Blog - Ray Johnson, An American Revolutionary

2008-07-17 22:00:02

Ray Johnson (From the Ovation TV People search)
In
the high-octane 1960s Pop Art scene, Ray Johnson cast a small shadow
amongst colleagues such as Andy Warhol. However, his collage work
(which he dubbed "moticos"), and the way he decided to distribute it
(through the postal service) influenced the future of mixed media art,
as well as the mail art movement. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Johnson
attended the experimental Black Mountain College with the likes of
Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. After leaving BMC in 1948, he spent
some time creating abstract art, and then took on the influence of Dada
with his collages incorporating comic strips, advertisements and
celebrity figures. Johnson often refused to participate in gallery
shows and started mailing his art to a network of correspondents,
telling them to add to his creations and then return them. This method
of disseminating art became known as the New York Correspondence
School, and expanded to include impromptu events and dinners. When
Johnson did show his artwork, he was represented by the dealer Richard
Feigen, with whom he battled over the nature of the art market. Johnson
eventually withdrew from New York to a small town on Long Island, where
he continued to produce mail art. In 1995 Ray Johnson’s body was found
floating in a cove in Sag Harbor, N.Y. The circumstances surrounding
his death are unclear, although some speculate that this final act was
also his final performance.



Ray Johnson on Ovation TV - How To Draw A Bunny
The Estate of Ray Johnson



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