Editing Mail art (section)

==History==

[[File:RayJohnson invite1970.jpg|right|thumb|Ray Johnson's invitation to the first mail art show, 1970]]
Artist Edward M. Plunkett has argued that communication-as-art-form is an ancient tradition; he posits (tongue in cheek) that mail art began when Cleopatra had herself delivered to Julius Caesar in a rolled-up carpet.<ref name=Plunkett>{{cite journal|last=Plunkett|first=Edward M.|title=The New York Correspondence School|journal=Art Journal|year=1977|issue=Spring|url=http://www.artpool.hu/Ray/Publications/Plunkett.html|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref>

===Ray Johnson, New York Correspondance School, and Fluxus===
The American artist [[Ray Johnson]] is considered to be the first mail artist.<ref name=MOCA>{{cite web|title=Mail Art|url=http://www.moca.org/pc/viewArtTerm.php?id=22|work=Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years|publisher=MOCA: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref><ref name=Phillpot>{{cite book|last=Phillpot|first=Clive|title=Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology|year=1995|publisher=University of Calgary Press|location=Canada|url=http://www.artpool.hu/Ray/Publications/Phillpot.html|editor=Chuck Welch|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref> Johnson's experiments with art in the mail began in 1943, while the posting of instructions and soliciting of activity from his recipients began in the mid-1950s with the mailing of his "moticos", and thus provided mail art with a blueprint for the free exchange of art via post.<ref name=MOCA /><ref>Francesco Vincitorio, "Informalista o videoartista? Le tendenze artistiche dagli anni '40 ad oggi", L'Espresso n.44, 7 November 1982{{full citation needed|date=January 2013}}</ref>

The term "mail art" was coined in the 1960s.<ref name=Plunkett /> In 1962, Plunkett coined the term "New York Correspondence School" to refer to Johnson's activities; Johnson adopted this moniker but sometimes intentionally misspelled it as "correspondance".<ref name=Plunkett /> The deliberate misspelling was characteristic of the playful spirit of the Correspondance School and its actions.<ref name=Danto>{{cite magazine|last=Danto|first=Arthur C.|author-link=Arthur Danto|magazine=[[The Nation]]|date=March 11, 1999|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/correspondance-school-art/|title=Correspondance School Art|access-date=25 January 2023}}</ref>

Most of the Correspondance School members are fairly obscure, and the letters they sent, often featuring simple drawings or stickers, often instructed the recipient to perform some fairly simple action. Johnson's work consists primarily of letters, often with the addition of doodles and rubber stamped messages, which he mailed to friends and acquaintances. The Correspondance School was a network of individuals who were artists by virtue of their willingness to play along and appreciate Johnson's sense of humor. One example of the activities of the Correspondance School consisted in calling meetings of fan clubs, such as one devoted to the actress [[Anna May Wong]]. Many of Johnson's missives to his network featured a hand drawn version of what became a personal logo or alter-ego, a bunny head.<ref name=Danto />

In a 1968 interview, Johnson explained that he found mailed correspondence interesting because of the limits it puts on the usual back and forth interaction and negotiation that comprises communication between individuals. Correspondence is "a way to convey a message or a kind of idea to someone which is not verbal; it is not a confrontation of two people. It's an object which is opened in privacy, probably, and the message is looked at&nbsp;... You look at the object and, depending on your degree of interest, it very directly gets across to you what is there".<ref name=AAAOH>{{cite web|title=Oral history interview with Ray Johnson, 1968 Apr. 17|url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-ray-johnson-13236|work=Archives of American Art|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref>

In 1970, Johnson and Marcia Tucker organized The New York Correspondence School Exhibition at the [[Whitney Museum]] in New York, which was the first significant public exhibition of the mail art genre.<ref name=MOCA />

On April 5, 1973, Johnson declared the "death" of the New York Correspondance School in an unpublished letter to the Obituary Department of ''The New York Times'' and in copies that he circulated to his network. However, he continued to practice mail art even after this.<ref name=AAALippardLetter>{{cite web|title=Ray Johnson mail art to Lucy R. Lippard, 1965 June 29|url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/ray-johnson-mail-art-to-lucy-r-lippard-13544|work=Archives of American Art|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref><ref name=RJEstate-bio>{{cite web|title=Ray Johnson Biography|url=http://www.rayjohnsonestate.com/biography/|publisher=Ray Johnson Estate|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref>

Although much of Johnson's work was initially given away, this has not prevented it from attaining a market value. [[Andy Warhol]] is quoted as saying he "would pay ten dollars for anything by Johnson."<ref>Stewart Home, ''The Assault On Culture'', Aporia Press & Unpopular Books, London 1988 {{full citation needed|date=January 2013}}</ref>

