HUAM acquires prominent Fluxus collection

The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) earlier this month announced its acquisition of the Barbara and Peter Moore Fluxus Collection, one of the most important groups of Fluxus materials in North America. The acquisition is a partial gift from Barbara Moore, and a partial purchase made through the museums’ Margaret Fisher Fund.

The Moore Collection is a large and comprehensive group of works assembled by Barbara and Peter Moore, both of whom were intimately involved with the Fluxus movement as close friends and sometime collaborators with artist George Maciunas, the movement’s principal organizer. This intact, first-owner collection adds a crucial element to the Fogg Art Museum’s collection of postwar art and places HUAM’s Fluxus holdings among the most significant Fluxus collections in the United States.

The Barbara and Peter Moore Fluxus Collection features a remarkable range of Fluxus editions and multiples dating from the movement’s inception in the early 1960s through the late 1970s. The Moore Collection consists of 121 works, including pieces by Yoko Ono, Claes Oldenburg, George Brecht, and Christo, among many others, as well as early and rare examples of many key multiples, a number of unique and rare works, and prototypes or models for editions. Taken together, the Moore Collection constitutes a vital research tool that gives scholars a glimpse into the creative process by demonstrating through variations of the same work how the conception of each object changed over time and revealing paths not taken through editions that were planned but never realized.