Exhibition/Wallace Berman
Topanga [CA]: n.d. [1973]. Broadside flyer. 8 ¾ x 10 inches. Folded once, likely for mailing. Fine copy.
One of Berman’s only solo exhibitions during his lifetime, a one-day event held at the Mermaid Tavern in Topanga Canyon. (He famously never exhibited in a commercial gallery after his 1957 show at the Ferus Gallery was shut down by the Vice Squad two days after it opened.) The Mermaid Tavern was a sophisticated “classical music nightclub” in Topanga run by Mickey and Ann Nadal, where “classical musicians could drop in and play as if they were blues musicians dropping in at a nightclub.” The programming eventually broadened and an early version of Oingo Boingo played there (see Tosh Berman, Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World). A rare Berman item; though often seen reproduced, the original is very scarce. Item #2247
Price: $1,750.00