RayBayaNewYorkTravelDiary1999

Ray/Bay:
A New York Travel Diary

by John Held, Jr.

Friday, January 8, 1999:

Go to the Post Office. Receive catalog for Jeff Berner's show in Spokane, Washington, The Living Legend of Fluxus: Art is the Beginning of Something Else. Included in the listing of artists are Bay Area contemporary artists Picasso Gaglione, Tim Mancusi, Pat Tavenner and myself. Also included are such historic Fluxus figures as George Maciunas, George Brecht, Yoko Ono, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Robert Watts, Ayo and others. Ray Johnson is also one of the exhibited artists.

In preparation for the trip to New York to install the Bay Area Dada: Before Punk and Zines exhibition at Printed Matter and to view the Ray Johnson: Correspondences exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, I decide to call old friends of Johnson's to get their reaction to the upcoming show.

My first call is to Norman Solomon, a friend of Ray in New York City during the mid-fifties, and who told me on a previous occasion that he came up with the name moticos, when Ray was searching to name his collage work. I asked him if he was excited about the retrospective. "What's that got to do with me?," he retorted. "And why are you calling me. I don't want anything to do with you. I thought I told you never to get in touch with me again." It was an impressive show of incivility, and very much in the Johnsonian spirit. After all, Johnson himself had dropped me from the New York Correspondence School in 1985.

Next I called Ruth Asawa, who met Ray in 1943 at the University of Wisconsin and went on to study at Black Mountain College with Ray. She wasn't home, but I spoke to her husband Al Lanier, a practicing architect who also attended Black Mountain. He was like day to Solomon's night, very forthcoming and friendly. He told me a story about Ray, Forest Wright and himself, driving across the country from North Carolina to San Francisco after graduating Black Mountain. They departed in a 1929 Model A, which had a rumble seat and a "sing in the wind" radiator cap made by fellow Black Mountain schoolmate, Richard Lippold. Wright insisted that they drive through mountain ranges on the trip, passing through the Ozarks, and the Rockies. They slept in churchyards on the way out. On a pass through the Rockies, they had a minor traffic accident with a driver in a white convertible. "Where are you from?," asked the driver of the convertible. "North Carolina. East meets West," Ray replied.

In San Francisco, Johnson painted houses, and Lanier remembers meeting Ray's pretty first cousin. After a couple of months, Lippold expressed an interest in Ray moving to New York, and Ray complied. I also asked Lanier if it was true that Ray had proposed to Ruth. He replied in the affirmative, and volunteered the story of someone asking Ray how he would support a child. "What if the baby needs shoes." "We'll make them," Ray answered.

I called Arthur Secunda in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is one of Ray's oldest friends, attending Cass Tech, a high school dedicated to the arts in Detroit, Michigan, with Ray in 1942-43. He said that he, Ray and Harry Katchadiorian were very close during that period. In 1947, Secunda hitchhiked to Black Mountain to visit his old high school chum, and soon after went to Paris with Kenneth Noland and others. Secunda also did the cover for Jeff Berner's book, The Innserspace Project. Secunda told me that he was doing illustrations at the time, and approached Berner's publisher, World Publishing (A Times Mirror subsidy), and they used it. It wasn't through any connection to Berner at all. Arthur is currently consulting with NASA on color perception studies. He leaves for Washington on Monday and will then travel to New York on Friday to attend the Whitney reception for Johnson friends and collectors on Friday, and asked me if I wanted to come as his guest. I told him about the Printed Matter show and the reception at Katz's on the same night. We exchanged New York telephone numbers and made tentative plans to meet. What a difference from Solomon.

I also talked to Muffet Jones at Feigen Gallery, who told me that the Ray Johnson Estate had sent some 400 pieces to the show, including 125 collages.

Gaglione comes over in the evening, and we go out for sushi. We had planned to pick up the two books we prepared for the trip, the Bay Area Dada catalog and A Ray Johnson Miscellany, but they haven't been printed yet.

Saturday, January 9, 1999:

Work on Dick Higgins' Cowboy Plays, which we are planning to recite at the Printed Matter opening. Print out title labels for the Printed Matter show. Pick up twenty of the fifty copies of the two books to take to New York. Julie Peasley, mail artist and editor of the zine McJob comes over in the evening.

