| John Held, Jr. Papers Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Key to the Collection: Correspondence 1976-1995 Part II Rehfield, Robert and Ruth (East Berlin) Through his early contact with West German artist Klaus Groh, the late Robert Rehfield became aware of the Mail Art network in the early seventies, becoming, in turn, a leading force in the medium's growth in Eastern Europe. Denied access to photocopy equipment, his postcards and posters were lithographed, giving them a look unlike anything produced in the West. His calls for a "Creative World," "pARTners" and "Contart," (a blending of Art and Contact), endeared him to the Mail Art community. His wife Ruth was also active in Mail Art, especially in the field of Visual Poetry, where she used a typewriter to make unique typographical displays. 7 letters 1 postcard 1981-1990 Strange, Joachim (Dresden) The letter contains a wonderful Visual Poetry work composed on the typewriter, overlaid with a drawing of an envelope and the words, "Help me!" 1 letter 1984 Wohlrab, Lutz (East Berlin) Although politically isolated, Wohlrab's postcard shows that he was still artistically connected to the world through his Mail Art activities. Depicted is the head of Japanese artist Shozo Shimamoto (see file Japan), and the rubber stamp impression, "Join by Mail Art." 1 postcard 1989 GERMANY (WEST) Archiv Sohm (Stuttgart) Hans Sohm was a German dentist, who formed one of the great collections of Fluxus art. It was given to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, while he was still alive. In a letter responding to my request for information about the scope of their collecting activities, the staff responded, "We decided to add no contemporary material. Mail art is only a fringe scope of the archive. But we are very proud of our early mail art pieces of the Fluxus artists, Dieter Roth and others." 2 letters 1991-1992 Groh, Klaus (Edweecht) Groh was one of my earliest international correspondents. A specialist in Dada, Dr. Klaus Groh was an important link in the spread of Mail Art through his I. A. C. (International Artist Cooperation) Newsletter, which listed numerous Mail Art projects and exhibitions. Finding their way to Eastern Europe, this information had a profound effect on artists behind the Iron Curtain. His hand carved stamps are extremely moving in their simplicity. Groh is also very interested in audio works. 5 letters 5 postcards 1977-1990 Hamann. Volker (Berlin) In response to an invitation to participate in, Mail Art About Mail Art, which I organized in 1984, Hamann wrote, "I see, that the Eternal Network builds now different germs for the next steps, and I'm lucky to leave the boring "Just Another Show" to come to more concentrated projects in the net, worldwide, with people, who know how to communicate close over wide distance...It seems there is a difference between those, who do mail art like another art-job and those, who live mutual exchange in the network. Do your work. Today on this occasion it isn't mine." 1 letter 1984 Haufen, Graf (West Berlin) With a special interest in Neoism and Plagiarism, Haufen was one of the new breed of young Mail Artists in the late eighties. He ran a Mail Art distribution service, and our correspondence was centered on trading books and magazines published about Mail Art, Neoism and Networking Art. the list of works sent to me are itemized in these letters. 6 letters 1986-1988 Klaffki, Jo [AKA Joki Mail Art] (Minden) The late Jo Klaffki was one of the most active networkers in Mail Art, traveling to meet others in the field, hosting festivals, producing a number of high-quality publications, and a prolific creator of artist postage stamps. A painter, his works, especially his color photocopy envelopes, have strong visual impact. Klaffki published a number of Mail Art magazines, including Smile. He is the creator of the term "International Cultural Networking." 20 letters 1 postcard 2 loose letter 1985-1994 K�stermann, Peter [AKA Peter Netmail] (Minden) Together with Joki Mail Art (see file Germany-West), K�stermann turned the small German town of Minden into a "Mail Art Mekka." Beginning his activities in 1982, after a meeting in London with Don Jarvis (see file England), K�stermann came to typify the networker of the eighties and nineties. Constantly on the move, both through the postal system and on the road, K�stermann undertook a series of video interviews with Mail Artists throughout the world In 1992, dressed in a antique German postal uniform with fellow traveler Angela Pahler, he undertook a Personal Delivery Net Mail Service, as part of the Networker Congress Year. He is a producer of collaborative artist postage stamps, as well as a project organizer. 