Fluxus East

Dick Higgins

Like many other future Fluxus artists, Dick Higgins studied (from 1958 to 1959) in John Cage’s composition class at the New School for Social Research in New York. In 1960, he married the artist Alison Knowles; they were both among the very first Fluxus artists and participated in the emerging network’s first concerts in Wiesbaden in September 1962. In 1963, Higgins founded the Something Else Press, which published, among other things, works by Al Hansen, Robert Filliou, Allan Kaprow, Emmett Williams and John Cage. George Maciunas regarded the Something Else Press as competition for the Fluxus Editions and, for this among other reasons, he excluded Higgins from Fluxus. Higgins is the originator of the term “intermedia” – a fitting description of the character of many Fluxus pieces, which cannot be pinned down to a specific medium.

In the 70s, Higgins concerned himself increasingly with graphic art and painting. In addition, he completed graduate studies at New York University in 1977. His main research interest was in ancient international visual poetry, and he also exchanged information and ideas on this subject with Hungarian and Polish academics and artists. From 1981 to 1982, Higgins received a fellowship from the DAAD and lived in Berlin during that time.

In 1966, Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles travelled to Prague, where they showed an exhibition of avantgarde editions and performed together with Ben Vautier, Serge Oldenbourg, Jeff Berner and Milan Kníŵák. In addition, Dick Higgins participated in numerous exhibitions and performances, primarily in Poland (Galeria Akumulatory 2, Galeria Potocka, Piwna 20/26 etc.) in the 1980s and 90s.