Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

The first issue of Aktualní umêní was bound with a linen book-cloth cover secured with string; the interior pages remained loose, like a portfolio. The cover bears a three-quarter portrait of a face under the deep shadow of a cowboy hat, an image likely drawn from popular depictions of the Wild West in dime novels and films. A stock renegade figure, the cowboy lives according to his own rules at the fringes of society—an appealing metaphor, perhaps, for the Aktual Group as they imagined the artist’s place in the contemporary world. Indeed the group invoked imagery from American Westerns again on the back cover of the prototype for issue 2, on which is collaged a large black-and-white photograph of cowboys staged for a shoot-out.

The cover image and title were printed as a linoleum cut, a print technique that required little specialized training and could be done inexpensively and by hand. This same image was repeated for the cover of the second issue.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

The group’s manifesto, composed in 1964, appeared in this first issue of Aktualní umêní, where it served as the magazine’s featured contents. This title page, emblazoned with the Czech term manifest in fiery red, announced the group’s statement on the following two pages.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

The manifesto declared the group’s radical approach to artistic practice, one that was based in action, provocation, and a new form of living. The phrases “total commitment” and “contemporary art” stretch across the page like banners highlighting core concepts from the manifesto. The final paragraph reads: “We are not interested in aesthetic norms that serve as a measure of perfection. We are interested in man. To overcome the indifference and emotional apathy so typical of modern mad, we will use, WE MUST USE forms that have the maximum effect.”

The main texts on these pages were printed using a spirit duplicate process, more commonly known in the United States as a “ditto.” Often used for small-run, do-it-yourself publications like fanzines, this process allowed only a limited number of copies to be made (at mediocre quality), but it was inexpensive and efficient.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

The manifesto continues on this page with several declarative statements, beginning at the top of the page: “Therefore, NATURALISM, BANALITY, MAXIMALISM, PROVOCATION, PERVERSION, etc. TO SHOCK, FASCINATE, LAY BARE THE NERVES! To convince, TO CONVINCE MAXIMALLY! AWAY WITH PLEASANT FRIVOLITY IN ART!”

Signatures of the original members of the Aktual Group—Milan Knížák, Vit Mach, Jan Trtílek, Jan Mach, and Sonia Švecová (in order of their signing)—close the manifesto, underscoring its production as a group statement.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

The Czech term my (we) opens the next section, which includes short statements by each member of the group. Švecová, for example, writes about her interest in everyday objects and their relationship to the human body, while Vit Mach, who was trained as a musician, writes about music. The very inclusion of a “we” section showcasing these independent contributions suggests the important roles played by individuals within this collective.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

This final page serves as a bookend for the manifesto within this issue, pulling out several of its key phrases and printing them all together as a designed page.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 7/8 x 1/8" (30.8 x 22.6 x 0.3 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

The cover for the second issue echoes the first, only printed on red paper this time.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Inside this issue, which also contains loose pages (some fastened together with staples or paper clips), one first encounters the irreverent declaration, “GET A CAT,” printed on a sheet overlaying a piece of fringed and burned burlap. This same statement was used by the group in its Paper Gliders event (October 1965; see folder no. 20 in the “Performance Files”), during which paper airplanes with short phrases written on each were tossed by participants from Prague Castle to passersby in Hradčany Square below.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

The burlap was burned to form a peep-hole through which one of the themes of this issue could be announced—“umení / happenings”—a combination of the Czech word for “art” and the relatively recent English term “happenings,” which was coined by Allan Kaprow in the late 1950s to describe events, situations, or performances that, while typically scripted, were nonlinear, illogical, and involved participation from viewers. The members of Aktual saw their activity as a distinct type of “happening” from the Western model, and this debate would be taken up in this issue.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

The following ten pages (some typed on blue transfer paper, some on cream) comprise a Czech translation of “The Art of the Happening,” a joint “action lecture” by Allan Kaprow and Wolf Vostell that took place at the Cricket Theater in New York on April 19, 1964. A German version of this transcript was published the following year as part of Jürgen Beck and Wolf Vostell’s book Happenings, Fluxus, Pop art, Nouveau réalisme: Eine Dokumentation (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1965), and it is likely that this Czech version was an original translation based on that German text. In the lecture, the American Kaprow and German Vostell presented their respective views on the concept of the “happening.”

