljenko Horvat)
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- Anti-magazine #7 (Miljenko Horvat)
- 1965
- screenprint on paper, 2 b&w photographs inside
- 21 x 19,4 cm
Simply and decently designed, with works dictated by the form of the magazine, “Gorgona” contained primary and not secondary information about a work of art. Each number contained the work of only one artist and was a work of art realized in the print medium. By repeating the same photo of an empty shop window, Josip Vaništa emphasized plainness, monotony and irony in relation to expected reception (Issue 1, 1961), or on a single page of the magazine, he printed the reproduction of “Mona Lisa” (Issue 6, 1961) thus raising a critical and analytical question of the meaning of reproducing a work of art. “Gorgona No. 2”, 1961 by Julije Knifer needed wider space – even if made of paper or resembled a book, it was still an object. He coiled his black and white meander, which has remained his hallmark to this day, within the given dimensions by folding pages into paper pleats and thus obtaining an "endless flow". Eleven issues were published in Zagreb between 1961 and 1966 with participation of Josip Vaništa (Issues 1, 6, 10, 11), Julije Knifer (2), Marijan Jevšovar (3), Victor Vasarely (4), Ivan Kožarić (5), Miljenko Horvat (7), Harold Pinter (8) and Dieter Roth (9), while issues by Piero Manzoni, Đuro Seder, Enzo Mari and others were prepared but never published. All along, “Gorgona” was created by the artists themselves or by Josip Vaništa, who distributed the magazine by mail. By affirming the awareness of artists for the medium in which their works appeared, “Gorgona” anticipated artistic events that were yet to follow. Professional contacts that Vaništa established with international artists testify to the awareness of Gorgona’s character and importance. B.S.