Mail art , also known as postal art and correspondence art , is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service . It developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson 's New York Correspondence School and the Fluxus movements of the 1960s. It has since developed into a global, ongoing movement.
94-639: Media commonly used in mail art include postcards, paper, a collage of found or recycled images and objects, rubber stamps, artist-created stamps (called artistamps ), and paint, but can also include music, sound art, poetry, or anything that can be put in an envelope and sent via post. Mail art is considered art once it is dispatched. Mail artists regularly call for thematic or topical mail art for use in (often unjuried ) exhibition. Mail artists appreciate interconnection with other artists. The art form promotes an egalitarian way of creating that frequently circumvents official art distribution and approval systems such as
188-411: A company . Many artist collectives had and still have a major and significant influence on the various epochs of art history . In a broader sense, literary groups and group formations of musicians can also be referred to as artist collectives or groups. The aim of the artistic initiatives was and still is to get in touch with other artists, to point out avant-garde or newly defined efforts in art in
282-801: A "stamp" at all is a matter of dispute. Artists working in the stamp art medium often employ fixed-line perforators as part of the creation process. Most functional and sought-after of these machines are cast-iron, pedal-operated devices manufactured beginning in the 1880s by bindery equipment makers like F.P Rosback Co. and Latham Machinery Co. Rosback also produced table-top perforators, but surviving models are exceedingly rare. Other methods for perforating paper to resemble stamp sheets have generally proven unsatisfactory. Such alternative methods used include using sewing machines, sewing pounces, leather punches, modified veterinary needles, and speciality scissors. Some owners of pedal-operated or motorized perforators sell pre-perforated paper and offer perforating services for
376-408: A CD entitled "The World of Artistamps", the most comprehensive database of artistamps of the time. Multimedia artist James Warren "Jas" Felter curated an exhibition called Artists' Stamps and Stamp Images at Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University , Canada, in 1974: the first exhibition to acknowledge the stamp as an artistic medium. This collection, which toured Europe and America for
470-626: A Complete and Return project that originated from the same residency, becoming available in 2011. In 1989, Felter curated the first of three International Biannual Exhibitions of Artistamps at Davidson Galleries in Seattle . In 1994, an exhibition sponsored by the Swiss Posts was held in the PTT-Museum in Berne, resulting in the publication of a book and four sheets of artists' stamps (one of
564-707: A catalogue or documentation is sent free to all the participants in exchange for their works. Although these rules are sometimes stretched, they have generally held up for four decades, with only minor dissimilarities and adjustments, like the occasional requests to avoid works of explicit sexual nature, calls for projects with specific participants, or the recent trend to display digital documentation on blogs and websites instead of personally sending printed paper to contributors. Mail art has been exhibited in alternative spaces such as private apartments, municipal buildings, and shop windows, as well as in galleries and museums worldwide. Mail art shows, periodicals, and projects represent
658-402: A deadline, mail art generally operates within a spirit of "anything goes." The mail art philosophy of openness and inclusion is exemplified by the "rules" included in invitations (calls) to postal projects: a mail art show has no jury, no entry fee, there is no censorship, and all works are exhibited. The original contributions are not to be returned and remain the property of the organizers, but
752-583: A fee. In 2018, postage stamp designer and mail art aficionado Niko Courtelis launched The Portland Stamp Company with his partners in Plazm . Artists were enabled to purchase blank, perforated, lick-and-stick stamps or to have their artwork printed on custom stamps at larger scale. Writing in Print magazine , design critic Steven Heller described The Portland Stamp Company's work as making stamps "the old-fashioned way - with perfs and glued backs." In 2005 and 2006,
846-399: A fine art context when he produced a perforated block of 15 stamps combining popular and erotic imagery in 1961. Canadian multimedia artist and philatelist T Michael Bidner , who made his life's work the cataloguing of all then-known artist's stamps, coined the word "artistamp" in 1982. It quickly became the term of choice amongst mail artists . Artist Clifford Harper published
