Avalanche. Nos. 1 - 13. [All published]

Complete set of this important conceptual art magazine, published by Willoughby Sharp, edited by Elizabeth Béar. At the time, Sharp was a New York-based art historian and independent curator and Béar an underground magazine editor who had recently moved to New York from London. They published the first issue in 1970 and collaborated on the thirteen issues from 1970 to 1976. They both conducted the interviews and conversations with the artists. Avalanche focused on art from the perspective of artists rather than critics, and investigated new forms of art that were developing in the U.S. and Europe with a radical new media format - probing interviews, extensive use of photography and dynamic layouts.

The first eight issues are in the form of a square magazine, featuring brooding portraits of artists on each cover: Joseph Beuys (No.1), Bruce Nauman (No.2), Barry Le Va (No.3), Lawrence Weiner (No.4), Yvonne Rainer (No.5), Vito Acconci (No.6), William Wegman represented by his dog Man Ray (No.7), and Robert Smithson (No.8). When printing costs skyrocketed in 1974, Avalanche switched to a newspaper format (Nos. 9-13).

Complete with all the inserts in the green folder stapled in the middlespread of issue no. 7.

[Ref. Gwen Allen - Artists' Magazines. An alternative space for art, p. 242].