8 letters 1 postcard 1989-1992 Mittendorf, Henning (Frankfurt) One of my most frequent international contacts in the nineties, Mittendorf is an eraser carver without compare. Many of these carvings are imprinted on his envelopes. He writes often on Mail Art and the networking experience, stressing global unity and peaceful activity among diverse cultures. His works have strong spiritual overtones. We met when he visited Dallas in 1994. 12 letters 5 postcards 1992-1995 Olbrich, J�rgen (Kassel) Active German Mail Artist, who specializes in photocopy art. He often combines this interest with his performance work. 4 letters 1984-1988 Perneczky, Geza (Cologne) A Hungarian artist and art critic living in Germany, Perneczky is an important Mail Artist for several reason. He is one of the finest practitioners of conceptual rubber stamp art, and has produced wonderful visual Mail Art works in a number of other mediums. Perneczky is also one of the most insightful researchers and writers about Mail Art. His book, A H�l� (H�ttorony KFT, 1991), first printed in Hungary, and later self-published in Germany as, The Magazine Network: The Trends of Alternative Art in the Light of Their Periodicals, 1968-1988 (Soft Geometry, 1993), is a masterpiece of research into this fugitive field of publishing activity. Along with Guy Bleus (see file Belgium) and Vittore Baroni (see file Italy), Perneczky is one of the foremost practicing commentators in the field. 4 letters 1 postcard 1991 Tot, Endre (Cologne) This important Hungarian conceptual artist was a widely diffused presence in Mail Art during the seventies. He writes to obtain a copy of Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography. "I've made my rubber stamp 'I'm glad if I can stamp' and 1974 my artist postage stamps 'ZerO stamp'. Maybe I'm in your book." 2 postcards 1991-1992 Ulrichs, Timm (Hanover) One of the prolific rubber stamps of the seventies, Ulrichs was also one of the first historians of the field. This postcard, sent for my Mail Art About Mail Art project, is imprinted numerous times with the impression, "Don't Place Stamp Here!" 1 postcard 1984 Weigelt, Achim (Bielefeld) A letter from the late artist after his visit to Villorba, Italy. where he met many Mail Artists, including Mark Bloch (see file United States), Ruggero Maggi (see file Italy), Vittore Baroni (see file Italy) and the late Swiss artist Marcel Stussi. He also mentions meeting Jo Klaffki (see file Germany-West) in Minden, West Germany, and expresses his admiration for Klaffki's "hand painted" Mail Art works. Weigelt worked in a similar manner, executing detailed watercolor works on his envelopes, of which the envelope in this file is a prime example. 1 letter 1989 GHANA Okwabi, Ayah (Accra) One of the very few African Mail Artists, and a journalist by profession, Okwabi wrote some of the only articles about the field published on the continent. 1 letter 1989 GREECE Mitropoulos, Mit (Athens) The Dean of Mail Art in Greece responds to my request for information about articles on Mail Art appearing in his country. He responds with a listing of 23 works dating back to 1980. Mit was involved in many projects involving art and technology. 2 letters 1989 GUATEMALA Bondioli, Guido (Soll�) An American expatriate living for many years in Guatemala, Bondioli is very active in the network, and is known for his eraser carvings. One of the postcards in the file is done in collaboration with German Mail Artists Peter K�stermann (see file Germany-West) and Angela Pahler. 4 postcards 1990-1995 HOLLAND Carri�n, Ulises (Amsterdam) A Mexican artist, living for a long time in Amsterdam, Holland, I met Carri�n on my second trip to Europe, when I had the first exhibition at the Stempelplaats Gallery (Amsterdam) in 1976. Until that time I was doing rubber stamp art, and when I began to research the field, found out about Mail Art. During my two-week stay in Amsterdam, I want many times to Carrion's Other Books and So bookstore and gallery, ground zero for the international Mail Art network at that time. Carri�n served as the European equivalent of New York's Printed Matter bookstore (see file United States), where those involved in the alternative arts could distribute their artist books, postcards, multiples, audio works, and more to a general public. Carri�n distributed a catalog of these works, making their availability even broader. I learned from Carri�n that Mail Art was more than the fun and games it had at first appeared to me, even though I was already receiving mail from Ray Johnson (see file USA) and E. M. Plunkett (see file USA). For Carri�n, Mail Art was an intellectual pursuit, and he wrote many texts on the subject that made this clear. An enclosed resume states, "In the last years he has been actively involved in the international mail-art network, and he is founder and co-editor of the monthly Ephemera, a magazine that specializes in mail art and ephemeral works from all over the world. The choice of the word 'ephemera' as a wider concept than 'mail art' expresses his concern for the use of time in modern art; the expression 'mail-art' points to a distribution system (mail) and to a classical category (art), whereas 'ephemera' relates to a universal condition (time) by means of daily occupations (either art or anything whatsoever." 