940-701: A joint Artistamp project entitled Azbuka Veka (The Alphabet of the Century) at the S’ART Gallery in Moscow. The show presented stamps of famous people tagged with letters from the Russian alphabet. In December 2000, an exhibit featuring artistamps from around the world was displayed at the E. Max von Isser Gallery of Art at Elgin Community College, Elgin, Illinois. The exhibition Motherland/Fatherland
1034-494: A letter to panelist Mark Bloch , Ray Johnson (who was not a panelist) commented on the reverse-censorship and sexism of the event. 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. Even if "tourism"
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#17327973193221128-547: A machinist operating under the name "Dr. Arcane" (Adrian West) manufactured and sold about 20 "Whizbang" perforators. These table-top devices worked well, but were reportedly fragile. In 2020, ten updated versions of the Whizbang perforator were offered by Dr. Arcane for sale on the International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA) forum. The new perforator has a solid metal frame that replaced the wooden frame designs of
1222-399: A multitude of designs per page; as miniature sheets with a decorative or inclusive border; in booklets; or any combination/size/shape the artist chooses. Techniques for the creation of artistamps may include perforating the paper to resemble a traditional perforated stamp, as well as applying gum to the reverse side of the paper. Self-adhesive paper is also used. The image represented on
1316-420: A painting always involves paint and a support surface, correspondence art can appear as any one of dozens of media transmitted through the mail. While the vast majority of correspondence art or mail art activities take place in the mail, today's new forms of electronic communication blur the edges of that forum. In the 1960s, when correspondence art first began to blossom, most artists found the postal service to be
1410-582: A rocket containing artistamps on a microchip was launched. In 1986, the artist received a Visual Studies Workshop artist-in-residence funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States. Her project for the residency culminated with Gina Lotta Post, a series of artistamps bound into a book and includes a set of postcards. A second book Make Your Own Stamps Sheet, is
1504-400: A rolled-up carpet. The American artist Ray Johnson is considered to be the first mail artist. 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. The term "mail art"
1598-491: A series of designs for anarchist postage stamps in 1988, featuring portraits of Percy Bysshe Shelley , Emma Goldman , Oscar Wilde , Emiliano Zapata and Herbert Read . Despite the exhibitions, history, number of artists and global sweep of the artistamp movement, the medium had long been ignored by major institutions and derided by the arts establishment: before his death in 1989, Bidner attempted to donate his definitive collection to several major Canadian institutions but
1692-455: A series of pseudo-stamps on the blank, perforated margins of postage stamp sheets, using coloured inks. Jas Felter asserts that this 1941 series, which illustrated life in a concentration camp , is typically accepted as the first true set of artist's stamps. American Robert Watts , a member of the Fluxus group, became the first artist to create a full sheet of [faux] postage stamps within
1786-494: 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
1880-425: 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 ... You look at the object and, depending on your degree of interest, it very directly gets across to you what is there". In 1970, Johnson and Marcia Tucker organized The New York Correspondence School Exhibition at
1974-408: 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." In 1994, Dutch mail artist Ruud Janssen began a series of mail-interviews which became an influential contribution in the field of mail art. By
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#17327973193222068-516: Is not uncommon for larger groups of artists to emerge from the "nucleus" of a duo, such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood , for example, developed from the founding duo John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt . Designations such as " The Tachists " or Junge Wilde (The Young Wild Ones) cannot be assigned to any real groups of artists; they merely indicate common stylistic features within an epoch. A clear indication of
2162-430: Is open to interpretation. It did not take many years after the introduction of postage stamps before UK commercial photographers saw a market in personalised stamp photographs incorporating an individual's portrait within a stamp-like printed border, printed in perforated sheets with gummed backs. Fine artists were certainly commissioned to create poster stamps ( advertising posters in collectible stamp form) from
