 Cover of Esopus 24 | |
| Frequency | Annual |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Esopus Foundation Ltd. |
| Founder | Tod Lippy |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Final issue | Fall 2018 |
| Country | USA |
| Based in | Brooklyn, NY |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 1545-9306 |
Esopus was aBrooklyn, New York–based annual arts and culture publication founded byTod Lippy in 2003 and published by theEsopus Foundation Ltd., a501(c)(3)non-profit organization.[1] Originally a semiannual publication, it switched to an annual format in 2013.Esopus featured content from a wide variety of creative disciplines, including artists' projects, critical writing, fiction, poetry, visual essays, interviews, and music—all presented in an unmediated format, with minimal editorial framing and no advertising. It ceased publication in Fall 2018.
The primary objective ofEsopus was to give artists a noncommercial forum in which to publish their work, while simultaneously offering readers the opportunity to access a wide range of cultural expression. Each issue ofEsopus featured six long-form artists' projects, commissioned from well-known figures such asEdward Ruscha,Jenny Holzer,Anish Kapoor, andMickalene Thomas, as well as from emerging artists. These projects have taken the form of removable posters, booklets, inserts, and pop-up sculptures, and are often printed using specialty inks, varnishes, and paper stocks.Esopus partnered with institutions such as TheMuseum of Modern Art Archives, theMagnum Photos Archive, and theNew York Public Library to present continuing series that reproduce never-before-seen archival materials, oftenin facsimile. Contents also regularly include essays on process by creative professionals such asMad Men creatorMatthew Weiner, choreographerChristopher Wheeldon, translatorAnn Goldstein and cruciverbalist David Quarfoot.Esopus has featured essays byKarl Ove Knausgaard andFrancine Prose; scripts byStephen Adly Guirgis,Christopher Durang, andHampton Fancher; and fiction by a dozen previously unpublished authors (many of whom, such as Vivien Shotwell and Stuart Nadler, have gone on to publish novels with major houses).
Other contents included portfolios debuting the work of undiscovered artists such as Mark Hogancamp,[2] Alex Masket, and Samuel Varkovitsky; commentary by museum guards about the artworks they oversee; a series called "100 Frames" that features still images from films byChantal Akerman,Claire Denis,Charles Burnett,David Lynch, and many others; and a CD of new music in every issue commissioned according to a particular theme. Past contributors toEsopus CDs includedJens Lekman,Grizzly Bear,Neko Case,Kimya Dawson,Kate Pierson,Cloud Nothings,Busdriver, andRyan Adams.
In June 2009, a capacity-building grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts enabled the Esopus Foundation to move into a combined office and exhibition space in New York's Greenwich Village called Esopus Space. Over the course of three years, Tod Lippy curated 18 exhibitions and programmed 30 events in the space. Exhibitions included"Ray and Bob Box","Picturing Marwencol: Photographs by Mark Hogancamp", and"Bryan Nash Gill: What Was Will Be Again"; and events ranged from concerts bySam Amidon andNina Nastasia to a screening with the late experimental filmmakerPeter Hutton. Since its founding,Esopus has regularly programmed events with institutional partners such as theNew York Public Library, theMuseum of the Moving Image ([1],[2],[3]), andThe Kitchen[4]. Lippy has curatedEsopus-related exhibitions atWhite Columns, including thefirst public exhibition of the work of Mark Hogancamp, andPioneer Works .
Esopus was called "a thing of lavish, eccentric beauty, less flipped through than stared at, forcing readers to reconcile their expectations of what a magazine is with the strange artifact in their laps," byThe New York Times'sDavid Carr.[3] Design critic and historianSteven Heller claimedEsopus "stands along with Dave Eggers'McSweeney's for its driving cultural significance" on theatlantic.com,[4] andARTNews editor Andrew Russeth stated, "Once a year, a truly beautiful thing occurs in the bookstores of all 50 United States: new copies ofEsopus arrive.Esopus is a freewheeling treasure trove of a book, sumptuously designed and filled with often-elaborate projects by artists, writers, and others, as well as the results of deep dives into tantalizing archives."[5] In the December 2018 issue ofArtforum, artistKerry James Marshall wrote, "Esopus was the best and most extravagant platform for artists’ projects that I knew of. There seemed to be no restrictions on what it was willing to do, and the results were of the highest quality."[6]Esopus received Specific Object's "Publication of the Year" award in2007, and it was the subject of dedicated exhibitions atde Appel Art Center, Amsterdam, in 2016[5] andNasher Sculpture Center in Dallas in 2017.[6].
In the fall of 2018,Esopus editor Tod Lippyannounced that the Esopus Foundation would be suspending publication ofEsopus after 25 issues. The Foundation continues to publish books and limited editions and program free events throughout New York City with longtime institutional partners including theMuseum of Modern Art, theMuseum of the Moving Image,The Kitchen, andPioneer Works. Since 2019, it has actively pursued the donation/distribution of all available back issues to underserved public, community, and prison libraries throughout the U.S.
In 2019, the Esopus Foundation announced the formation of Esopus Books, an imprint focused on publishing artist monographs, art catalogs, and other publications. Its first book wasNeil Goldberg: Other People's Prescriptions, which was launched atMoMA PS1 in April 2019. In May 2020, Esopus Books publishedModern Artifacts, which featured all 18 installments of the eponymous series that appeared in issues ofEsopus from 2006 to 2019. The volume appeared on "best of the year" lists fromThe New York Times,[7] TheLos Angeles Times,[8] TheBrooklyn Rail, andNew York magazine, whose critic,Jerry Saltz, called the book "Incredible...a new scriptorium of art."[9]The Esopus Reader, a hardback anthology of written contributions toEsopus, appeared in February 2022 to critical acclaim.[7]