6 letters 2 loose letters 1979-1986 De Jonge, Ko (Middelburg) An active Mail Artist since the seventies, De Jonge sent a postcard invitation for a Fax Object exhibition in 1991. 1 postcard 1991 Gajewski, Henryk (Amsterdam) Polish artist and filmmaker Henryk Gajewski lived in Amsterdam for several years and during this time conceived of an idea to produce a film on Mail Art. The file contains his invitation to participate in the project. 1 letter 1984 Gibbs, Michael (Amsterdam) A rubber stamp artist since 1976, Gibbs submitted a work for a project I was doing for the magazine Visible Language. He also contributes a statement on Mail Art reading in part, "It smuggles in new concepts, expressions, and idioms, and subverts the meanings of the old ones. It is often unintelligible to outsiders." 1 letter 1981 PTT Museum (Den Haag) The Netherlands National PTT Museum (Post Telephone Telegraph) was in the process of organizing an exhibition of Mail Art and extended an invitation for me to lecture. Because of scheduling problems, I was unable to attend. 1 letter 1992 Summers, Rod (Maastricht) An Englishman living in Holland for many years, Summers was one of the first Mail Artists to concentrate on audio works through the mail. Summers compiled tapes sent to him by various Mail Artists, and sent them out in the manner of assembling magazines. He was one of the first Mail Artists to use the computer for graphics, and in the nineties he combined an interest in bird watching with his Mail Art activities. 7 letters 1992-1994 v. d. Heyden, Carola (Leiden) While researching a thesis on Mail Art at the University of Leiden, v. d. Heyden contacted me for information. She eventually completed the work in cooperation with the Dutch PTT Museum. She later curated an exhibition on artists' books. 2 letters 1991-1993 van Beveren, Peter (Rotterdam) I met van Beveren when I went to Holland for my exhibition at Stempelplaats Gallery in 1977, taking a train to meet him in Middelburg, where he was then living. Since 1972, he had been collecting information on contemporary art at his Art Information Centre. This card from 1991 shows him still active in the field. 1 postcard 1991 van der Burg, Sonja (The Hague) An active Mail Artist in the eighties, who together with Margot van Oosten, published the assembling magazine Afzet. 1 letter 1985 Verschoore, Jan (Oostburg) One of the great eraser carvers, I met him at my Belgian De Media exhibition and lecture in 1989. Several of his excellent carvings decorate these envelopes, letters and postcard. His letters reveal an admiration for the late artist postage stamp artist Donald Evans. 2 letters 1 postcard 1989-1990 HONG KONG Keobke, Ken (Kowloon Tong) Invitation for a Mail Art exhibition at the City University. "Mail Art is the exchange of art and ideas among visual, audio, and literary artists. Anyone can be a Mail Artist. Rather than emphasize the idea of the artist as a master creating priceless individual pieces, Mail Art encourages us to mass-produce and freely distribute our art. Various international groups sponsor exhibitions, performances, lectures and workshops. The Mail Artist's tools often include custom-made stamps, photography, the photocopy machine and other printing techniques as well as more traditional media such as pencils and water-colors. Mail Art is often nonconformist and humorous." 1 letter 1995 HUNGARY Artpool (Budapest) Run by the husband and wife team of Julia and Gy�rgy Gal�ntai, in 1990 Artpool became the Artpool Foundation, after the changes in Eastern Europe. Previous to this, Artpool was a primary center for alternative art activity behind the Iron Curtain. Artpool organized important exhibitions of artist postage stamps in 1982 (Feszek Galeria) and 1987 (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest). In 1990, Artpool received the Michael Bidner Artistamp Collection (see file Canada). They have held exhibitions on Ray Johnson (see file United States) and Fluxus, as well as hosting Sound Art festivals and organizing FAX exhibitions. They do it all, and they do it very well. One of the largest study centers for Mail Art in the world. 8 letters 1 postcard 1981-1993 Tim�r, Katalin (Budapest) The archivist at Artpool, who first wrote to me as a graduate student in Paris, where she did her thesis on Mail Art. In this letter, Tim�r talks about the changes that have occurred at Artpool in the years after the revolution. I met her during my exhibition and lecture at Artpool in 1994. 