Sunday, January 10. 1999:

Pack. Leave for New York on Tower Air from San Francisco International Airport at 9:00 PM.

Monday, January 11, 1999:

Arrive in New York City at 5:00AM. Check in at Village House at 45 West 9th Street This was supposed to be my lovenest with Hikari Yoshida, a Japanese art student studying art in London, who I had befriended last Spring, and with whom I spent an idyllic summer vacation. Unfortunately, her Australian boyfriend reappeared in London, disturbing my plans. Tim Mancusi was searching for a place to stay in New York, so I asked him to join me. He gets in tomorrow. Take a walk around the West Village and Soho, passing Printed Matter, which is closed. Dinner with brothers David, Fred, and Fred's wife Terry at an uptown steak house..

Tuesday, January 12, 1999:

Go to Printed Matter and begin installing the publications that have been shipped from San Francisco. I reacquaint myself with Max Schumann, who has been at Printed Matter for years as the office manager. I meet office workers Amanda and Liz, and introduce myself to David Platzker, the new Director. The staff has been a joy to work with in preparation for the show. David and I take down the Something Else Press exhibit that was installed after the death of Dick Higgins. It's eerie, as the only other showing of Bay Area Dada publications took place in 1978 at La Mamelle in San Francisco, was held in conjunction with a showing of Something Else Press books. Being linked with Dick Higgins is a special honor. He was an inspiration to a generation of artists, and a personal friend of mine since 1978.

The installation of the Bay Area Dada show goes quickly and without incident. First shown at the San Francisco Public Library in September 1998, I already have a good idea of how the show will be arranged. Because of the Ray Johnson retrospective at the Whitney, I sort out some of the Bay Area Dada publications that Ray contributed work to in the early seventies, and put them in a separate case. I focus on the founding core members of Bay Area Dada -Gaglione, Mancusi, and Chickadel- and try to show as much of their work as possible. Anna Banana, who reinvigorated the group's publishing activities when she relocated from Canada to San Francisco in 1973, also gets a case to herself. I show as much of Monte Cazazza, Pat Tavenner, Ric Soloway, Steve Caravello, Irene Dogmatic, Rockola and Barbara Cushman, as space allows. The checklist of the exhibition follows:

Bay Area Dada: Before Punk and Zines
Curated by John Held, Jr.

Printed Matter Checklist

Case One:
Selected Ray Johnson Contributions to Bay Area Dada Publications

1, Rockola, Marlon, ed. Neo-Roc International Mail Art Exhibition. February 1-28, 1982. Fort Mason Armory, San Franciso, California. Standard: photocopy and rubber stamps. (28 pages).

2. Mancusi, Tim, ed. The NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 6, 1973. The Bay Area Dadaists, (San Francisco, California). Standard: instant print. 34 pages.

3. (Mancusi, Tim, ed.) NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 2, Number 10 (Issue #1). May 20, 1972. Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco. Standard: instant print. (2 pages).

4. (Soloway, Rick), ed. Mr. Tip & Ms. Top's Favorite Recipes 'Cookabook'. (1974). (San Francisco, California). Digest: instant print. (24 pages).

5. Dogmatic, Irene, ed. Rover's Romance. 1975. Irene Dogmatic, (San Francisco, California). Mini: multilith with orange cover . (20 pages).

6. Banana, Anna, ed. VILE. Vol. 1, No. 4 (Issue #2), September 1974. Banana Productions, San Francisco. Standard: photocopy, offset cover. 48 pages.

Case Two:
New York Correspondence School Weekly Breeder

1, (Mancusi, Tim, ed.) NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 2, No. 10 (Issue #1). May 20, 1972. Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco. Standard: instant print. (2 pages).

2, (Mancusi, Tim, ed.) NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 2 (Issue #2), June 12, 1972. Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco. Standard: instant print. (7 pages).

3, (Mancusi, Tim, ed.) NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 3 (Issue #3), Christmas 1972. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Standard: instant print. (10 pages).

