Wallace Berman: Off the Grid

Wallace Berman (1926–76) was a notorious guru of the 1960s art pantheon. Often cited as a West Coast Beat Generation artist who rubbed elbows with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper and the Rolling Stones, his contributions transcend the comparisons of his aesthetic and the associations that he kept. A self-taught artist, Berman was influenced by Surrealism, Dadaism and the Kabbalah, as well as jazz music and the mystical symbols and popular imagery of his time. Berman is best known for his signature motif, which comes from a reappropriated Sony advertisement picturing a hand holding a transistor radio, which he found in 1964. By removing the speaker grill and inserting random appropriated images, the hand shuffles up messages that appear to spring out of the ether. His early use of the gridding technique creates a visual cacophony that barrages the senses. Off the Grid follows the eponymous 2021 show at TOTAH, a rare East Coast exhibition of Berman’s work, which included a screening of his rare short film Aleph (1956-66), followed by a discussion between Tosh Berman (Wallace Berman’s son) and Andrew Lampert, moderated by poet Anne Waldman. A partial transcript of this conversation is included in the publication.