Untitled – nikhil.io

Lionel Ziprin

b. 1924, New York d. 2009, New York

Untitled, 1950s

Ink on paper

Lionel Ziprin Archive, New York

Art-historical research is central to Bove's practice. In addition to integrating the work of other artists into her own exhibitions, she at times assumes the role of curator and steward of archives. This drawing was shown in a 2013 exhibition she co-organized with the independent scholar and bookseller Philip Smith, which focused on the work of two cultural figures who have been of sustained interest to Bove - Harry Smith and Lionel Ziprin.

Ziprin was a poet and Kabbalist whose influence on the avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s is only recently being fully recovered and recognized. Working with his wife, Joanne Ziprin, from a series of apartments in New York's Lower East Side, he cultivated a vibrant creative network through experimental ventures such as Inkweed Arts, a studio that enlisted the work of artists including Harry Smith, Barbara Remington, and Jordan Belson to produce greeting cards. This drawing from the 1950s conjures a psychedelic vision, anticipating aesthetic currents that would later define aspects of the sixties counterculture—a focus of Bove's early work.