4. (Caravello, Steve, ed.). The NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 4, No. 1 (Issue #4), July 20, 1972. Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco, California. Standard: instant print. (6 pages),

5. (Mancusi, Tim, ed.) The NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 5 (Issue #5), May 20, 1953 (1973). Standard: instant print. (15 pages).

6. Mancusi, Tim, ed. The NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 6, 1973. The Bay Area Dadaists, (San Francisco, California). Standard: instant print. 34 pages.

7. Mancusi, Tim, ed. The Very Last NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 3, No. 7, Autumn 1974. Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco. Standard: instant print. 17 pages.

8. Mancusi, Tim, and the Bay Area Dadaists, ed. The New York Correspondence School WEEKLY BREEDER. Vol. III, 1981. Tim Mancusi, (San Francisco, California). Standard: photocopy. (200 pages.)

Case Three:
Jeff Berner, Tim Mancusi, NYCS Weekly Breeder Spin-Offs

1. Berner, Jeff. Aktual Art International. Stanford Art Gallery, Department of Art & Architecture, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. 1967. Offset. 23 pages.

2, Berner. Jeff. The Innerspace Project. World Publishing Company, New York, New York. 1972. Cloth. 299 pages.

3. Bay Area Daddaists. Punks. (Bay Area Dadaists, San Francisco, California). 1975. Mini: photocopy. (32 pages).

4. Mancusi, Tim, ed. Sin City. (Number 1), 1972. A Gollinkambi Product, (San Francisco, California). Mini: instant print. (8 pages).

5. Mancusi, Tim, ed. Sin City. Number 2, 1973. (San Francisco). Mini: instant print. 8 pages).

6. (Indian Ralph [Mancusi, Perry], ed.) Weekly Readers Da-jest. Vol. 1, No. 1, November/December 1972. (San Francisco, California). Standard: instant print. (8 pages).

7. Keaton, Grover (Buster Cleveland), ed. The NYCS Weekly Breeder. Vol. 1, No. 1. January 5, 1968 (1978). East Side Dada, Digest: Black/white, color photocopy. (28 pages).

8. Cleveland, Buster; Dadaland; and Rockola, Robert; eds. Weekly Breeder. Vol. l, No. 2 (Issue #1), June 1980. La Mamelle, Inc., San Francisco. Tabloid: photocopy. (15 pages).

Case Four:
Publications by Charles Chickadel

1. Chickadel, Charles J. NOVA: Outlooks tfor Independent Publishing Today. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1979. Trinity Press, San Francisco, California. Digest: instant print. 4 pages.

2. Chickadel, Charles J. Publish it Yourself: The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Your Own Book. 1978. Trinity Press, San Francisco. 207 pages.

3. Cravan, Arthur (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Dadaist. Vol. 1, No. 1, May 1973. Trinity Press (Foundling Publications), San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print. 8 pages.

4. Cravan, Arthur (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Dadaist. Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1973. Trinity Press (Foundling Productions), San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print-white). (24 pages).

5. Cravan, Arthur (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Dadaist. Vol. 1, No. 3, August 1973. Trinity Press/Foundling Publications, San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print-white. (24 pages).

6. (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Dadaist. Vol. 1, No. 4, October 1974. (Trinity Press, San Francisco, California). Mini: instant print-white and goldenrod. (40 pages).

7. Cicatelli, C. G. (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Dadaist. Vol. 2, No. 6, June 1974. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Mini: instant print-gray). 40 pages.

8. Cravan, Art (Chickadel, Charles), ed. The West Bay Area Dadaist. Vol. 2, No. 5, March 1974. Trinity Press/Foundling Publications, San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print-yellow). (48 pages).

9. Cicatelli, C. G. (Chickadel, Charles), ed. LIFE (QUOZ?). Vol 2., No. 7, September 1974. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Mini: instant print-grey. 40 pages.

10 Cicatelli, Carlo Giovanni (Chickadel, Charles), ed. Flush Art /(QUOZ?). Vol. 2, No. 8, December 1974. Trinity Press, San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print-gray). 40 pages.

11. Cicatelli, Carl Giovanni (Chickadel, Charles), ed. QUOZ?. Vol. 3, No. 9, March 1975. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Mini: instant print-light brown. 40 pages.