In his 1973 diagram showing the development and scope of [[Fluxus]], [[George Maciunas]] included mail art among the activities pursued by the Fluxus artist [[Robert Filliou]].<ref>Hendricks, Jon (1988). ''Fluxus Codex'', New York: Harry N. Abrams, pp. 329–333. {{ISBN|978-0-8109-0920-5}}</ref> Filliou coined the term the "Eternal Network" that has become synonymous with mail art.<ref name=Bloch>{{cite book|last=Bloch|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|title=Amazing Letters: The Life and Art of David Zack|chapter-url=http://www.panmodern.com/zack-article.html|editor=Istvan Kantor|access-date=11 April 2013|chapter=An Authentik and Historikal Discourse On the Phenomenon of David Zack, Mail Artist}}</ref> Other Fluxus artists have been involved since the early 1960s in the creation of artist's postage stamps (Robert Watts, Stamp Dispenser, 1963), postcards (Ben Vautier, The Postman's Choice, 1965: a postcard with a different address on each side) and other works connected to the postal medium.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} Indeed, the mail art network counts many Fluxus members among its earliest participants. While Johnson did not consider himself directly as a member of the Fluxus school, his interests and attitudes were consistent with those of a number of Fluxus artists.<ref name=Danto /><ref name=AAAOH />

[[File:CrackerJackKid Envelope1984.jpg|right|thumb|Mail art stamp and envelope with official Colt Anniversary postmark – Chuck Welch, a.k.a. Cracker Jack Kid, 1984]]

===1970s and 1980s===
In the 1970s, the practice of mail art grew considerably, providing a cheap and flexible channel of expression for cultural outsiders. In Canada, the [[artist collectives]] [[Michael Morris (artist)|Image Bank]] and [[General Idea]] have been heralded as instrumental to the early history of networking and social interaction as art.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bloch|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|title=A look at three Canadian artists known as the Image Bank: Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov and Gary Lee-Nova|url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/vincent-trasov-gary-lee-nova/5137|access-date=2022-02-01|website=[[Whitehot (magazine)| Whitehot Magazine]]}}</ref> Correspondence Art was particularly widespread where state censorship prevented a free circulation of alternative ideas, as in certain countries behind the Iron Curtain or in South America.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jacob|first=John|author-link=John P. Jacob|title=East/West: Mail Art & Censorship|journal=[[PostHype]]|year=1985|volume=4|issue=1|issn=0743-6025}}</ref>

The growth of a sizable mail art community, with friendships born out of personal correspondence and, increasingly, mutual visits,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lloyd|first=Ginny|title=The Mail Art Community in Europe|journal=Umbrella Magazine|year=1981|volume=5|issue=1}}</ref> led in the 1980s to the organization of several festivals, meetings and conventions where networkers could meet, socialize, perform, exhibit and plan further collaborations. Among these events were the Inter Dada Festivals organized in California in the early 1980s<ref name=Ross>{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Janice|title=A gleefully rebellious festival of dada|url=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__IZN7YDU3d4/S_aip9CJ4WI/AAAAAAAAAmU/gS467sN7lZQ/s1600/reibunedada.jpg|access-date=11 April 2013|newspaper=Oakland Tribune|date=August 26, 1984|location=Art: The Tribune Calendar}}</ref> and the Decentralized Mail Art Congress of 1986.<ref name=HRFrickerOberlin>{{cite web|title=Hans-Reudi Fricker|url=http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/bios/fricker.html|work=Mail Art @ Oberlin|publisher=Oberlin College & Conservatory|access-date=11 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903031741/http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/bios/fricker.html|archive-date=3 September 2013}}</ref>

In 1984 curator Ronny Cohen organized an exhibition for the [[Franklin Furnace Archive|Franklin Furnace]], New York, called "Mail Art Then and Now."<ref>{{cite web|title=Mail Art From 1984 Franklin Furnace Exhibition|url=http://www.franklinfurnace.org/research/projects/flow/mailart/mailartf.html|publisher=Franklin Furnace|access-date=25 January 2014|archive-date=2 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202190845/http://www.franklinfurnace.org/research/projects/flow/mailart/mailartf.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Mark|first=Bloch|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|title=Franklin Furnace Fracas|url=http://www.panmodern.com/franklinfurnace.html|publisher=panmodern.com|access-date=25 January 2014}}</ref> The exhibition was to have an historical aspect as well as showing new mail art, and to mediate the two aspects Cohen edited the material sent to Franklin Furnace, breaking an unwritten but commonly accepted custom that all works submitted must be shown. The intent to edit, interpreted as censorship, resulted in a two-part panel discussion sponsored by Artists Talk on Art (organized by mail artist Carlo Pittore and moderated by art critic [[Robert C. Morgan]]) in February of that year, where Cohen and the mail artists were to debate the issues.

