Exhibiting Historical Art: Out of the Vault: Stories of People and Things

Revolutions Per Minute: The Art Record

In 1982, Jeff Gordon and Ron Feldman brought 24 artists together for an art exhibit.  The end result, however, was not a conventional  art gallery exhibit but 21 audio tracks which vary greatly in subject matter and recording style.  Though each artist created a lithograph as an album cover for their individual track (as seen on the wall of the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery), the emphasis of the exhibit was on the auditory, rather than the visual, components.  Visitors to the Ron Feldman Fine Arts gallery went around the room listening to each track, but the exhibit is not confined to the physical space of a gallery; it can be experienced by anyone with access to a record player, no matter their location.  This also allows for the exhibit to exist beyond the time it spent in the Feldman Fine Arts Gallery in New York.  The audio tracks cover subjects ranging from nuclear war to phonetics, and are deeply influenced by the historical context of the 1980s.

Revolutions Per Minute: The Art Record was unique in its ability to transcend the physical confines of the art gallery, but in the age of internet, this is now taken for granted.  Anyone can conduct a search on the internet and find images of almost any piece of artwork, no matter its physical location.  Though this may lessen the poignancy of the Feldman exhibit's mobility, the piece remains relevant in many other ways, such as the themes it explores and the historical context it provides.

This particular copy of "Revolutions Per Minute: The Art Record" was purchased by Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery in 1982, just five days after the exhibit opened in New York.  It is number 107 in a edition of 500 copies of a special edition of the record, which included the 21 audio tracks on two vinyl discs and the 21 lithographs, each signed by the artist which created it.  

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