Sale 2514 - The Pride Sale, June 20, 2019

79 c RAY JOHNSON (1927-1995) Mail Art . Paper collage, 1959. 12 1 / 2 x7 1 / 4 inches, 32 1 / 2 x18 1 / 2 cm. [1,500/2,000] Johnson is primarily known for his works that abstract and repurpose elements of correspondence, referred to as “Mail Art.” He was a pioneer of the Readymade and Neo-Dada movements . Johnson started his New York Correspondence School in the late 1950s. He mailed notes, collages and other paper items to friends and fellow artists, asking them to forward them on to other individuals and add some items, or simply return them to Johnson with added items. The New York Correspondence School blossomed in the 1960s, and in 1970 the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, organized the first exhibition of Johnson’s mailings .