2256-440: Is relevant to the needs of the artist ; this can range from purchasing bulk materials , sharing equipment, space or materials, to following shared ideologies , aesthetic and political views or even living and working together as an extended family . Sharing of ownership, risk, benefits, and status is implied, as opposed to other, more common business structures with an explicit hierarchy of ownership such as an association or
2350-443: Is the personal decision of the individual to align their place of residence with that of like-minded artists, which can be conducive to the optimal further development of the respective art movement. The opposite extreme of an artist group is the artist duo – the smallest, but also the most symbiotic form. Often there are real-life partnerships (as with Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely , or also with Gilbert & George ). It
2444-428: Is widely used as an art form, to provide images for artistamps and rubber stamps, and within printed and digital magazines and documentation, while some projects have focused on the intersection of mail art with the medium itself. Lettering, whether handwritten or printed, is integral to mail art. The written word is used as a literary art form, as well as for personal letters and notes sent with artwork and recordings of
2538-687: The Whitney Museum in New York, which was the first significant public exhibition of the mail art genre. 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. Although much of Johnson's work
2632-630: The "Carbon Alternative" exhibit. In November 2012, The Museum of Artistamps opened in Seattle. The museum is curated by Robert Rudine (Dogfish), working in collaboration with James Felter. On November 10, 2012, the exhibition, AARPEX (the Artistamp Reunion and Philatelic Expo), was held in Seattle. AARPEX was organized by Carl Chew and Robert Rudine. Artistamps have been recognized in mainstream stamp publications, such as Linn's Stamp News . In 2005, Linn's published an article covering
2726-413: The "public" side of postal networking, a practice that has at its core the direct and private interaction between the individual participants. Mail artists value the process of exchanging ideas and the sense of belonging to a global community that is able to maintain a peaceful collaboration beyond differences of language, religion and ideology; this is one aspect that differentiates the mail art network from
2820-401: 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. The Internet facilitated faster dissemination of mail art calls (invitations) and precipitated the involvement of newcomers. In spite of
2914-689: The 2005 and 2006 versions. In 2004, the International Brotherhood of Perforator Workers (IBPW), an organization based in Washington, D.C., was established to represent the interests of artists owning and/or operating perforators in the creation of stamp art. Artist collectives An artist collective or art group or artist group is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management , towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that
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3008-896: The Bush administration, begun in 2001, was on view at the CUE Art Foundation in Chelsea, Manhattan , New York, from April 24 - May 31, 2008. The JAY Gallery in Seoul, Korea, sponsored the exhibition, American Artistamps, curated by John Held, Jr., from May 19 - June 1, 2010. It featured works by Robert Watts, Donald Evans, Harley, Dogfish, Picasso Gaglione, Michael Thompson, Al Ackerman, Darlene Altschul, Mike Dickau and John Ringer. The Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum, curated by Ginny Lloyd, opened in May 2010. Currently located in Jupiter, Florida,
3102-482: The Fluxus school, his interests and attitudes were consistent with those of a number of Fluxus artists. 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 Image Bank and General Idea have been heralded as instrumental to the early history of networking and social interaction as art. Correspondence Art
3196-893: The Inter Dada Festivals organized in California in the early 1980s and the Decentralized Mail Art Congress of 1986. In 1984 curator Ronny Cohen organized an exhibition for the Franklin Furnace , New York, called "Mail Art Then and Now." 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
3290-609: The Internet, often written by veteran networkers. A sub-group of envelope art has its genesis in the Grateful Dead Ticket Service. Looking to help their fans avoid the high fees that are generated by national ticket services the Grateful Dead started their own service, commonly referred to as mail order. At some point fans started decorating their envelopes with art. Some for art's sake, others to grab