12. Cicatelli, C. G. (Chickadel, Charles), ed. QUOZ?. Vol. 3, No. 10, Summer 1975. Trinity Press, San Francisco, California. Mini: instant print-green cover, brown paper). 48 pages.

13. Cicatelli, Carlo Giovanni (Chickadel, Charles), ed. QUOZ?. Vol. 3, No. 11, Autumn 1975. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Mini: instant print-light brown cover, brown text). 40 pages.

14. Cicatelli, Carlo Giovanni (Charles Chickadel), ed. QUOZ?. Vol. 3, No. 12, Winter 1975-76. Trinity Press, San Francisco. Mini: instant print-light brown cover, brown text). (44 pages)

15. Chickadel, Charles J. The Compleat QUOZ?: Volumes 1 (1973) & II (1974). Trinity Press, San Francisco, California. 1975. Cloth. Unpaged.

Case Five:
Picasso Gaglione

1. (Gaglione, Bill, ed.). Dadazine. (Vol. 1, No. 1), (1970). Daddaland, San Francisco, California. Digest: rubber stamps. (22 pages).

2. Gaglione the Jerk, Bill, ed. Dadazine. Spring 1976. Dadaland, San Francisco, California. Standard: offset, cover-black, red. (12 pages).

3. Gaglione 1940-2040, ed. dadazine. Number 6, August 1978. The Only Paper Today, San Francisco, California. Digest: offset. (8 pages).

4. (Gaglione, Bill). The Last Dada Manifesto. n.d. (San Francisco, California). Digest: photocopy. (24 pages).

5. Gaglione, William, ed. Stamp Art. Number 2, (1981). San Francisco, California. Standard: photocopy, rubber stamps, collage). (unpaged).

6. Gaglione, William John, ed. Stamp Art. Number 3, (1982). Abracada, San Francisco. Standard: photocopy, rubber stamps, collage). Unpaged.

7. Rossman, Joel; Mancusi, Tim; Gaglione, Bill, eds. Stamp Art. (1980). (San Francisco, California). Standard: photocopy.

8. Audio Players. Toward the Future. 1979. Audio Players, Guerneville, California. Audio Cassette.

Case Six:
VILE

1. Banana, Anna, ed. VILE. (Vol. 1, No. 1.) February 14, 1985 (February 1974). Abananadaddalandproduction, San Francisco, California. Standard: instant print, offset wrapper. 56 pages.

2. Banana, Anna, ed. VILE. Vol. 1. No. 4 (Issue #2), September 1974. Banana Productions, San Francisco. Standard: photocopy, offset cover. 48 pages.

3. Banana, Anna, ed. VILE. Vol. 3, No. 1 (Issue #3), December 1975. Banana Productions, San Francisco. Standard: offset. 66 pages.

4. Gaglione, William John. VILE. Vol. 1, No. 2/Vol 2. No. 1. AKA Nos. 2 &3 (Issue #4), Summer 1976. Abanannadadaland Production, San Francisco, California. Standard: offset. 100 pages.

5. Banana, Anna, ed. VILE. Vol. 3, No. 2. (Issue #5), Summer 1977. Banana Productions, San Francisco, California. Standard: offset. 98 pages.

6. Gaglione, Wm. John. VILE. Number 7: Stamp Art. Winter 1979. VILE International, San Francisco, California. Standard: offset, rubber stamps). (unpaged)

7. Gaglione 1940-2040, ed. VILE International No. 6/Fe-Mail Art. Vol. 6, No. 3. (Issue #6), Summer 1978. Banana Publications, San Francisco, California. 7"x10": offset. 107 pages.

Case Seven:
Publications by Various Bay Area Dada Participants

1. Tavenner, Pat, ed. Mail Order Art. Vol. 1, No. 3., 1972. Oakland-Berkeley, California. Tabloid: newsprint. (12 pages).

2. Dogmatic, Irene. Insult. 1979. Irene Dogmatic, (San Francisco, California). Mini: multilith, white with purple and variant cover. 28 pages.

