Robin Page

Robin Page (2 November 1932 – 12 May 2015) was a British painter. He was one of the early members of the Fluxus art movement.

Biography Page was born in England in 1932. His father, Peter Carter-Page, was a humorist and cartoonist who worked as an animator at the Disney studios in Hollywood in the 1930s. The family moved to Canada where the young Page lived until the age of 27. Page moved back to Europe in 1959. He taught at Leeds College of Art in the north of England until 1967. He then moved to West Germany and associated with Fluxus artists, such as Robert Filliou, Dieter Roth, Dorothy Iannone, Daniel Spoerri, and Ben Vautier.

Page performed many Happenings, including one titled Guitar, which involved him in kicking his guitar with the help of an audience along The Mall, London for the ICA's Misfits concert. On another occasion Page made a chalk portrait drawing of Joseph Beuys, with begging bowl, on the pavement in front of the National Gallery. In 1966 he was with Gustav Metzger, Otto Muehl, Wolf Vostell, Yoko Ono and others a participant of the Destruction in Art Symposium (DIAS) in London.

By 1970, Page had left the Fluxus movement and lived in Germany. He used humour to challenge notions of "good taste" in the art world. His Hey Wildon paintings mocked and commented on art, with traditional techniques of painting. Page poses the question "Hey, Whildon, why has humour never replaced seriousness as the most respectable cultural attitude?" to which Whildon replies "Because people can't fake it!" Later (by 1987) he had "died and gone to Bluebeard" which involved him in dying his beard blue (executed by Mike Spike Froidl - see the appropriate painting here). He produced a series of satirical paintings with elements from poster and propaganda art. His Bluebeard AMuseum mocked the notion of the Institution and placed himself at the centre of his art "collection", against private and state-run and cultural organisations. An example is the painting "Freedom is a Burning Brush" which features the artist posing as the Statue of Liberty, holding a paintbrush as a torch.

Happenings (Action Events) 1962: The Door, London. Art Indicator, London. Guitar Piece, Misfits Concert, ICA, London. Simultaneous Document of the Space Flight of American Astronaut Walter Shira, London. 1963: Plant Piece, Little festival of New Music, London. Two Stones London and the Fluxus Festival, Nice. Wrap-up, BBC, New Comment, London. The Measurement of Motivation, London. 1965: Eclipse, Theatre Royal, Stratford, London. 1966: Krow 1, Destruction in Art Symposium, London. Beach Boxes, Scarborough. Merry Christmas '66, Leeds. 1967: Action Lecture on War, Cardiff. Protest March, Leeds. 1968: Professor Protozoa's Mini Majestic Bilou Road Show Yeah, City of London Festival. The Wild Man of Woburn, Woburn Abbey. Event for Liz, St. Valentine's Eve, Bradford. Concert of Experimental Music, Commonwealth Institute, London.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 1969: Art Intermedia, Cologne 1971: Eat Art Gallery, Düsseldorf 1972: Galerie Muller, Cologne 1973: Kunstverein, Cologne; Galerie Muller, Stuttgart; Galerie Gunter Sachs, Hamburg 1974: Galerie Foncke, Ghent; Salon de Mai, Paris (travelled to Braunschweig, Germany and Lijnbaacentrum, Rotterdam) 1975: Gallery Allen, Vancouver 1977: Junior Galerie, Goslar, Germany; Galerie Vallois, Paris 1979: Galerie Redmann, Sylt, Germany; Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1980: Galerie Redmann, Berlin; Galerie Redmann at ART'80, Basle; Kunsthalle, Darmstadt, Germany 1982: Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany 1993: Galerie Klewan Munich

Group exhibitions 1953: Young West Coast Painters, Vancouver 1954: West Coast Hard Edge, Seattle 1962: Festival of Misfits, Gallery One, London; Richmond Jazz Festival 1963: Ten Year Show, Gallery One, London 1964 Cross Section, City Museum, Leicester; About Round, University of Leeds 1965: 45th Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London; Structures Vivantes, Redfern Gallery, London; Then & Now, Park Square Gallery, Leeds. 1966: Form& Image, City Museum, Leeds; Destruction in Art, Symposium, Leeds 1967: Concrete/Spatial Poetry, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham. 1969: Amadou in A, Antwerpen 1970: Happenings & Fluxus, Kunstverein, Koln 1972: Szene Rhein-Ruhr, Museum Folkwang, Essen; Documenta 5, Kassel; Freunde des Museums Sammein (Collections of the Friends of the Museum), Museum Folkwang, Essen 1973: 6th International Triennial of Coloured Graphic Prints, Grenchen Galerie Muller, Koln.

Publications Paul Gravett, (2007) Pulp Fiction, Hayward Gallery Publishing, Southbank Centre, London J. Gray, (1993) Action Art, Greenwood Press, CT, USA, Karl-Heinz Hering, (1974) Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Verheyen & Schulte, Düsseldorf 'Art in a Brown Paper Bag', Weekend Magazine (Montreal), May, 1975 'I am a Unique Idiot', Marq de Villiers, Weekend Magazine, (Montreal), May, 1975 'Artist Dips His Brush in Canadian Wry', Art Perry, Vancouver Province, November, 1974 'Everybody Invited', John Anthony Thwaites, Art and Artists, London, November 1974 'Robin Page, Galerie Muller', G. Wirth, Das Kunstwerke, Baden-Baden, July 1973 'A Note on Robin Page', E.Lynn, Art International, Lugano, May 1973 'Robin Page: Bildparabeln, Exhibition Catalogue', Augsburg, 1982 'Mail Art: Communication a Distance', Jean-Marc Poinsot, Paris, 1971 'Robin Page', Flash Art, May 1972