3384-426: The Internet. Performance art has also been a prominent facet, particularly since the advent of mail art meetings and congresses. Performances recorded on film or video are communicated via DVD and movie files over the internet. Video is also increasingly being employed to document mail art shows of all kinds. Correspondence art is an elusive art form, far more variegated by its very nature than, say, painting. Where
3478-467: The Sixties ) from July 7, 2007, through February 2, 2008, assembling more than 300 works to present a global ensemble of stamp art. A portion of the exhibition description reads: The fact that the artist’s stamp sets its own stamp on an (art) letter is one of the special features of this form of expression. A further facet of this small-format art is its challenging the mail monopoly by laying claim to
3572-583: 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. 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
3666-640: The actual existence of such a group is a written memorandum such as that published in André Breton 's Surrealist Manifesto in Paris in 1924 and signed by several like-minded artists. As a result, the members of such a group committed themselves to subordinate themselves to a common goal. This also included the group exhibitions, to which everyone should contribute their part instead of just showing themselves. Artist collectives have occurred throughout history, often gathered around central resources, for instance
3760-668: The ancient sculpture workshops at the marble quarries on Milos in Greece and Carrara in Italy. During the French Revolution the Louvre in Paris was occupied as an artist collective. More traditional artist collectives tend to be smallish groups of two to eight artists who produce work, either collaboratively or as individuals toward exhibiting together in gallery shows or public spaces. Often an artist collective will maintain
3854-507: The art market, museums, and galleries. Mail artists rely on their alternative "outsider" network as the primary way of sharing their work, rather than being dependent on the ability to locate and secure exhibition space. Mail art can be seen as anticipating the cyber communities founded on the Internet. 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
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3948-534: The artist Hervé Fischer in his book Art and Marginal Communication , Balland, Paris, 1974 – in French, English and German, to note also the catalog of the exhibition "Timbres d'artistes", Published of Musée de la Poste, Paris, 1993, organized by the French artist Jean-Noël Laszlo – in French, English. Recently, an extensive compilation of artistamp artists was featured in 40 issues of the Artistamp Review. It
4042-553: The attention of the people that dole out tickets in hope of better seats. Because the democratic ethos of mail art is one of inclusion, both in terms of participants ('anyone who can afford the postage') and in the scope of art forms, a broad range of media are employed in creation of mail artworks. Certain materials and techniques are commonly used and frequently favored by mail artists due to their availability, convenience, and ability to produce copies. Mail art has adopted and appropriated several of graphic forms already associated with
4136-489: The broadest sense, to break away from traditional, academic approaches altogether, to break new ground and to follow them for example by organizing joint exhibitions. The boundaries between all areas of fine and applied art are fluid. In contrast to the mostly programmatically oriented artist collectives, only the costs for the use of common workspaces or artist ateliers are usually shared in studio communities. Due to long-standing friendships, thematic joint exhibitions and
4230-404: The conceptual art group Les Petits Bonbons created a set of stamps and sent them to David Bowie who then used them as the inspiration for the cover of the single " Ashes to Ashes " released in 1980. Artistamps and rubber stamps, have become important staples of mail artworks, particularly in the enhancement of postcards and envelopes. The most important anthology of rubberstamp art was published by
4324-399: 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. Indeed, the mail art network counts many Fluxus members among its earliest participants. While Johnson did not consider himself directly as a member of
4418-413: The efficiency of the postal service. Mailable fake fur ("Hairmail") and Astroturf postcards were circulated in the late 1990s. Having borrowed the notion of intermedia from Fluxus, mail artists are often active simultaneously in several different fields of expression. Music and sound art have long been celebrated aspects of mail art, at first using cassette tape, then on CD and as sound files sent via
4512-453: The envelope with their art. In many countries this practice is legal, provided the artistamp is not passed off as or likely to be mistaken for a genuine postage stamp. When so combined (and sometimes, less strictly speaking, even when not so) the artistamp may be considered part of the mail art genre. Irony , satire , humor , eroticism and subversion of governmental authority are frequent characteristics of artistamps. Artists may leverage
