About

 About the George Cup Research Center

Mission

The George Cup & Steve Elliott Research Center was foundet in 2006. The Research Center is bringing back the art of this outstanding artist duo to public notion. The Research Center has collected roughly 1200 letters, photographs, diaries, sketches, scrapbooks, business records and other documentation that supports the study of the history of George Cup & Steve Elliot in America and Germany. To illuminate the history of George Cup & Steve Elliot through collecting, preserving, and making available for study the documentation. To bring new aspects and information about the life and work of this importend artist duo of the american minimalist art that was long hidden in public notion.  

History

In 2008 the work of George Cup & Steve Elliott will be presented for the first time in two exhibitions in Germany taking place in the cities of the artists births. Opening in September at the Kunstverein Wolfsburg, formerly Heßlingen, birthplace of George Cup (born, Georg Anton Kapp * 1930 - 2008) the work will travel to the Städtische Gallery Nordhorn, birthplace of Steve Elliott (born, Stephane Berliott *1933 -1986). The retrospectives recall the work and lives of these two artists. Both emigrated to the USA with their families during the second world war and met as students at the Art Students League of New York. They remained connected for over 27 years though Elliot's life was cut tragically short and Cup's dramatically altered. After serving nearly 20 years in a New York State prison charged with the murder of Steve Elliott in 1986, Goerge Cup was exonerated and released in january 2007.

The contribution of their work to the minimalist art movement of the 1960´s and late 1970´s was towards objectivity, schematic neatness, logic and a non personal position that evolved in the later years to include a more expansive position towards representational forms. Typical for their sculptures, objects and installations was a synoptic form of reduction and a serial repetition of primary structures. With their own rules for opposite subjects operating in terms of beginning and ending, emptiness and affluence, etc., they created a body of work beside other minimalist artists of the time such as Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Ronald Bladen and Tony Smith.         

The extensive collection overseen by The George Cup & Steve Elliott Research Center includes over 1200 works including illustrated letters and diaries; manuscripts; photographs and works of art on paper, films and sculptures. A recorded interview program serves as a valuable companion resource to the collection. Currently the collection and recorded interviews are being placed online and will provide unprecedented access to this vast archive.

© George Cup & Steve Elliot Research Center  2006 - 2007