“I also believe in the ability of art to enhance people’s lives, to liberate people’s lives, to act as a form of communication that transcends language to connect cultures together”
– Jeffrey Deitch
“Lives” catalog, 1975, with cover image by Joseph Beuys.
Deitch Projects (1996 – 2010) changed our expectations around art. Named after its founder, the curator and critic Jeffrey Deitch, the NewYork-based gallery harnessed the populist and irreverent impulses of the 1970s and 80s.
Aged 23, Deitch launched his first show, Lives: Artist Who Deal With Peoples’ Lives (Including Their Own) As The Subject And/Or The Medium Of Their Work (1975) at the the Fine Arts Building at 105 Hudson Street, NYC. Using sculpture and painting, as well as dance and multi-media, Lives explored how living could be an art form. Artists included Laurie Anderson, Colette, Chris Burden, Colette, Gilbert & George, Andy Warhol, Ray Johnson, On Kawara, Adrian Piper, William Wegman, Roger Welch, Joseph Beuys and Hannah Wilke. They explored ethnic and gender issues, and created mash-ups of art and real life. Years later Deitch said the show “laid the foundation for what I’ve been doing ever since”.
To promote Lives, Deitch produced a catalog, part of which you can see below. Many more flyers and cards for Deitch show followed. Gallery98 has many of these original artworks for sale, and the images here are via them.
The history of the gallery survives in the Deitch Projects Exhibition Archives 1996-2010, as well as through the cards and flyers created for each exhibition.
“Lives” catalog, 1975, with cover image by Joseph Beuys.
Nicola Costantino, Human Furriery – Sophie Dahl wearing a corset by Nicola Costantino photographed by Xevi for V Magazine
Jean-Michel Basquiat and other Portraits, Shepard Fairey, Mayday- 2010
Kembra Pfahler & Julie Atlas Muz, Womanizer, Artforum Advertisement, 2007
Os Gemeos, Cavaleiro Marginal, Flyer 2005
Nari Ward, St. Peter’s Odyssey Salon, Poster, 2004
Jean-Pierre Khazem, Mona Lisa Live, Deitch Projects, Flyer:Poster, 2003
Yoko Ono, Odyssey of a Cockroach, Deitch Projects, Folded Poster:Flyer, 2003
Kehinde Wiley, Faux Real, Deitch Projects, Flyer:Poster, 2003
Group Show with Martha Copper, Futura, Shepard Fairey, Session The Bowl, Deitch Projects, Poster, 2002
Above: Poster by Deitch Projects for Session The Bowl, an exhibition centered around skateboard culture and featuring a large sculpture/skateboard bowl. Logos on the poster, mimicking skateboard decals, specified artists involved, including Martha Cooper, Futura, Dash, Shepard Fairey, and Larry Clark. Curated by Julia Chiang, Ryan McGinness, and Cheryl Dunn.
Valie Export, Images of Contact, Deitch Projects, Card, 1997
Kembra Pfhaler, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Deitch Projects, Card, 2006
Group Show with Vanessa Beecroft, Yoko Ono, Laura Owens, and Others, The Garden Party, Folded Poster, 2006
Group Show with Delia Brown, Rob Pruitt and Others, Sentimental Education, Curated by David Rimanelli, 2000
Barry McGee, Todd James, Stephen Powers, Street Market, Poster, 2000
Keith Haring, Paradise Garage- Keith Haring and Music, Poster, 2000
Keith Haring, Paradise Garage – Keith Haring & Music – Artforum Advertisement, 2001
Deitch Projects closed in 2010 when Jeffrey Deitch was appointed director of the LA Museum of Contemporary Art. But the history of the gallery lives on at Gallery 98, NYC, and in the Deitch Projects Exhibition Archives 1996-2010, as well as through the cards and flyers created for each exhibition.
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