4606-539: The exhibit Post Modern Post: International Artistamps in April 2003. The show including the work of 50 artists from 15 countries. In 2005, The exhibition Axis of Evil opened at The Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia in March 2005, and later traveled to Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Curated by Chicago-based artist Michael Hernandez de Luna, the exhibit featured 127 works by 47 stamp artists from 11 countries. It originated with
4700-420: 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 . In
4794-425: 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
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#17327973193224888-585: The expectation of official endorsement that necessarily inheres in governmentally-issued postage for the purpose of shocking or subverting viewers' expectations, with such actions typically representing a specific political and artistic motive. Other practitioners are content to depict more homey subjects like kittens and family members. Some artists use the form to create fantasy stamps for their own postal administrations or countries – in many cases thereby developing or complementing an imaginary governmental system . The first artist to produce an "artist’s stamp"
4982-460: The few printed at the costs of an official postal service!). More than 60 artists participated. The word "Artistamps" does not appear in the book, but on one of the stamps, by E.F. Higgins. In 1995, Patricia Tavenner curated The First California Artistamp Exhibit at University of California, Berkeley - San Francisco Extension. The exhibit presented works of about 170 artists from around the world. The First Moscow International Artistamp Exhibition
5076-549: The gallery, the agents were most interested in the work entitled "Patriot Act" by Chicago-based artist Al Brandtner. The work depicts a revolver pointed at the head of then President George W. Bush. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur stated, "We need to ensure ... that this is nothing more than artwork with a political statement." When the exhibit opened at a gallery on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus on September 15, 2005, university chancellor Bruce Shepard directed
5170-458: The identity of the sender, help to transform regular postcards into artworks and make envelopes an important part of the mail art experience. Mail art has also appropriated the postage stamp as a format for individual expression. Inspired by the example of Cinderella stamps and Fluxus faux-stamps, the artistamp has spawned a vibrant sub-network of artists dedicated to creating and exchanging their own stamps and stamp sheets. Artist Jerry Dreva of
5264-580: The inevitable examination of the work of the other members, however, mixed forms can form that go beyond the pure community of convenience. The transition from artist collective to artist colony is also fluid. One speaks of the latter when it comes to large-scale settlements of artists of the same direction. Examples of this are the Nazarene movement in Rome and the Barbizon school . The decisive factor here
5358-431: The interest of libraries, archives, museums, and private collectors. Or, the works may be 'worked into' and recycled back to the sender or to another networker. Ray Johnson suggested (with a pun) that "mail art has no history, only a present", and mail artists have followed his playful attitude in creating their own mythologies. Parody art movements like neoism and plagiarism have challenged notions of originality, as have
5452-435: The late 1800s, but none appear to have worked with the format outside the commercial or advertising context. In 1919, Dadaist Raoul Hausmann affixed a self-portrait postage stamp to a postcard , but given that Dada was determinedly anti-art (at least in theory), calling this an "artist’s stamp" seems almost counterintuitive. German artist Karl Schwesig , while a political prisoner during World War II , drew
5546-465: 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
5640-401: The many links and similarities between historical avant-garde, alternative art practices ( visual poetry , copy art , artist's books ) and mail art, one aspect that distinguishes the creative postal network from other artistic movements, schools, or groups (including Fluxus) is the way it disregards and circumvents the commercial art market. Any person with access to a mailbox can participate in
5734-525: The means of production of artistamps. It is no coincidence that the early 1980s explosion in artistamp creation paralleled the development and widespread use of color photocopiers, and that a similar surge followed the ubiquity of personal computers and inexpensive color printers. Still, the lack of workable, widely available, cheap and accessible perforators have limited the number of artists who can create convincing simulacra of traditional perforated stamps. Makers of artistamps sometimes apply cancellations to
