Postwar Culture

Jacqueline de Jong first proposed the idea of creating an English-language periodical in 1961, while she was still an active member of the Situationist International. She had often ended up translating among the French and German speakers of the Situationist International, and evidently realized that if the group were to reach a broader international audience, they needed to disseminate their ideas in English. By the time the first issue appeared in May 1962, however, de Jong was no longer involved with the Situationist International, and as it emerged, The Situationist Times was multi-lingual rather than strictly English-language. The journal was based in Hengelo, The Netherlands, but later issues were published in Copenhagen and Paris, and released in editions of one- to two thousand.

The first issues were co-edited by Noël Arnaud, a member of Dada and Surrealist groups, as well as CoBrA, but who was also more experienced with publications than de Jong. Contributors came from a range of disciplines and nationalities, and included Belgian sculptor Pol Bury, theoretical mathematician H.C. Doets, architect David Georges Emmerich, abstract expressionist painter Gordon Fazakerly, Gruppe SPUR, German art historian Hans L. C. Jaffé, Dutch composer Peter Schat, Danish journalist Virtus Schade, Italian artist Piero Simondo, Polish architect Lech Tomaszewski, as well as Max Bucaille, a mathematics professor, poet, and Surrealist artist, and Serge Vandercam, a Belgian painter, photographer, and ceramist associated with CoBrA.

Issue 1 focuses on defending Gruppe SPUR, whom Guy Debord had expelled from the Situationist International at the same time that they were being prosecuted in Germany for “licentious” publications. This issue also includes the remnants of Mutant, a post-Situationist collaboration between Guy Debord and Asger Jorn. Issue 3, the “International British Edition,” is dedicated to “the typology of knots, “ whereas issue 4 (November 1963) deals with labyrinths and issue 5 (December 1964) takes up the theme of rings and chains. Issue 6, published December 1967, and subtitled the “International Parisian Edition,” is comprised of thirty-three lithographs, by such artists as Pierre Alechinsky, Peter Klasen, Asger Jorn, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Antonio Saura, and Jan Voss. Issue 7 was compiled around the time of the May 1968 student uprising in Paris, but was never printed, due to financial issues. The Beinecke holds the original manuscripts and maquettes for this unpublished issue.