Collection Dates: 1967-1998
3 linear feet
This document describes a collection of materials held
by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Posted to Internet: October 2006
Access
and Restrictions:
Photographs:
Digital
Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but
does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this
collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections
Department.
Copyright: Please read
The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished
Materials"
Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports
access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections.
Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition
or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all
times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing
non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.
Buster Cleveland (1943-1998), born James Trenholm in Chicago in 1943, had studied at the Chicago Art Institute and the San Francisco Art Institute after serving in the Coast Guard. He'd become Buster Cleveland by the time he'd arrived in Northern California in the 1970’s, where he settled during the first half of that decade, and became involved with the Mendocino Area Dadaists (M.A.D) and the Bay Area Dadaists (B.A.D.), California organizations of artists whose intent was to recreate the ephemeral works of early European Dadaist like Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters. It was also at this time he began his activities with mail art, a medium pioneered by his friend Ray Johnson.
The 1970’s proved to be a very fertile period for Cleveland having him develop many of his friendships with artists who were recognized as important within the margins of the art world – John Evans, May Wilson, Ray Johnson, and Al Hansen amongst them. Although the artists who made up this milieu were not in the mainstream, they were very much talked about in the New York art world, as is still the case today. In the latter part of the 1970’s, Cleveland moved to New York City and lived bi-coastally through the early 80’s.
Buster Cleveland’s most widely seen artworks were those using covers of Artforum magazine that he produced beginning in the late 1980’s. Photographic self portraits, portraits of friends, logos from cigarette packs, and an assor tment of other kitsch and popular imagery were collaged onto the magazine covers, many of which were preserved in poured plastic after he made laser prints of the collages, reducing them to postcard size and distributing them through the mail by subscription.
-excerpts from "Buster Cleveland (1943-1998)" by Sur Rodney (Sur), Independent curator and archivist, available online here as a PDF file.
Scope and Content
The collection contains Cleveland's works and papers, including Artforum mail art works. He also collected a large amount of materials from other mail artists, which can be found under the composing artist's name in the Artists' Works and Correspondence collection (MsC 764). This is an Alternative Traditions in Contemporary Art collection.
Box List
Box 1
Folder 1: Large assortment of flyers (1976-1981)
Folder 2: Visual Poems and other works (1975-1984)
Folder 3: Works in progress (1976-1979?)
Folder 4: Works in progress (1977-1980?)
Folder 5: Stamps
Folder 6: Photographs, slides, negatives
Folder 7: Photograph sets of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung; Mao Tse-Tung (1969);Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art (1967)
Folder 8: Artforum (Art For Um): Vol. 1, Issues 1-10 (1993-1994); Vol. 2, Issues 1-10 (1994-1995)
Folder 9: Artforum (Art For Um): Vol. 3, Issues 1-10 (1995-1996); Vol. 4, Issues 1-2, 4, 7-10 (1996-1997)
Folder 10: Artforum (Art For Um): Vol. 5, Issues 1-2, 4-5, 9-10 (1997-1998); Vol. 6, Issue 1 (1998); 6 Special Issues (1995-1997)
Folder 11: Miscellaneous
Folder 12: Miscellaneous
Box 2
Folder 1: Miscellaneous, oversize artworks.
Cigar box artwork, Buster Cleveland, Sam Scotland, 1976.
Rubber stamp art cards from various artists for exhibition at Colorado Fine Arts Department, Colorado Springs, 1977
Box 3
Rubber face model/mask
Small paper plate "Art" piece with green plastic army soldiers
Starfish
Flattened pop can covered in "Szombathy art in America" stickers
Set of negatives
Small box with cookie collage inside
Cassette tape, 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 Live, 1979
Small Polish cigarette box with paper objects inside
Mini tv lapel pin
Brussels metal figure
