Criss-Cross (art cooperative)

For other uses, see Criss Cross.

Criss-Cross was an artist's cooperative that formed in Colorado in the early 1970s. Having evolved out of Drop City, the 1960s artists' community, C-C focused on issues surrounding "pattern and structure" and became associated with the 70's art movement "P&D" (Pattern and Decoration).

In 1974, the five founders, Gene Bernofsky, JoAnn Bernofsky, Richard Kallweit, Charles DiJulio and Clark Richert, artists and filmmakers from Drop City, regrouped in Boulder, Colorado to start the new artist's cooperative, Criss-Cross. C-C's purpose, like Drop City's, was to function in a "synergetic" interaction between peers to create experimental artistic innovation. Between 1974 and 1980 the participants in Criss-Cross expanded to include filmmaker Fred Worden (included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial), University of Arkansas painter/printmaker Marilyn Nelson, and New York artists Gloria Klein, George Woodman and others.

• Between 1974 and 1980 published the nationally distributed avant garde art periodical "Criss-Cross Art Communications" curated national and international art exhibitions focused on "pattern and structure".
• Criss-Cross constructed the first "61-Zone System" (in collaboration with Steve Baer of ZomeWorks of Albuquerque New Mexico) at the Art Research Center in Kansas City.

Filmmakers:

• Stan Brakhage
• Kurt Kren
• Bruce Conner
• Fred Worden
• Charles DiJulio
• Gene Bernofsky
• Ken Jacobs

Artists

• Richard Kallweit
• Marilyn Nelson
• Charles DiJulio
• Clark Richert
• Dee Shapiro
• Gloria Klein
• George Woodman
• Robert Swain
• Alvin Lucier
• Joe Clower
• Margaret Neumann
• John Fudge
• Buky Schwartz
• Donald Lipski
• Bruce Pearson
• Tony Robbin

Writers

• Ed Dorn
• Sidney Goldfarb
• Jeanie Weiffenbach
• Robert Creeley
• Alan Sondheim
• Mark Blane
• Peter Frank
• Henery Korn

References

• Paint by Numbers, Michael Paglia https://den.secure.newtimes.com/issues/1997-10-09/art.html
• Flash Point, Michael Paglia (Jul 29, 1999) http://www.westword.com/issues/1999-07-29/art_2.
• Cut-Ups, Michael Paglia (Mar 17, 2005) http://music.westword.com/Issues/2005-03-17/culture/art.html