1 letter 1993 INDIA Swami Nirmalananda (Karnataka) Mail Art can be enjoyed and pursued for many purposes. The Italian artist Cavellini (see file Italy) saw the medium as a means of distributing his "self-historification" books and stickers, broadening awareness of his activities. For Swami Nirmalananda, Mail Art became a medium to disseminate information on "The Smiling Wisdom." 2 letters 1994-1995 INDONESIA Black, Byron (Jakarta) A Texan expatriate, Black first learned of Mail Art while living at the Western Front in Vancouver, Canada. Moving to Osaka in the eighties, he met Shozo Shimamoto (see file Japan), a member of the fifties avant-garde Gutai group. Black informed Shimamoto about Mail Art, inspiring one of the most active network artists of the eighties and nineties. From Japan, Black moved to Indonesia, where he continued his Mail Art activities. In 1993, Black, Shimamoto and myself were in Japan together, performing in various venues around Osaka. 3 letters 2 postcards 1991-1993 IRELAND Lowes, Tony (Allihies, West Cork) A prime proponent of Art Strike, 1990-1993, Lowes was well-known for his "Give Up Art/Save the Starving" Statement, which is reproduced on this postcard. "Imagine a world in which art is forbidden! Art galleries would close. Books would vanish. Pop stars would shed their glamour overnight. Advertising would cease, television would die. We could refocus our vision not on a succession of false images but on the world as it is..." 1 postcard 1988 ISRAEL Yaoz. Rivenzon (Migdal Haemek) There is not much Mail Art activity in Israel, despite an excellent 1985 exhibition organized by David Cole (see file USA), The Scroll Unrolls, at the Janco-Dada Museum, Einhod. However, from time to time, an enthusiast appears. 2 letters 1989 ITALY Baroni, Vittore (Viareggio) Baroni has been one of my most consistent contacts in Europe, and I often rely on him to keep me abreast of new publications in the field. Fortunately, Baroni is also a collector and archivist, so over the years we have traded information and works to great effect. My respect for Baroni goes beyond this dependency. Baroni is one of the great minds of Mail Art, seeing both strengths and weaknesses in this great international chain. In 1997, he authored and published (with Piermario Ciani, see file Itlay) the book, Arte Postale (AAA Edizione). In 1999, he edited and published my book, Rubber Stamp Art. Vittore is by profession a music reviewer, and also has interests in Audio Art, Visual Poetry, alternative publishing, graffiti and sticker art. In these letters, he discusses Mail Art Congresses, collaborative publishing, his Stickerman Museum, research for my book Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography (in which he served as Contributing Editor for Italy, and much more. 14 letters 1986-1992 Boschi, Anna (Bologna) One of the more active Italian Mail Artists, Boschi has organized a number of exhibitions and projects, including, Thirty Years of Mail Art: In Hommage a Ray Johnson, the invitation of which is enclosed. Boschi writes in this letter that the roots of Mail Art include "Futurismo, Dadaismo, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp." 1 letter 1991 Broi, Giovanni (Florence) I met Broi at the home of Vittore Baroni (see file Italy) when I visited in 1989. He went on to organize one of the great Mail Art exhibitions, La Posta in Gioco: La Comunicazione Postale Come Creativita Artistica, at the Uffizi Gallery in 1990. He has continued to be an active Mail Artist, hosting Mail Art Congresses and other meetings between international artists. 10 letters 1989-1994 Centro Documentazione Archivi Internazionali Mail Art [Romano Peli and Michaela Versari] (Parma) Creating one of the early archives of Mail Art, Peli and Versari gave up Mail Art in 1985. Peli states some reasons for this in his correspondence. C. D. O. organized the exhibition, Mantua Mail 78, accompanied by one of the first exhibition catalogs to include essays about the field. 1 letter 1985 Cavellini, Guglielmo Achille (Brescia) A former collector of Nouveau Realism and Arte Povera, the late heir to an Italian supermarket fortune sold his art collection to promote his career as an artist. Mail Art allowed him to reach a new generation enthralled with his quality printed stickers, artists postage stamps and publications. Cavellini was a proponent of "Self-Historification," a strategy documenting his life and status in art. Included in this file are four of his Operation Round-Trips, in which he added his own work to the envelope sent him. A number of his stickers and rubber stamp impressions are attached to the works, including the artist postage stamp created from a portrait he commissioned from Andy Warhol. 