Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art Finding aid prepared by Diana Bowers This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit March 05, 2014 Describing Archives: A Content Standard Ray Johnson Estate March 2014 34 East 69th Street New York, NY, 10021 (212) 628-0700 [email protected] Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art Table of Contents Summary Information ................................................................................................................................. 3 Biographical Note.......................................................................................................................................... 4 Scope and Contents Note.............................................................................................................................. 4 Administrative Information .........................................................................................................................5 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................6 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 15 - Page 2 - Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art Summary Information Repository Ray Johnson Estate Title Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art Date [inclusive] 1965-1991 Extent 1.29 Linear feet - 1 carton and one document box. Language English Abstract The collection contains envelopes and mail art from the home of Ray Johnson. The collection is arranged primarily by correspondent name. Johnson's correspondents range from high-profile celebrities of the art world to obscure or unknown figures in a vast international network of mail artists. The collection dates from 1965-1991 and includes envelopes both with and without contents as well as some loose mail art unassociated with an envelope. Preferred Citation Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art: Boxes 46, 47, & 147, 1965-1991. Ray Johnson Estate, Richard L. Feigen & Co. - Page 3 - Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art Biographical Note Ray Johnson, collage artist, performance artist and pioneer mail artist, was born in 1927. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Johnson studied drawing and graphic design at Cass Technical High School from 1942-1944. He attended Black Mountain College (BMC) from 1945-1948 and studied under Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lyonel Feininger, Alvin Lustig, Robert Motherwell and Paul Rand. In 1949, Johnson moved to New York City with BMC colleagues Richard Lippold and John Cage. Throughout the early 1950s, Johnson painted geometric abstractions and exhibited with the American Abstract Artists group. Around 1952, Johnson began working in collage, which quickly became his primary medium; he combined drawings, poetic texts, glyphs and Pop imagery cut-outs. Johnson stated that he did not create pop art, but rather ''chop art.'' In the late 1950s, Johnson supplemented his work in collage with mail art, i.e. he sent drawings, texts, xerographic copies and ephemera, to an international network of recipients. Johnson labeled this network The New York Correspondance [sic] School, and often encouraged his recipients to alter his mailings with the phrase, ''Please add to and return to Ray Johnson.'' Continuing this practice into the 1990s, Johnson amassed a large collection of mail art materials that he had sent and received over the years. These consist not only of textual materials such as magazine cutouts, collages, xeroxes and letters but also envelopes containing hair, dead insects, condoms, and more. Ray's correspondents represent not only the elite of the late 20th century art world but also numerous obscure or unknown personalities around the world. The collection represented here is a mere fraction of the mail art materials contained in the Ray Johnson Estate. In 1965, Grace Glueck, art critic for The New York Times, labeled Johnson as ''New York’s most famous unknown artist.'' Although Johnson stood at the heart of a vast network of active mail artists, he lived and worked reclusively. He was a prolific and dynamic collage artist, but he refused to exhibit with commercial galleries after 1978. Johnson remained both ''famous'' and ''unknown'' for the duration of his career. He committed suicide on January 13, 1995. Scope and Contents Note The collection contains envelopes and mail art exchanged between Ray Johnson and his vast network of friends, acquaintances, and correspondents. The collection is housed in two boxes (#s 46 and 47) and is arranged primarily by name of correspondent. Box 46 contains 23 folders with names starting with A-P, R-W, and Z as well as folders with envelopes from institutions and businesses, unverified