Aspen Magazine: 1965-1971

Aspen, Vol. 1, no. 1 (1965), Edited by Phillis Johnson, designed by George Lois, Tom Courtos, and Ralph Tuzzo © Aspen Magazine / The authors, Victoria and Albert Museum and Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)

Aspen Magazine: 1965-1971 is an exhibition dedicated to Aspen, the influential 1960s magazine. Aspen featured contributions by prolific artists, musicians and writers including Peter Blake, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Ossie Clark, Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney, John Lennon, Lou Reed and Yoko Ono.

Issued in a box, Aspen was one of the first multi-media magazines and became a time capsule of the period. Contributions included a Pop Art detergent box cover by Andy Warhol and David Dalton, a diary by John Lennon and a sewing pattern by Ossie Clark . Each distinctive issue had a different editor and designer who took complete control of the magazine. Aspen included posters, booklets, reels of Super 8 film, flexi discs, original artworks and phonographic recordings.

Aspen was conceived by Phyllis Johnson, a former editor for Women’s Wear Daily and Advertising Age, in New York and was inspired by Aspen, Colorado, a popular ski resort in the 1960s. While the first issue started with subject matter closely linked to the resort, it evolved into a document which captured the major artistic movements of the time.

The final issue of Aspen was published in 1971 and despite the short period in which it was published, the magazine paved the way for the future of art publishing with its ground breaking format. Alongside Aspen, a range of artist magazines from the 1960s to the present day will be shown.

September 11 – March 3, 2013
Whitechapel Gallery, London