S.M.S., No. 3

The S.M.S. portfolios were a collaboration between late Surrealist artists William Copley (friends with and gallerist to Dada artists Man Ray, Duchamp, Max Ernst, etc.) and Dmitri Petrov, which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press. The project involved some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and exemplified the community ethos of the 1960s. Both the Dada movement, and the Fluxus movement that followed it, did not agree with the authority of museums to determine the value of art, nor did they believe that one must be educated to view and understand a piece of art. S.M.S., or “Shit Must Stop,” bypassed traditional institutions to distribute artists’ work directly to their audience. Six portfolios containing eleven to thirteen objects were produced in editions of 2000. Ironically, today these works are highly valued and prized by museum collections.

In a reference to Duchamp’s Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q. (1919), Man Ray created The Father of the Mona Lisa, an altered print of Leonardo da Vinci in which he is smoking a cigar. This print, and much more, are some of the delightful pieces included in the third volume of S.M.S. In addition to Man Ray’s print, readers have the opportunity to browse two drawings completed on graph paper by Ronnie Landfield, in addition to works by John Battan, Terry Riley, Roland Penrose, and more. The Hirshhorn Library will be the recipient of Barbara and Aaron Levine's research collection on Marcel Duchamp, aligning the Hirshhorn as a future center for Duchamp and surrealist studies. This issue of S.M.S. fits well in the collection.