It will be another two years until Artforum turns 50, but someone posted this shot of an original June 1962  copy on my facebook wall and I thought it was worth sharing.

photo c Simon Summerfield

Here’s a passage from senior editor Eric Banks’ reflection on the inaugural issue:

“ARTFORUM IS AN ART MAGAZINE published in the west–but not only a magazine of western art. We are concerned first with western activity but claim the world of art as our domain.” With this declaration of manifest destiny and a blurry, mysterious, uncaptioned cover image–a shadowy Jean Tinguely thingamajig that looks like a Jurassic Park escapee in repose–Artforum came into being in June 1962 with a forty-six-page issue weighted heavily toward exhibition reviews, which bookended a feature section titled “Forum.” The design was a bit quirky– heavy-stock burnt orange dividers literally segregate the parts of the magazine–but the Pisani Printing Company’s foray into art publishing had begun.