3. Dogmatic, Irene, ed. Star Spanieled Boners. (1975). Irene Dogmatic, (San Francisco, California). Mini: multilith with red cover. (24 pages).

4. Dogmatic, Irene, ed. The Canus Book of Dog Records.1977. Irene Dogmatic, (San Francisco, California). Digest: Multilith with variant photocopy covers. (40 pages).

5. Caravello, Steve, ed. The Mendo Do De Do. (Vol. 1, No. 1), (1974). Gollinkambi Productions, Talmage, California. Mini: photocopy on yellow stock. (14 pages).

6. (Caravello, Steve, ed.) Program: Inter Dada 80. 1980. Mendocino Area Dada, Ukiah, California. Digest: photocopy. (12 pages).

7. Nations, Opal L. and Ellen. Strange Faeces. Number 15, (1974). Oakland, California. Standard: photocopy. (176 pages).

8. Lloyd, Ginny, ed. Blitzkunst. Number 2, 1984. Lloyd Productions, San Francisco, California. Standard: offset. (40 pages).

9. Smith, Winston, ed. Fallout. Vol. 1., No. 2, 1980. Fallout Productions, Fairfax, California. Digest: photocopy. (24 pages).

10. (Soloway, Rick), ed. Nu-Art. Number 1, (1976). A Markin Art Club Pub., (San Francisco, California). Mini: photocopy. 20 pages.

Case Eight:
Monte Cazzaza, Anna Banana, Color Xerox Annuals

1. Banana, Ann, ed. Sometimes Monthly Banana Rag (Daddaland Edition). Number 9, June 1973. Daddaland, San Francisco, California. Legal: offset. (14 pages).

2. Banana, Anna, ed. The Banana Rag. Number 10. 1973. A Banana/Daddaland Production, San Francisco, California. Postcards in Folder: instant print. 12 postcards.

3. Factrix/Cazazza (Monte). California Babylon. 1982. Subterranean Records, Berkeley, California. Digest: offset. (8 pages).

4. Cazazza, Monte. Industrial News. Number 2, June 1979. Industrial Records, Berkeley, California. Digest: photocopy. 16 pages.

5. (Cazzaza, Monte), ed. Industrial News. September 3, 1979. Industrial Records. (London, England.) Digest: photocopy. 26 pages.

6. (Cazzaza, Monte), ed. Industrial News. Number 3, November 4, 1980. Industrial Records (London, England). digest: photocopy. 34 pages.

7. (Cazzaza, Monte). mr. prolong. n.d. (Berkeley, California). Standard: photocopy. (10 pages).

8. Cazazza, Monte, ed. Nitrous Oxide. Vol 1. No. 1, (1973). Confusion Intl., San Francisco, California. Standard: photocopy, original art, paper clip. 22 pages.

9. Cazazza, Monte, ed. Nitrous Oxide. Number 2, (1977). (San Francisco, California). Standard: photocopy with spray paint. 2 pages.

10. Cazazza, Monte. 13 Tragic Tales. 1976. (San Francisco, California). Digest: pencil and photocopy black cover, yellow interior. (18 pages).

11. Cushman, Barbara. New Art 84. 1984. A Fine Hand Production, San Francisco, California. Legal: color photocopy. (15 pages).

12. Cushman, Barbara. The 1980 Cooperative Color Xerox Calendar. 1980. A Fine Hand, San Francisco, California. Legal: color photocopy. (15 pages).

13. Cushman, Barbara. The 1981 Cooperative Color Xerox Calendar. 1981. A Fine Hand Production, San Francisco, California. Legal: color photocopy. (16 pages).
*****

After installing the works, I go to Ragged Edge Press at 4:00PM to meet Joel Cohen, the Sticker Dude, who is putting together masks for the Ray Johnson Whitney public opening on Thursday. Roy Arenella, a long time mail artist, but new to me, is there assisting him. Joel has taken a photographic portrait of Ray and one of his bunnyhead figures and printed them on snap 'n peel paper, which are stuck on paper bags. Joel has been a complete prince about our coming to New York, and has made Bay Area Dada stickers and rubber stamps. I spend some time mounting "dropped" stamps.

