Book Description

The Edizioni Conz of the Italian collector, publisher and photographer Francesco Conz–including portfolios, large silkscreen prints on fabrics and objects–are among the finest and most elaborate art editions of the second half of the 20th century. A friend and patron of Viennese Actionism, Fluxus, Concrete Poetry, and Lettrism, he was an obsessive, knowledgeable enthusiast open to all the arts, for whom hospitality, the magic of community, and respect for the arts were more important than any mercantile aspirations. This publication is the first comprehensive catalogue raisonné of the editions published by Conz between 1972 and 2009. Comprising more than 500 editions, it is both a reflection of his passions and a memorial to the art of the avant-gardes. Texts by contemporaries such as Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Milan Knižak, Eugen Gomringer, Emmett Williams, Nicholas Zurbrugg, and others complete the richly illustrated catalogue. FRANCESCO CONZ (1935–2010) grew up in a wealthy family of Austro-Hungarian descent in the Italian Veneto. After coming into contact with the art scene in Berlin and New York in the early 1970s, he traveled to art festivals around the world and invited artists to the Palazzo Baglioni in Asolo for happenings and per- formances. Since 2016, the Berlin-based Archivio Conz has been working to catalogue, research, and restore his extraordinary collection for the public, which includes more than 4,000 works and commissioned editions by over 300 international artists, as well as 30,000 photographs and ephemera.