The night preceding the second panel on February 24, [[Carlo Pittore]], [[John P. Jacob]], Chuck Welch a.k.a. CrackerJack Kid, David Cole, and John Held Jr. crafted a statement asking Cohen to step down as the panel moderator. Welch delivered the statement whereby Cohen was asked to remain on the panel but forfeit her right to serve as moderator. Instead of remaining, Cohen chose to leave the event. After some give and take with both panelists and audience, Cohen left, saying, "Have fun, boys." Her entourage walked out with her during the ensuing melee.<ref>{{cite news|title=International MailArt—Part II: The New Cultural Strategy|last=Heisler|first=Faith|year=1984|issue=4|volume=9|page=18|journal=Women Artists News}}</ref>

The excluded works were ultimately added to the exhibition by the staff of the Franklin Furnace, but the events surrounding it and the panels revealed ideological rifts within the mail art community. Simultaneously fanning the flames and documenting the extent to which it was already dominated by a small, mostly male, coterie of artists, the discussions were transcribed and published by panelist [[John P. Jacob]] in his short-lived mail art [[zine]] [[PostHype]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jacob|first=John|author-link=John P. Jacob|title=Mailart: A Partial Anatomy|journal=[[PostHype]]|year=1984|volume=3|issue=1|issn=0743-6025}}</ref> In a letter to panelist [[Mark Bloch (artist)|Mark Bloch]], [[Ray Johnson]] (who was not a panelist) commented on the reverse-censorship and sexism of the event.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mark|first=Bloch|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|title=Ray Johnson's letter to me after the event, questioning the issue of sexism.|url=http://www.panmodern.com/ray-atoa-letter.jpg|publisher=panmodern.com|access-date=25 January 2014}}</ref>

The rise of mail art meetings and congresses during the late 80s, and the articulation of various "isms" proclaimed by their founders as movements within mail art, were in part a response to fractures made visible by the events surrounding the Franklin Furnace exhibition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jacob|first=John|author-link=John P. Jacob|title=The Coffee Table Book of Mail Art: The Intimate Letters of J. P. Jacob, 1981–1987|year=1987|publisher=Riding Beggar Press|location=New York|url=http://arcade.nyarc.org:80/record=b569546~S8}}</ref> Even if "tourism" was proposed satirically as a new movement by {{ill|H. R. Fricker|de}}, a Swiss mail artist who was one of the organizers of the 1986 Mail Art Congress, nevertheless mail art in its pure form would continue to function without the personal meeting between so-called networkers.<ref name=HRFrickerOberlin />

In the mid-1980s, Fricker and Bloch, in a bilingual "Open Letter To Everybody in the Network"<ref>[[Mark Bloch (artist)|Bloch, Mark]] and {{ill|H. R. Fricker|de|lt=Fricker, Hans Ruedi}}. "Phantastische Gebete Revisited" in ''Panmag International Magazine'' 6, ISSN 0738-4777, February 1984. p. 8.</ref> stated, "1) An important function of the exhibitions and other group projects in the network is: to open channels to other human beings. 2) After your exhibition is shown and the documentation sent, or after you have received such a documentation with a list of addresses, ''use the channels''! 3) Create person-to-person correspondence... 4) You have your own unique energy which you can give to others through your work: visual audio, verbal, etc. 5) This energy is best used when it is exchanged for energy from another person with the same intentions. 6) the power of the network is in the quality of the direct correspondence, not the quantity." The manifesto concludes, "We have learned this from our own mistakes."<ref>Röder, Kornelia "H. R. Fricker, Mail Art and Social Networks", HR Fricker: Conquer the Living Rooms of the World, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth, Switzerland: Edition Fink, 2014, p. 38.</ref>

===1990s and the impact of the Internet era===
[[File:Paulo bruscky and david horvitz.JPG|thumb|American mail-artist [[David Horvitz]] (active since the 2000s) meets Brazilian mail artist Paulo Bruscky (active since the 1970s) in Berlin, Germany in November 2015]]

In 1994, Dutch mail artist [[Ruud Janssen]] began a series of [[mail-interviews]] which became an influential contribution in the field of mail art.<ref>
Ruud Janssen, ''Mail-Interviews'', Tilburg 1994–2001
</ref>

By the 1990s, mail art's peak in terms of global postal activities had been reached, and mail artists, aware of increasing postal rates, were beginning the gradual migration of collective art projects towards the web and new, cheaper forms of digital communication.<ref>[[Guy Bleus]] (Ed.), ''Re: The E-Mail-Art & Internet-Art Manifesto'', in: ''E-Pêle-Mêle: Electronic Mail-Art Netzine'', Vol.III, n° 1, T.A.C.-42.292, Hasselt, 1997.</ref> The Internet facilitated faster dissemination of mail art calls (invitations) and precipitated the involvement of newcomers.