David Platzker on Artist Banners

Screenshot of Marian Goodman Gallery’s IG post of Night Seascape, a felt banner made in 1966 in an edition of 20 + 2 AP by The Betsy Ross Flag & Banner Company, which is on view at Independent 20th Century. At the Independent this weekend, David Platzker’s Specific Objects and Marian Goodman Gallery are showing a selection of artist banners from the Betsy Ross Flag & Banner Company. Additional banners are at the gallery in Tribeca, and there’s also a print publication where Platzker pulls together the history of the artist banner project, from a Madison Avenue art gallery’s attempt to advertise shows during the city’s newspaper strike in 1963; to an immediately successful traveling exhibition organized with the American Federation of Arts; to the founding of Multiples, Inc. to publish artist editions in non-banner formats; and eventually to Marian Goodman founding her own gallery. Roy Lichtenstein’s Night Seascape (1966) [above] is from Betsy Ross’s breakthrough era, when artists were…