Tim Mancusi joins me as a roommate at Village House. He calls from a restaurant down the street, where I go to meet him, his uncle Italo, aunt Terry, and Picasso's mother Rosetta. I fall to Mrs. Gaglione's feet upon meeting her. With him as a son, I figure this is my first meeting with a real saint. After we bid the relatives adieu, Tim and I go for coffee at Cafe Borgia on Bleeker Street, an old hangout from my college days. We spend way too much time watching Robin Byrd on cable before turning in.

Wednesday, January 13, 1999:

Go to Printed Matter with Tim at 10:00AM. Gaglione and Joel Rossman arrive. Picasso is staying with Joel uptown at the Royal Rhiga. Joel has recently sold his interest in the Personal Stamp Exchange rubber stamp company located in Petaluma. Tim was one of his first employees. Joel financed the printing of the Bay Area Dada Catalog and the Ray Johnson Miscellany. He's named his publishing company Snowman Productions, after the name of his dog.

Finish installing the publications. Tim has brought the wall works that we choose when I went up to visit him the previous week. There are some original pasteups for the NYCS Weekly Breeder covers, posters for various Bay Area Dada events, and photographs. We go to Pearl Paint and get some plastic sleeves in which to display them. Bill puts up the show title and prepares graphics for the window. Honoria and her boyfriend Knut Graf have come from Texas for the Ray/Bay activities, and arrive just before dinner. Out to dinner with Tim, Joel, Bill, Honoria and Knute. We stop at Cafe Borgia, before going our various ways.

Tim and I go to Village House. There is a note waiting for me from the poet Michael McClure, who is staying there while appearing at the Bottom Line. He's a good friend of Bruce Conner, and the manager of the hotel knows that Bruce and I are acquainted. Although the envelope is addressed to John Held, the note on McClure's business card inside is for Al Held.

Thursday, January 14, 19989:

Tim and I go to Bill and Joel's hotel on 56th Street. The four of us take a cab in the snow to E. M. Plunkett's apartment on 76th Street. Plunkett was my very first mail art correspondent in 1976, and the person who coined the term The New York Correspondence School of Art to describe Johnson's postal activity in 1962.

Bill and I often meditate on the lack of recognition he's received over the years. I've heard stories of his apartment on East 76th Street, but have never visited him in his lair before. It's a paper cave filled from floor to ceiling with books, mail art and fifty years of living in New York City. We ask him about coming up with the term, The New York Correspondence School of Art, which Johnson adopted as the name of the activity he was engaged in, and he tells us that it was a take-off on the then current New York School of Abstract Expressionists and the correspondence schools of Art, which were heavily advertised in pulp magazines.

We go for breakfast, and Plunkett regales us with stories of the New York artworld, including his meeting with Andy Warhol in the early fifties, about a year after Warhol first came to the City. Plunkett, then a graduate student at NYU was dating a girl from Pittsburgh, and together they attended a party in Brooklyn Heights for Pittsburgh residents living in New York. Plunkett described Warhol as an amazing Aubrey Beardsley creature, who told him that he was planning to bring a butterfly on a leash. Plunkett would meet Warhol over the years at various art openings and later in the decade Warhol told Plunkett he was going to become a painter and elicited some advice. "Don't become an Abstract Expressionist." Plunkett answered, "You'll only be a part of the fourth generation." Plunkett went on to tell Warhol that he should do something representational, maybe doing something photographically with his painting. "What do you think about silk-screen," Warhol asked. Plunkett told him he didn't have much knowledge of the medium, but it sounded promising.

Gaglione, Mancusi, Rossman and I walk to the Whitney. I had called the manager of the bookstore previously to set up an appointment to show him the Ray Johnson Miscellany written by The Fake Picabia Bros. While the others wait in line for the Museum to open it's doors at 1:00PM, I go into the bookstore office to work out the details of distribution. The manager, Michael Lagios, is very receptive to carrying the book. There will be an exhibition catalog of the Johnson show, but it's not coming out till May, so there's really nothing on Johnson at the bookstore besides the Moore College catalog. Lagios takes the ten copies I've brought with me, as well as three copies of my Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography and puts them right next to the cash register.

