Henry Martin: An Active Ear—Selected Writings, Conversations, and Correspondences

Magazzino Italian Art, in collaboration with The Emily Harvey Foundation, hosted the book launch for Henry Martin: An Active Ear—Selected Writings, Conversations, and Correspondences, the first publication dedicated to the work of the writer, critic, curator, and translator Henry Martin (Philadelphia, US 1942–South Tyrol, Italy 2022). Curator and book editor Emanuele Guidi will offer a presentation on the new publication at The Emily Harvey Foundation in New York.

Guidi gathered the texts and documents published in Henry Martin: An Active Ear from Martin’s archive, conserved at the Archiv der Avantgarden—Egidio Marzona in Dresden. The book includes selected articles, essays, conversations, and personal correspondence from 1965 until Martin’s death in 2022 that reveal his contributions to and influence on Italian, European, and US cultural and artistic movements, including Fluxus, Mail Art, Concrete Poetry, Arte Povera and Conceptual Art.

The project maps Martin’s experiences: his lifelong friendships with a variety of artists and intellectuals, his practice as a translator, and his decision to leave the main centers of contemporary art and move permanently to the Italian Alps in 1971, presenting his life and work from a contemporary perspective at the intersection of ecology and a sustainable working culture.