A ways back, I posted an entry about starting a couple of recurring artist series, the first of which commenced that evening on Raymond Pettibon. Perhaps the series itself could have been titled “The Two Rays” seeing as the other artist, for whom this post finally signifies the beginning of his own series*, is Ray Johnson. Chances are you have never heard of him. But once you get a taste of his work and start to grasp his position in the New York art world in the second half of the 20th Century, you realize that herein lies the missing link that ties everything together.
I have posted about Ray before here. That posting was commented on* by one Bill Wilson, a former stagehand of Ray’s who followed up days later with an email asking me for my snail mail address so he could send me “Ray Johnsonalia”. To which, of course, I complied and for my efforts was rewarded with a fairly substantial envelope containing a number of postcard reproductions, exhibit invites and essays on Ray Johnson.
All of which I am planning to finally get around to scanning and posting as part of this series. In the meantime, tonight’s first entry takes form as a stumbled upon flickr group called “New York Correspondence School”.
