They brainstormed ways to survive as artists, where and how to show their work, and how to extend the peer-to-peer approach to art-making that they had practiced at Drop City.
As of this writing, some 53 libraries worldwide, still hold “some or a portion of copies of the journal.” (4) The Criss-Cross group also organized and participated in dozens of exhibits at galleries, art centers, and museums.
In the first issue of the magazine, the editorial group stated “We hope to promote reciprocal communications between our rotating editorial group, those who submit ideas, and subscribers.” (5) In a later issue, art critic and curator Jeanie Wieffenbach wrote: The intention of the magazine is to support and provide exposure to the best serious art being done in a region of the United States, roughly between Chicago and Los Angeles.
The focus … is grounded in the conviction that significant work is being done in this region and that it is important to take up the challenge, too long ignored, of filling that information gap.
Some names came and went, but over time the group came to typically include: filmmaker Fred Worden, painters Charles Di Julio and Clark Richert, and painter/sculptor Richard Kallweit.
Editorial meetings were lively, discussions were heated, rules were broken, deadlines were missed, and publication dates sporadic; but the journals were eventually published.
We have expanded our sense of art to include all disciplines though which abstract concepts can be perceived and expressed,” the editors wrote, adding “with the exception of poetry.” (12) Notably, poetry and poets (e.g., Robert Creeley, Ed Dorn) were featured in CCAC.
Included were members of the Criss-Cross journal’s editorial group (Worden, Di Julio, Kallweit, and Richert) as well as painters Marilyn Nelson and George Woodman, who also lived in Boulder, Colorado at that time.
As the journal gained momentum and Criss-Cross began showing their work outside of Colorado, other artists with similar aesthetic sensibilities, primarily from the New York City area, joined: Gloria Klein, Dee Shapiro, Tony Bechara, Robert Swain, Tony Robbin, Arnold Wechsler, Tom Johnson, Mario Yrisarry, and Mary Ann Unger.
The fact that artists from around the world had an opportunity to show and share their work in a nationally-distributed, professionally designed magazine or to be included in an exhibit without the judgement of critics and curators; but instead through a peer-to-peer process for inclusion turned out to be a great recruiting tool.
The presentation of art directly from artists on glossy pages that were heavily illustrated, sometimes with color reproductions, offered great appeal.
Hundreds of creatives eagerly submitted their work for publication, including Robert Janz, Richard Kostelanetz, Sue Etkin, Buky Schwartz, Phyllis Rosenblatt (from New York) and others from California (e.g., Jon Thogmartin, Craig Fuller, Elizabeth Hutchinson), Missouri (Jay Heuser, mathematician Marjorie Senechal), New Jersey, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
A handful of participants hailed from Europe: Kurt Kren from Austria, Guglielmo Achille Cavellini from Italy, and CAIRN, a cooperative gallery founded in Paris in 1976.
(21) Some of the artists involved were already well-established in the art world through fame or notoriety (e.g., Stan Brakhage, Toni Basil, Alan Sondheim, Alvin Lucier, Bruce Connor); others were what could be called “emerging artists.” To all of them, the magazine offered great exposure.
Operating like an enthusiastic “show and tell” for artists, the journal embraced not only all types of media—paintings, sculpture, weaving/fabric arts, film, photography, sound art, music, dance, short stories, poetry, mathematical musings, interviews, political narrative—but representatives from virtually every art style, trend, and movement current to the era: [Insert photo 3] Inclusivity expanded the Criss-Cross reach geographically as well, enabling Colorado artists to connect and mingle with artists particularly in New York City and other urban areas; and vice versa.
The tone ranged from serious and scholarly, e.g., “Elementarism and the Prisms of Edward Lowe” by Gordon McConnell (23) to tongue-in-cheek, e.g., filmmaker Gene Bernofsky’s manifesto on “Lunar Power” (24).
According to one reviewer, the periodical was “structured in style yet unpredictable in content, intellectual yet accessible, and experimental yet deliberate.” (25) Images were often brilliant (e.g., Di Julio’s braided wave paintings, Nelson’s vibrational, hexagonal grids, Kallweit’s colorful, fractal sculptures), intellectually engaging (e.g., Shapiro’s explorations of the Fibonacci Progression, Richert’s illusionistic depictions of the structure of space) or visually provocative (e.g., Klein’s obsessively organized grid system, Bruce Connor’s stark photos of punk bands in San Francisco’s bay area).
Of course, the steady drumbeat of geometry and pattern continued throughout each published issue, with the members of the editorial group regularly featuring their own work, alongside like-minded artists.
The work of the Criss-Cross group is marked by a vivid appreciation that certain orders of visual form can be realized only through the understanding and control of complete systems.
One might say that CCAC went out with a “visual bang.” In their introductory remarks for the exhibit, curator Christopher Warren and director Donna M. Forbes aptly described the group: Just as contemporary science finds itself intrigued with underlying organization of nature—its patterned arrangements and principles of structure—these artists make visible an aspect of reality which transcends the world of appearance and the confinement of emotion and personal expressions.
Criss-Crossers stayed in touch through letters and phone conversations; and they continued to exhibit their work and meet occasionally during the years that followed, usually in Colorado or New York.
This was followed by an exhibit at Rule Gallery in Marfa, Texas, “In Proximity,” that featured work from 3 members of the editorial group--Richert, Di Julio and Kallweit.
The participating artists moved down their separate career paths—some becoming nationally and internationally renowned (e.g., Mary Ann Unger, Dee Shapiro, George Woodman, and John DeAndrea) and many leading highly successful careers (e.g., Clark Richert, Marilyn Nelson, Gloria Klein, Fred Worden), and many will likely be discovered and re-discovered in years to come.
In the end, it can be said that Criss-Cross brought together artists of diverse backgrounds, ages, and styles to participate in one of the most reflective and meaningful art conversations of the times.