27 June 05 - 20:44Ray Johnson Update
From a biography of Ray Johnson at http://www.rayjohnsonestate.com/As his contemporaries became famous, Johnson receded from view, cultivating his role as outsider while maintaining his profile by communicating via mail art and the telephone. He parodied celebrity in performances, fake openings, photocopy-machine art, lists of famous names next to obscure names, and rubber-stamped signatures such as "Collage by Joseph Cornell," or "Collage by Sherrie Levine." Johnson, referring to himself as a "mysterious and secret organization," achieved legendary status as the conscience of artists. This underground reputation prospered well into the 1980's, despite his general absence from the scene, and the gallery-going public's sketchy notions of his output.
Johnson's suicide became the first opportunity to examine his work of the previous fifty years. Stored in an eerie construction of boxes inside his house, the work was as precisely stacked as a large three-dimensional collage. With the help of Frances Beatty, Vice-President of Richard L. Feigen & Co., filmmakers Andrew Moore and John Walter spent the next six years probing the mysteries of Johnson's life and art. Their collaboration yielded the award-winning documentary, How To Draw a Bunny, released in 2003. The film examines Johnson's life, art, and ambivalent attitude toward fame.
Buy the film "How to Draw a Bunny"
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