“The Dumb Ox, ‘an intermittently published paper of the arts,’ was founded by James Hugunin and Theron Kelley. Fresh out of graduate school, the two editors were ‘very dissatisfied with the Los Angeles art/photography scene and wanted to put forth an alternative critical voice that would also provide exposure for many artists we felt were being marginalized (especially conceptually oriented artists) by the art establishment in LA’. The magazine’s title referred to the nickname of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose large, slow demeanor belied his genius (it was also a nod to Michael Andre’s important art and poetry journal Unmuzzled Ox. discussed below). The editors wrote in the first issue, ‘Why The Dumb Ox? We have no axe to grind, only an ox to feed. We are looking for contributions from all varieties of talents. Send us articles and/or artworks so we may satisfy the hunger of our ravenous beast. The Dumb Ox enjoys grazing on a myriad of disciplines, loves to ruminate on problems tangential to the various arts. He has been known to severely gore all the ineptitudes found in the status quo!” The magazine published articles, reviews, and interviews, and maintained a humorous, irreverent tone, when the curator Maurice Tuchman was too busy to grant an interview, the editors published a 'Do-It-Yourself Interview’ consisting of the questions they had wanted to ask him with spaces where readers could fill in their own answers. The Dumb Ox, which had a print run of 1,500 at its peak, began as a tabloid and changed to a magazine format with issue 4. Notable issues included no. 4 on artists’ books and no. 10/11, which was guest-edited and designed by Paul McCarthy and Allan Kaprow. with contributions from McCarthy, Kaprow, Max Neuhaus, Carolee Schneemann, Wolf Vostell, Michael Kirby, Otto Muehl, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and Linda Burnham.“ - Artists’ Magazines: An Alternative Place for Art by Gwen Allen.
From the library of writer and critic Edit DeAk.