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Following the translation of the Kaprow-Vostell conversation, this page—handwritten in felt-tip pen and pencil—includes a statement by Aktual distinguishing its own action-based work from the idea of the “happening” defined by the two Western artists. Knížák would later clarify this distinction in a 1966 text, in which he begins, “Thank god for the so-called Iron Curtain . . . One couldn’t see through the ‘curtain.’ But this perfect isolation meant that we did not degenerate as swiftly or as tragically as the rest of Europe.”

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Knížák’s contribution, indicated by the design using his initials (made as a diazotype, or “blueprint”), is the first in this issue’s texty (texts) section, which includes pages dedicated to individuals in the group. The contributions include descriptions of the group’s actions, independent designs, and other work.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

The final two pages of this issue include a newspaper page and a cover of the Czech journal Tvář (Face), a monthly cultural magazine in which Aktual’s manifesto had been published in early 1965. The inclusion of these clippings offers a sense of the broader media landscape within Czechoslovakia at this time, contextualizing Aktualní umêní within this frame.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm). The final two pages of this issue include a newspaper page and a cover of the Czech journal Tvář (Face), a monthly cultural magazine in which Aktual’s manifesto had been published in early 1965. The inclusion of these clippings offers a sense of the broader media landscape within Czechoslovakia at this time, contextualizing Aktualní umêní within this frame.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 x 1/4" (30.8 x 22.7 x 0.6 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

This prototype for issue 2 bears the same red cover as the finished issue, but the linocut-printed sheet was mounted on burlap (left visible along the binding and in the interior), perhaps an initial idea for including this rough, utility fabric that was ultimately incorporated as a sort of “end paper” in the first pages of the final version. The group also experimented here with binding the pages together within the cover rather than keeping them loose; while some of the pages have become detached over time, others remain affixed to the binding with string.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Following the typewritten pages with Czech translation of “The Art of the Happening,” by Allan Kaprow and Wolf Vostell, this page includes Aktual’s statement of distinction from the two artists’ platforms, here typed rather than handwritten as it is in the final publication.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Within the texty (texts) pages, several photographs of Aktual’s actions are included along with written description. Within Knížák’s section, three photographs from The Aktual Walk (1964), also known as Demonstration for All Senses (see folder no. 11 from the “Performance Files”) are inserted as pages.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Photographs from The Aktual Walk / Demonstration for All Senses appear on both sides of one page, the first featuring Vit Mach playing contrabass on the street and the second showing a group gathered around an overturned wheelbarrow left in the street, with Knížák—in hand-painted pants and custom styled shirt—approaching from the left.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Photographs from The Aktual Walk / Demonstration for All Senses appear on both sides of one page, the first featuring Vit Mach playing contrabass on the street and the second showing a group gathered around an overturned wheelbarrow left in the street, with Knížák—in hand-painted pants and custom styled shirt—approaching from the left.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

This photograph documents part of the action Demonstration of Oneself, also known as Demonstration for One (1964; see folder no. 8 in the “Performance Files”) in which the individual is to lie down in the street with a poster reading “I beg the passersby, if possible, while passing this place to crow.”

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

As Knížák and Vit Mach also do their sections, Švecová experiments with different paper types in her contribution, using pink paper for her typewritten texts.

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

Artists' magazine, overall (closed): 12 1/16 x 8 7/8 x 3/8" (30.7 x 22.5 x 1 cm).

For this prototype, the artists considered using an image for the magazine’s back cover, offering a complement to the front cover. This photograph of seven cowboys, poised as if ready for a shoot-out, may have served as a source or simply inspiration for the linocut image used on the covers.