While I've been talking to the bookstore manager, the doors have opened for Ray Johnson: Correspondences. Just the title of the exhibition fulfills some of my hopes for the show. From the first I was afraid that Johnson's mail art activities would take a backseat to his fine art works. Both are equally represented. His more formal collages line the walls of the entire second floor. In the multitude of glass cases in the middle of the rooms, the mail art and other artifacts of his life star.

Donna De Salvo, the Wexner Center for the Arts curator, who has organized the exhibit is there, and we talk briefly when I first arrive. But I am anxious to see the work, so I take off to explore. This is a mistake, as Donna, who has not been feeling well, leaves shortly thereafter, without my having a chance to talk to her at any length. Donna and I have been talking since October, and I have made several loans to the show, including personal letters from Johnson and mail art catalogs reproducing Johnson's contributions. I am happy to see that some of the work is in the show.

When one enters, the words Ray Johnson loom large in black on a wide white wall. Men holding flags spell out the exhibition title in Morse Code are underpainted, reminding one of Johnson's moticos. One goes to the right to enter the exhibition, which is roughly arranged in chronological order. One first sees an early painting from the late forties done in the style of Joseph Albers, Ray's teacher at Black Mountain. Some of Ray's commercial work is shown, including several book covers commissioned by New Directions Paperbacks. In close proximity are photographs taken of Ray by Norman Solomon and others. William Wilson's collection of Ray's collage work, including the often reproduced Elvis and James Dean pieces are also on display. There is a nice selection of black moticos framed on a white background.

All of the work will be checklisted in the forthcoming catalog being published by Flammarion and the Wexner Center, but highlights for me include:

A number of mail art works from Johnson to Joseph Corneal loaned by the Archives of American Art.

A selection of his rubber stamps.

Documentation of his 1970 Mail Art show at the Whitney, curated by Marcia Tucker.

A number of bookworks, including his mailings for A Book About Death.

Some well-produced videos about Johnson, including one in which Johnson reads Walt Whitman, while eating a Reeses chocolate cup. Another video interview, in which a collector enumerates his chaotic dealings with Johnson in the acquisition of a series of Silhouette Portraits is hilarious.

A pair of saddle shoes, with "John" painted on one of them and "Cage" on the other. I remember having seen these in Ray's closet when I visited him in Locust Valley in 1978. It brought home to me many feelings, most urgent that a circle had been completed: from closet to museum, from private encounter to public acceptance. It made me feel a little sad that Johnson himself wasn't witness to this communal celebration of his life. Not that he would have wanted or attended it.

There are a number of people at the show with whom I am familiar. buZ blurr has come from Gurdon, Arkansas. He is taking photos for his ubiquitous stamp sheets of mail art meetings. But instead of his trusty Polaroid, he's is using a standard camera. In addition to the Johnson show being at the Whitney, there is an exhibition of Duane Hanson's lifelike sculpture on the third floor. buZ went up there in his railroad coveralls and stood still, waiting for prey. In no time at all, a gallery rat came sniffing around, circling him, and then looked for the label identifying the work. To no avail. So the art aficionado asked a guard where the label was located. While the two were discussing the matter buZ just sauntered away.

Joel Cohen and Roy Arnella showed up and Joel began passing out his Ray Johnson masks. We asked the guard if we could take some photographs of us in front of the exhibition title, and after checking with a superior gave us his approval.

Robert Warner was also there. He was a friend and collector of Johnson. He was very pleased that his loan to the show was placed next to Robert Rauschenberg's. Honoria, a mail artist from Texas was with her friend Knute Graf. Honoria was handing out silver stickers reading, "Ray Johnson has been lifted." La Toanvinh, a Vietnamese mail artist living in Montreal, has traveled down for the show by bus.

When I first learned about the Johnson exhibit, I decided that the Mail Art community needed to become involved in some way. So I took the invitation for the 1970 Whitney exhibition that Johnson designed, "Send letters, post cards, drawings and objects to Marcia Tucker, New York Correspondence School Exhibition, Whitney Museum, Madison Ave. and 75 St., N.Y.C., 10021," and substituted the name Ray Johnson for Marcia Tucker's by collaging the original text.

Continue to Page 2