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unpublished--opens a new view into the sprawling, multiplicitous nature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."
