Matt Mullican papers, circa 1968-2017

Over 100 notebooks document nearly five decades of Mullican's work process, dating from circa 1968-2017. Central to Mullican's practice from the time he was a student up until the present, the notebooks richly illustrate both his material and conceptual exploration. The term 'notebook' is used here to encompass the breadth of content collected in the books, including drawings and sketches, conceptual frameworks, notes, lists, calendars, travel logistics, as well as diary entries. In most cases, Mullican created titles for the notebooks in retrospect. Early subjects tackled as a high school student (including comics, superheroes, and cars) evolve during his time at CalArts and beyond to form the basis of his text-based, conceptual, performance works. The 1970s notebooks demonstrate the development of Mullican's cosmology, the stick figure 'Glen,' and his alter ego 'That Person.' Notebooks from the 1980s-2000s contain plans for public artworks, commissions, exhibition installations, and books. Mullican experimented with a variety of media and techniques throughout the notebooks including pencil, pen, marker, crayon, acetone transfer, and collage. Mullican has identified a few of the notebooks as single works of art, including artist books and altered books. Also arranged here are a diary from 1975 and an undated collection of watercolor studies.

This series has been digitized.