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#17327973193225828-656: The millennium," said Galántai in an interview. The show ran from March 23 to June 24, 2007. In July 2007, the SomArts Cultural Center gallery presented the Multiplicity/Multiplicidad: Mailart & Artistamp Show , in collaboration with Vortice Argentina, Buenos Aires. The New Museum Weserburg in Bermen, Germany, held the exhibition Leck mich! - Künstlerbriefmarken seit den 1960er Jahren ( Lick me! - Artist’s Stamps since
5922-404: The most important artists working in the artistamp genre were represented, including Natalie Lamanova, Anna Banana, Ed Varney, Guy Bleus , Twine Workshop, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Steve Smith, Vittore Baroni , Robert Watts , H.R. Fricker, Ryosuke Cohen, Ginny Lloyd, and Al Brandtner. "The new function artistamp has in this exhibition is to convey the explosively changing worldview at the turn of
6016-407: The most readily available – and least expensive – medium of exchange. Today's micro-computers with modern facilities offer anyone computing and communicating power that two decades ago were available only to the largest institutions and corporations, and only a few decades previous weren't available to anyone at any price. – Ken Friedman Cultural exchange is a radical act. It can create paradigms for
6110-634: The museum collection began in the late 1970s and exhibits over 4,200 works by more than 200 international artistamp creators. Selections from the museum can be seen online. Items from the museum were on exhibit at the Jaffe Center for the Book Arts in Boca Raton, Florida, from July 15 to October 27, 2010. Artists stamps by Harley, Jurgen Olbrich, Reed Altemus, Rockola, Picasso Gaglione, Buz Blurr, Vitore Baroni, and Ginny Lloyd were featured as part of
6204-668: The network. Ubiquitous 'add & pass' sheets that are designed to be circulated through the network with each artist adding and copying, chain-letter fashion, have also received some unfavorable criticism. However, Xerography has been a key technology in the creation of many short-run periodicals and zines about mail art, and for the printed documentation that has been the traditional project culmination sent to participants. Inkjet and laserprint computer printouts are also used, both to disseminate artwork and for reproducing zines and documentation, and PDF copies of paperless periodicals and unprinted documentation are circulated by email. Photography
6298-575: The next ten years, led to an explosion in the number of artists using stamps as an artistic format. Photographer and multimedia artist Ginny Lloyd started her Gina Lotta Post series in 1979 and by 1982 had produced some of the first computer-generated imagery used in artists stamps. On a visit to Artpool in 1982, she collaborated with György Galántai on artistamp issues. In 1984, Lloyd co-organized an Art in Space event in San Francisco at which
6392-399: 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. The excluded works were ultimately added to
6486-417: The perforated and gummed miniature works of art. The stamps the artists create are not meant to swindle the postal service, but to call into question the right to design things. The focus in the exhibition will therefore be the artist’s stamp as an expression of independence and self-determination. Thus the title, Lick me!, is not only an invitation to “remain glued” to this exhibition, rather it also exemplifies
6580-402: The postal network and exchange free artworks, and each mail artist is free to decide how and when to answer (or not answer) a piece of incoming mail. Participants are invited by network members to take part in collective projects or unjuried exhibitions in which entries are not selected or judged. While contributions may be solicited around a particular theme, work to a required size, or sent in by
6674-428: The postal system. The rubber stamp officially used for franking mail, already utilized by Dada and Fluxus artists, has been embraced by mail artists who, in addition to reusing ready-made rubber stamps, have them professionally made to their own designs. They also carve into erasers with linocut tools to create handmade ones. These unofficial rubber stamps, whether disseminating mail artists' messages or simply announcing
6768-508: The prominent works by artists like John Held Jr., The Sticker Dude (Joel Cohen), Vittore Baroni, Ruggero Maggi, the late E.F. Higgins III and H.R. Fricker to name a few. The project expanded to 40 issues. In 2005, United States Secret Service agents attended the opening of the Axis of Evil exhibition at Columbia College Chicago 's Glass Curtain Gallery. According to Carol Ann Brown, director of
