front cover
A fascinating double-sided catalogue for Iannone's 1978 exhibition at the Haus am Lützowplatz gallery in Berlin where she was living & working after receiving a prestigious Berlin Artists-in-Residence fellowship from DAAD.
While accordion exhibition catalogues have a long and distinguished history, this one departs from this tradition and moves closer to being an artists' book. Iannone would seem to confirm this when she thanks the editor Thomas Deecke for "... graciously permitting that the pain of making a catalogue be transformed into the pleasure of making a book."
The catalogue contains a smorgasbord of Iannone's works including paintings, prints, sculptures as well as a 45rpm record, all of them created within her larger quest for what she called "ecstatic unity" through erotic love. One of the pinnacles in this quest was her meeting in 1967 with the Swiss artist Dieter Roth (1930-1998), and their intense 8 year relationship that followed. Her works during these years would revolve around the world they created between themselves with Iannone reflecting in a 2016 interview "...my work went into many new directions and took on many new forms. Because i was so much in love with him, Dieter was my muse..."
I feel lucky to have found this accordion, as I'm only aware of one other that she published during her entire career. Iannone forged a totally unique painterly and illustrative style, that is soaked through with eroticism and sexuality, but it comes from a deep well of honesty about being a woman with erotic desires and living & interacting with the world of men. Ultimately, Iannone came to the realization that "ecstatic unity" could not be found through erotic love and that it had paradoxically led her "...to look for unity within myself."
Dorothy Iannone died almost a month ago on December 26th, 2022 in Berlin at the age of 89.
16 pages, double-side, individual pages 10" x 8", when opened 10ft 8 inches.
reverse side
45 rpm record in cover attached to the accordion
back cover
