Karogrammatische Ausstellungen.

Wuppertal.: Hansjoachim Dietrich & Bernd Ebeling., 1960. Single sheet flyers, printed on various papers. Some small tears and fading to edges of sheets commensurate with age.. Verlag Kalender, the Wuppertal-based imprint founded and run by Bernd Ebeling and Hansjoachim Dietrich is now mostly remembered for the two landmark series of Kalenderrolle, (published in November 1961 and June 1962), and also for being the organisation behind the legendary Internationale Manuskriptaustellung Konkrete Poesie of 1961 in Wuppertal. But preceding all this, the first proposed exhibitions held by the Kalender group in November / December of 1960 were a series of what were to be titled ‘Karogramm’ exhibitions. Presented here are a group of original printed flyers for these shows (it is unknown if the exhibitions ever took place). The exhibitions appear to have been themed around the varying physical characteristics of objects: metal, paper, wood, plastics, or fabric. Each of the flyers is printed with the ‘Karogram’ logo of the black square (sometimes rotated to form a diamond shape). List of flyers: Metallmorphose (November 1960) - 74 ausschussteile nicht serienmäßig hergestellter Metallgegenstände - printed grey on black stock, (22 x 50cm), folded; Steine, exklusiv - printed black on brown card stock (22 x 29.7 cm); Papier (December 1960) - printed black on white glossy paper (62 x 22 cm), folded; Stoffe (December 1960) - printed in black on yellow stock (sheet irregular 45 x 22 cm); Kunststoff (December 1960) - printed in black on purple paper (31.5 x 44 cm), folded. The collection also includes a flyer for a poetry reading held at the new Karogramm space (19 December 1960): “Erste Lesung im Karogramm. Dietrich Weiss liest Lyrik und Prosa aus Romantik und Surrealismus”, together with a printed card listing the various Karogramm events including a Jazz bar. Finally there is a flyer for what can only be classed as an ‘anti-art’ show: Ein dutzend Pappen - this was a planned exhibition of sections of grey card, all cut to the same size, all not signed, not numbered, and in fact not for sale. There was not an opening for the show. An intriguing group of ephemera for some seriously undocumented exhibitions.