Through the Looking Glass - Museum of Holography

Through the Looking Glass, Museum of Holography, New York, USA, 1976. 305 x 225mm. Folio containing 61 unpaginated loose sheets printed black on white stock.

A collection of 61 un bound loose leaves contained in a folio from the inaugural exhibition at the relatively short-lived Museum of Holography, Through the Looking Glass. Opening in New York in 1976, the museum was founded at a time when many believed holography might become one of the next great artistic media, with the potential to transform image-making much as photography had a century earlier. That never quite came to pass, but the optimism was shared by many of the period’s leading practitioners. The exhibition showed works by Bruce Nauman, Ruben Núñez, Scott E. Nemtzow, Jerry Pethick, Rick Silberman, Will Walter, Peter Van Riper, Britton Zabka and many of other artists, scientists and engineers working with the emerging medium. The museum was expanded from a holography gallery on West 20th Street, started by Joseph R. Burns Jr. of the New York Art Alliance. The director of the museum was Rosemary H. Jackson. Three works shown were from the museum collection, and the rest were loaned from a network of institutions and individuals, which this document charts meticulously. When the museum closed after 16 years, the collection was donated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Condition: Light shelf wear to folio, bruising to tail of folio spine, with 8mm closed tear. Internally Very Good, externally Good.