6862-577: The publication of the book Axis of Evil: Perforated Praeter Naturam, published by Qualiatica Press. In the spring of 2007, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts hosted a successful exhibition entitled ParaStamp: Four Decades of Artistamps, from Fluxus to the Internet . Curated by György Galántai , the exhibition presented approximately 500 works selected from the archive of the Artpool Art Research Center . More than 250 of
6956-432: The release of Twine Workshop's "The Blighted State of America" artistamp, a piece directly criticizing then U.S. president George W. Bush . John Held Jr.'s book, Small Scale Subversion: Mail Art & Artistamps, was published on April 11, 2015. From 2019-2024, mail artist Adam Roussopoulos has compiled contemporary artistampers from all over the world in his publication- The Artistamp Review. The review included some of
7050-484: The removal of Brandtner's work from the gallery. In a letter to faculty and staff, Shepard said "in a society all too violence prone, using these or other venues to appear to advocate or suggest assassination is not something the UW-Green Bay may do." Artistamps are created as one-off works of art, in limited editions , or as mass-produced product. Artistamps have been produced as multiples of one design per sheet;
7144-588: The reverential sharing and preservation of the earth's water, soil, forests, plants and animals. The ethereal networker aesthetic calls for guiding that dream through action. Cooperation and participation, and the celebration of art as a birthing of life, vision, and spirit are first steps. The artists who meet each other in the Eternal Network have taken these steps. Their shared enterprise is a contribution to our common future. – Chuck Welch The purpose of mail art, an activity shared by many artists throughout
7238-492: The shared pseudonymous names Monty Cantsin and Karen Eliot , which were proposed for serial use by anyone. Semi-fictional organizations have been set up and virtual lands invented, imaginary countries for which artistamps are issued. Furthermore, attempts have been made to document and define the history of a complex and underestimated phenomenon that has spanned five decades. Various essays, graduate theses, guides and anthologies of mail art writings have appeared in print and on
7332-834: The spoken word, both of poetry and prose, are also a part of the network. Although English has been the de facto language, because of the movement's inception in America, an increasing number of mail artists, and mail artist groups on the Internet, now communicate in Breton, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Russian. In addition to appropriating the postage stamp model, mail artists have assimilated other design formats for printed artworks. Artists' books, decobooks and friendship books , banknotes, stickers, tickets, artist trading cards (ATCs), badges, food packaging, diagrams, and maps have all been used. Mail artists routinely mix media; collage and photomontage are popular, affording some mail art
7426-566: The stamp may be hand-drawn or painted, lithographed or offset-printed , photographed , photocopied , etched , engraved , silk-screened , rubber stamped , or produced on a digital inkjet or laser printer. While the method of production is entirely the choice of the artist, creators who exclusively or primarily use rubber stamps are occasionally held in contempt by members of the artistamp community, some of whom refer to such producers as "bunny-stampers." The personal computer , personal printer and color photocopier have served to democratize
7520-458: The stamps when affixing them to covers ; first day of issue covers for artistamps also exist. The rise of the Internet has seen the development of the concept of the so-called cyberstamp, a digital-only stamp-like image designed primarily to be viewed online and often sent with e-mail . Cyberstamps also allow the use of animated imagery . Whether a digital image, however, can be considered
7614-664: The stance of a self-confident genre. Turner Prize-winning artist and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen assembled the Queen and Country exhibition comprising stamps depicting British servicemen and women killed in Iraq. The exhibition was hosted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh between December 3, 2008, and February 15, 2009. David Krueger's series of pseudo-stamps critiquing
7708-569: The stylistic qualities of pop art or Dada. Mail artists often use collage techniques to produce original postcards, envelopes, and work that may be transformed using copy art techniques or computer software, then photocopied or printed out in limited editions. Printed matter and ephemera are often circulated among mail artists, and after artistic treatment, these common items enter into the mail art network. Small assemblages, sculptural forms, or found objects of irregular shapes and sizes are parceled up or sent unwrapped to deliberately tease and test
