RAY JOHNSON (1927-1995)

Untitled (Ticket Stub).
Mixed media collage. 263x185 mm; 10 1/2x7 1/4 inches. Circa 1965.

Provenance: Stanley VanDerBeek (1927-1984), American filmmaker; Johanna VanDerBeek (widow); gifted to William "Bill" S. Wilson (1932-2016), friend of the artist; gifted to current owner, private collection, New York.

 

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

 

Ray Johnson (1927-1995) 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 and 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.