Ray Johnson (1927-1995) blurred the boundaries of life and art, of
authorship and intimacy. Correspondence is the defining character
of all of Johnson's work, particularly his mail art. Intended to be
read, to be received, to be corresponded with, his letters (usually
both image and textual in character) were folded and delivered to
an individual reader, to be opened and read, again and again.
Johnson's correspondence includes letter to friends William S.
Wilson, Dick Higgins, Richard Lippold, Toby Spiselman, Joseph
Cornell, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Robert Motherwell, Eleanor Antin,
Germaine Green, Lynda Benglis, Arakawa and Madeline Gins, Christo,
Billy Name, Jim Rosenquist and Albert M. Fine, among many others.
The subjects of his correspondence ranged from the New York
avant-garde (Cage, Johns, de Kooning, Duchamp) to filmmakers such
as John Waters, philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and writers
such as Gertrude Stein and Marianne Moore. This collection of more
than 200 selected letters and writings--most of which are
previously unpublished--opens a new view into the sprawling,
multiplicitous nature of Johnson's art, revealing not only how he
created relationships, glyphs and puzzles in connecting words,
phrases, people and ideas, but also something about the elusive
Johnson himself. In a 1995 article in "The New York Times," Roberta
Smith wrote: "Make room for Ray Johnson, whose place in history has
been only vaguely defined. Johnson's beguiling, challenging art has
an exquisite clarity and emotional intensity that makes it much
more than simply a remarkable mirror of its time, although it is
that, too."
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