Geoffrey Hendricks (1931-2018) was a boundary-breaking artist who blended a reverence for craft with avant garde, conceptual explorations. Hendricks was given the moniker “Cloudsmith” for his enduring attention to the sky. He painted clouds at all times of day and in various media – watercolor on paper and acrylic on canvas, as well as on everyday objects (from pillow cases to a Volkswagen Beetle, to his own body). Drawing from his Quaker upbringing, his observations of nature, his interest in the I Ching, Buddhism, journaling of his dreams, Hendricks’ art is a lifelong meditation on impermanence, desire and potential transcendence. Hendricks was deeply involved with the Fluxus movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and continued to organize Flux events into later decades. Perhaps his most famous piece was the Flux Divorce he performed in 1971 with his then-wife and collaborator Bici Forbes (aka Nye Ffarrabas). A leader in the queer community, Hendricks helped found the Archive Project of Visual AIDS in the 1980s, and worked collaboratively at different times with partners Stephen Varble, Brian Buczak, and Sur Rodney (Sur). He was a professor of art at Rutgers University over four decades and mentored countless young artists. In his own work, Hendricks frequently gathered objects from nature and his surroundings to create energized installations for creativity and thought. Old barn ladders and chairs, roofing slates and laundry lines, fallen leaves and rocks all became talismanic props to be activated in his work.
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klausgallery.cloud
Art Basel Miami Beach
Edition No.21 of KLAUSGALLERY.CLOUD catalogs the Klaus Gallery booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, featuring artworks by Geoffrey Hendrick.
Catalog
Geoffrey Hendricks
A catalog published on the occasion of Geoffrey Hendricks’ 2022 solo show Berlin Sky Drawings.
Essay
The Spectacle of Privacy: Geoffrey Hendricks’s Ring Piece and the Ambivalence of Queer Visibility
David J. Getsy discusses Geoffrey Hendricks’ Ring Piece through a critical queer lens.
obituary
Geoffrey Hendricks’ Obituary in the New York Times
A 2018 account of Hendricks’ life by Neil Genzlinger.
Review
Wedding in Denmark
“When Johnston and Nyeboe wed, same-sex partnership had been legal in Denmark for four years. Their avant-garde nuptials, however, were anything but commonplace. Performed by Geoff Hendricks in the context of his exhibition Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense, the festivities featured a cacophonous Fluxprocession with a drag queen, an experimental score by fellow Fluxist Ben Patterson, and plenty of blue body paint. Johnston’s account, reproduced below, features a lively play-by-play of the joyous occasion.”
