ASPEN MAGAZINE 3
The Pop Art Issue

Andy Warhol and David Dalton (designers)

Phyllis Johnson (editor): ASPEN MAGAZINE Number 3 - The Pop Art Issue. New York: Roaring Fork Press, 1966. First edition. A near-fine copy of the third issue of Aspen: the four corners of the box all display minor wear and splitting along the folds. Dark blue inked area of box shows very faint scuffs. Box contents are fine and appear to be unhandled. See contents listed below. Very uncommon thus.

ASPEN No. 3 was designed by Andy Warhol and David Dalton.

For the uninitiated, ASPEN called itself a multimedia magazine of the arts and was originally published from 1965 to 1971. Each issue of Aspen was delivered to subscribers in a box, which contained a variety of media: printed matter in different formats, phonograph recordings, and even a reel of Super-8 film.

Aspen was conceived by Phyllis Johnson, a former editor for Women's Wear Daily and Advertising Age. While wintering in Aspen, Colorado, she got the idea for a multimedia magazine, designed by artists, that would showcase "culture along with play." So in the winter of 1965, she published her first issue. "We wanted to get away from the bound magazine format, which is really quite restrictive," said Johnson. Each issue had a new designer and editor. "Aspen," Johnson said, "should be a time capsule of a certain period, point of view, or person." The subject matter of issue number 1 and issue number 2 stayed close to the magazine's namesake ski spa, with features on Aspen's film and music festivals, skiing, mountain wildlife, and local architecture.

If Aspen was an art director's dream, it was also an advertiser's nightmare. The ads, stashed at the bottom of the box, were easily ignored. And although Aspen was supposed to publish quarterly, in reality the publication date of each issue was as much of a surprise as the contents. "All the artists are such shadowy characters," publisher Johnson said, "that it takes months to track them down." After issue 5+6, there were no more ads in the magazine.

Perhaps Aspen was a folly, but it was a vastly pleasurable one, with a significant place in art history. The list of contributors included some of the most interesting artists of the 20th Century. And as an examplar of creative publishing, Aspen was a wonder. Its contents, however, are all but lost: few copies of Aspen have survived. Here is the desirable third issue in a remarkably preserved state.

ASPEN No. 3: The Pop Art Issue Contents: Eleven items, all but two of them numbered (items 9 and 10 unnumbered in the original), plus loose advertisements. Designed by Andy Warhol and David Dalton. Published December 1966 by Roaring Fork Press, NYC.

1. Box: Hinged box, 9-1/2 by 12-1/2 by 3/4 inches. Imitates a brand-name detergent box on front and back. An ad for Verve Records is printed inside the bottom. Contains sections 2 through 11, and ads.

2. Music, Man, That's Where It's At. Folder, enclosing items 3 through 6; resembles a contemporary press kit for a rock and roll band.

3. The View from the Bandstand: Life Among the Poobahs. The Velvet Underground's Lou Reed on rock and roll music.

4. The View from the Critic's Desk: Orpheus Plugs In. New York Times critic Robert Shelton on rock and roll music.

5. The View from the Dance Floor: "...it's - the - on-ly - ra-dio - sta-tion / that's - ne-ver - off - the - air." Bob Chamberlain on rock and roll music.

6. Phonograph recording. Peter Walker / John Cale. Side A: White Wind by Peter Walker, musical director for Tim Leary's touring psychedelic celebration. Side B: Loop by John Cale, of the Velvet Underground. Loop is a clever exercise for guitar and feedback that curves back on itself in two ways: the final groove in the record is continuous, repeating endlessly, and if you restart the recording you will find that the closing, endlessly repeating riff leads off the record too.

7. Homeward Bound: The Rand House. Profile of a rustic, owner-built home, and its residents, by Bob Chamberlain.

8. Twelve Paintings from the Powers' Collection. Twelve cards reproducing artworks in the collection of Thomas Powers, annotated with comments by the artists and the collector. The cards: James Rosenquist: Lanai; Bridget Riley: Intake; Gerald Laing: AA-D; Roy Lichtenstein: Varoom; Kenneth Noland: Mach II; Andy Warhol: .200 Campbell Soup Cans; Claes Oldenburg: Ghost Telephone; Larry Poons: Reuben (As the Mississippi Flows Down to the Sea); Jasper Johns: Black Map; William de Kooning: Woman; Charles Hinman: Vertical Waves; and Ernest Trova: Wheel Men.

9. Underground movie Flip Book. Snippets from Jack Smith's Buzzards Over Bagdad and Andy Warhol's Kiss.

10. Ten Trip Ticket Book. Resembling a book of tickets, excerpts from fourteen papers presented at the Berkeley Conference on LSD. Contents: Users and Abusers of LSD: Richard Blum; We Are All One: USCO; Adverse Reactions to LSD: William Frosch; A Descriptive Approach to the Psychedelic Experience: Rolf von Eckartsberg; Stability and Change in Human Intelligence and Consciousness: Frank Barron; LSD: Implications for Law Enforcement: Joseph D. Lohman; The Role of Psychedelics in Shamanism, Witchcraft, and the Vision Quest: Michael Harner; LSD and the Art of Conscious Living: Richard Alpert; LSD and the Dying Patient: Eric Kast; LSD Therapy of Alcoholism: Abram Hoffer; The Significance of Artificially Induced Religious Experience: Huston Smith; Therapeutic Uses of Ibogaine: Claudio Naranjo; The Myth About Psychedelic Drugs: Paul Lee; The Molecular Revolution: Timothy Leary.

11. The Plastic Exploding Inevitable. The Warhol Factory's one-shot underground newspaper. Includes: The Silver Scum, Ronald Tavel, The Terror and Desperation of Chelsea Girls Is a Holy Terror, Jonas Mekas, Slum Goddess, East Village Other, Hustling for Army Health Razor Blades & Bomb, Drop Yuk Yuk, Gerard Malanga, Allen Ginsberg on political action, East Village Other, Bobby, and Barbie and Ken in the Cat's Pink Mouth, Patricia Oberhaus, EVO Freakout, John Wilcock, What Is Joint Art?, LA Free Press.

12. Advertisements, loose sheets. (5 items): Includes a black and white sheet for Paraphernalia; a black, red and white sheet for Guild Musical Instruments; advertisement Vanguard Records; a poster for Fladell, Winston, Pennette; and subscription form for Aspen, folds to make its envelope.

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