Jan Tumlir is an art writer, teacher, and curator who lives in Los Angeles. He is a founding editor of the local art journal X-TRA and a regular contributor to Artforum. He has written catalogue essays for such artists as Bas Jan Ader, Uta Barth, John Divola, Cyprien Gaillard, and James Welling. Books include: LA Artland, a survey of contemporary art in Los Angeles co-written with Chris Kraus and Jane McFadden (Black Dog Press, 2005; Hyenas Are…, a monograph on the work of Matthew Brannon (Mousse, 2011); and The Magic Circle: On The Beatles, Pop Art, Art-Rock and Records (Onomatopee, 2015). In addition to serving as an MFA advisor at Art Center, Tumlir is a visiting faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. Past teaching appointments have brought him to UCLA, USC, CalArts, and Otis College of Art and Design. Tumlir’s last curatorial project, Some Lifestyle Options, was built around the work of Judy Fiskin and exhibited at Richard Telles Fine Art in 2016.
Allen Ruppersberg: The Torn-Apart Book
In 1978, Allen Ruppersberg offered his friends a chance to be in a novel he aimed to write: $300 would buy a “leading character,” $150 a “major character,” and so on. As the work progressed, he had the Colby poster company make posters listing the names of those who had signed up for the project, which served as gifts to his donors, coming attractions–type announcements, and works of art in their own right. The novel was never written, but as Jan Tumlir writes, “something clicked,” and from this point on the iconic Colby posters became a regular feature in his work.