May 16, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- Fluxus artist Geoffrey Hendricks, Amherst College '53 and professor emeritus at the Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University will sign copies of Critical Mass: Happenings, Fluxus, Performance, Intermedia and Rutgers University 1958-1972 at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College on Friday, May 30 from X p.m. until x p.m. In conjunction with the signing, the museum will present a gallery talk with Hendricks at 4:30 p.m. with a reception to follow in the museum, all free and open to the public.

Hendricks is the guest curator of the Critical Mass exhibition, which chronicles this period in paintings, drawings, photographs, texts, videos, performance scores and installations. The Rutgers group associated with Fluxus included Kaprow, Hendricks, Whitman, Samaras, Lichtenstein, Brecht and Watts. Rarely seen works by the extended circle of international Fluxus artists such as Al Hansen, Ray Johnson, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Rafael Ortiz and Carolee Schneemann are also on display.

The Hall and Kate Peterson Fund, the David S. Mesker '53 Fund and the Amherst Art Series supported the presentation of Critical Mass at the Mead Art Museum. After its premiere at the Mead Art Museum, the show will travel to the Mason Gross Art Galleries at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., and will be on exhibition there from Sept. 29 to Nov. 5.

For further information about the exhibition and related events, call the Mead Art Museum at 413/542-2235 or visit the Web site, http://www.amherst.edu/mead.

###