S.M.S.: An Archive of the 60s

S.M.S., the abbreviation for Shit Must Stop was a limited-edition series of work created in 1968 by over eighty artists, including Yoko Ono, Joseph Kosuth, Meret Oppenheim, John Cage, Claes Oldenberg, and Marcel Duchamp. Using a variety of media, these boxed collections were mailed to subscribers every other month beginning in February 1968, with the objective of creating a personal experience with the objects. The collection of the University Art Museum (UAM) at CSULB contains all six mailings from the series. This seminal body of work embodies the dissention of the art world during a time in the late 1960s when cultural norms were being challenged and razed (destroyed/ broken don). Collectively, the works symbolize a monumental shift in thought—a reifi cation of concepts. S.M.S. represented a route that diverged sharply from the authority of the institution, furthering the notion that art was to be experienced rather than worshiped.