Commonly conceived of as a visual treat for children, the pop-up book—originally known as a “movable book”—was actually first employed by Benedictine monk Matthew Paris circa 1250 to track holy days. (Paris used a “volvelle,” or pivoting wheel.) In circa 1305, poet and mystic Ramon Llull introduced volvelles to the West as a means of divining spiritual answers, in the fashion of a multi-layered Ouija board.

(left: A volvelle)

This technique was only applied to children’s books in the mid-18th century, when bookseller Robert Sayer created a “lift the flap” book for children about a comic ne’er-do-well named Harlequin in 1765.

(left: A Cherokee Chief in London, 1772)

The commercial explosion of children’s books came in 1929 with the first Daily Express Children’s Annual, published by S. Louis Giraud. Priced modestly, and produced inexpensively, Giraud pushed pop-ups—which he called “living models”—to a new and mass audience.

(left: Daily Express Children’s Annual No. 2 , 1930)

The pleasantly deceptive simplicity of the pop-up book was appropriated in the later twentieth century for high-art by figures like Andy Warhol, whose Index Book featured tear-out inserts of a cardboard can of tomato paste (at left) and an inflatable balloon; one can see a similar sense of childish glee in the removable sticker on his famous design for the Velvet Underground’s debut album cover. Tony Award-winning production designer Peter Larkin has also intermittently released selections of a massive pop-up history of burlesque, twenty years in the making, called Panties Inferno. (The book remains unrealized, his vision perhaps being either too complex—or expensive—for publishers.)

Hofstra and O’hearn’s designs are of a different stripe, entirely. Like a Frank O’Hara poem come to life, they examine whimsical and odd negative spaces in city scenes, as well as enigmatic structures built upon familiar 2-D landscapes (at left, a spread from All Meadows).They probe the representation of public space, rearranging familiar scenes and urban locales with often beguiling results. The exhibit reveals a full history of the pair’s previous collaborative output, in addition to two new pop-ups created specifically for RARE and a series of nine framed, moveable wall pieces.

“Sjoerd Hofstra with Karen O’hearn: Books in Motion” is now on view at RARE through January 30, 2016.

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“Sjoerd Hofstra with Karen O’hearn: Books in Motion” is now on display through Saturday, January 30, 2016. For more information on the work and artists, please visit the exhibition page.

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For more information, please visit the exhibition page.

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The Daniel Gibbings Jewelry pop-up will be on display at RARE through Friday, December 18, 2015. For more information about the show, click here.

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Maude Schuyler Clay started her color portrait series Mississippi History in 1975 when she acquired her first Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera. At the time, she was living and working in New York and paying frequent visits to her native Mississippi Delta, whose landscape and people continued to inspire her. Over the next 25 years, the project, which began as “The Mississippians,” evolved in part as an homage to Julia Margaret Cameron, a definitive pioneer of the art of photography. Clay’s expressive, allegorical portraits of her friends, family and other Mississippians, as well as her artful approach to capturing the essence of light, are the driving forces behind her recollection of moments of family life in Mississippi in the 1980s and 90s.

Both Ms. Clay and Mr. Ford will be in attendance at this event.

Please RSVP by 12/7 to info@glennhorowitz.com.

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This event was held in conjunction with RARE’s current exhibition, “Rick Meyerowitz’s National Lampoon.” For more information about the work on display, please visit the exhibition page.

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“National Lampoon’s Inferno (Rick Visits Hell)”

In 1971, while entertaining two Lampoon founders—Henry Beard and Doug Kenney—at his New York loft, Meyerowitz devised one of the magazine’s most enduring images: “Mona Gorilla.” Now on view at RARE, the piece transforms Da Vinci’s beguiling womanly visage with that of a bemused ape’s face: an absurd and defacing gesture similar to Duchamp’s L.H.O.Q.Q., yet with the joyful silliness that marks Meyerowitz’s work. The piece was called by one critic “the best Mona Lisa parody ever,” while by another, “one of the enduring icons of American humor,” and the Wall Street Journal declared it “the most celebrated American magazine illustration of the 1970s.”

“Mona Gorilla”
 

Pieces Meyerowitz originally created for Lampoon articles sometimes spun off into other avenues, most notably his book Dodosaurs: The Dinosaurs That Didn’t Make It, which first debuted in the Lampoon in 1972, then became a formal book with text by Henry Beard in 1984. Inspired by the observation that dinosaurs were “so weirdly constructed, who would notice a few changes here and there,” the Dodosaurs present a range of evolutionary quirks and surreal physiology, such as the “Titanicasaurus Rex,” which bears the look of a cruise-liner sinking, and the majestic “Blunderdon” who has another tail instead of a head.

Sketchbook for Dodosaurs (Signed copies of the published book are available at the gallery.)
 

Meyerowitz’s collaborations with the Lampoon extended to projects outside the magazine proper, such as the poster for the Lampoon’s first film, the blockbuster comedy Animal House. His design’s raucous, effusive energy reflected the manic activity of the film itself, and proved integral to the film’s identity. John Belushi, upon seeing the poster, reportedly said to Meyerowitz, “You nailed it maaaannn. You really fuckin’ nailed it.”

Original artwork for the Animal House poster

His deflations of political figures and critique of American military efforts abroad are also prevalent in the exhibition. A particularly sharp illustration recalls Ronald Reagan’s highly controversial visit to a Nazi SS cemetery in Bitburg, Germany: as the former president weeps over the graves, his face melts like wax under intense heat. And in Meyerowitz’s last piece for the Lampoon, he depicts a scene of corporate-subsidized attack machines crawling over a field of battle: bombers release payloads of “Obsession” by Calvin Klein as a “Ground to Air Jordan” plane cruises by.

“Bye-Bye Bozo: Reagan at Bitburg”  

“Operation Desert Sales” 
 

Since his time at the Lampoon, Meyerowitz has continued his work as an illustrator and author. On the visual side, he collaborated with fellow artist Maira Kalman to create “New Yorkistan,” one of the New Yorker’s most popular covers. Released in the wake of 9/11, the New York Times reflected, “When their cover came out, a dark cloud seemed to lift.”

“New Yorkistan” cover from The New Yorker
 

And to codify the enduring legacy of the magazine, in 2010 Meyerowitz released a compendium of work by its numerous contributors entitled Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely Great. (Signed editions are available at the gallery.) A recent documentary about the Lampoon by Magnolia pictures borrows the title of this book, and is now available online.

From surreal political jabs to all-out farce, Meyerowitz’s work for National Lampoon touched upon many of the era’s singular issues with a humor that is still relevant today. The question is whether the world has bent to Meyerowitz’s vision, or if he was just ahead of the game.

Rick Meyerowitz’s National Lampoon is on view at RARE through December 5, 2015.

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