1st International Portfolio of Artists Photography
1st International Portfolio of Artists Photography
The International Portfolio of Artists Photography was an assembling book project, conceived to explore the intersections of mail art, book art, and photography. The First Portfolio was assembled in a signed, numbered edition of seventy-five, and included works by thirty-seven artists from fourteen nations. The photographs were bound into a tri-fold muslin folio that Jacob, then working as assistant to a women’s clothing designer in New York City, designed and hand-sewed. Two sets of prints were used as exhibition copies that traveled to venues in Europe, Asia, and in the US during 1983 and 1984.
USA: George B. Benington, Christopher Burnett, Russell Butler, Dennis Letbetter, Des McLean, Irma Perez, Victor Perez, Carlo Pittore/Mark Melnicove, Steve Random, Larry Rippel, Lon Spiegelman, Patrick T, B.J. Tisa, Emmett Walsh
West Germany: Jurgen Olbrich, Ioan Bunnus
Exhibition Venues:
* Buro fur Kunstlerische, Trogen, Switzerland, 10/1983; Department of Art, Sung Kyun Kwan University, Seoul, Korea, 11/1983; Kunoldstrasse 34, Kassel, West Germany, 12/1983; Media Gallery, Gent, Belgium, 2/1984; Artestudio, Bergamo, Italy, 4/1984; Memorial Gallery, Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ, USA, 9/1984
Liget Galeria, Budapest, Hungary, 2017
Following the model of Richard Kostelanetz’ Assembling Press, for the First Portfolio Jacob invited contributors to submit seventy-five copies of an original photograph to be assembled into books. Contributions were solicited through the mail art network.
The “Notes” accompanying the First Portfolio announced the project as a ten-year effort, with subsequent volumes to focus on photography from specific geographical regions, appearing biennially. The Second Portfolio, scheduled for 1985, would focus on the the USSR and the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe; the Third on South America; the Fourth on Asia; and the Fifth, like the First, would be open to artists throughout the world.
Only the First Portfolio was completed as an artists’ book. Working on the Second Portfolio took Jacob to Eastern Europe and the USSR, and launched his career as a curator. The Second Portfolio is preserved in two drafts. The New York edition compiles submissions sent to Jacob in New York City. The Budapest edition includes material sent directly to the Liget Galeria for exhibition there in 1986.
The Riding Beggar archive is housed with the John P. Jacob Papers at the Beinecke Rare Books Library, Yale University.
