Ben Patterson: In the State of Fluxus

Ben Patterson: In the State of Fluxus by Oliver, Valerie Cassel. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781933619293.

Performing and visual artist Ben Patterson (born 1934) was a founding member of Fluxus participatory, do-it-yourself, anticommercialist avant-garde network. While many Fluxus artists, influenced by John Cages precedent, employed conceptual techniques borrowed from music (e.g., the event score), Pattersons fusion of art and music was informed by his background as a classically trained double-bassist. His "Variations for Double Bass" (1960), for example, was played with the titular instrument balanced upside down on its scroll. Published for a retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, this volume includes an anthology of Pattersons scores, edited by Fluxus scholar Jon Hendricks; a chronology of the artists life and work; a CD compilation of his musical performances from 1961 to 2009, produced by Alga Marghen; and essays by a variety of scholars, assessing the career of one of Fluxus foremost and wittiest artists.