The pioneering account of West Coast assemblage art, featuring Bruce
Conner, Jess, Jay DeFeo, Robert Duncan, Cameron and a cast of postwar
countercultural icons
This reprint of the now classic and much sought-after 2005 volume
celebrates the circle of the quintessential visual artist of the Beat
era, Wallace Berman (1926-76), who remains one of the best-kept secrets
of the postwar era. A crucial figure in California's underground
culture, Berman was a catalyst who traversed many different worlds,
transferring ideas and dreams from one circle to the next. His larger
community is the subject of Semina Culture, which includes previously
unseen works by 52 artists. Anchoring this publication is Semina, a
loose-leaf art and poetry journal that Berman published in nine issues
between 1955 and 1964. Although printed in extremely short runs and
distributed to only a handful of friends and sympathizers, Semina is a
brilliant and beautifully made compendium of the most interesting
artists and poets of its time, and is today a very rare collector's
item. Showcasing the individuals that defined a still-potent strand of
postwar counterculture, Semina Culture outlines the energies and
values of this fascinating circle. Also reproduced here are works by
those who appear in Berman's own photographs, approximately 100 of which
were recently developed from vintage negatives, and which are seen here
for the first time. These artists, actors, poets, curators, musicians
and filmmakers include Robert Alexander, John Altoon, Toni Basil,
Wallace Berman, Ray Bremser, Bonnie Bremser, Charles Britten, Joan
Brown, Cameron, Bruce Conner, Jean Conner, Jay DeFeo, Diane DiPrima,
Kirby Doyle, Bobby Driscoll, Robert Duncan, Joe Dunn, Llyn Foulkes,
Ralph Gibson, Allen Ginsberg, George Herms, Jack Hirschman, Walter
Hopps, Dennis Hopper, Billy Jahrmarkt, Jess, Lawrence Jordan, Patricia
Jordan, Bob Kaufman, Philip Lamantia, William Margolis, Michael McClure,
David Meltzer, Taylor Mead, Henry Miller, Stuart Perkoff, Jack Smith,
Dean Stockwell, Ben Talbert, Russ Tamblyn, Aya (Tarlow), Alexander
Trocchi, Edmund Teske, Zack Walsh, Lew Welch and John Wieners.
