Above, Frances F.L. Beatty, president of Richard L. Feigen & Co., the gallery that represents Mr. Johnson’s estate, with examples of his work. “It was a lived-for-art life, 100 percent, all the way to the end.”
Image: Fred R. Conrad / The New York Times
Born in 1927, Ray Johnson took his own life twenty years ago this January by jumping off of a low bridge in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
Mr. Johnson was a pioneer to so many modern art movements; from Pop: with Johnson making Pop Art years before his friend and sometime rival Andy Warhol did….to Performance, Conceptual Art, and “Mail” Art, spreading his collages and text works through a vast web of fellow artists, friends and more – he was a one man social media platform years before the internet age.
Interestingly, he was courted in the 1990’s by Gagosian and he turned them down, demanding a million dollars each for collages and then selling them in the four-figure range (and they have since advanced only into five figures)….a precursor to so many artists’ comments on the “art market”, from Maurizio Cattelan, to so many others.
This November, Performa (the performance-art biennial) is organizing a tribute to Johnson. That, combined with recent books, exhibitions and museum acquisitions, make “now” a very important time to make sure to know about this work if you don’t already!
For more about Ray Johnson’s work, life and those he influenced, enjoy becoming immersed in the recent New York Times article here.
MoMA also put together a great website about Mr. Johnson’s designs here.
Pop art by Ray Johnson c. 1956.
Ray Johnson, Untitled [Music Titles on Chair], 1956.
Image: The Ray Johnson Estate via MoMA