First Meeting of the New York Correspondance [sic] School
Dublin Core
Title
First Meeting of the New York Correspondance [sic] School
Subject
Mail Art
Description
This exclusive invitation to one of Ray Johnson’s infamous New York Correspondance School (NYCS) meetings features a repeated pattern of alternating bunnies (the designated symbol of the NYCS) and inverted black triangles. Each bunny is labeled with a certain participant of the network, with no distinction between female and male participants. There are some familiar names associated with the mail art movement, like Ken Friedman, George Brecht, and Johnson, as well as other respectable members of the art community: Christo, Betty Parsons, Cy Twombley, and Joseph Kosuth, for example.
The proliferation of this bunny symbol could represent the rapid reproductive nature of the NYCS—like bunnies—into a widespread network. The ambiguity of the bunny as a representation of each invitee maintains a kind of anonymity directly contradicted by the listing of names right underneath. The symbol could possibly stand as a placeholder, since many of the participants had never met.
While the use of the small black triangle could relate to the post-World War II reclamation of the triangle by the LGBTQ movement and the queer communities with which Johnson identified, the black triangle could also have represented the triangular nature of the mail art network itself: person A receives a piece of mail from Johnson with instructions to send it along to person B, who contributes accordingly and then sends it forth to person C (who typically was Johnson).
The bunny representing Johnson himself expels a word bubble advertising “A Mysterious New York Correspondance School Meeting.” According to historian Ina Blom, these meetings were a common occurrence that “seemed, in short, to amount to little more than a list of people getting together” , almost like a real-life mailing list.
The proliferation of this bunny symbol could represent the rapid reproductive nature of the NYCS—like bunnies—into a widespread network. The ambiguity of the bunny as a representation of each invitee maintains a kind of anonymity directly contradicted by the listing of names right underneath. The symbol could possibly stand as a placeholder, since many of the participants had never met.
While the use of the small black triangle could relate to the post-World War II reclamation of the triangle by the LGBTQ movement and the queer communities with which Johnson identified, the black triangle could also have represented the triangular nature of the mail art network itself: person A receives a piece of mail from Johnson with instructions to send it along to person B, who contributes accordingly and then sends it forth to person C (who typically was Johnson).
The bunny representing Johnson himself expels a word bubble advertising “A Mysterious New York Correspondance School Meeting.” According to historian Ina Blom, these meetings were a common occurrence that “seemed, in short, to amount to little more than a list of people getting together” , almost like a real-life mailing list.
Creator
Ray Johnson
Source
John Held papers relating to Mail Art, 1973-2013
Publisher
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Date
1968
Contributor
Isabelle Martin
Rights
[no text]
Relation
[no text]
Format
Photocopy, 36 x 22 cm
Language
[no text]
Type
Mail art
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Files
Collection
Citation
Ray Johnson, “First Meeting of the New York Correspondance [sic] School,” Collaborative Correspondence: Mail Art from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, accessed May 11, 2024, https://collaborativecorrespondence.omeka.net/items/show/27.