7802-514: The words "artist" and "stamp") or artist's stamp is a postage stamp -like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus Illegal stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to defraud postal authorities or stamp collectors . Artistamp creators often include their work on legitimate mail, alongside valid postage stamps, in order to decorate
7896-416: The work. Stitching, embossing and an array of drawing materials can all be found on postcards, envelopes and on the contents inside. Printing is suited to mail artists who distribute their work widely. Various printmaking techniques, in addition to rubber stamping, are used to create multiples. Copy art (xerography, photocopy) is a common practice, with both mono and color copying being extensively used within
7990-539: The world of commercial picture postcards and of simply "mailed art." A mail artist may have hundreds of correspondents from many different countries, or build a smaller core circle of favorite contacts. Mail art is widely practiced in Europe, North and South America, Russia, and Australia with smaller numbers of participants also in Africa, and China. In addition to being kept by the recipient, mail art archives have attracted
8084-439: The world, is to establish an aesthetical communication between artists and common people in every corner of the globe, to divulge their work outside the structures of the art market and outside the traditional venues and institutions: a free communication in which words and signs, texts and colours act like instruments for a direct and immediate interaction. – Loredana Parmesani Artistamps An artistamp (a portmanteau of
8178-399: Was coined in the 1960s. 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". The deliberate misspelling was characteristic of the playful spirit of the Correspondance School and its actions. Most of the Correspondance School members are fairly obscure, and
8272-461: Was held at The International Museum Exhibition Centre in Moscow from July 11 to 21, 2002. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. Presented there were works by 44 artists from Russia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Korea, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Venezuela, Armenia and the United States. The Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa, California , hosted
8366-872: Was held in Moscow in December 1998, as part of International Art Fair XX. The event was curated by Natalie Lamanova, Alexander Kholopv and Jas Felter. This event gave rise to the "Moscow Artistamp Collection" which presently includes more than 700 works of 83 artists from 19 countries. From November 12, 1999, to January 19, 2000, the Art Institute of Boston hosted the Stamp Art and Artists Stamps exhibition. The show included artistamp sheets from Natalia Lamanova, Alexander Kholopov of Russia, Vittore Baroni, Clemente Padin, Jose Carlos Soto, Pere Sousa and Donald Evans. PBS documented this exhibit. February - March 2000: Moscow artists Ivan Kolesnikov and Sergei Denisov presented
8460-474: Was initially given away, this hasn't prevented it from attaining a market value. Andy Warhol is quoted as saying he "would pay ten dollars for anything by Johnson." 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 . Filliou coined the term the "Eternal Network" that has become synonymous with mail art. Other Fluxus artists have been involved since
8554-625: 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. The growth of a sizable mail art community, with friendships born out of personal correspondence and, increasingly, mutual visits, 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
8648-478: Was proposed satirically as a new movement by 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. In the mid-1980s, Fricker and Bloch, in a bilingual "Open Letter To Everybody in the Network" stated, "1) An important function of
8742-411: Was published by artist Adam Roussopoulos from 2019 through May 2024. Many notable artists were featured in the review including Jas Felter, E.F. Higgins III, John Held Jr., Michael Leigh, Chuck Welch, Vittore Baroni, and H.R. Fricker. Some mail artists lavish more attention on the envelopes than the contents within. Painted envelopes are one-of-a-kind artworks with the handwritten address becoming part of
8836-705: Was turned down by every one. The collection eventually went to Artpool , an art research centre in Budapest , Hungary who organized World Art Post, the first big scale artistamp exhibition in Central Europe in 1982, and in 1987 the first arstistamp exhibition to be held in a renowned museum. Upon his death, Bidner's friend Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune, undertook Bidner's vision and began to catalogue, using philatelic standards, artistamps from over 200 artists from 29 countries, documenting more than 10,000 artistamp images. In 1999, Gahlinger-Beaune and Bianchini released
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