Queer Networks: Ray Johnson's Correspondence Art

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How the queer correspondence art of Ray Johnson disrupted art world conventions and anticipated todays highly networked culture

Once regarded as New Yorks most famous unknown artist, Ray Johnson was a highly visible outlier in the art world, his mail art practice reflecting the changing social relations and politics of queer communities in the 1960s. A vital contribution to the growing scholarship on this enigmatic artist, Queer Networks analyzes how Johnsons practice sought to undermine the dominant mechanisms of the art market and gallery system in favor of unconventional social connections.

Utilizing the postal service as his primary means of producing and circulating art, Johnson cultivated an international community of friends and collaborators through which he advanced his idiosyncratic body of work. Applying both queer theory and network studies, Miriam Kienle explores how Johnsons radical correspondence art established new modes of connectivity that fostered queer sensibilities and ran counter to the conventional methods by which artists were expected to develop their reputation.

While Johnson was significantly involved with the Pop, conceptual, and neo-Dada art movements, Queer Networks crucially underscores his resistance to traditional art historical systems of categorization and their emphasis on individual mastery. Highlighting his alternative modes of community building and playful antagonism toward art world protocols, Kienle demonstrates how Ray Johnsons correspondence art offers new ways of envisioning togetherness in todays highly commodified and deeply networked world.

Author Bio

Miriam Kienle is associate professor of art history in the School of Art and Visual Studies at the University of Kentucky.