Open het graf (1962) Poster

Melvin Clay, Frank Stern & Simon Vinkenoog - Open het graf. Poster for happening Open het graf (Open the grave). The happening took place Rik Van Bentum's studio in Amsterdam on December 9, 1962.

Overall condition: Good.
Poster 1st Edition 1st Printing. Publisher: , Amsterdam. Year: 1962.
Size: 57.5 x 40.5 Cm.. Pages: 1. Language: Dutch & English. Seller inventory: #26421.

Background information

Open het Graf (Open the Grave) was the first happening that took place in Amsterdam. The happening on December 9, 1962 was organized by Melvin Clay, Frank Stern and Simon Vinkenoog at the workshop of Rik van Bentum at the Prinsengracht 146, Amsterdam. The happening was “A homage (sic) to the dead, a warning to the living”. The name of the happening is a persiflage on "Open het Dorp" (Open the Village), the first major, 24 hours, fund raiser on Dutch television, presented by Mies Bouwman, for a residential community neighborhood and care institution for the disabled, and the funeral of princess (former queen) Wilhelmina.

A poster (only 400 copies) and a program (only 50 copies) were published for the happening. Contributors to the program were Simon Vinkenoog, Rik van Bentum, Melvin Clay, Jan Cremer, Robert Jasper Grootveld, Bart Huges, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Jean-Pierre Moulin, Frank Stern, Mike Lorsch and Cornelis Bastiaan Vaandrager. Other handlangers (accomplices) mentioned on the poster, but not all present, were Allen Ginsberg, Hans Verhagen, Anton Kothuis, Johnny van Doorn, Neal Simon, Ilse, Vince Taylor, Donald Jones, Lucia, Maxim Hamel, Brigitte Bardot, Steve Davidson, Tony Negenman, Hans Sleutelaar, Ingrid Valerius, Danielle Hessing, Alexander, Jetty, Tanja and Hans Sleutelaar.

The program contains the first appearance of the Provo symbol (apple with stalk and dot), the Gnot apple. Gnot being a composition of God and Genot (God and Pleasure), designed and developed by Robert Jasper Grootveld and Bart Huges.

Ref: Wim Beeren et al. (Eds.; 1979) Actie, werkelijkheid en fictie in de kunst van de jaren ’60 in Nederland (Staatsuitgeverij, The Hague & Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam) pp. 54-58; Patrick Bakkenes (2019) Kantelaars van de Sixties. Twaalf interviews over de erfenis van een tijdperk. pp. 20 (In de Knipscheer, Haarlem); Stefan Wouters (2016) Vluchtigheid en verzet. Sporen van het internationaal happeninggebeuren in België (VUBPRESS, Brussels) pp. 17-25.