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Robert Rauschenberg's Currents debuted in spring 1970 at Dayton's Gallery 12 on the twelfth floor of Dayton's department store in Minneapolis. When the show opened, John Stoller was the assistant director of Gallery 12; he went on to become director in 1971 and ran the gallery until it closed in 1975. Over its more than 10-year history, Gallery 12 developed a reputation for showing cutting-edge contemporary art. The Minneapolis Tribune called it "a major international art gallery."
After Gallery 12 closed, Stoller opened a private gallery, John C. Stoller and Company, in downtown Minneapolis. He retired in 1994 and now lives in England with his wife.
The Weisman recently spoke with Stoller about Rauschenberg, Currents, and the Minneapolis art scene in the 1960s and 70s.
WAM: Talk about the history of Gallery 12.
John Stoller: [Dayton's CEO and philanthropist] Bruce Dayton was the inspiration for the entire thing. He felt that it would be a good idea to have a major gallery in Minneapolis. Dayton's was a very special department store. It had within it already some world-renowned departments, like the Oval Room. There was a big space on the top floor, opposite the restaurant, which became the gallery. Bruce hired Felice Wender as director. She had been running a gallery out of her home in Minneapolis, so Gallery 12 was for her a great learning curve. She was all of a sudden in a new league. She was self-taught and went by the seat of her pants. She was energetic, imaginative, and very smart. I entered the picture in 1967 when Felice hired me as assistant director of Gallery 12.
WAM: How did the Currents project with Robert Rauschenberg come about?
J.S.: Through a series of circumstances, Felice Wender was pushed toward [New York gallery owner] Leo Castelli, who in those days was a kind of king of the contemporary art scene in New York. Leo was this great force but also this enormously charming and very cooperative sort of creature. He wanted his artists' work seen; he wanted it exposed.
Felice and Leo and I visited Universal Limited Art Editions on Long Island in the late 1960s. Bob Rauschenberg happened to be working there when we visited. We got to know him and a relationship started. There began this discussion of an exhibition at Gallery 12 and we went from there. Rauschenberg did everything on a very big scale. We all flew out to LA to see what was he was working on--and he had created a monster. The quantity was enormous. There were hundreds and hundreds of prints. No one put any brakes on Bob. The work was obviously very current. It made people hyper-aware of the situation in the country at the time.
WAM: What was the exhibition opening like?
J.S.: It was madness. You couldn't get through the door. We used the inside of the gallery and the outside. It was hung floor to ceiling, and it was fantastic. It was a real tour de force. Every student from the Twin Cities came running-Rauschenberg was quite a cult figure. It was a mob scene. Rauschenberg, unfortunately, spent most of his time hiding in the storage room because he was being mobbed. He had an enormous charisma-he was like a rock star. He was bigger than life.
WAM: How did people react to the work in Currents?
J.S.: People were taken by the work, but it was difficult for people to take those images and put them on their walls. It wasn't saleable. Rauschenberg hadn't relieved any of the images with color. He didn't want to interfere with the impact. He was the type of person who took these social issues very, very seriously. He was the most remarkable, extraordinary man. He spoke poetry. He was the greatest artist I have ever met in my life.
The 1960s were an enormously exciting period in American art. You had all of these major artists emerging at one time. The air was filled with a kind of euphoria about the greatness of American art. The pulse of the art world was palpable.
WAM: Do you think the work has a renewed or particular resonance today?
J.S.: Enormously. Look at those images! Think of things going on today--the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The conditions for certain people aren't that different than they were in 1970-the huge gap that's developed between the rich and the poor. When you think of the importance of the media today, the flash of images, and then you look at Currents--it's almost like what you see on TV now. [Rauschenberg] was so ahead of his time. The work is still extremely relevant.
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