The New Avant-Garde
Issues for Art of the Seventies
Text by Gregoire Muller
Photographs by Gianfranco Gorgoni
Praeger Publishers. 1972

My second book purchase of 2011 turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. I bought this after seeing it in the bibliography of Landscape as Photograph by Estelle Jussim and Elizabeth Lindquist-Cock. The chapter on Landscape as Concept refers to Earthworks and the works of artists such as Robert Smithson and Micheal Heizer, and footnotes The New Avant Garde as a source. I found it listed on Amazon as a paperback for a couple bucks and after ordering it the seller notified me that it was actually a hardcover mistakenly listed as a paperback. Did I still want it? Of course! The book is an ex-library copy, mylar protective cover over the dust jacket, and in fantastic condition. But that wasn't even the surprise. The surprise was what a fantastic photography book this has turned out to be. The book features the innovative work of artists such as Robert Smithson, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Beuys, Michael Heizer, and others who were taking art into some revolutionary directions in the early nineteen seventies. There is an essay by Gregoire Muller, and the remainder of the book is filled with beautiful black and white images by photographer Gianfranco Gorgoni. Gorgoni is an Italian photographer best known for his large scale portraits of icons of the art world.








Robert Smithson


Michael Heizer


Gianfranco Gorgoni