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213.
The First Exhibition of Automata and Humanoids by Bruce Lacey.
London: Gallery One, June 1963. Exhibition catalogue. Large quarto glossy card sheet, folded centrally to make 4pp. Cover photograph by Patrick Thurston; inside full-page photograph by Don Petrie.
Lacey’s first one-person exhibition of assemblages, sixteen mechanical creations inspired in part by his heroes, John Minton and Lenny Bruce, and also, as he told art historian David Mellor years later, a desire “to shock people out of their complacency.” A contemporary British Pathé newsreel, “Spare Part Art”, recorded ‘Professor’ Bruce Lacey at the gallery with his “working works of art”.
In the following year Lacey appeared in BBC2’s opening programme with The Alberts and took part in one of the earliest happenings in the Better Books basement; in 1965 he made the first version of his robot for the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall (unfortunately it got stuck backstage).
Very Good plus, at least.
Price:
£55.00
