Newspaper clipping of photo of Samuel Wagstaff, 1969

Newspaper clipping of Samuel Wagstaff is a clipped black and white photograph of curator and art collector Sam Wagstaff dressed in black tie at the opening reception of his first curatorial show at the the Detroit Institute of Arts in the spring of 1969, after he had left his position at the Wadsworth Atheneum. On the upper right corner of the clipping, Ray Johnson’s mailing address has been stamped and Wagstaff’s shirt has been colored red- presumably by Johnson.  

The piece is held in The Archives of American Art’s Sam Wagstaff Papers, which includes more than 500 pieces of correspondence between Wagstaff and Johnson and documents an epistolary relationship that lasted over 23 years- from 1960, just a few years after Johnson’s initial employment of mail art as a primary mode of expression until 1983, several years before Wagstaff’s death.

Newspaper Clipping is exemplary of the tone of exchange between the two men- Wagstaff, who was placed firmly in the utmost center of the art world as a celebrated curator, and Johnson who remained resolutely positioned within its margins.  While the archives feature countless instances of Johnson’s strategic circuitry of meaning, his repeated images and playful twists in meaning (references to Wagstaff’s dimples were a favorite subject), the New York art scene was nearly always at the heart of their communications. Along with invitations to New York Correspondence School events and updates, Johnson sent Wagstaff clippings of reviews, pictures of other artists, and clipped reviews of Wagstaff’s curatorial work in Johnson’s hometown of Detroit.

Although Wagstaff is often most remembered for his relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, he was a significant proponent of contemporary art in his own right and is credited both with the curation of the first comprehensive survey of Minimalist Art and the ushering of photography into the art world as a recognized and valued medium.