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173.
Catalog No. 3: an improvisation.
Sydney: Reid Books, nd. (April 1971). 4to., magazine format. Unpaginated (36pp., including cover). Printed in black on white paper stock.
A spectacular continuous collage of cartoon psychedelia, acid imagery, clippings and cut-up texts, compiled by Sharp in Sydney following his return from London in late 1970. Described by Joyce Morgan in her biography as “part manifesto, part scrapbook, part autobiography”, it was intended to accompany his upcoming exhibition (The Incredible Shrinking Exhibition) at what would become The Yellow House at 59 Macleay Street (named after Van Gogh’s Maison Jaune). Van Gogh features prominently, including a line from a letter of September 1888 to his brother, Theo, quoted on the front cover. As Morgan writes, the pages are filled “with images from his childhood, from Oz days and the Pheasantry, and lines from his various influences, from The Little Prince and Paracelsus to Teilhard de Chardin and Leonard Cohen.”
The book was launched at the opening of the exhibition on April Fools’ Day, 1971, exactly eight years after the launch of Oz magazine in Sydney. The show reunited Sharp with David Litvinoff, who had introduced him to the Pheasantry in 1967, and was now employed at Sharp’s invitation as a cleaner-cum-provocateur at The Yellow House. On the eve of the opening Litvinoff appeared on local TV news sporting a Fantômas mask, and when asked by the reporter what he thought the public reaction would be to the exhibition, replied: “I think it will be one of massive indifference. And I believe the public will stay away in their thousands” (quoted by Kieron Pim in his book, Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld).
Wrappers slightly rubbed and lightly soiled copy, o/w a Very Good plus copy of a scarce Sharp item.