names, and envelopes addressed to Ray Johnson from unknown senders. Box 46 also includes photocopies of items removed from the collection by gallery staff at an unknown date. Box 47 contains 2 folders with - Page 4 - Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art unaddressed envelopes. The bulk of the envelopes measure 9.5 x 4 inches (24.1 x 10.2 cm). The contents and loose mail art pieces range widely in size but are generally no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches (21.6 x 27.9 cm). The majority of the materials are textual. Many of the correspondents were/are involved in the New York art world, but many are also further flung, representing the international nature of Johnson's correspondence. In addition, many of Johnson's correspondents went by pseudonyms or had multiple names associated with them. The dates of the collection are drawn mostly from postmarks but also from Johnson's typed or handwritten notations on the materials. Given the nature of mail art practice, i.e., multiple back-and-forth exchanges over time, these dates are necessarily uncertain. The collection includes references to over 250 people, including prominent visual artists (Arakawa, Lynda Benglis, Brigid Berlin, George Brecht, Luis Camnitzer, Chuck Close, Joseph Cornell, Willem De Kooning, Charles Henri Ford, Peter Hujar, Sol LeWitt, Grégoire Müller, Richard Lippold, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, James Rosenquist, Ultra Violet, William T. Wiley, May Wilson, the members of Ant Farm and Western Front), mail artists (Blaster Al Ackerman, Anna Banana, Mike Belt, Mark Bloch, Richard Craven, Albert Fine, Bill Gaglione, John Held, Dick Higgins, E.F. Higgins [a.k.a. Doo Da Post], Rain-Rien Nevermind, Edward M. Plunkett, Edwin Varney), musicians (John Cage, David Byrne), writers and editors (Carol Bergé, David Bourdon, Lucy Lippard, William S. Wilson), gallerists (Angela Flowers, Richard L. Feigen) and New York personalities (Lucille Chasen, Jaap Rietman). Administrative Information Publication Information Ray Johnson Estate March 2014 Access Open to qualified researchers. Copyright Copyright Ray Johnson Estate, Courtesy Richard L. Feigen & Co. For permission to publish, please contact the Estate. Provenance Purchased by Richard L. Feigen & Co. in 1995. Processing Note - Page 5 - Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art The collection is primarily arranged alphabetically by correspondent's last name or corporate body name. There was no previous arrangement. In instances where an envelope had contents, the contents were removed and flattened (if possible) and filed alongside the envelope. If a folder has more than one such occurrence, the envelopes and their contents are kept together, and separate from other envelope/content pairs, with folded sheets of archival paper. If the folder contains only one envelope and contents, the researcher may assume the contents were found within that one envelope. In cases where an envelope contained items too small to be safely removed, the envelope was placed in a sheet of folded archival paper labeled "small contents." Related Materials Related Materials Images of related mail art and collages can be viewed on the Ray Johnson Estate website, www.RayJohnsonEstate.com. Controlled Access Headings Corporate Name(s) • Alan Gallery. (Charles Alan). • Artforum. • Balloon Newspaper. • Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. • Bologna (Italy). Galleria d'arte moderna. • Bykert Gallery. • Creative Artists Public Service Program. • David Gallery. • Galerie Denise René. • Gallery 25. • Intermedia Magazine. • Le Salon. • Los Angeles County Museum of Art. • Mostly Flowers Gallery. • Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). - Page 6 - Ray Johnson envelopes and mail art • New Yorker (New York, N.Y.: 1925). • Oyster Bay (N.Y.: Town). • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. • René Block Gallery (New York, N.Y.). • Richard Feigen Gallery. • The Writer's Center. • Visual Arts Foundation (SVA). • Western Illinois University Art Gallery. • Whitney Museum of American Art. Genre(s) • Correspondence • Mail Art. Personal Name(s) • Abrams, Harry N., American Publisher, collector, 1904-1979 • Ach, Michael E. • Ackerman, Blaster Al, Avant, collage, and mail artist; visual poet • Addis, Pearl • Agenoux, Soren, 1936- • Albright, Thomas • Aletti, Vince • Amacker, Ferrill • Amaya, Mario • Arakawa, Sh#saku, Japanese painter and filmmaker, 1936- • Ashley, George, Theatrical Agent • Ashworth, Robert • Ayres, Gerald • Baden, Karl • Banana, Anna, Canadian painter, performance artist and mail artist, born 1940 • Barthelme, Frederick, 1943- • Batcheller, Helen • Battcock, Gregory, 1937- • Baum, Timothy • Baylin, John Jack,