4 letters 1 loose letter 1984-1988 Ciani, Piermario (Bertiolo) One of the great graphic designers in the Mail Art network, Ciani is especially noted for the postcards and stationary he designed for the 1992 Networker Congresses. He has also been involved with Vittore Baroni (see file Italy) in the creation of the Stickerman Museum, which both collected and created adhesive stickers diffused in Mail Art. Ciani and Baroni have also formed a publishing company, AAA Edizioni, that has issued books on Mail Art (1997) and rubber stamps (1999). 3 letters 1991 De Rosa, Salvatore (Salerno) In 1983 De Rosa published an artist book, Sonata in "MA" Minore: Vol 1-1980-1983, which gathered together various texts about Mail Art by various practitioners. In this letter, labeled "First Attempt," he reprints essays by Vittore Baroni (see file Italy), C. D. O. (see file Italy), and a collective manifesto. 1 letter 1988 Maggi, Ruggero (Milan) Instigator of The Shadow Project, which brought Mail Artists (including myself) to Japan in 1988, Maggi is a central figure in the network because of his tremendous energy and propensity to collaborate. He has coined several key Mail Art phrases widely circulated in the network through rubber stamps: "The future of Mail Art? After letters, audio, video, computer...the personal contact!," and "Mail Art uses institutions in the places of institutions against institutions." He is the Director of the Milan Art Gallery, which has hosted a number of exhibitions by Mail Artists, including my own, Networking Fresco, in 1989. Maggi travels often to Latin America (his wife in Peruvian), and much of his work is concerned with the "Amazonic World." 17 letters 1984-1991 Mesciulam, Plinio [Mohammed] (Genova) A Turkish artist living in Italy, Mesciulam began the Mohammed Center of Restricted Communication (Centro di Communicazione Ristratta) to act as an intermeditary between senders and receivers of Mail Art. In doing so, He created one of the great projects of the medium: a creative switchboard of Mail Art. Blank letterheads were distributed by Mesciulam, to which the participant would create an image and return to the Mohammed Center with a list of twelve names and addresses. Mesciulam would then color photocopy the mailing, assign a unit number, and distribute to the twelve designated receivers. With this system of distribution, Mesciulam extended the concept of "add and pass" first begun by Ray Johnson (see file United States). Full instructions are included in the file, along with personal correspondence. Mesciulam was one of my main correspondents when I began Mail Art, and a major influence on my continuing interest and activity. I arranged my first Mail Art project, the exhibition, Letters from Mohammed, at Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, in 1978. Complete documentation of the Mohammed project is available for study at the Jean Brown Collection, Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities. 1 letter 16 loose letters 3 essays 1978-1981 JAPAN Cohen, Ryosuke (Osaka) One of the most active international Mail Artists, Ryosuke Cohen (not Jewish, he was given the spelling of his last name by Byron Black [see file Indonesia]) is a member of the AU (Artists Unidentified) art group under the leadership of Shozo Shimamoto (see file Japan). His participation in Mail Art began by issuing postcards produced with a goccho printer, a Japanese home printing device used to make personalized greeting cards. This expanded into his Brain Cell project, one of the most celebrated ongoing Mail Art series. After receiving some forty images from correspondents, Cohen transfers them onto one sheet by means of the goccho printer. A list of names and addresses are included in the mailing, making Brain Cell one of the best sources for extending one's contacts in Mail Art. 2 postcards 10 letters 1983-1992 Handa, Mayumi (Amagasaki)) A graduate of Stanford University, Handa became the main English translator for Shozo Shimamoto (see file Japan), and became active in AU art group activities. Her late father was the Director of a School of Beauty, where she served as an instructor. Handa initiated a number of Mail Art activities on the theme of Hair Art. She participated in a number of Mail Art related activities with Shimamoto, including the Hiroshima Shadow Project (1988) and Net Run (1990). Handa toured the United States in 1991, for a number of Hair Art performances, including an appearance in Dallas, when she shaved my head in a performance at Club Dada. 3 postcards 7 letters 1988-1993 Kato, Kowa (Zushi) One of the pioneers of Japanese Mail Art, Kato organized several Mail Art shows, including The T-Shirt Show (1982). Paper Ball Project (1983) and Polaroid Self Portraits (1985). 4 letters 1985-1989 Miyazaki, Seido (Osaka) A member of the AU art group, Miyazaki and I met during my 1988 tour of Japan. She mails her sculpture of paper hands through the mail, one of which is included in the file. It is one of the most beautiful Mail Art objects I have ever received. 