Ray Johnson c/o / edited and curated by Caitlin Haskell, with Jordan Carter ; with contributions by Jordan Carter, Colby Chamberlain, Jennifer R. Cohen, Johanna Bosse, Caitlin Haskell, Miriam Kienle, Brian T. Leahy, Ellen Levy, Solveig Nelson, Thea Liberty Nichols, and Michael von Uchtrup.
Publisher:
distributed by Yale University Press
Copyright Date:
℗♭2021
Description:
376 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 31 x 23 cm
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:
Ray Johnson (1927-1995) was a celebrated maker of small-scale collages whose works influenced movements including Pop Art, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art. Trained at Black Mountain College, Johnson subsequently settled in New York and founded a mail art network known as the New York Correspondence School; he was extraordinarily adept at using social interaction as an artistic endeavor. Drawing on the vast collection of Johnson's work at the Art Institute of Chicago, this volume gives new shape to our understanding of his artistic practice and features hundreds of pieces that include artist's books, collages, drawings, mail art, and performance documentation. In keeping with Johnson's democratic, rhizomatic, and antihierarchical ethos, this indispensable resource on the artist's oeuvre contains 21 short essays by various contributors that allow readers to dip into and out of the book in a nonlinear manner of their own choosing.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.