1 postcard 2 letters 1988 Nakayama, Shigeru [Shigeru Tamaru] (Kyoto) Nakayama and I met in Japan in 1988. He changed his name to Tamaru upon his marriage in 1990. He is an accomplished eraser carver, and a number of his works illustrate his letters. 2 letters 1988-1990 Shimamoto, Shozo (Nishinomiya) One of the great figures of the Japanese post-war avant-garde, Shimamoto studied with artist Jiro Yoshihara in 1947. and became a part of Gutai in 1954. Gutai was a precursor of "happenings," and viewed art as process. He joined the AU (Art Unidentified) (Artists Union) art group in 1975, becoming a central figure in the organization. In 1982, Shimamoto became aware of Mail Art through Byron Black (see file Indonesia), an expatriate then living in Osaka. Since then, Shimamoto has been an active participant in Mail Art, organizing exhibitions throughout Japan, hosting the visits of international Mail Artists (including my own visits in 1988 and 1993), and traveling the world to meet other Mail Artists. His work has been increasing recognized by major museum exhibitions, including Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art After 1945, shown at the Guggenheim Museum (1994-1995) and elsewhere. His progression from Gutai to Mail Art, stressing collaborative art and art as process, is a cornerstone of Mail Art's claim to a rightful place in the twentieth century avant-garde. 23 letters 2 postcards 1986-1994 Takeishi-Tateno, K. [Aerial Print] (Marubavashi) A talented collage artist, Takeishi-Tateno issued a photocopy zine, Aerial Print, which collaged the images of an international array of Mail Artists. 2 letters 1993-1995 Tsubouchi, Teruyuki (Ehime) A member of AU art group, I met Tsubouchi in 1988. Like the Fkuxus artist Ben Vautier (see file France) Tsubouchi creates by proclaiming common objects artworks. Several of his stickers naming road signs as art are included in the file. 1 letter 1989 LITHUANIA (see UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS) LUXEMBOURG Van Maele. Francis (Echternach) A letter to contributors of the exhibition, Stamps and Stories, accompanying the 112 page cloth catalog. Some 500 artists sent over 2000 works for the exhibition. 1 loose letter 1995 MEXICO Espinosa, Cesar (Mexico city) A member of the Visual Poetry and Mail Art group, Colectivo-3, Espinosa began organizing Mail Art shows in 1982. He was also the editor of the Mail Art publication Post-Arte, also begun the same year. The file lists a full range of the group's activities. A number of rubber stamps impressions are included on the envelopes. 2 letters 1985 Guerrero, Mauricio (Mexico City) Letter and questionnaire asking for information in preparation for Guerrero's thesis on Mail Art development in Mexico from 1970. This was eventually published as Origin and Nature of Mail Art in Mexico, 1970-1987. earning him an advanced degree from the University of Mexico. An excellent artist postage stamp of his own design is affixed to the envelope. 1 letter 1985 Zack, David (Tepoztlan) One of the great mysteries of Mail Art: is David "Oz" Zack dead? Last heard, he was in a San Antonio nursing home recovering from a nasty two year stay in a Mexican jail. According to an 1988 autobiographical note, Zack graduated from the University of Chicago with an M. A. in Humanities. He went on to teach at the University of Puerto Rico, Chicago City College, San Francisco State College, the San Francisco Art Institute, San Jose State University, the University of Saskatchewan and Egmont Folk High School in Denmark. He was a member of the Nut Art group in the San Francisco Bay Area. "Since 1972 he has worked as mail artist, internationally and also locally in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, England Switzerland, Hungary and , since 1980, in Mexico." He wrote the first article on Mail Art for a major art magazine, "An Authentik and Historikal Discourse on the Phenomenon of Mail Art, " in the January-February 1973 issue of Art in America. A prolific letter writer, and author of a series of unpublished Correspondence Novels, Zack introduced Istvan Kantor (see file Canada) to Mail Art and developed, with Al Ackerman (see file United States), the Neoist art movement. I have included my complete correspondence with Zack in this file, not only for his historical importance, but because he is one of the great exemplars of the spirit of Mail Art. 24 letters 1983-1987 MYANMAR Dao Badao A Swiss Mail Artist takes the opportunity on a visit to Myanmar to create a small booklet requesting artists to contribute to two of his upcoming projects. One of the projects is, 1996: Visit Myuanmar Year, the other is, Ex Libris. Contributions were to be sent to Switzerland. 1 letter 1994 Continue to Part III |